May Top Trumps....wildlife geeks step this way and get your spots in here!

[ArielThePiraticalMermaid]

I'll start - I'm hoping that someone will do better than an infernal wood pigeon and obnoxious noisy herring gull. Before the morning is up, hopefully.

And remember, cast ne'er a clout til May be out.

Interesting corvid news here

Stopped for the daily school run buzzard observation and she is still sitting on the nest...its been weeks, but have googled and found out they incubate for ages and then brood the chicks for the first two weeks so will just have to be patient.

Hedgebanks are all frothy with cow parsley and red campion. Very lush.

Collar doves are nesting in the garden. They are very pretty and just seem less daft than the woodpigeons which have already nested in the same tree and crapped all over my washing boody birds

We were up at 5am today for DD2 to go to RSPB Explorers group - it was a dawn chorus walk.

The highlight was that the ringing lady was there with all the birds she had caught in her nets to catalogue so we saw a couple of willow warblers, a garden warbler, a goldfinch, a blue tit, a male and female bullfinch and a juvenile robin up close with her pointing out differences and giving tips on how to spot them on the fly.

On the walk we heard loads of Nightingales (and saw one), some coots with their chicks, long tailed tit, wren, chaffinch, blue tit.
It was really good doing the walk with people who could tell what each call was, and they were showing the children lots of interesting things.

I'm going back to bed for a nap now though. :o

Purple and yellow wild pansies on the limestone way walk in Derbyshire, also banks of cowslips and whole fields of wild white saxifrage.

Have never heard a nightingale in the UK, MrsPnut, how brilliant!

looks like Mrs pnut, will have a winner if other people catching your spot for You isn't chwating,

Cheating

Today I saw - damsel fly nymphs, and a probably 4 year old dragonfly larvae. Water scorpions. Erm... a diving beetle, shrimps... and some other stuff... Can you tell I went pond dipping with my Brownies?

Saw lots of Wheatears, too.

Oh - how could I forget? Moorhen and chicks, having a row with a saw who had 3 cygnets ON HER BACK and had ventured into the locality of the Moorhen's nest. Which was pretty neat.

And a buzzard. Lots of Jackdaws and Magpies. A ladybird? That is all I can remember of note...

Large flocks of swifts feeding on pond skaters over the loch, beautifully graceful to watch.

A little owl on a telegraph pole, some pipestrall bats and copious quantities of equestrian lice! Do they qualify as wildlife!

Definitely wildlife - yeuk, probably on a level with rabbit fleas, but less likely to share :) we get flypour, from the vet, but I think its available from ag. merchants. Compatable with organic and worked but we havnt had to use it since 2010 (cattle). Okay for equus too.

Oooh and swallows collecting mud :) they have taken up residence in the pigsty - okay but supposed to be getting refurbed this summer

We did the Ingleton waterfalls trail today - too many people for much fauna except aerobatic swallow display under Thornton Force. But lots of flowers - just about everything we've had to date plus bilberries and wild strawberries flowering, and some orchids - I think Early Purples. (rich almost magenta purple)

I saw a Sandwich tern and a Shelduck.

And some dolphins. An unusual type. Forget those though - I think they qualify for the handicap.

Ooh, thanks Violet. I'll file that for future reference! I got some stuff called switch from the vet. It's basically permethrine.

Today, I saw a pair of Coots and their gorgeous black fluffy babies! They were SOOOOOOOOOOOOO sweet!

I want to see dolphins too, I heard a chiffchaff today.

I also saw off a group of marauding starlings from the sparrow nest by our bedroom window. I opened the window at the commotion and scared all the birds off,letting the parents come back later on their own.

If you want to see dolphins you have to come to my neck of the woods, we've got loads of 'em.

Some fabulous spots recently on here. Very envious.

Went for a 10 mile walk along the river today, practically the entire length of which was carpeted with wild garlic in starry flower. I also saw what I think was a siskin.

hellymelly I reckon you're either Cardigan Bay or Cromarty!

Cardigan Bay. Well guessed! So lots of dolohins, seals, otters etc. Nowhere to buy lipstick though.

You must have a Jones the Chemist somewhere!

Haha yes, there is a tiny Boots in Cardigan too, but its hardly Selfridges beauty hall. Slow-worms in my garden though, and newts, black caps, Goldfinches, bullfinches, (and curlews and oystercatchers by the river). Oh, and DD1 has finally managed her dream of getting a robin to eat out of her hand.

I was in Cardigan last January. We went on a short break. People asked me why the hell go to West Wales from Cornwall on a short break, but I love it there. It's like Cornwall without the ghastliness of Newquay.

Ooh just found this thread!

My first damselflies of the year and some fantastic butterflies on the common over the way including lovely feisty Duke of Burgundies and gorgeously green Green Hairstreaks. The swifts were flying low, and swarms of those little shiny moths with ridiculously long antennae.

And the light on the bright green soft beech leaves - a truly lovely day.

Just hope the DoBs manage to get it on and lay some eggs between rain showers next week.