What British wildlife are you hoping to see this year?

[Indecisivelurcher]

Love the new board! Be nice to hear what people are hoping to see this year? For me, I'm heading to Skomer island next Saturday to (fingers crossed) see puffins... I can sometime be a jinx, but surely all 46,000 of them won't leave when they see me on the boat?!

I’m hoping for a second sighting of the polecat that I first saw at 3am a few weeks ago.

Fingers crossed for your puffins!

I also want to see purple emperor butterfly this year! If I can get another outing in.

Puffins are fab little birds. DH and I went to the Farne Islands a couple of years ago and saw hundreds of them. It was great.

This year I'm still hoping to see a British snake in the wild. I hope that every year and haven't seem one yet ☹️

Nice! I've been busy and not made any wildlife trip plans for this year yet - but bird wise there are quite a few northern species I've not seen yet and would like to - dipper, crossbill, capercaillie, ptarmigan, crested tit, corn crake. So I should really plan a trip to Scotland. While I'm there I might as well look for osprey, sea eagle etc. (I know I should care more about the big BoP bois & girls, but...). Maybe a sneaky lynx (a girl can dream).

I went to on a budget puffin trip to Bempton Cliffs a few years ago. Tried to go on a cliff boat trip but it was cancelled 3 days in a row, nice quiet clifftop walk though. You've reminded me of the time I went to the Akrotiri salt lake in Cyprus to see thousands of flamingos... Guess how many I saw? ONE.

We did Skomer maybe 10 years ago. I was hoping to see Puffins and when we got there I wasn’t disappointed. They were absolutely everywhere and would waddle right past you. Enjoy, it was a fabulous place to go.

I’m hoping to see more Hares this year. Have already spotted a good few already this Spring. We live near the chalk Downlands/Salisbury Plain and there seems to have been more around this year. I’ve now got a bit obsessed!

I sometimes go for a short walk late in the evening in the hope of seeing a few bats flying about. We occasionally have them fly across our garden too. A friend of mine is a licenced bat handler, and keeps records of them in the district.

When we lived in the rural Welsh borders we had a lot of snakes around. You’d see adders bathing in the sun. Now we’re back in Hampshire (not rural) I only have slow worms, but there’s obviously quite a few. Cat brings them in, luckily unharmed usually. Glad we didn’t have him in Wales, he’d have gotten himself bitten!

I got so excited when I spotted my first puffin I almost fell overboard! I was on a boat to the Farne Islands at the time, feeling very queasy, but once I saw that puffin I immediately forgot all about the seasickness.

I'd love to see a live badger, I've only ever seen them as roadkill.

Oh, and I'd really like the woodpecker who visited my garden two weeks ago to come back.

Red squirrels, we have seen them on the IOW previously but are planning a trip to Brownsea Island this summer. I have seen puffins in Iceland but not the UK. I'd like to see hares too but have only ever done so a couple of times.

You will definitely see puffins if you land on the island at this time of year. The Wick is the best place to see them but they will be all around the boat in the water at the landing station. Been to Skomer many times, it’s an amazing place enjoy!

I've only seen a live badger once. I was driving home very late - about 2am - and I saw one snuffling about at the side of the road. I stopped my car and watched it for a long time before it went back into the woods. My brother sees them often when he's driving home from work in the early hours. It's surprising because he lives in very suburban Birmingham.

I’m hoping to see the tern colony in North Anglesey. If I don’t manage to see them this year, they’ll no doubt show up at my local beach anyway as they use that to refuel before and after the breeding season. It’s just nice to see the in-between stage too, even if they are a bit noisy (understatement of the year 😂)

I’m sure there will be loads of other things later in the year, but at the moment terns are on my mind…

Puffins sounds very exciting!

We saw this little vole in our garden a few days ago, and I'm hoping he'll reappear.

Same! Every year I hope to see adders on Anglesey. Maybe this August will be the time!

I am hoping to see an otter after 8 years of living on the Somerset Levels. Have a Farne Islands trip planned for next year. Later this year we are going to Berwick on Tweed for a wedding, so hoping to see dolphins there. Saw my first crane the other day, which was exciting!

I really want to see badgers. DH and I went out one night to a known sett and sat patiently until it got dark. Unfortunately there was no moon at all so the badgers came out (we heard them) but it was far too dark to see anything 🙁

I am.also off to Skomer in a few weeks, would love to hear about your trip afterwards @Indecisivelurcher !

Thank goodness the bird population of the Farne Islands has recovered enough to reopen as the bird flu was devastating.

I'm hoping to see an otter one day in the little river next to our house. I've seen a kingfisher a couple of times. Always hoping.

I saw a badger in the woods, at dusk, at a castle in Northumbria that we stayed at. I was so excited! Where I live I see garden birds and that’s about it. Not blessed with wildlife.

I'm scared of badgers. I've been chased a couple of times. And scared of cows. And occasionally large sheep. I live very rurally so every day is a day of terror.

I’m walking round a nature reserve today and am expecting puffins, seals and maybe porpoise according to their website.
I did tell DH we might see penguins (meant puffins) but maybe that’s a touch optimistic 🤦🏻‍♀️
Thanks aged brain fog

We are very lucky to have fairly common sightings of kingfishers on the river near our house. Such beautiful birds.

🤣😅

I saw a kingfisher on the local lake, just the once, but know he’s there. When I say ‘saw’, there was an iridescent flash and a splash. That’s all I actually saw. The rest is inference 🤣

There was a ladybird nymph on my bird feeder this morning. Which pleased me. I have just fledged great tits, was visited by fledgling blue tits, and there’s a robin’s nest that’s very busy right now. I’m keeping an eye out for them to go. I took a little video of some of their first flights yesterday evening. Luckily they went at tea time- I’d have missed it otherwise.

I like to watch, but also be on standby for any particularly dopey ones that miss the tree and get stuck on patio furniture. There was a dunnock chick lost under my garden table cover once that needed to be rescued. We binned the cover to prevent further mishaps as the mum couldn’t find it. Lots of calling in both directions as they failed to find each other.