outdoors shite: your favourite animal spots

[Sneezeblossom]

What's been your favourite animal spot whilst out?
I love it when I get a rare glimpse of hare boxing, a barn owl or a doe with her fawn.

(oh, and you get murmurations of starlings there too. And marsh harriers. And there are otters but I've not seen them yet.)

I am almost certain I saw my first goldcrest the other week. In the Wue Valley. Why won't the damn things stay still on a branch 1m away for as long as it takes to find a reference pic and compare them properly? Have been back along the same route several times since, but no joy.

I saw a goldcrest on the Canoe safari at Slimbridge. Which makes me realise, an excellent place for viewing wildlife is 'from a boat'. Best kingfisher sighting ever, in addition to Broads, was paddling canoe down the Wye.

the rspb bird identifier on the web is very good. It will identify just with colour and location.

DH has a couple of iPhone apps which are quite handy if you're out - they do songs/calls as well.

I have Chirp, which is quite good.

I saw a Kingfisher in Borrowdale a few years ago, watched him for ages as he fished.

Best spot has got to be 3:00am in River Dart country carpark, I watched a family of badger playing and wrecking the bins for about an hour.

I saw a bittern last year which was quite exciting.

Swine flu will not come back - bird flu might but if you are looking for snotty birds whingeing may I suggest Netmums

Oh yes, I saw swans mating a few years ago, it was amazing. I was with my then boyfriend who got all embarrassed

Saw blue hares on Shetland last summer, they were lovely (and big - when you've seen hares you can never confuse them with rabbits again).

I like cuckoos, they are terribly inelegant with their saggy arses but there is just nothing like the sound of a cuckoo in spring.

have just moved and now regularly see red kites circling above our house

also have a pod of dolpins not too far from here - always fab to see those

bird flu might ...

You know how they monitor for bird flu? (well, one way). They capture birds in the 'pipes' at Slimbridge WWT, with the help of a Nova Scotia duck tolling (at least, I'm not sure what sort of dog they have now, we saw the famous Tolly in action but she died) . Then they take them to the old duck hut, weigh, ring and swab their arses for bird flu.

Well, how else would you do it?

10 wild boar when out hacking 2 years ago in a big dark forest. My horse was ever so brave. I nearly croaked with fright.

Wow... which forest? I know they have boar in the Forest of Dean which is pretty 'big and dark' -DH lost us there in a rainstorm once, when he only just DBF (I found the first episode of Primaeval quite believable )

One of the Grand Duke's forest in Luxembourg. It was pretty wow.

And there were little baby piggies too. So cute.

I've only seen farmed 'wild' boar but the piglets are cute and they grow up into very tasty sausages

I saw a kingfisher just this week by the canal. We saw it several times; it swooped ahead of us as we walked

I just spotted a cat, my cat in fact, scratching the arms of my chair - bastard!

Hi, we've moved this into The Great Outdoors.