What did YOU discover in your garage today!?

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

Wouldn't want that polecat running up my trousers! I've never seen one before, must've been quite an experience, Lee.

[dalebrignall]

i think thats fantastic i cant see why they can not vaccinate the cattle as they have to be wormed ,and warble fly treated every year ,the only things i have in my workshop are wasps and bats .

[chesney]

Most exciting one I've ever found in the workshop, a squirrel.
Other than that, just the occasional cat that's been unlucky enough to hide at 'doors closing' time! Still, keeps the mice at bay!

[irmscher]

I don't believe in killing any wild animal and badgers should be protected from lowlife cowards who kill them.Coalmossion I think your attitude to wildlife is a credit to you and wished everyone was the same and you wont get any mice or rats while Brock is there

[IaininTenbury]

Not exactly in the garage but just outside the door. I'd wondered what the faint tweeting noise was for a while, then looked under the bonnet of the Series1 Land Rover where the battery would sit if it had one and foundthe nest of little blackbirds. It was a good excuse for not doing any work on it over the summer, as there was two lots of young ones in total...
[frame][/frame]

[ajay]

I feel you have the arrangement all wrong. The timorous wee beasty should be in the plastic bag where it cannot see any fingers or other extremities. Then throw it in the river with a rock attached so it cannot wipe out any more wildlife. nasty little brutes

[tysonn]

Ah now I get it.So you have the right to exterminate wildlife but the polecat shouldn't be able to eat in the only way it knows how?Shame on you!

[jagnut66]

I have to say if it was a choice between the blackbirds in the picture a few posts above this and the polecat, the blackbirds would win every time.
It maybe nature but there's no way I'd allow the polecat to slaughter those chicks if I had means / the ability to stop it.

[moray]

I've got a family of ringtail possums living in my garage roof.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_ringtail_possum

I like having them there and in my garden at night, however I just wish they wouldn't eat the fruit off my peach, pear and apple trees.

I've also found marbled geckos living in my toolboxes
http://museumvictoria.com.au/discoveryc ... led-gecko/

And we often have a tawny frogmouth on the garage roof at night.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tawny_Frogmouth

And I'm in the inner city suburbs.

[les]

I feel you have the arrangement all wrong. The timorous wee beasty should be in the plastic bag where it cannot see any fingers or other extremities. Then throw it in the river with a rock attached so it cannot wipe out any more wildlife. nasty little brutes

The trouble with those remarks is that they provoke reaction like mine, perhaps that 's what you wanted. I try to avoid killing things, but if I was that way inclined I would consider the trauma involved & minimise it. With your attitude this consideration appears to be beyond you, maybe you are a thoughtless person of perhaps have little or no feelings. The point is why chose to prolong the death of something rather than end it quickly if you feel the need to kill. Maybe I've answered my own question earlier on.

[ASL642]

Folks - this thread started on a positive note. Please let's keep it that way!

[Coalmossian]

I feel you have the arrangement all wrong. The timorous wee beasty should be in the plastic bag where it cannot see any fingers or other extremities. Then throw it in the river with a rock attached so it cannot wipe out any more wildlife. nasty little brutes

Maybe just said to provoke, but sadly such attitudes do exist, and I have to say that it saddens me deeply. What right have we humans......the only species to have the dubious power to despoil this planet and all that it contains, to decide what should, and what should not, share it with us? Nature has evolved over an infinitely longer period of time than we have even existed, and everything can exist quite happily without our presence,( but the opposite does not hold true!) but some of us are ( and I'm speaking generally here, not directly at this person) of the opinion that we know best and can rearrange nature as we see fit!
Such arrogance has prevailed for millenia, but it is only in more recent times that it has become dangerous because there are ever increasing pressures on every species impacting on every aspect of their lives.
These arrogant attitudes are fostered almost from the time of birth as almost all organised religions ( and I subscribe to none) indoctrinate children from an early age that there is "US", the humans, and then there are " the common beasts of the field" who have been put there by God for us to do with as we please!! Seems to me that the only worthwhile religion is Buddhism!
Anyway, having got my sermon off my chest, as AJS states, this started off on a positive note and has bought some wonderful comments,so I want to update.
This morning I had to be up early ( don't really like doing "early"), and I was in the barn just before 7 am. I took my camera with me, and sure enough, Brock was there, and awake. A bit resentful of the disturbance, methinks!
I took one photo hoping to prove that my earlier ones were NOT of a mohair jumper or a faux fur stole stashed cunningly behind the engines , and the result is pretty convincing, I hope. Reminded me a bit of that wonderful belief that very young children seem to have that when they stick their head behind the sofa, because they can't see you, you can't see them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![frame][/frame]

[POMMReg]

Not much chance of seeing ajay at an Animal Aid demo!

