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The great outdoors

Here you can find advice on camping, outdoor activities and walking in the UK and abroad.

Original poster

Outdoorsy Shite - April Top Trumps

526 replies

GrimmaTheNome · 01/04/2012 19:01

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?

OP posts:
Original poster
GrimmaTheNome · 30/04/2012 17:17

I don't think I'd heard one til 3-4 years ago (in the Lake District).

OP posts:
ArielThePiraticalMermaid · 30/04/2012 18:28

Today I have mostly been watching enormous waves batter the seafront Shock

Last day for spots. Get your spots in!

SaggyOldClothCatPuss · 30/04/2012 18:59

Come to Constable Country. They are everywhere.

As an interesting piece of information, (I haven't actually seen one) apparently, there has just been a new colony of red squirrels started on Mersea Island. There are no greys there. I'm really pleased. I'd love to see one.

Northey · 30/04/2012 19:09

I don't feel my April has been as spot-tastic as my March. I shall have to try harder in May.

Hurrah for the new red squirrel colony!

ArielThePiraticalMermaid · 30/04/2012 19:31

Correction Norf - the WEATHER will have to try harder in May though from what I see this is going to carry on. We have been trying our hardest to spot Good Stuff but we have all been thwarted by the weather.

I reckon the poor deceased capercaillie wins. Perhaps we can arrange posthumous award.

Original poster
GrimmaTheNome · 30/04/2012 19:35

The little seal made the month (probably the year!) for me.

Saggy, I grew up a bit down the coast from there, used to have lots of trips to 'Constable Country' and never heard a cuckoo. Good idea to populate Mersea with red squirrels. Non-island bastions are hard to keep the (para)poxy greys out.

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ArielThePiraticalMermaid · 30/04/2012 19:49

Brownsea has reds doesn't it? I remember seeing them on a cruise of Poole Harbour.

Dear little red squirrels

ExitPursuedByABear · 30/04/2012 21:00

This evening I went to visit my housebound father and put his bins out as I left. As I walked back to my car there was a distressed bird in the bushes ? a thrush with a broken wing. Oh shit, thinks I. What on earth am I going to do with this? Need to catch it, secure it, care for it. Strangely it had a worm in its beak, despite flapping one wing in a very pathetic manner. It then flew across the garden to the far hedge, and proceeded to do its wing flapping dance. That was when I realised I had been had! Twas a fabulous display to draw my attention away from the chicks which must be in the bush at the front of the drive.

I felt quite emotional.

ArielThePiraticalMermaid · 30/04/2012 21:04

Clever little bird!

chixinthestix · 30/04/2012 21:19

I think the capercaillie has it too, even if sadly posthumous.

Ariel ...in leafy June it changes tune and in July away does fly.....

My April has been a bit woeful too but I have loved hearing about all the lovely ordinary stuff too, the clever thrush, the wagtails in the school etc. Sometimes I think its only me that notices this stuff but now I know I'm not alone...

SaggyOldClothCatPuss · 30/04/2012 22:03

Ariel what where the red squirrels doing on a cruise or Brownsea Harbour? Confused

SaggyOldClothCatPuss · 30/04/2012 22:05

Poole Harbour even?

FryingNemo · 30/04/2012 22:05

Nightingale today.

And one of my lovely baby wild pigs is no more. It is lying, trotters up, in a ditch next to the road...

violetwellies · 30/04/2012 22:08

I think the deceased capercaillie should be posthumously awarded the April super spot cup, I wonder what happened to the corpse?

Original poster
GrimmaTheNome · 30/04/2012 22:31

Well yes, meeting a capercaillie alone probably would have done it, but one whose demise made the news really is unbeatable.

As well as the showier spots, I've been enjoying the succession of flora and learning new names.

Who's going to start May's thread tomorrow?

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Piffpaffpoff · 30/04/2012 22:53

Aw, I'm sure the Capercaillie, wherever it is now (let's just hope it's dog-free), would be thrilled with this posthumous honour.

Can I just sneak in one final Strathspey spot - from the funicular at Cairngorm yesterday, on the way down from an epic morning of skiing, a pair of ptarmigan dodging the skiers going up the M1 poma tow on the side of the hill. It could only have been improved if they were running around their namesake the Ptarmigan T-bar tow up at the top, but sadly not. Anyway, they look like they've been caught out by the late dump of snow because they were sort of halfway into their summer coat so greyish on top, white below. Very easy to spot on the snow as a result!

ArielThePiraticalMermaid · 01/05/2012 08:42

Brownsea Island is an island in Poole Harbour Look.

SaggyOldClothCatPuss · 01/05/2012 09:26

Yes I know. But you saw some red squirrells on a cruise of Poole harbour. I didn't know that squirrells did that kind of thing! Grin

Original poster
GrimmaTheNome · 01/05/2012 09:29

You'd be suprised, Saggy. I once saw a basking shark on a trip on a RIB Grin

Has anyone else started May's thread? If not, as last months OP I'll nominate Ariel to the task.

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ArielThePiraticalMermaid · 01/05/2012 09:33

OK saggy, I got off the boat on Brownsea during the cruise. Jeez Grin

A basking shark Grimma? Blimey!

ArielThePiraticalMermaid · 01/05/2012 09:34

May? OK, I'm on it......

SaggyOldClothCatPuss · 01/05/2012 09:43

Did the squirrells disembark too? Or did they stay aboard? Grin

ArielThePiraticalMermaid · 01/05/2012 09:44
Original poster
GrimmaTheNome · 01/05/2012 09:51

And I've heard its possible to see seals on a trip on a cat.

OP posts:
SaggyOldClothCatPuss · 01/05/2012 10:00

I once saw some wild goats on a hiking trip round Cornwall!