Snipe , Hen Harrier, flock of goldfinches and a crazy primrose.

[meteor]

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and after chopping enough firewood for the rest of the week I decided to take a hour off for a walk through the marshland and woods to the rear of my land. I was rewarded by seeing a hen harrrier hunting just over the length of some furze bushes, a rare and magnificent sight. I will have to inform the local wildlife ranger because hen harriers are ultra rare in my locality, I haven't seen one since the early seventies. As I approached the edge of the forest I noticed what I thought was a primrose blossomed on a bank and went to investigate and accidentally flushed out a snipe from it's hiding spot in the sedge grass. It waited untill I neary step on it before it burst out and darted off, it really startled me and the old heart was pounding for a few minutes. Sure enough there on the bank on the forest edge was a primrose in flower, that can't be natural! can it?
On the way back a flock of about 20 goldfinches flew into a blackthorn thicket to roost, I'm sure there must be a proper collective noun for a flock of gold finches but I have never heard of it, must look it up.
Anyways it turn out a quite eventful ramble.

[Glutton4...]

Sounds idyllic. You paint a lovely picture of what must be a beautiful place.

Incidentally, I have Primroses in flower here too - in my front garden.

[Bren In Pots]

Its surprising what's on our doorstep

[dogsbody]

That's wonderful (only clematis and climbing rose in flower here, together with the odd cornflower and corncockle!).

Collective noun for Goldfinches, take your choice from "drum", "troubling", "charm" or "chirm" (last one is a bit weird?).

I cheated though - found this great site Collective Nouns For Birds - British Bird Lovers

[Verinda]

How wonderful to see all those beautiful birds in one walk.

We found a snipe a few years back during one of those cold winters, it was nearly dead. We kept it in a cardboard box in our bedroom with some straw and a bowl of water which I changed every day and added some grated cheese to the water. Well the snipe against all odds, got better! He ate the cheese while standing in the bowl of water and appeared to understand we were trying to help him. After a week a thaw set in and we let him go. He hopped out of the box and headed for the hedge, then he stopped and looked back at us, it was so strange, like he was saying thank you. Then he was gone. A couple of weeks later I was out walking and a snipe shot up in front of me (without the deafening snipe cry!) circled round my head and flew off. I am certain it was him letting me know he's ok I haven't seen a snipe since then.

Hope I haven't hijacked the thread with my snipe story!

[meteor]

Verinda that is a heartwarming story. Sad to say snipe which were common here are getting scarce along with curlews and I hope they don't go the way of red grouse, partridge, corncrake and nightjars which were common in my area when I was a child and now have totally disappeared. One of my earliest childhood memories is falling asleep while the "gobak gobak" call of grouse rang through the heather at the back of our garden.

[Verinda]

We used to hear corncrakes from our house, here back in the 70's but no more sadly and I've never seen a red grouse or partridge or nightjars. However we do often see curlews, I know they are in trouble so it's always a blessing to see and especially hear one.

It's just so sad, we only saw a few swallows this year too.

[meteor]

Never actually saw a nightjar myself just heard their call,a kind of long churring sound from the nearby woods at night. They would arrive in early summer and stay for a couple of months. As kids we used to call them the motorbike bird as we thought they sounded like a neighbour's scooter and would look forward to their arrival along with the cuckoo.