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?

Think I read somewhere that kestrels are declining due to declining numbers of mice and voles on farmland, buzzards will eat pretty much anything so maybe they are better off? Certainly true round here.

I did say that the buzzard thing was said by my DP so therefore it may legitimately taken with a little bit of salt.

I would hate to be a cetacean for that very reason, Grimma - fancy never having a really good kip.

Beautiful day here in Saddleworth. Not a hint of rain. Glad to hear all you droughty types have been getting a top up.

Dry dog, dry horse, no wellies - fab

Make the most of it - lots of rain on the way for everyone today.

Pouring here. Thrilling spot of muddy wet tracks right across a pale green duvet cover. Bastard cat.

I have a new pair of technical trousers, a willing mind and a pair of eyes as keen as an Osprey's . I'm going to spot some nature today if it kills me.

I can see a lovely little robin in the garden from here in my nice dry kitchen. That will be all for today I think.

On an epic lunch break walk with whippey boy I saw, shelducks, curlew, swans (not very exciting round here, there are millions) a heron, cormorants and some really really tiny birds with long beaks running around in excitement on the mud flats, no idea what they were, they were like the mouse equivalent in the bird kingdom.

I used to live in Oxford and regularly saw huge flocks of swans. Here in my northern bit of England a swan is a real rarity. And yet the temperature difference is so slight. It does seem odd that there is such a difference in population. Magpies, too. Hundreds down south, very few here. And I love magpies.

There are swans in the north - I saw a massive flock in a field last month near Cockersands Abbey and there are often large numbers in the Lune estuary.
Maybe they're mostly coastal?

We have a pair on our nearby canal who usually raise a large brood of cygnets.

Hmm, yes, it must be just local variation rather than a north/south thing. I live right by a major, very healthy, river in the north east, and it is quite a rarity to see swans on it. We have cormorants (shags?), herons, a few moorhens and a surprisingly small number of ducks. Never seen a kingfisher here either.

A duck fighting a cougar*

*elements of this spot have been fictionalised for dramatisation purposes.

Ah, one of the Big Cats of Saddleworth Moor?

Or just a large kitty?

C'mon, we want to know if the duck won...

There wad no cat and there was no fight.

A duck gave a coot a bit of a look and it swam away.

Possibly the worst spot ever.

I have disappointed myself and brought shame to the thread.

On a positive note the new technical trousers performed most technically.

Go trousers! Woop.

Well how can we believe you about the trousers after the whole duck thing?

I could photograph them upon my person?

I don't know.

I'm sorry.

I was just being silly and showing off. I should know by now it always ends in tears and disbelief of technical trouser status.

Look on the bright side. At least you aren't following PigeonGate with a sad DuckGate.

Never mind slubber - it got a mention for Saddleworth Moor from someone who doesn't live here.

Foul, foul, foul weather here today. The most exciting thing was the man opening up the gates on Standedge tunnel to let a couple of lovely barges through. One of the barges had a load of daffodils growing on the prow (?).

Me on school run this morning "Oooh look over there",
DS "they're very big hares"
Me "they're deer!"
Said deer then kindly had a bound in our direction.

Foul weather has just arrived.

News in from the far west; the bad weather has passed and it is now pleasantly warm and sunny with a few grey clouds adding to the atmosphere but not raining on me. I wish I could put up a webcam for you all or something with a sound feed, I have the back doors open and the sound of birds singing is distracting me from doing anything but listen. There is a blackbird out there who is singing his little heart out over the background calls and it is just amazing.

Slubber, slubber, when will you learn

Good grief we had some weather in the night! South easterly gales are always particularly dramatic and the surf is monstrous today, as big as I have ever seen it. There have been some floods too.

When will spring come pliz?

Arf at "brought shame to the thread".

Yes. BE ashamed.

(cluster post alert)

AIBU, if they are on rivers they will be cormorants. Shags are generally only found around rocky coastlines and are smaller and spindlier, and at this time of year, greener.

Spring has been and gone, I think!

Its very weathery here now. DH has wangled a good excuse for me to have to do the school bus-stop run in an hour or so...wondering if DD would forgive me if I turned up in overtrousers? Think I may excuse the dog from coming out with me.