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.

Oh yes and a bit of news from BuzzardWatch. Saw the female heave herself up off the nest today and immediately get mobbed by a couple of lurking crows. I thought they might dive straight in the nest for the chicks/eggs, but no, the silly fools have made a nest in the next door tree so spent all their time mobbing the buzzard who just shouldered them out of the way and hove off down the valley.
Saw her sat on a telegraph pole staring at the ground v intently later and DD swore she saw the top of a chick's head in the nest but I think that was wishful thinking.

OOH OOH OOH!
Today I saw a Little Egret! I've never seen one of those before! I was driving along side the river, narrow end of a tidal estuary thingy and there it was. I nearly crashed, craning my neck trying to see! DS thinks I'm bonkers, stopping the car to look at random critters! This thread has made me really appreciate my local wildlife! I have to admit to more than a little jealousy of the whales, dolphins and Otters though!

And Northey... If you saw the carnage wrought on the paddocks round here, by the millions of rabbits in North Essex, you wouldn't think they were so cute! They eat the grass faster than it can grow, dig huge, leg breaking burrows and chew through all the electric fence wires! They are a BLOODY NUISANCE! The lose all their cuteness points when you have to put hay out in the fields in spring!

Oh I know all that, saggy. I totally appreciate they are a fast breeding pest. But when I see one sitting on his haunches and cleaning his little ears or woffling his little nose... somehow all rationality evaporates.

Rabbits are as cute as lambs, and also as tasty. Don't know why we don't eat more of them TBH (not heartless, I'm thinking of the ecobalance)

BLEURGH! The smell of rabbits cooking! I'll eat most animals, but I draw the line there!

What's wrong with rabbit aroma? Is it too gamey?

Saggy where do you live? Is it somewhere oop north?

(just wondering about the little egret expansion and where it has got to now)

Er yes. Essex. Oops.

I wonder if they are colonising from the south west then in a south easterly direction?

Will stop cluster posting now.

Ahem. Northeasterly.

Here is where the RSPB thinks little egrets have got to.

We see them pretty often at Leighton Moss (about as far up Lancashire as you can get) and have also seen them elsewhere on the coast hereabouts.

Actually, we get all sorts there which are mostly found further south - apparently there are avocet chicks (must have another bunk-off there soon!)

I can't stand the smell of cooked rabbit either. I was once in a restaurant in Falmouth with a group of 20 - who almost to a man chose the rabbit from the menu. I came over all faint and had to go outside for fresh air.

Wild flowers are blooming but no idea what they are - must google.

I just saw a buzzard with a bunny its beak

And I saw my first foxglove. Has anyone seen a foxglove yet?

Actually, sorry it was in its talons.

Not that it makes any difference...

mmm rabbit and tarragon pie. Lovely, and yy we should be eating loads more of them but can I get my butcher with a gun to shoot me a brace of coneys. Can I heck.

No nature spotted today.

No! Poor darling bunny :( Luckily I saw 10 more on today's train journey, so there will still be bunnies in the world. No deer today though.

Saw a foxglove but not in flower - sort of half grown.

Cooking rabbit smells like manky old rabbit hutches!

Ariel, I'm in north Essex. I'm sure it was an Egret. It was the only thing remotely similar I could find in my book or by googling!

I'm sure it was Saggy. Have you seen Grimma's link? Apparently they arrived in Dorset in the 80s from France and have been steadily colonizing ever since

I believe there are other egrets starting to colonize - isn't it Cattle Egrets in cornwall now? (similar but yellow bill not black, and like hanging out with cows)

We once saw a stray Great White Egret (yet again, the Eric Morecambe hide at Leighton Moss bringing sunshine ) - yellow beak and heron sized.

Yes, we saw a cattle egret at the RSPB marsh a couple of years ago. Wasn't on a cow though!

Foxgloves tall but not out here yet. The hawthorn has finally started flowering this week though.

We have oil seed rape EVERYWHERE here. It isn't just in the fields. It's growing along side the roads, in the hedgerows, and our stretch of the A12 has a yellow frothy central reservation. It looks lovely!

Like Saggy this area has a lot of oil seed rape. DS asked me this week "why do farmers grow rape?" Cue long explanation harshly cut short with 'but why don't they just cut the wild stuff?'