Wildlife Top Trumps

[JennieAtkinson]

We get alot of skylarks too SR, but they have not really arrived yet. Lots of oystercatchers and curlew and snipe in the fields all around us. Still greylag geese around so winter hasn't gone yet! Saw a heron yesterday gently lifting his feet around the loch edge.

First of the lambs being born at the moment, again in the field next to the house. One set of twins, sooooooo tiny, they are so cute and Mum just ignores them!

[Nicos]

Have your starlings arrived yet Jennie??

[Flummery]

Had a pheasant in the garden again yesterday. Daft little devil flew in then seemed to forget it could fly out. It was during my evening trips to and from the greenhouse and it kept running up and down the garden evading me. Evetually Himself came out to look at his pond (inveterate pond gazer) and potentially trapped between two no-wing types, it took to the air and flew well away - over the garden and the paddock behind. They are seriously daft, even given that their brain is the size of a lentil!

[JennieAtkinson]

Have your starlings arrived yet Jennie??

They never actually leave! They stay all winter nesting in the walls around the house. They have been nest building for a while, but havent started under the bonnet yet, like previous years.

[Headfry]

Last two nights on my rural drive home from work there has been a beautiful Buzzard perched just feet from the road.... stunning and so close, just cant help but slow down to look.

[scarey55]

Don't know if this is early or not but I heard a cuckoo yesterday?

I also heard a hoopoo. Sadly, didn't see it 'cause they are such beautiful birds.

[mrs dog]

Minty what is your avatar? It looks remarkably like a baby croc with feathers? This could be me and the fact that I still havent found my glasses after 3 weeks of looking of course.

[HeyWayne]

Apparently I have a stoat on my plot. Some of my plot neighbours saw it a few weeks ago and watched it for a while. I haven't seen it though, does it still count?

[lainey lou]

I had the cutest teeny weenie toad in the garden last night, don't think there is a pond close by so I wondered if he's a stow away from the lottie. Put out a shallow bowl of water with some stones in in a sheltered spot and he stopped there for a while, no sign of him this morning though. Hope I did the right thing.

[Twinkle]

most exotic we have is the deer - loads of then, most we've counted is 10 at once. I used to think they were sweet, until they desecrated my plot by trampling and nibbling all my new plants (so in compromise, I put deer-fencing up just around the outdoor veg plot - they can roam the rest of it)

We also have hares and foxes, frogs, toads and newts.

Mice and rats in the sheds and compost heaps... OK I did trap the rats successfully last winter but expect more to be back.

Pine martens are supposed to be common here - they regularly destroy whole coops of hens so I'm less keen on spotting them.

Birds - swallows nest on our eaves and in the roof of the compost toilet, cuckoos in the woods, loads of pied wagtails (ahhh) and magpies (boo) and siskins which I'd never seen till we left the UK. Gorgeous little birds.

[sewer rat]

I can now add ravens to my list.

[Headfry]

Red kite few over only about 20feet of the ground, looked right into its eye..........
FANTASTIC! BEAUTIFUL!
I had no idea they were this far north, there are lots along the M40 but more towards High Wycome

[SarzWix]

Coal tits back again, I think they were eating seed heads on my Stags Antlers (Sumach).

[burnie]

Red kite few over only about 20feet of the ground, looked right into its eye..........
FANTASTIC! BEAUTIFUL!
I had no idea they were this far north, there are lots along the M40 but more towards High Wycome

There are Red Kites in Scotland,they used to be more common than Kestrels.

[burnie]

Not actually in my garden but within the confines of our village area............an Otter,but don't tell anyone as the gamekeepers up here kill anything with tooth or claw,sadly a White Tailed Sea Eagle was killed last year.(We also get dolphins and Whales but not IN the garden obviously)