To feel incredibly privileged?

[rogersmellyonthetelly]

On Sunday as I drive to the stables, a roe deer was in the field right at the side of the road, she bounded away as I passed but she was so beautiful. Today I woke up to a cuckoo in the tree outside my window. I'm now walking my dog in the fields behind my house and have just seen a hare. Briefly but wow.

Lucky you! I once had a stand off with deer while riding my bike to work down a country lane. We were only 10 meters apart and just eyed each other up for ages. I grinned like a loon all day

I've seen hares boxing too, hares are HUGE aren't they?

I've never heard a cockoo but did hear a skylark several times a year and it was so beautiful it literally stopped me in my tracks.

We are lucky to have such wonderful wildlife. Shame so few people seem able to appreciate it.

That's why I love living in the country.

I had a deer in my garden once nibbling at the leaves on a bush. Had to look twice as I thought it was a big fox at first! You see deer all the time driving along the M4 to the west.

What a lovely thread. In the mornings when I am getting dressed for work goldfinches often sit on the wire outside my window, it is so beautiful. I also live close to some lovely hedgerows around fields where I hear skylarks.

How lovely! I would love to see a hare. I've only heard cuckoos out in the depths of countryside. I do feel quite privileged even to see things like wrens or jays which I occasionally do even in suburbialand where we live.

Ive never seen a hare wild before, only seen a wild deer once about 15 years ago, and a cuckoo I've heard a couple of times when I was a kid. All 3 in 3 days I think I might buy a lottery ticket!

I saw my first and only wild owl flying through the night a few weeks ago. I was ridiculously excited!

I see owls all the time, we have a barn owl which lives at our stables and I've seen a few driving home at night

We were out walking the dogs on Sunday evening and saw a wallaby :) It was sitting in a patch of sun, munching grass. It was a bit of a distance away but we always have binoculars in the car so were able to get a good look. We live on the Isle of Man, not the first place you'd think of for wallabies. I think a few escaped from the wildlife park a few years ago and have sustained a small population. Most people rarley if ever get a glimpse, so we were really lucky.

We see hares fairly often too, they are massive aren't they?

I feel very privileged too. Saw a barn owl quatering the fields the other morning - watched him for several minutes and it was magical. I also regularly see stoats and weasels dashing across the back lanes, lots of hares, red kites, deer. I love wildlife spotting (and so much easier on horseback).

Years ago my Grandparents had a rotting oak tree in their garden and in the summer were inundated with Stag beetles Now they are amazing little massive beasts and even as a child I can remember feeling privileged that we got to see them.

We live in suburbia but have a family of foxes that live down the bottom of the garden, and usually at this time of year we can sit out in the early evening watching the fox cubs playing on the lawn. This year the weather has been so crappy that we havent been able to do that yet, and no sighting of any cubs either.

one of last years cubs

We have woodpeckers in the garden too, but so far I have never managed to get a photo of one despite hours of sitting there waiting with the camera..

How lovely. I've been watching some housemartins make a nest the last couple of days. It's the simple things, isn't it?

Woodpeckers are so shy - have you tried putting out a feeder full of peanuts? My father has managed to take a couple of decent pics of his greater spotted woodies on the bird feeders. I've never seen a green woodpecker in the garden though, and I often see them in the fields behind our house.

we saw a pinemarten, a greater spotted woodpecker, a squirrel and a slowworm in our garden last month

Aww I love the fox cub

We haven't seen any cubs either this year...normally they use our garden as a cut through.

Squeaky was it you who had a photo of loads of budgies in the garden?

We hear woodpeckers all the time at our local park but have never seen one :(

My kids would love a slowworm but i doubt it'd last long without the resident hedgehog scoffing it.

green parakeets, no budgies

parakeets

there are thousands of them where we live

I saw a snowy owl in broad daylight whilst walking my dogs a few months back. I've seen a hard whilst on a landfill site of all places, and used to regularly get up early to do a certain walk to see white mountain hares.

Before when I lived somewhere quite urban I was amazed to regularly see herons, saw 2 green woodpeckers in a field together and most amazingly saw a kingfisher.

As a child we used to see watervoles all the time, but felt incredibly lucky to watch one a year or so ago. I love where I live now, often here owls, see squirrels in the garden and buzzards overhead.

I saw the scrawniest fox in the world shitting in our front garden the other day. And a dead pigeon in the river near us. We have awesome local wildlife...

We have buzzards too and weirdly a heron likes to perch on my neighbours shed roof and sun it's self.. none of us have ponds!

I have no idea what they're called (they're probably generic sparrows or something) but they live in the masses of ivy in the garden and it's a rare moment that you don't hear them chirping. It's a lovely way to wake up.

That's the one!

Where the fuck did I get budgies from?

I saw an eviscerated pigeon on the Regent's Canal towpath yesterday.

There was a certain sickly garnet-coloured beauty in its entrails.

They do look a bit like budgies tbf, it's their greenness .