What is your all time top UK wildlife?

[orangeleavesinautumn]

Mine is probably the starling murmurations in Brighton, but also eagles on Scottish islands. Seals in East Anglia too.

What are yours?

Planning some trips over the summer, and wondering if there is any special UK wildlife we have missed out on so far.

wow! wildcats! I didn't know there were any genuine wild cats left

There are a few, hopefully to be many more. They are amazing animals, sleek, beautiful and ferocious.
Wildcats.

Red squirrels in N Yorks, I forgot those.

Later in the year, because we live close to a Royal Park with deer and the mating season is coming up, we will hear the stags bellowing at each other, and the clashing of antlers. And v likely see one or two big ones with a mass of bracken tangled in their antlers. Apparently they think it makes them look more threatening to other stags, but TBH they look more as if they’ve just woken up after a riotous night of partying.

On that topic, last year dh actually saw a huge half-head of antlers drop off a big stag’s head. It weighed a ton. Must be v awkward and uncomfortable until the other half drops off too.

Treshnish isles - hanging out with puffins, divebombed by a skua! Mull was excellent also - otters, porpoises, dolphins, eagles, tons of other birds.

My other top fav was watching a family of tiny wrens taking their first flight outside my office window but you probably don’t want to go on holiday to my workplace…

Flamborough head is my top wildlife destination - huge gannet colony at Bempton, seals everywhere, good dolphin watching and puffins and other sea birds at the right time of the year.

I also always love seeing marsh harriers. I’ve seen them in a few different places, but the best views I’ve had have been in Blacktoft Sands.

And murmurations of any kind - the knot murmurations in north Norfolk are pretty mind blowing, big flocks of golden plover and lapwing in the Wash, starlings in a few different places.

Magpies in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Seals in Belfast Lough Musgrave Channel.

Blue Tits in the Highlands.

Herds of deer in various places around the Highlands, especially the road between Fort Augustus and Whitebridge.

Herons in the Lowlands of Scotland and out towards Lentran from Inverness.

For me it's Beavers 🦫. Little eco warriors.
There are so many released in the UK now and many places where you can go on safaris to see them in the wild.

Squirrels

Hedgehogs and red squirrels

Hares from our bedroom window. Frequently see at least 4 in the fields next to the house when there isn't tall corn.
Gannets at Bempton (puffins are cute but over-rated!!).
Dolphins at Chanonry Point.

We had a hedgehog in our garden and we also have a resident fox. To say that our garden is overgrown is a bit of an understatement!

White tailed eagles, red squirrels, seals and dolphins - all on the Isle of Wight.

Thank you! I do always keep an eye out whenever we're near water but sometimes laugh at myself thinking it's pointless.. good to know it's not

It’s not pointless. We’ve seen kingfishers, flying over water at several local parks. If you are looking at a body of water, look for a stick standing up out of the water - kingfishers often like to perch on them!

I love kingfishers, but every one I have ever seen has been unexpected, and not when looking for them

Seals and dolphins down in Cornwall. The deer herd in Richmond Park.

Sadly Thor the Walrus has gone back to Iceland.

Ooh controversial statement there about puffins @Oakdog , but I kind of agree 😄

Having said that, I took a boat trip to the Farne Isles last year, which was (purely by chance) timed perfectly with the puffins getting ready to leave the islands. There were so many puffins everywhere, it was pretty spectacular.

Gannets have my heart though! They’re fascinating to watch, even when they’re just sitting on their nests. Beautiful birds.

Dolphins off the coast of Seahouses in Northumberland.
I’ve seen the odd kingfisher on the river Mersey, they are magical. The flash of turquoise and bright orange is unmistakable.
I was once walking down the road when I realised that there was an owl less than a metre away from me in a hedge- a tiny little one. It was a very leafy road, with huge gardens- but still pretty special to find that in the middle of a big city.
And glow worms in the sand dunes at Holywell Bay in Cornwall.

I took my Ukrainian guest on the boat trip where we saw the dolphins and he was bemused about why we were all so excited about the puffins!
I couldn’t really explain it either. We just were.

Obviously puffins are lovely too, but I agree gannets on their nests just over the fence at Bempton are amazing. Their eyes are gorgeous too. There's just something quite majestic (not sure that's the right word) about them.

Red squirrel in the Lake District
Seals & muntjacs in Cornwall

This. It should be the law that every garden has a hedgehog highway, even those that insist on plastic grass or all patio/decking. At least let the wildlife pass through to get to friendlier gardens.

We had a hedgehog in our conservatory the other night! We do have them around as you see lots of poo, but rarely see them. But just after sundown he came mumbling along, had a look through the door, and came in. Couldn't believe it. He mumbled around, stopped to watch the TV, and then left again. So amazing. We didn't have our phones, of course, never do when something amazing happens.

Also, same as PP, lots of Red Kites, sometimes they land on our roof, or conservatory, huge, huge, things, and we also get Sparrow Hawks taking down pigeons in the garden, they lurk in the hedges, and zoom out to catch them on the ground, or sometimes in flight. Amazing things.

The gannets are just so BIG and their dive is so impressive.

Can see them off Cornwall too.

I know a lot of people dislike them but I love the urban foxes here in London. Noisy as hell though!