What did we see this afternoon?

[whatwasthiscritter]

I have name changed as my other threads had medical things on them and this is completely identifying. I was driving from radstock towards Burlington Combe today at about 4.15 when we were going through some woods (marked with arrow on the map). Something ran ibfront of the car. I say ran but it almost stumbled/tumbled across the road from left to right. I only saw it in the road but my 17 year old Dd saw it then run up the bank in the trees on the right. We have no idea what we saw and the way it moved at first made me think it was a big sycamore leaf but as my DD saw it climb the bank this has been discounted. We have looked at endless photos of British wildlife etc but can't place it. The description is that is was a sandy/pale yellow colour (hence the leaf thought) it was bigger than a hedgehog or a rat but smaller than a hare. It was fast as it past the road between the car in front and mine and then climbed the bank. What on earth could it be?! It is made all the weirder because I saw a creature further along that road a couple of months ago that I can't work out either. Slightly cat like but much bigger and black, this time it was early morning and my Dd was asleep and doesn't believe me. My Dds only solution is that we keep passing through a magical wood (grasping at straws)

Big cats in the Uk:
I do actually believe that there are big cats around, just too much evidence.
BUT I also think that a lot of sightings are domestic cats.

Our garden backs onto a large school field with trees and bushes round the edge. I look out of my bedroom window onto the field and know it well. There are often foxes playing on the field, and domestic cats, inlcuding our own and occasionally a dog. So I am VERY familiar with different sized animals on the field.

One morning I looked out of the window and froze. On the far size of the field, (which isn't actually that far away) was a large cat standing by one of the trees. It looked the size of a panther, it was huge. I was so amazed that I stood rooted to the spot, didn't think of getting camera etc.
I watched it walk down the side of the field, past bushes and trees, and the whole time I was convinced it was huge, 3 or 4 times size of a domestic cat. Dark colour, but not black, splotchy coat. I was absolutely sure that he was large, bug cat sized and that I was seeing one of the rare big cats living in the UK. I am sceptical by nature, and not at all woo, and I was 100% sure.

Then he passed in front of a particular bush and suddenly he came into correct perspective and I could see he was a domestic cat. The whole thing had been an optical illusion due to his position. I really had to blink, look again and then again to be sure that I was seeing the right thing. yes, he was just next doors' moggie. I was actually quite shaken at his sudden 'size change'

I think this is true of quite a few sightings. Optical illusions due to perspective

There's 10 animals gone wild here the copy among them. Wallabies surprised me

Have seen a couple of live young (or tiny) muntjac recently.
A more albino hedgehog, anything from beige to white? Although you would normally note their movement as 'hedgehoggy'!

I would say stoat or polecat. In photos they look very long and then but they bunch up a lot when they run.

I saw a wallaby in the hedges near where I live, nobody believed me as I didn't take a photograph, next day it was on the news that one had escaped nearby.

I rescued a big blue and yellow macaw from my garden, a few months back. My dog was so excited and had only gone out for a wee and alerted me with a bark I have never heard before. Bastard parrot bit me, twisting the skin between my thumb and fingers, looking straight at me with beady eyes, as I took it from the fence. Luckily I heard shouts from its owner as I had the dog bouncing around like a gazelle and an angry parrot sitting on my arm, and I had not thought through my next move! Apparently it’s the thing to ‘free fly’ your parrot.

Thinking of the size of a sycamore leaf and that you used the word tumbling in your OP, could it have been a hedgehog? They do run, only about one mile an hour though. Their legs are surprisingly long under the spines.

Anyone see parakeets. Was stunned to see one in a tree outside the school one day. No-one believe me either. Had forgotten my phone

There are thousands of wild parakeets in London and the Home Counties now.

a stoat?

Back when I was about 9 and my brother was 18 I was riding on the crossbar of his bike coming back from our Grans when a sandy coloured rat ran in front of us on the road. We watched as it disappeared into a drainage hole in a stone wall. We never saw it again or saw another one like it, only the standard brown coloured ones. We still mention it now and then. I've added a picture of a domestic fancy rat that is similar colour to the one we saw. You do also get domestic ferrets in a similar colour too.

Apparently it’s the thing to ‘free fly’ your parrot.

I rescued a stoat that had fallen into a deep drainage course once in East Anglia. I dangled a long grass with a root ball on it. The poor critter was shivering with cold, viscious and desperate, but jumped onto my plant and I pulled it up. It was light yellow in colour and had a long body but looked almost like a small kitten.

Once on the bank it just vanished. I looked down and there was just a tiny round parting in the grass.

However, I think all the prior suggestions are also good possibilities.

I saw this on FB and it made me think of this thread.

That looks lovely BUT:
The exhausted, squawking parrot that was in my garden was slightly above my very excited (36kg) dog and below two circling buzzards. I don’t think the sparrowhawk, that guts the pigeons in our garden, would have taken it on but wasn’t sure about the others. Tense. Apparently it was a group from a city that regularly drive here to free fly their ‘emotional support’ parrots on top of high bridleway a few fields away. It’s going to end badly, I think. Going back to the original post, a good example of how exotic animals end up in the wild. Though I think, like OP, it’s probably a baby boar than something more exciting.

….not to say baby boars aren’t exciting and extremely gorgeous.

A yellow panther that’s just a bit bigger than a hedge hog and smaller than a hare? 🤣

Ideally parrots should be in the wild and not performers or pets, but at least the free-flying and socialising seems to be a better life than being stuck in a small or medium cage all or most of the time and usually alone. Years ago I knew someone who used to rescue and rehabilitate macaws. They were in such a sorry state both physically and emotionally, after living with people who could not or would not meet their needs.

There is a colony of free flying macaws the North of England. Kirkby Lonsdale? One of the Kirbys anyway. Haven't seen them myself but it must be very disconcerting to see them for the first time as you're driving along.

Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria.