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AIBU?

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Original poster

To feel incredibly privileged?

69 replies

rogersmellyonthetelly · 16/05/2012 09:27

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.

OP posts:
GnocchiNineDoors · 16/05/2012 10:00

You are very priviledged.

I may see the odd Magpie or Pigeon Sad

QuickLookBusy · 16/05/2012 10:03

We have a steam in the garden so get lots of visiting wildlife.

My favourite is the kingfisher, just stunning.

We can see a lake from our kitchen window and my very favourite thing is the swans that occasionally visit. A real life Swan Lake Grin

Sometimes wildlife can be a bit brutal. The heron swoop down and pinch the ducklings. Sad You can hear screaching ducks at night, we think it is the fox visiting.

We also get deer in the garden . I once crashed into one that ran out infront of me. It was only a baby and it I felt awful about it. However the damage to the car was shocking and I wouldn't like to think about what would have happened to me if it was an adult deer.

I do feel priviledged to see these things but also like the fact we get to go to London a lot. I need the hustle and bustle of the city. The diversity of people and art galleries/theatre etc. I would go a bit mad living in the country full time.

WorraLiberty · 16/05/2012 10:04

Methe that's even weirder cos I haven't seen the pic for a couple of years and in my mind, the birds were yellow! Blush

Seabright · 16/05/2012 10:07

We have a lot of badgers that live nearby, but I have only ever seen one, as they are very shy.

I was so excited though.

I have a pair of nuthatch nesting in an oak tree in the back garden. I spend so much time watching them they must think I am stalking them!

sausagesandmarmelade · 16/05/2012 10:07

You are indeed very privileged....

I feel privileged watching Mr and Mrs B (Blackbird ;) ) feeding from my lawn. Last night...there were also 2 pairs of starlings...

I love watching the tiny Jenny Wren...feeding on flies/wasps from the smaller trees...and the tits feeding from our feeder

Love hearing the dawn chorus...and recognising the different sounds...

Am enjoying nurturing my young tomato and chilli plants...and will put together the fruit cages for our blackcurrant shrubs (which after 2/3 years are now in fruit for the very first time).

Simple pleasures....that cost (next to) nothing!

oopslateagain · 16/05/2012 10:07

I was volunteering in a clinic on Monday, it was a very quiet day and I was sat in this tiny room, bored half to death, with nothing but grey drizzle outside the window. Then the sun peeked through, and a couple of baby rabbits appeared on the grass outside, a robin started flitting in and out of the hedge, and it was suddenly a lovely spring day. I was actually quite disappointed when a client knocked on the door!

sausagesandmarmelade · 16/05/2012 10:11

Ahhh...we have Parakeets over in North London....and the greenfinches seem to particularly love next doors wilderness of a garden.

Saw a greater spotted woodpecker there too....

Atreegrowsinbrooklyn · 16/05/2012 10:13

We get those wonderful starling flocks making shapes in the sky over our house. The noise is like cicadas, it is so loud. We watched them for what felt like hours the other evening.

At our local bird sanctuary I was in a hide as a barn owl flew past, no more than twenty feet away. I gave an involuntary gasp, it heard me, turned it's entire head towards the noise and looked deep into my eyes as it flew past. I will never forget that.

We also see Kingfishers and Otters there and the wonderful throaty 'boom' of Bitterns.

echt · 16/05/2012 10:13

Thinking about the hares, I was driving near Calais years ago near the ginormous shopping malls, and I saw what I thought was large Jack Russell in a ploughed filed. It was a hare. Gigantic.

In Australia we don't quite have a dawn chorus, though the melodious gargling of magpies is quintessentially Australian. We do have possums nesting in trees front, back and both sides of the house. They drive the dogs nuts.

LavenderBriggs · 16/05/2012 10:21

I felt extremely happy and lucky at the weekend when DH and I went for a walk. We were following a robin along a path - it was flying from tree to tree in front of us and allowed us to get quite close to it.

We also saw a duck (duck? it was black and had huge blue/white feet) feeding its young - there were two tiny chicks that had escaped the nest and we stood on the canal bank watching them get safely back.

We sat went for a coffee (lovely cafe over-looking a reservoir) and watched the swifts chasing insects.

