Yes they do.

Pipistrelles seem to be quite happy on solid surfaces, whether horizontal or vertical, and can take off easily.  Other bats prefer to land on things above ground - either to give themselves more room to flap their wings, or just to gain air speed.  For example, we recently were given a Long-eared Bat rescued from a cat.  We put the bat on the house wall at less then 2 metres.  The bat looked around, echo-locating, then climbed another half metre up the wall before taking off.
Greater Horseshoe Bats hunt close to the ground, and as they feed on large beetles that are slow to fly (as well as on moths and other things) they are capable of landing, picking up the beetle, then flying off to a perch and eat it there (they can hang from a perch as easily as other things 'perch' on a perch)

Also, many bats effectively land on the ground (or a rock or log) in or on water when they need to drink.

Sparrowhawk

With regard to Sparrowhawk. I was just returning to my car recently when I noticed a Sparrowhawk coming straight at me, it skimmed my head and then took a huge swoop upwards and picked a Starling off from the top of a tree in the churchyard behind me, the whole thing taking about 3 seconds. It disappeared with the Starling grasped in its talons. The Starling was not moving or struggling so I assume it was an instant kill. Around our area (Southend in Essex) the Sparrowhawk is now much more common than Kestrel.

A few weeks ago we observed a Goshawk kill a Blackbird on our marsh area.

Our observed Honey Buzzard count in the area netted 58.

Regards
Graham
Webmaster, Southend RSPB Members Group
http://www.southend.rspb.btinternet.co.uk

The UK Birding Group contains more messages about Sparrowhawks. the Search method can be used to find the message by typing in "Sparrowhawk".

Photographs by Steve Huddlestone
Huddleston & Jackson Ringing Partnership Web Site

This is an occurrence that is not unfamiliar to me.  I work in fruit orchards during the winter when there is a lot of fruit laying about on the ground.  Thrushes etc. come to feed on this drop-fruit and the Sparrowhawks know this. Due to the density of the trees it is often the case that you actually hear them cutting through the air before you see them pass, sometimes within inches, a foot or so above the ground in search of prey.Their ability to 'fizz' through the tangle of branches without coming to grief is simply astounding.

Andy.
From: "A&J" <anjack@blueyonder.co.uk> via UK Wildlife
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[UKWildlife]
Sprawks are abundant on the North Downs in Kent from November to March. They might be similarly abundant in summer, but more secretive, but I doubt it.
The winter influx is probably from northern Europe. I too have seen one feeding on a collared dove, and witnessed one making an unsucessful attack on a woodpigeon feeding on the ground. More ususally they content themselves with picking off greenfinches and other small passerines from ploughed fields.

The local kestrel population is quite stable and shows little or no seasonal fluctuation. In summer they outnumber Sprawks by about 3 or 4:1 (judged by sightings), but in winter Sprawks predominate by about 2:1.

Steve
----- Original Message -----
From: Phil Wilkins <phil@bombus.freeserve.co.uk>
To: <ukwildlife@egroups.com>

On Wed, 22 Nov 2000 06:18:04 -0000 Andrew Fuller wrote:

> Does Sprawk take Kes as a prey species?
>

Yes, including adults.  Just not very often.

Similarly, Sparrowhawks sometimes kill other Sparrowhawks which can turn up at their nests as prey.  These include adults.  I used to assume that this was hens killing the much smaller males.  But it's now clear that at least sometimes males deliver other males and I have flushed a female from plucking a dead female.

Cases of preying on Kestrels and on other Sparrowhawks may result from fights than turned out fatally.  Why waste food?  After all,
Sparrowhawks often 're-cycle' their own dead chicks.

David

--
Dr David Harper
School of Biological Sciences
University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG
david@sussex.ac.uk

[Glaucus] British Marine Wildlife

Ocean Sunfish
A large Sunfish was observed by myself and numerous excited holidaymakers in the channel outside Polperro (Cornwall) harbour on August 2nd this year. Diameter approx 1.5m, swimming lazily on its side just below the surface, I watched it for some 45 minutes before it (presumably) left. The skin appeared to be badly scarred and pitted overall, but the fish was not showing signs of obvious distress.
Jon Makeham

A Sunfish was observed by myself, Frederick Biddulph, John Mortimer, and Gerald Allen, while fishing west of Innishbofin, Connemara, Co Galway Ireland, on 29 Aug 2000.  The fish was on its side and  it seemed to be splashing it's dorsal fin. It dived as the boat approched.
Peter Biddulph

Photograph by Phil Whiting

Hello,

This is a female Common Blue.  The white flecks on the wings are typical of female Common Blues found on calcareous soils (Chalk, limestone, ...).
The amount of blue on the wings vary from butterfly to butterfly, even in the same colony. The extremes in the range (totally blue,
or totally brown) are not so common.

Andrew Daw

Common Blue Butterflies on chalk (link)

Editors note:
This is the original query from Mike Hinson, the reply from one of our
experts follows:

From: mike.hinson@bt.com
Date: Sun, 01 Oct 2000 19:32:41 -0000
To: bugclub@egroups.com
Subject: Bark boring larvae infestation in oak firewood

Hi,
I live in the UK in the northern part of Hampshire and have found that my
dry oak firewood store is alive with larvae eating the wood just under the
bark. The larvae I have seen are up to about 1cm and I have found exit holes
that are up to 6mm at the widest point. The exit holes are NOT round.

The larvae are superficially similar the picture at :

http://www.msstate.edu/Entomology/pestmonitor/Fig4OHB.gif

of Longhorn beetle larvae. They are light cream and have black mouthparts.
The frass is of a fine texture.

My questions are:
1). What are they?
2). Should I be concerned about the infestation spreading to my house?

Many thanks in advance, I appreciate the effort involved in helping out
people such as myself who have no specialist knowledge in this field.
 

Reply:

First, I think that Mr. Hinson can be re-assured that the larvae in question
will not cause any trouble in his house timbers.  There are only a few
beetle species that colonise house timber in this country and none of these
develop under the bark of oak logs.

If there are boreholes deep in the wood of the logs, and if the logs are
very dry. there might be a  possibility of infestation by beetles that could
enter the house.  (If so,  very small boreholes in the wood could indicate
include furniture beetle, powder post beetles or (if larger) death watch
beetle.

The exit holes that Mr. Hinson describes could be those of a jewel beetle
(family Buprestidae), as he describes them as not being round.   The members
of this family produce D-shaped exit holes, whereas the exit holes of all
other families are either oval or round in cross-section.  If they are oval,
the beetles could be long-horns as he suggests.   If they are of the
D-shaped buprestid type, the species is almost certainly Agrilus pannonicus.
This was a Red Date book species but has become fairly common over the last
few years.  Even so, it would be a great shame to incinerate them all by
using all the logs as firewood.   As stated in the AES handbook "Habitat
Conservation for Insects", the way to minimise harm to the deadwood fauna
and flora when using firewood is as follows:

1.    Never use wood that has been left dead in or near woodland during the
spring and summer; and that has therefore probably been colonised by
wildlife;  instead use wood that has been freshly cut from the living
condition.  This is very important if in the case of ancient woodland or
wood pasture, where endangered species are more likely to be present.

2.    Store firewood in a closed polythene tent, this will help to prevent
the logs becoming colonised and thus becoming a decoy.  If the polythene is
supported on a framework and kept away from the logs in a sunny position,
the logs will dry out rapidly and soon become good firewood.

Sparrowhawk

>