Mumsnet Talk

I'll start - I'm hoping that someone will do better than an infernal wood pigeon and obnoxious noisy herring gull. Before the morning is up, hopefully.

And remember, cast ne'er a clout til May be out.

I don't think I'm going outside today so all I've got is blackbirds and woodpigeons scoffing the suet block I lobbed onto the garden table.

It's bright sunshine here! And the wind has dropped - glory be.

Signing in - although nothing to report - yet.

Still wearing my clout! I get seen in in September, and she'd it like a carapace in June! It's pissing down in Framlingham. Absolutely no wildlife here whatsoever!

Scrap that, I can hear a wood pigeon!

Saggy, your second sentence is mystifying me.

Isn't a carapace a sea turtle's shell?

<boggles at saggy>

Cowslips everywhere today, practically out of nowhere, glimmering softly on banks and verges.

Lots of flooded fields too.

Oh yes - I saw loads of cowslips yesterday but alway forget to mention flowers (as I usually can't identify them). They did seem to appear from nowhere.

Must walk down to the local pond at lunchtime to see if there is any frogspawn.

Yes. <<wanders if I'm having a humour malfunction>>
I get sewn into my thermals in May, and keep them on until June. Hence shedding them like a shell! maybe I should have said exoskeleton
Can we go back to seeing squirrells on boats please?

Just for you here or here ... seems like its quite commonplace

Genius!

After yesterday's glorious sunshine the rain is back. Six goslings on the raod and one parent being extremely protective.

@ Grimma! It's been tipping it down here today, I've just bought a hot chocolate and halved my takings!!

Darling adventurous goslings!

Red kite, an owl, two red squirrels and a woodpecker but not all on the same day. That would be overload. and a rat at the bird feeder

Hello Otter (I so so much want to see a real live wild otter...)

Lovely stuff but if not all in the same day then can't qualify for May TT . Not that we mind a bit of retrospection, but points only for fauna and flora actually spotted this month.

Yes, and some people can be quite firm on the rules. Though who could possibly be cross with an otter?

Hi everyone

I've just seen a Great Spotted Woodpecker in my garden

ooh Ellie we have a ground woodpecker that comes to ours almost everyday - it is a very skittish thing but a lovely green colour.

A ground woodpecker? Where do you live, YBMS? I googled 'ground woodpecker' and it came up with a Southern African bird, but that one is reddish not greenish.

I'd LOVE to see an otter in the wild. Apparently there are some on our local river.

Once when I was swimming in a stream on Dartmoor a mammally thing flitted past me in the water, which could have been an otter. But I think it much more likely that it was a mink. I only had the tiniest glimpse.

That is a non-May2012 spot, sorry. ALL of the wildlife here has disappeared in protest at the lousy weather. I haven't had the smallest spot for days.

This is my only best otter anecdote - I used to live by the Torridge in a house share with some friends. One evening one of my mates and I were sharing some beers by the weir, chatting and generally loving life, and one popped up in the river about ten metres away and stood on its hind legs looking around for about 20 seconds. We didn't move a muscle. It could have been Tarka himself.

<wipes eyes with nostalgia>

i saw some 'Lady's Smock' on the edge of the woods today - the google-machine says 'late spring/early summer flowering', perhaps the flower knows something we don't?

<hangs head with shame for sneaking in April Top trumps>

Ok, today we saw two red deer, a swallow and five fat ducks pecking at a tired cyclist's shoelaces.

I miss the otter who lived with us for almost a year and then went back to the wild. We can hear the otters calling to each other on still nights, they work the tiny stream about 50 feet from the house. I hope our girl is one of them.