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.

I think we need a pic of the mystery insect.....

Wow, a nightingale in your garden! That's pretty special :)

hello.My little baby robin has failed to arrive for 2 days now but today we had an adult in the garden.My dh had to clean his pond today as we are off on hols tomorrow.This means the waterfall was temporarily stopped.Of course the mother blackbird arrived for her daily bath .She sat there for ages looking so indignant.Dh had to hurry and finish what he was doing to get the water back running.She was there in an instant.was funny to watch.we have had the normal array of sparrows,blue tits and coal tits ? Plus the magpies and pigeons.We occasionally get a jay ,but not often.The one thing we get in the garden that i dread is the slow worms.I am terrified of them, they remind me of snakes of which i have a real phobia !Thank god they dont appear often.i would love to have a deer in my garden,but none around here.But my friend used to get them in her garden in the country which of course i thought was marvelous ,not so much for my friend though as they used to eat all her garden plants !! On my giant lilies today we found some bright red insects.Similar to a ladybird,but the body is longer and not so round, and has no spots .we have never seen them before and have no idea what they are.But they are eating my plants !A really interesting bug we had last year was the elephant hawkmoth,what an ugly thing that is ,with its false eyes.I would love to of seen it when it turned into a beautiful moth.Well have a good week all,off to Portugal for a week.i wonder if i will see anything strange there ?

mummylin, the red things are lily beetles, if you want your lilies to live you need to squish them quick or they will gobble them entirely. Of course that is not really the spirit of this thread....but think they are forrin and not native so squishing may be acceptable?

Today I saw an Olympic torch and 5 swans who looked confused as to why there were so many people on their bridge.

really disappointed - been sat out all evening (until now) waiting for the concert and the nightingale hasn't turned up . Really hope it wasn't just passing through......

Ducklings at last.

Milkwort- lovely, blue as gentians, flowering in clumps on chalky hillside. The flower book says it is common, but I have hardly ever seen it.
Two treecreepers.
But, hedgehogs gone AWOL.

Hello all, I didn't know this thread existed, but I've just been directed here after posting in chat.

I was at Horsey Gap beach in Norfolk yesterday, and we got a lovely photo of one of the seals - see the top picture on my profile

to Kurri

just identified my mystery insect - saw loads today so had a really good look

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&biw=1429&bih=706&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=bKk4tc8ItWAvdM:&imgrefurl=www.fishingbreaks.co.uk/&docid=4hVKQ_HQREwcyM&imgurl=www.fishingbreaks.co.uk/photos/homemay2012.jpg&w=350&h=238&ei=3drDT83MEdSu8QOK_eH7Cg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=198&vpy=100&dur=591&hovh=150&hovw=211&tx=178&ty=103&sig=110944537148282807553&page=2&tbnh=150&tbnw=193&start=18&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:12,s:18,i:141" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">obvious really

Wow, some of you have had a wonderful weekend - hell's idea of 'not much' is enough to have most of us going ..and as for swimming with seal pups, don't forget the Being An Actual Mermaid handicap, Ariel

I had a good weekend but not a nature-spotty one other than usual garden inhabitants and one pied wagtail at the reservoir (managed part of our postponed windsurfing, too much wind for beginners but good fun on a sunny day)

Just been SpringWatching - ahhhing with DD at all those fox cubs etc.

Brilliant photo, Kurri!

Ah out2lunch glad you worked out what it was. Not near enough to any rivers here to see any of those!

Kurri that's a fantastic photo, we are going out on a boat tour next week for DS2's birthday and I really hope we see some.

Of course out2lunch, what else looks like a fishing lure!

Had a great spot today, went out for a swim in the sea (no I didn't spot a whale, that was me) and saw gannets doing that brilliant dive where they pull their wings right in and shoot down into the water at about 100 miles an hour, it was v v cool.

Everyone always beats me to whatever I have to reveal on here!
I took this picture earlier, and was busting to post it here, and then Kurri posts one first! Well, mines different, so you've all got it anyway. It's not strictly Wildlife, but it IS beautiful!

Saggy that is LUSH

extra points for you for composition - the juxtaposition of the boat forlorn on the foreshore and the ragged sillhouettes of pylons marching onwards to civilisation enveloped in the sanguinity of the setting sun capture fleetingly the longeurs of the viewer's life*

or summat

*lame attempt at poncey art preciation prose

Whatever Random said!

gorgeous saggy

That's beautiful Saggy - what a fabulous sky!

Fukin lush innit?

I heart your prose RandomNumbers

Kurri what a gorgeous little seal :)

I never appreciated mudflats or witches until I moved to Manningtree!

My (nature boy) ds noticed he couldn't hear the blue tits in the bird box. He watched it for a while and saw flies going in. So he climbed up and peeped in the top - 5 dead babies . Wonder what happened to their mum?

On a happier note, we have 13 new ducklings.

As I type, I am watching a spider,having immobilised his prey, wrapping a wasp in silk and putting it in the larder for later! The poor hopeless wasp is still tritching a he is slowly encased in his wrappings. The spider is very artfully cutting through threads, rejoining them, and shuffling the wasp about until it is in the perfect position. It's incredible to watch! and slightly disturbing