Seen today

[RJ]

From the train, a small group of wigeon in a wet field between Markinch and Ladybank.

[TimO]

I came very close to squishing an urban fox last night, whilst going down Rectory Lane towards Amen Corner in Tooting.

To be fair, I only just saw him or her.  It ran out from behind some cars, saw me at the last moment, and beat a hasty retreat, but came extremely close to be jammed under my front wheel.

Rectory Lane is one of the few roads where I can easily beat a car, because it's a moderate downhill with a fair number of speed bumps, and a 20mph speed limit (for motor vehicles).  With no cars in site (other than parked ones) I was going at a moderate pace, and Vince is also quite quiet, so the fox probably didn't hear me coming.

Whilst I see a lot of foxes on my commute, that's the closest I've been to one recently.  I can live without that sort of proximity however!

[RJ]

From the train, a small group of wigeon in a wet field between Markinch and Ladybank.

Small flock of wigeon
In a wet field between Markinch
And Ladybank


Well, almost haiku'd

[Bledlow]

A dead fallow deer by the side of the road last night. Looked fresh, but we couldn't fit it on our bikes. Spring antlers, stubby & soft looking.

[fuzzy]

An frog in secondary position on the ascent of Quarry Wood Road this morning. Sadly, said frog was doing dead fly impression, baring it's spotted underbelly. No sign of damage, just complete inactivity 

[Tail End Charlie]

A total of six dead badgers on a ride through the Cheshire lanes yesterday, it was only a 30 miler. All but one of the dead looked very recent.

[Peter]

From the train, a small group of wigeon in a wet field between Markinch and Ladybank.

Small flock of wigeon
In a wet field between Markinch
And Ladybank


Well, almost haiku'd

That's pretty good RJ.  How about:-

In a flooded field
'Twixt Markinch and Ladybank
Small flock of widgeon

'Twixt is a bit twee but it gives the "correct" syllable pattern, though I'd be inclined to write "between" anyway, as the 17 thing doesn't strictly translate to syllables in English.  Do you like Basho?

[Wowbagger]

A small mustelid. I'm claiming it as a weasel 'cos it was tiny & I didn't see a black tip to its tail*. It scuttled across the road in front of me then turned round and ran back.






*Don't even think about it Wowbagger

 

That's me not even thinking about it.

[CAMRAMan]

On my neighbours fence
This misty late winter's day
Sat a collared dove

Not rare in the greater scheme of things, but it's the first one I've seen in four years here.

[Peter]

The haiku works - but one collared dove in four years?  Should have gone to Specsavers!

[CAMRAMan]

Wood pigeons abound
Though not its smaller cousin
Round these Warwick parts

[Peter]

 

Doves and pigeons both
The tree opposite our house
High rise apartments!

[Ham]

You wait four years for a haiku
then three come along at once
Typic

[Pingu]

I see why the magpies are interested in an old nest. They're recycling the material for a new nest in another nearby tree.

[Pingu]

Spring magpies building
Environmental corvids
Recycling old nest

[Bledlow]

An frog in secondary position on the ascent of Quarry Wood Road this morning. Sadly, said frog was doing dead fly impression, baring it's spotted underbelly. No sign of damage, just complete inactivity 

I forgot to mention that on Wednesday night numerous frogs were crossing the toad. Or something like that. And at least two defunct amphibians were adorning the roads of central Berkshire when we cycled past.

Today, a kingfisher, flying above the waters of the collection of office buildings known as Green Park, by junction 11 of the M4. Also, a greater spotted woodpecker, at the same time & a little higher. While I saw & pointed at the kingfisher, Mrs B saw & called out to me about the woodpecker.

[clarion]

TGL & I saw a woodpecker in the cemetery in Carshalton yesterday when we were out and about with our cameras.  It took a long time to find it, high in the tree above us, but it moved round the trunk, then flew off, when we could see the colours very clearly. 

[jane]

I heard a woodpecker very clearly as I stopped to post a letter on my Friday commute.  The sound was coming from a clump of trees next to the railway that runs from Honor Oak to Brockley.  Last summer we had one that regularly brought its fledgling to our garden, deposited it safely on a high branch in the old cherry tree and fed it from the fat feeder that hangs there.  I wonder how it finds its new neighbours, a large flock of green parakeets which has lately taken up residence in the same clump of trees.  Noisy and rowdy bunch, they are.

[Wobbly John]

I forgot to mention this when it happened last week.
Somewhere between Watton & Norwich, as I was comming round a bend with a car close behind, I spotted, on the opposite lane of the road, what I first took to be a Muntjac deer, then I thought "no, it's a dog...

...hold on, what sort of dog has ears like that?" 

It was actulally the biggest damned HARE I have ever seen (and I've seen alot having lived in the fens for 40 years)

It held a good primary position lolloping along in the opposite lane, unperturbed by me and the supprised car driver behind me, passing within 4 ft of it.

[PaulR]

Which in turn reminds me, spotted lolloping along a field alongside the railway line as I took the train to Audley End on Friday afternoon, a very long-legged hare.  They are weird animals - we used to see them close up on the farm where my sis- and bro-in-law lived near Watlington and it always surprised us how tall they were.

[Pingu]

I see why the magpies are interested in an old nest. They're recycling the material for a new nest in another nearby tree.

A pair of crows were taking an interest in the new nest. They looked like they were trying to take material or destroy it. The magpies were not happy!

[Wombat]

Which in turn reminds me, spotted lolloping along a field alongside the railway line as I took the train to Audley End on Friday afternoon, a very long-legged hare.  They are weird animals - we used to see them close up on the farm where my sis- and bro-in-law lived near Watlington and it always surprised us how tall they were.

I just adore hares, they are quite the most lovely and aristocratic of animals.  As for a shortage of collared doves, or as they are called in our house hold "cut heres" with reference to the cutting line marked on their annoying necks, bring it on!  I hate the bloody things, and their fat friends too.  they just barge and crowd out the "real" birds.  Loutish things...

[CAMRAMan]

Collared doves nesting
In tall trees somewhere nearby
Frequent visitors

[Cudzoziemiec]

Yesterday: a deer (fallow I think) bounding across the Railway Path in a cutting. And on top of the Mendips, three dead badgers within abut two hundred yards of each other, looking rather neat; was it just coincidence that one of them was outside a cottage next to a tree in the garden from which a dead crow was hanging by a string?

[RJ]

Out-of-place moorhens
Strimmer evictees from the
Business park ponds ...