[ajay]

I actually live in NZ and every animal we have out here is imported (there are no native quadripeds) and every one of them are like four legged bird destroyers. Oppossums, Stoats, ferrets (your aformentioned polecats) weasels, cats, And every other nasty slippery and dangerous sharp toothed so called lovely little animal. We also have the highest number of potentially endangered species in the world just because of the poor little furry animals that you chaps and I also suppose a few chapesses are so quick to support and at the same time try to have a swipe at those who are more concerned about the animals and birds that don't actually attempt to do too much damage to the ecology.
I have actually been attacked by a ferret which would have inflicted a very nasty bit of damage if not despatched by my three farm dogs (who also had a bit of skin removed). It was in the middle of a paddock and it was not at all threatened or challenged and it just attacked me. I will repeat that the only good weasel is a dead one. I wouldn't even give it the time to hide in a plastic bag
I have also been a member of the Forest and bird society for about 20 years but am not at this moment.

That weasel in the photo would last about 1 minute if caught in NZ. They are deadly to anything smaller than a turkey.

no, I am not trying to stir up trouble with you good people it is just I am someone who thinks out the consequenses of having non native animals in a country where the poor native birds have no defenses and those that have not gone may be extinct in the next few years.

[les]

Every animal imported, now let me think who could have done such a thing? Ah yes think I've got it! Perhaps us human animals should be put in a bag and drowned, we've caused a fair few species to be wiped out in our time.

[ajay]

Les, you may well be correct, However the past cannot be altered. It is up to those who are prepared to live in the present to attempt to fix the wrongs that have been done. And in this country most of the ecological wrongs have been committed by those who colonised from GB.
I am ashamed to say this also includes my ancestors. Whether they had a few mustelids in their carry bags I have no idea but I doubt it as they were more interested in surviving the then harsh environment than having a few land sharks as pets.

I have no doubt that if you ever emigrated to NZ your views would alter very quickly when you see or read of the devastation that can be caused by just one of these vicious little beasties in just one night of hunting. There was a case just recently of some 10 kiwi's killed in a week of devastation when one ferret managed to get onto an island that had been clear for 5 or so years.
How did it get there? No idea, but it must have been a damn good swimmer to travel about 3 km.

[Coalmossian]

Hi Ajay. I have to confess that, prior to your last post, I was unaware that you had no native predators! Forgive my ignorance!!
However what you say is just another fine example of humans meddling in what they don't understand and, in the process, making cock a doodle diddley-ups of monumental proportions. Totally and often irreversibly altering the balance of nature. I can see perhaps now why you have a bit of an ill-will at the polecat, but here in the UK they are actually a native species, related to the even rarer pinemarten, and also the much commoner badger, weasel and stoat.
There is actually a lot of conservation work going on in this country to CONSERVE the polecat as it has been close to extinction thanks to Man's persecution.
We don't have many in Scotland, certainly not near to me in the North-East, but there is the even rarer pine marten
But then all these animals have evolved together over the millenia and nature has, so far, managed to keep things in reasonable balance despite man's continual interference.
We have, however, managed to introduce a few species such as the American Grey Squirrel and the Mink, both of which are threatening native species!
But, don't blame the animals...............they are innocent parties in Man's continual attempts at control! However, I understand now why you are so concerned as these introductions appear to be devastating your natural ground-dwelling birds.
I'll update on the badger soon as I am not sure what's happening there!! It seems to have vacated the area behind my engines, though the smell has not!!!

[les]

Despite our different views, it's just a shame we couldn't agree on avoiding unnecessary suffering if an animals death was on the cards. The plastic bag trick lit my fuse.

[Coalmossian]

Despite our different views, it's just a shame we couldn't agree on avoiding unnecessary suffering if an animals death was on the cards. The plastic bag trick lit my fuse.

I agree with you on that one Les! If something HAS to be exterminated the it should be done quickly, efficiently and with no suffering if at all possible ( though when I see the actions of some humans whom I'd like to "eliminate" none of the above apply!!!!!!!). The trouble is if anything competes with us or inconveniences us these days it seems to be grounds for killing it!
Anyway, Ajay can't be all bad ( and anyway I think I can understand him a bit better now notwithstanding the polythene bag comment!)........let's face it, he loves Morris Minors!!!

[tysonn]

But surely they were imported too?
Back to the wildlife.I have night cameras set up in my garden.I have movies of badgers and foxes and hedgehogs coming to eat the dog kibble I put out.Its not a big garden and I live very close to town.I also have a garden full of birds in the daytime.They co-exist as nature intended.Its us lot that seem unable to!