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?

Speaking for myself, Grimma, if my mum had turned up to get me in waterproof trousers I might have actually died from mortification! HTH.

I just did the school run in technical trousers and over trousers AND wellingtons. I was waterproof cubed. My child embraced me in that get up so, yeah.

There is a happy robin perched on my tulips pot so that is nice.

I suppose there's a time and a place for everything and the school bus stop isn't the place for them

She should forgive me anything, in the light of what - her fault entirely - DH and I will be having to wear this weekend...

Thanks Ariel. I'll have to embed it in my mind now by reciting "No shags near the river."

We've just now got The Weather that everyone online has been talking about all day.

What do you and dh have to wear this w/e Grimma?
[intrigued]

please say matching wolf fleeces

I was going to ask Slub but knew someone else would

Wetsuits.

One balmy day at the back end of last year, DH and DD somehow decided it would be a good idea for us to all do a windsurfing course so that we could participate instead of just watching her every saturday during the summer.

It was supposed to be sometime in May, which didn't sound too bad but for some reason it was brought forward to this weekend. The weather forecast is not good, but I don't think bad enough for them to cancel.

I don't think there's an emoticon which covers it...

Those should cover it.

OMG, I just looked at the club's webcam - it includes live weather readings. 4.4C, windchill -2.2. And through the rain-splattered lens I just saw someone going out on a board....madness!

Let us all pray for high winds.

Can we have the webcam addrees then we can all watch.

Could be the spot of the year.

I don't envy you Grimma.

I haven't spotted anything today except for a wet cat that is too stupid to use the cat flap.

There will probably be a flock of swans in the field at the bottom of the lane when we go to swimming in a minute, they've been moving a field along at a time and in a few weeks they will have vanished all together.

Good God, grimma. I should say you could wear whatever you fancied to pick her up, and she could bally well lump it. Greater love hath no furiously muttering mother.

We seem to have someone elses weather, whoever is responsible can they please retrieve it a their earliest convenience. And bring yesterday's weather back.

Are you both the correct shape for wetsuits

Today's spot (through the rain and hail) was 6 baby wild pigs and about 20 adults. Lovely.

God no, violet. Nor the right age.

I just want to defend the honour of my local bluebells by saying that now that they are fully out in all their splendour it is clear that they are native and not forrin.

At just a few points of my (very wet) walk this morning I was able to position myself so that I had bluebells and rape flowers in a single vista. The colour-hit was out of this world. A bit like stepping into one of those recent David Hockney countryside paintings.

Blimey. Hope you were wearing sunglasses.

I took some photos yesterday of some oyster catchers and curlews hunkering down to try and avoid the wind and the waves. Unfortunately it was too dull, but that's why God gave us the saturation tool :)

Do curlews stay at the coast then? I thought they migrated inland to breed?

Um...I don't know much about waders to be honest! But these were definitely curlews dodging the waves and burbling.

Actually Grimma I'm wondering now if they were whimbrels.

I've never heard of whimbrels before. What a wonderful word: I'd like to put it in my hand and stroke it.

I have total identification failure when it comes to wading birds when I visit Lymington. But I can recognise a curlew - largely because of their size and curled beak.

I'm confident with avocets and egrets (well, they're a bit obvious), redshanks (if leg colour clear) and oystercatchers. Others I tend to have to check unless I've seen them recently

I thought I knew curlew till I looked up whimbrel... which turns out to be a small curlew with fancier face: 'Whimbrel are strongly marked with a dark eye-stripe, dark cap and pale stripe on the crown whereas Curlew have a much plainer face.'