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.

Marsh harrier (I think, I am never sure if it's a Marsh or a Hen, need DS to ID for me), muntjac, fallow deer and long eared owl tonight while walking the dog.

Greater spotted woodpecker, reed buntings and gold finches on the feeders in the garden.

I love this thread. I used to share my news with DS but he moved out in Feb, he's now a falconer. He has a new love in his life, a three week old raven he is raising.

No, really? What an exceedingly cool job. What sort of falconer is he? I mean, is it the sort if thing where they fly them for displays at castles? Or for hunting? Or for keeping pigeons off public buildings?

Lovely otter story.

The swallows have just arrived here, are nesting in the eaves and stealing the leaves from the drainpipes.

Mind if I join? desperately excited I'll check the loch tomorrow, can only see swans atm but normally have herons, cormorants, shellducks etc oh and mosquitoe type things which have exploded in population the past few days

Another Scotland-dweller? Oh it isn't fair. Between you and the forriners and the mermaid, how is a girl meant to stand a chance?

Swallows are back (waves pom pom emoticon) and less happily the terrier has caught a mixy rabbit, its his know to catch vermin, but mixy is foul, black death for rabbits. Its been getting closer but has been half a mile away for months.

The falconry sounds fab, I used to go rabbiting with a friend and his hawk, brilliant fun. Not for the bunnies, but better than myxomatosis.

Northey - oh come on, there's good wildlife everywhere. I find plenty in Lancashire, and don't forget my Merseyside seal pup. (geographically it was beside the Dee, not the Mersey )

We can guess at Coffee's general location, but I'm really curious to know Hell's whereabouts, and other people's ...

It is the terrier's job

Northy-Private display centre, they offer handling days, hunting days, they do weddings, schools, private parties and country shows. They also have an archer on site so they offer combined archery/falconry days. They have a Cara Cara who is a real character, she's learned how to steal £10 notes from the back pockets of jeans. Among other things they have falcons, vultures, owls, Harris Hawks and Gill, a female kestrel who thinks she's human and wants DS for a mate. DS is just 20 and knows he is extremely lucky to be in his dream job.

DH saw a black squirrel today, raiding the bins at work.

violet... when some of us were young, we barely ever saw a rabbit and if you did it was probably myxy. I've not seen one like that for ages, lots of heathy bunnies hereabouts. Sorry you've got it encroaching.

I know, grimma. Just feeling melodramatic after eating too many fizzy cola bottles :)

I live in East Anglia, I am lucky enough to back onto a SSSI it is one of the few remaining bits of fenland that has never been drained. When Vermuyden was brought in to drain the fens round here the villagers had a riot because they feared for their livelihoods so the area was never drained. It later became the National Trust's first ever nature reserve. Almost every dog walk throws something up special.

There is a photo of DS on my profile, taken during his first few weeks as a falconer.

well, I've just spotted a miracle of nature. A woman who gave birth at the age of 81 and is now a remarkably well-preserved centenarian.

I'm a miracle, me.

Sounds like a fab place to live... is that one of the places that has those humungous spiders? (if it is, you'll know what I mean)

Yup, we get some fairly hefty spiders here and some spectacular slugs too

GentleOtter, I am coming up to stay with you for a while. That's ok, isn't it? Isn't it?

Today, lots of swallows flitting in from the sea. And lots of diving gannets. And some kittiwakes, And, um, a shark. Of the basking variety.

I saw nothing uncommon today, house sparrows, wood pigeons, blackbirds and a field of swans.

I've also just seen a cat fight in my front sitting room, there's an opportunistic black cat that likes to sneak into our house and today it fell unlucky that our cat caught it. Fur flying and some shrieking later, intruder has been repelled and our cat is hiding under the dining table.

Oh goody - lots of lovely new posters.

Ahem - GO invited me first I think?

'nothing uncommon...a field of swans'
most people just have wheat or bloody oilseed rape, you know! OK, so its not diving gannets and sharks but swan fields aren't that common!

5318008

Stoats are so unusually seen around here that when DH found one dead but unsquashed he very kindly brought it home for me, and not wanting to bring it into the house left it in the car, all nice and cosy. For some time.
The smell was amazing. Not of death, of stoat. From something so small (and elegant) such a stench.

Swifts, and a willow warbler warbling in a willow tree. That's it for today. I do envy the basking sharks (Gavin Maxwell was not as nice to basking sharks as he was to otters.)

Exit - but maybe if Ariel GO's north, you could move into her undersea palace or whatever piratical mermaids live in...

Oh yes

• or whatever they are called.........

Today
4 white geese with the fifth one on their nest on an island where they keep their (usually doomed to failure) eggs every year
2 Canada geese - never seen them round here before - staring out the white geese
Ladies smock, cowslips and bluebells in the garden

And..
2 slow worms basking in the brief sunshine, stretched out on top of the compost.

I was all full of excitement, I was going to post that I think I saw a stoat, and it's been done! it was perched on the under the trees, on the fence of my paddock, and I being short sighted thought it was a squirrel. I couldn't work out why it's white chest stood out so much, and it's coat was dark red/brown. I tried to get a closer look, but it ran away. I've been mulling over what it could have been all afternoon, done a bit of googling, and a stoat seems to be the answer. I'm just miffed that I couldn't get a really close look.