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 had to catch a may bug last night, it was flying around outside my daughters bedroom door and making a horrendous noise bumping into her nightlight

DH disappeared as soon as he saw how big it was

Our garden was full of May flies on Sunday, swooping over our river and occasionally landing on the table so we could study them.

My ds informs me they only live for about a day.

our river .

The cutest pictures you will see today ! First outing of the cygnets at last.

so cute isee
i saw some goslings the other day

Squeeee! Gorgeous little fluff bundles!

Today I saw a cormorant catch a MASSIVE fish! It was extremely impressive. You know when you see pictures of these snakes swallowing antelope etc? Well it was a like that. Well a bit

Extraneous "a" there.

Sweet cygnets!

I saw some baby moorhens today. No idea what they're called..

moorchicks.......maybe

Pesky heron in the garden just now. Has had 3 of our fish lately.

Saw a pair of thrushes nesting in my friend's garden the other day -which would be nothing for many of you, but in inner London it is really quite exciting! They are so lovely with their speckledy breasts.

I haven't been on here for a while but over the weekend we saw 3 Buzzards. We drove down to Twickenham for the rugby and had to detour off the M1 on the way there. Saw one by the side of the A5 near Leighton Buzzard, saw the next on the Sunday by the side of the M1 and saw the third over a field in Aubourn (very near home) that was chasing another bird. I wanted to stop the car and watch but it wasn't safe.
Other recent spots have been mundane, swans, pheasants, weasels, blackbirds, various tits and robins.
The swifts are back though and nesting in our roof, having had the binoculars out I can see some pointing that needs doing but it will have to wait until the babies have fledged.
I have filled in the swift watch details on the RSPB website so they can keep track of breeding sites.

Interesting about the buzzards MrsP. Friend on the w/e was telling me about a colleague at work who came back from his lunchtime jog dripping with blood. Attacked by 3 buzzards (why 3?) one of which gave him the most massive gash across the top of his head. Scary stuff.

Loads and loads of blue-tailed damselflies this weekend. Such an amazing electric blue.

Wonderful photos Kurri and Saggy.

oh my gawd wrt buzzard scalp rake

There is more to the story. Prepare your amazed at vicious nature and the stupidity of humans face.

So bloody jogger came in to friends office and second jogger said "oh how interesting, I'm going to have to go and check it out", so off be ran and was attacked but the same buzzards and had to leap Jason Bourne stylee into the backseat of a passing car upon some poor woman's dog to escape being eviscerated [possible hyperbole]

Slubber, are you in the SW? It appears the buzzards there have form for attacking people.

No, Cheshire. How scary must that have been. You tend not to think of British wildlife being proper Raaaaaaaaaaaaargh in your face with the sharp claws.

I've been tied to my desk, but this afternoon got a phone call from DD 'can I go to my friend's house because they've got a stoat in their garden please please please' - and of course, being naturespotty type people we said 'of course' even though this meant DH had a 40min round trip to pick her up.

They'd found a young hungry stoat last night, fed it up a bit and this evening liberated it into an abandoned rabbit hole.

Oooh, we have a mad runner-atacking buzzard too!

Lots of water voles here and a case of hantavirus in the next village.

I saw baby coots with ginger heads and dragonflies and wild rock roses.
Here in Derbyshire we get rid of our buzzards if we possibly can. And goshawks and peregrines...

Saw a beautiful pair of Bullfinches in the garden this morning, - the male was in full colour - gorgeous.

I saw an ocean sunfish! First one of the year.

An ocean sunfish!!!

Where are you ariel? I was going to post about a giant crayfish but it seems a bit crap now.

Erm.... .... west Cornwall. They're quite common round here between June and September. In the sea at least!

Sorry, didn't mean to force you 'out'!

Wow, lucky you!

I have seen one sunfish in my entire life and it was whilst whale watching in New Zealand.