Outdoorsy Shite - April Top Trumps

[GrimmaTheNome]

Rules as before - nature 'spots' fauna and flora, points for rarity (absolute or relative to where seen), seasonality, eloquence of description. Please declare if you're in forrin parts or a mermaid.

Did I cover everything?

I'd never heard of yellow archangel - I think its what I know more prosaically as yellow dead nettle. Just like I had to look up cuckoo flower to find it was my beautiful but sadly named wild radish .

Pigeongate?

If I dig up cuckoo flower is there an edible wild radish thing there, then?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/1457395-Oh-FFS-what-the-hell-do-I-do-Immediate-advice-required-if-poss-Pigeongate

MN at its most mental!

If I dig up cuckoo flower is there an edible wild radish thing there, then?
No idea, I don't go around digging up wild plants. Apparently they are edible though (other names meadowcress bittercress) and its also the same thing as what someone else referred to as Ladies Smock, and then again its Mayflower, Pigeon's eye and Lucy Locket and milkmaid.

And furthermore, it turns out wild radish is a scraggier looking relative. I must have mis-ID'd it from a dodgy picture.

Good, I like all those other names much better!

Oh good point. Yes, I don't dig up wild plants either, obviously.

Just gather some leaves (IIRC from an informative link last month in relation to wild garlic that's ok for common plants).

Northey yellow archangel is a flower. Lucky you to see two rabbits in love. The only ones I've seen lately were just in it for the sex.

Thanks for the welcome AIBUqatada, top name!

Random lump of white bluebells in amongst the standards. became excited that I had come across a contender but by the power of google they appear to be Hyacinthoides x massartiana, common, and the invasive hybrid. Only white.

bums

No wildlife spots for ages here. It is raining so bloody hard most of the time that you could walk with a metre of a velociraptor and not see it.

Bllody, bloody rain. And wind. And horrible cold.

I'm hoping that crap spring = hot summer.

And hail. Boo! Hiss!

I hope you're right Ariel.

I've stopped lurking to tell you that I saw not one but two peregrine falcons on sunday, female was sitting on her nest, male was bumbling about.

Also seen about 6 Kestrels (or the same kestrel in 6 different places) in the last 48 hours.

Don't lurk! Post!
Post!
Post!
Pos!

You'd think after typing the word post three times I ought to manage a fourth

corvid/3 year old child

Fantastic hawky spots there. What were the kestrels over??

Ok then, just because you told me to.

I'm waiting for our swifts to come back - the minute we see them I know it's almost summer. There are nests all around here (including behind our sky dish) so there are thousands of swifts come summer.
The starling family have set up their nest by our bedroom window again and mr starling has begun his yearly game of try to make the cat fall out of the window by sitting on the telephone wires and singing come and get me.

Ah, that shy creature the lurker emerging ...

The more the merrier. I said it before somewhere - there's room for all in The Great Outdoors.

Kestrels were all over hedgerows, we live in farming country and so there are loads of small delicacies that the road noise flushes out.

The falcons are nesting at Lincoln Cathedral, the RSPB were there on sunday and we got to look through their telescope to spot them. www.rspb.org.uk/news/312166-lincolns-bolt-from-the-blue

Are kestrels on the decline? You hardly ever see them hovering by roads any more, whereas there's a buzzard on every lamp post it seems.

There are loads in Lincolnshire.

I see roadside kestrels often enough in Lancs.

Rain? Its a perfect sunny evening here.

I think in Cornwall they are being outcompeted by the buzzards.

Oh, this is Quite Interesting. The other day I saw a buzzard three miles out at sea. DH said they can fall asleep on thermals and then get blown offshore. I don't know how true this is.

Ariel - It is amusing and therefore I want it to be true.

Goodness, it must have had a suprise when it woke up!

That implies buzzards can't do the neat trick some birds can do of having half their brain asleep at a time, so they can always have one eye open - its probably more advantageous to prey than top predators. I think I read that dolphins do the same - very handy for an aquatic mammal that needs to breath.