We also saw blackbirds, a song thrush, some great tits, wood pigeons, geese and a gorgeous pair of swans. Bit sad that we didn't see the parakeets, but they are exactly the same colour as the new leaves on the tree they nest in.

We live in zone 2 in London and it takes us 5 minutes to get to the canal to start the walk - that makes me feel pretty privileged.

Stinkyminkymoo · 16/05/2012 10:32

Yes, moments like those are rare and to be treasured I think.

I was out on a ride and saw a stoat! I couldn't believe it! I have seen lots of wildlife out riding and I genuinely think being on horseback helps you see more.

Like being at one with nature! Grin

marshmallowpies · 16/05/2012 10:49

I once got up early when on holiday in Scotland & saw a field all covered in dew just as the sun was rising & a hare sitting in the middle. One of my best ever memories. Have seen them boxing too, when I was much younger, right near the village where I grew up.

I heard cuckoos a lot growing up in the country but never saw one until 5 years ago in the Lakes. (they are so often in tree canopies it's very rare to see them on open ground). Felt very lucky!

ihateshopping · 16/05/2012 11:11

I have the pleasure of travelling to work at 4am, I see so many foxes, deer, a badger, bunnies etc. i love it!

I hate having to try to avoid them, bunnies especially, when they sit like plebs in the middle of the road!

We live on a canal boat, so we always have lots of wild life around. Even a cheeky fox wondering round the back of our boat!

We have learnt not to feed the swans, because they will then decided at 3am they are hungry and go along the side of the steel boat, tapping with their beak, trying to get your attention.

Mother ducks also teach their ducklings to eat the algie from the boat, which makes an annoying noise too but they are really cute

Blacksquirrel · 16/05/2012 11:29

I was amazed to recently see a Falcon attacking a pigeon recently. Felt a bit sorry for the pigeon as he was never going to get away but not something I have ever seen before & didn't expect to see locally.

OldGreyWiffleTest · 16/05/2012 12:10

My Mum feeds the fox family and badgers every evening. She is chuffed to bits to feel that she got the foxes through the Winter and now they have a cub!

LavenderBriggs · 16/05/2012 13:22

I can almost feel my blood pressure lowering gently when DH and I go for a walk.

I also refused to let the builders touch an old overflow pipe outside the loo because the air brick it's attached to houses a nest of great tits (they were lovely about it and we stood swapping wildlife stories).

FatherHankTree · 16/05/2012 13:32

I often see deer when I'm walking the dog and there are lots of buzzards around here too. DH saw a badger a couple of years go Envy

ragged · 16/05/2012 13:34

There's something like a Sparrowhawk working thru pigeons in the field out front.
DH regularly sees a local barn owl when cycling home.
No bats this year, though... yet!

giveitago · 16/05/2012 13:35

Wow - sounds lovely - you are very lucky.

But I'm also lucky for living in a big city but for other reasons.

But I'm loving the spotting of wildlife.

maddening · 16/05/2012 13:36

my mum frequently has pheasants, ducks and swans wandering into her garden . She's devastated that there's a planning application in to put 200 houses there - until now she has always felt very lucky to live with this at the end of the garden.

marriedinwhite · 16/05/2012 13:36

You are very privileged. We get the odd parakeet and the occasional woodpecker but more often we spy a rat at low tide!! Occasionally at dusk we might see a bat or two. It still seems odd to see an urban fox running down Putney High street at night!

Have been amazed at the size of a hare in rl and the beauty of a kingfisher.

LavenderBriggs · 16/05/2012 13:37

giveitago - I think we've got the best of birth worlds. Twenty minutes to get into town to see a play or five minutes walk to a nature reserve.

LavenderBriggs · 16/05/2012 13:38

Birth worlds? I'm not even on a phone.

Best of both worlds.

SCOTCHandWRY · 16/05/2012 13:40

Lumpy! Grin

Original poster
rogersmellyonthetelly · 16/05/2012 14:00

Yep Im lucky and I know it. Speaking of birds attacking pigeons, I was at the yard a couple of years ago, walking to the muck heap to empty the barrow and a bloody pigeon drops out of the sky and lands about 10ft front of me. I'm standing there thinking "what the buggery chuff just happened there" and a bird of prey flutters down, lands and starts dismembering it. I just stood there open mouthed until the sound of bone crunching and ripping of flesh got a bit much and I moved on.

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