June Top Trumps. Pack you bird books and binoculars...

[SaggyCeratops]

I'll start. Today, I saw a green woodpecker, and got really close to a little owl. I came into close proximity to about a million mosquitoes, and have just removed a wood louse from the bathtub!

yes, Grimma - I found that out from my son this evening!

Its beak looks just like a dodo's.

I have never seen a myxie rabbit either and it's very rabbitty round these parts.

Out walking the dog last week, we lifted a branch hoping for an interesting find underneath and saw 3 snakes!

Ooh, what sort of snakes?

We have Myxie everywhere here. My friend lost three Georges to it! apparently all pet rabbits are called George!
Although, I have to say, we have bloody wild rabbits everywhere here anyway! It's like a plague! They eat everything!!!

I have seen a myxie rabbit in the North West, but about 15 years ago.

Saw a mother duck with just one quite large duckling on one part of the canal the other evening. Then on a higher part of the canal 7 tiny ducklings with no mum to be seen . They were scooting around cheeping in panic.

The next day I was there again and there was a mum with just one tiny duckling, relentlessly calling for the others. I wonder why she disappeared and left them to fend for themselves for a while?

Disclaimer - bastardog was on the lead so he was not responsible for scaring her.

Purple hairstreak butterfly flittered in my garden today. Gorgeous.

Grass snakes, Grimma.

I hate seeing the daily demise of the ducklings. We have a river here and I see the poor little things' numbers diminish.

Baby bird is still here and thriving.

I saw a cuckoo on Sunday morning and an enormous dragonfly nymph today.
I should love to have seen that purple hairstreak!

Oooh, I've only seen a grass snake once, when I was a child. It was in the garden and the cat was trying to work out what to do with it. I've got a sort of mental photograph of it, one of those memorable moments!

My latest baby bird is fine too. It was with its mum who was foraging in a tub for seeds dropped by the smaller birds from the feeder stuck to my patio window. She was trying to see off the smaller birds, who totally ignored her!

I'm going right off these birds though...just had nasty concrete slabs replaced by lovely pinkish sandstone, and got a new set of table and chairs and the little bastards darlings are crapping all over them. Grrr.

I wouldn't know a cuckoo if I saw one! I do hear them often though.

Haven't heard a cuckoo for several years now which is really sad. Not much wildlife around either since the sorry demise of the buzzards.
Did see a very cute little family of sparrows lurking in a bush, 3 large chicks following dad along the branches and begging for food. He was doing his best to ignore them but they didn't give up and he went and got some sunflower seeds from the feeder for them.

Huge upset in the village when we thought 6 cygnets had become 5. Worse still the swans let the 5 cygnets make their own way to be fed and the geese were not being friendly. Turned out the swans were trying to rescue the missing cygnet. It had got stuck between a couple of rocks. Cue rescue attempts. Swans not appreciative so RSPCA called who appeared as if by magic. All ended well

Now the goslings are nearly fully grown and the cygnets getting larger, the ducks seem to have decided it's safe to have a second lot of ducklings. (RIP the first batch I fear.) Counted 17 little fluff balls whizzing on the water - not all one family.

We have spuggies :) The swallows are a bit miffed I think. There was a beautifully sculptured swallows nest in the barn, a lot of had work new very expensive architecture :) Then the next door plot was bought by sparrows :) !
So this huge overflowing scrapyard of a nest and a raucous family. .. Three swallows inspected the horror & it looks like the swallow family cant cope with the neighbours and have put a nest up elsewhere

Violet I love your sparrows lowering the tone of the neighbourhood

Much excitement in the garden yesterday. Neighbour phoned to say there was a bird of prey eating something in our garden, and there was, might have been a sparrow hawk, I have some photos I'll try to upload later but what was more awesome was a magpie was mithering it to give up the pray.
Cue many stare offs with the bird of pray stock still glaring at the magpie and the magpie strutting about giving it all that and occasionally making daring incursions into the BoP's personal space.
After about 15 mins the BoP had had enough of this outrageous behaviour and took off, baby bird in claws, followed closely by the magpie and then shortly afterwards by a mummy and daddy blackbird (I presume) who had been observing the whole thing from the bushes.
and yet [nature]

I was up far earlier than I wanted this morning but recompensed by whole family of tree sparrows (plus a few house) at my window bird feeder. I was hoping when I saw two earlier in the year there'd be more later.

Not spotted by me exactly, but I was at an event where some people I k is, who forage, were also working. There latest find was a whole load of 'Chicken of he woods' fungus. It's stunning! All peach and yellow!
They also had some live crayfish American signal! I love those little blighters! They look SOOO prehistoric! and taste SOOO good!

I remember seeing Jamie Oliver cooking 'chicken of the woods' on a TV show.

Ds and I came across 3 crayfish on a towpath today, left there to die. He (sanctimoniously) informed me that, as they were American signals, it was illegal to put them back in the water.

But sympathy took over and we took pity on them and did just that.

He's absolutely right! It's an offence to put them back! you should have eaten them! They are happy walking overland though. Sure they weren't just going for a stroll?

No, they really looked on their last legs. I am very bad, but I felt so sorry for them.

We had walked on, but had to go back!

Torn over the cray fish replacement, they are buggers for getting rid of our naive species but I'm not sure I could leave them to die either. Can't understand why someone would fish them out and then leave them, surely if they were grabbing them they could take them home to eat?

Saw a brilliant display of parenting today. The shelducks were on the mud flats as the tide was out and I kept my dog on the lead until they were on the water and safe, unfortunately my Whippet wasn't intelligent enough to realise that so made a run at them, one of the adults flew right down on the water towards the dog, distracted him and then flew a foot or so ahead of him hitting the water with it's wings and making a big fuss until our dog was way away from the ducklings. The adult then just flew up properly and landed with it's family in seconds. The second time it happened (stupid dog!) was much easier to watch as I knew the duck was capable of flying away properly if it wanted to. Clever ducks.

Clever ducks, yes! I love to see their clever parenting.

Re crayfish. I have lived here for 15 years, in an area with a lot of rivers and one of them runs through our garden.

Until 2 years ago, I had never seen any type of crayfish (and our kids spend their lives paddling with nets in our river & fishing out their finds). Then suddenly, the American signals appeared.

In my naivety, I think some crayfish are better than none. And I read that if you see the American ones, there is no chance of any British ones in the area as they will have been long wiped out.

Saggy noting the incisive use of caps in new name - fab choice.

Today, I have been viewing horse porn! the stallion has arrived to visit my two mares. It's been interesting! or so DD13 seems to think Not nature exakerly, but unusual!

I had the most fantastic walk yesterday evening and saw,

Roe deer
A meadow pipit
A woodcock
A turtle dove
A nightjar
A meadow warbler
A yellow hammer
Daubentons bats
Pippistrelles
Leislers bats
Serotine bats
Natterers bats

Blimey Viva, I think that lot is going to scoop this months prize. Five different types of bats and you knew what they were? not to mention all those birds... we haven't had woodcocks or turtle doves before, nor (I think) nightjars.