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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:
violetwellies · 08/04/2012 09:42

Grimma, Alexanders were once cultivated for food they look like Angelica, Wikipeadia has a shed load on them.

Original poster
GrimmaTheNome · 08/04/2012 16:50

Can you provide the link please? - can't find anything relevant with google or by looking at the wiki Alexander disambiguation page.

OP posts:
Original poster
GrimmaTheNome · 08/04/2012 16:56

Anyway - my main spot today came when DH called out 'go and look out of the window and don't scare it away' - 'it' turned out to be a sparrowhawk (female, I think) right in the middle of the lawn scavenging the dog's bone.

Proper outdoorsy shite was watching the exceptionally high tide flood the Silverdale salt marshes - we timed it just right to avoid getting cut off (well, the dog would beg to differ, he managed to totally submerge himself at a place where 10 mins before we'd walked dryfooted). Birdlife - shelducks, oystercatchers and lots of blackheaded gulls.

OP posts:
FryingNemo · 08/04/2012 17:46

3 enormous buzzards patiently waiting on telegraph poles alongside the country road.

Northey · 08/04/2012 18:02

A mouse! Which I saw with my own eyes, rather than just hearing as a rustle. I was leaning on a farm gate, watching baby rabbits hopping bouncily in a field, when I glanced sideways and looked straight into the huge black eyes of a tiny brown mouse perched in the crook of a branch. It climbed methodically along, stripping leaf after leaf, and then vanished round the far side of the trunk.

Northey · 08/04/2012 18:03

What were they waiting for, do you think, nemo? How menacing.

FryingNemo · 08/04/2012 18:35

They were actually quite menacing. I thought it unusual to have 3 so close together as I thought buzzards are not very sociable. Reminded me of vultures.

FryingNemo · 08/04/2012 18:38

Or Alfred Hitchcock.

violetwellies · 08/04/2012 18:48

Sorry on phone can't do links, its why I usually do short posts and suffer from auto correct :)

violetwellies · 08/04/2012 18:51

Today I nearly forked up a baby rabbit when feeding the colts, it had made itself a cosy little nest in the hayledge.

ArielThePiraticalMermaid · 08/04/2012 20:29

I love your turn of phrase Norf.

This was the highest tide of the year. There was nearly 6m between high and low here and the Bristol Channel would have been much more.

More seals. They were cute :-)

Original poster
GrimmaTheNome · 08/04/2012 20:38

Our tide (Silverdale, Morecambe Bay) was 10.4 metres!

OP posts:
Northey · 08/04/2012 20:58

Was it "hopping bouncily", ariel? I daren't do plain spots any more after slubber's diorama-painting strictures!

ArielThePiraticalMermaid · 08/04/2012 21:32

Yes. I adored "hopping bouncily"! I could just see them.

Are we now tide boasting, Grimma? Shock I fear as a resident of Morecombe Bay, you would have a perpetual advantage. Does anyone live in the Bristol Channel or the Channel Islands?

Original poster
GrimmaTheNome · 08/04/2012 21:39

You work with what you've got, Ariel Grin. And a tide that high coming in over something as flat as a saltmarsh is quite something.

OP posts:
ArielThePiraticalMermaid · 08/04/2012 21:42

Does it race faster than a galloping horse? My dad always said it did :)

Original poster
GrimmaTheNome · 08/04/2012 21:46

I think its out on the sands it really does go that fast, but it did rush in and cover what is usually (a) part of the lancs coastal path and (b) grazing for saltmarsh lambs (all safely behind the embankment)

OP posts:
ArielThePiraticalMermaid · 08/04/2012 21:50

I love saltmarshes. The lonely briny muddiness of them and the bubbly calls of the curlews.

chixinthestix · 08/04/2012 21:55

Yep, huge tide here today and I suppose you could say farthest end of Bristol Channel, we had 7.5m. Saw it at its lowest with the top of the kelp forest all sticking out and way more beach than usual, was awesome, beautiful rockpools. Didn't see it racing back in though - was a very steep rocky bit of coast so extreme opposite of you Grimma.

Also saw the very first buds of spring squill open on the clifftop and masses of cowslips.

SeaShellsUnderCanvas · 09/04/2012 07:40

We went inland for walking yesterday so missed the tides :( Morecombe bay must be amazing :)

www.uksafari.com/index.htm
I found this online website yesterday whilst I was trying to identify a bug on a walk (bloody nosed beetles-v v cool detail). Has anyone else found a good online website or iPhone app for identification?

Beautiful primroses and cowslips in Dorset :)

FryingNemo · 09/04/2012 12:22

I miss the sea so much. I am so envious of you all but am deriving vicarious enjoyment from your posts. I bloody hate living in a land locked country sometimes.

ArielThePiraticalMermaid · 09/04/2012 12:23

Oh dear Nemo :( Are you in Switzerland? Austria? Kazakhstan?

Northey · 09/04/2012 12:39

Poor Nemo. But there must be interesting land creatures if you're overseas somewhere. Though I know I would miss the coast dreadfully and not find them compensation at all either.

FryingNemo · 09/04/2012 12:39

Luxembourg. But I used to walk to work across the beach before I moved here. Sobs.

Northey · 09/04/2012 12:46

Aw Nemo. Are you stuck there forever, or can you come home soon (possibly smuggling a crane with you)?