Seen today

[numbnuts]

seen in my sister garden, today I've seen two more and I'm looking after the place while their away
could they come into the house for I'm shit scared of them

[nutkin]

Not today, but I couldn't find the usb lead last week. 


He was wandering down the road, out on his evening constitutional, completely oblivious to the traffic. I watched him for a few minutes before he disappeared behind some wheelie bins.

[nutkin]

seen in my sister garden, today I've seen two more and I'm looking after the place while their away
could they come into the house for I'm shit scared of them

Unlikely! Grass snakes are too timid to brave it I would have thought. If you frighten them they'll play dead until you go away.

[bobb]

I used to see loads of grass snakes when I lived in Cambs. They are indeed timid and the only times I ever saw them was when playing golf. They curled up in the hole, which was probably the safest place to be when I'm waving a stick around! 

[Wowbagger]

Grass snakes are completely harmless unless you do what I was in the habit of doing as a kid, and that's catching them. They squirt a particularly pungent liquid from their anus and it don't arf pong! I remember my clothes going through the washing machine two or three times and there was still Essence of Rancid Grass-snake about them.

[Wowbagger]

Common lizard, sunning itself on the pavement in Battlesbridge. It scuttled into the grass as I rode past.

[andym]

Came flying round corner on mountain bike today... to find a Buzzard (or something similar) on the path 25m in front.  Stopped quickly, but it flew off with its prey.  Not sure what the prey was, but it had a tail a few inches long.

[Pete]

I read somewhere, that it has recently been discovered that the Grass Snake has a venom sac in its head - but it has no fangs and there is no duct to take the venom to the teeth.  Singularly useless facility in that case, if you ask me.  Must do a bit of Googling...

I saw yesterday what I think was an adder, lying across my path as I cycled through the village of Partridge Green in Sussex.  As soon as it sensed my approach it whisked off like lightning into someone's front garden.  I had only the briefest of glimpses and didn't see it properly, I suppose it could have been a small grass snake.  The head shape didn't suggest a slow-worm.

[hellymedic]

a red kite, circling over the primary school playground..

Wot, in Essex / Cambridge?

I saw one near Alconbury last year, and must admit to being quite surprised.

We were driving up the M40 last month and saw what definitely looked like two red kites flying above the motorway somewhere near Aylesbury.  Unless someone can suggest any other large raptor-like bird with a deeply forked tail, that they could have been...

They probably were red kites. Road-runner lives in that neck of the woods and mentioned them during his strawberry visit here.

[Mr Larrington]

We were driving up the M40 last month and saw what definitely looked like two red kites flying above the motorway somewhere near Aylesbury.  Unless someone can suggest any other large raptor-like bird with a deeply forked tail, that they could have been...

Those are red kites. There are always lots of them to be seen when on the M40 between Wycombe and Stokenchurch

Last time I did the Upper Thames 200 there were about ten soaring over Watlington, probably planning to descend mob-handed and make off with some innocent householder's dustbin.

I witnessed one cruising at road level on the long drag after Rhayader on the Cambrian 600 last year, and that was truly a sight to behold.

[bomber]

The day before yesterday I saw loads of Chamois and a few Marmottes

[Fi]

Baby goldfinches ranged along the top bar on the hanging feeder while Mum and Dad goldfinch collect seeds from the feeder and fly up to feed the babies.  As the parents come up, the babies open their mouths and flap their wings very fast.  So sweet.

[CathH]

A wagtail singing (that's a first for me) and lots of what I think are very very small stag beetles.

[numbnuts]

On my ride today I saw, a deer, a hare, two rabbits, a squirrel, a snake and a pheasant all had dies by bloody motor cars, the snake at first I thought it was just the skin, but I turned back to have a closer look it was well and truly flattened , but and you could see the vertebra, the skin colour has a bluish tint to it not too sure what that was.

[Mike J]

I've seen some geese today, a whole family (including cygnets), they were crossing the road near Bluewater,.

Why do people feel the need to toot them to say get out of the way?    I've never understood this, as we were in a car and would have waited for them to cross if they walked in front of us.

[Pete]

the snake at first I thought it was just the skin...the skin colour has a bluish tint to it not too sure what that was.

Adders can sometimes appear bluish, especially the less common melanic form (the more normal type is greenish-yellow).  Or possibly a slow-worm.

[goatpebble]

The day before yesterday I saw loads of Chamois and a few Marmottes

Bloody marmots.

They like risotto, y'know. And chocolate.

Instant spaetzle, well, they will tear your tent apart to get it. Can't be bothered to go to the village store, the little hooligans.


Ps. Chamois get curious and will eat your unattended headwear.

[border-rider]

A tiny (even by wren standards) wren trying to catch and subdue a large butterfly on our terraced yard.  There wasn't a lot of size difference, it was a prolonged struggle and the 'fly nearly got away with it

[JonBuoy]

...well a couple of days ago actually.  A badger crossing the track 50m in front of me with three slightly smaller badgers tagging along behind.  These are the first ones that I have ever seen that weren't either dead or on TV.

[CathH]

Ants and ants and ants and ants!    The bottom of the garden has become a no-go.  I'm sorry, but boiling water is the only answer.  I feel horrid.

[rogerzilla]

At around 2am on this road in Suffolk (I know, I know) the dark shape of a fox exploding from one hedge and vanishing into the one opposite.  Made us jump.

Gmaps Pedometer

[Wowbagger]

Charlotte, Liz and I watched a muntjac for some time before it disappeared into the undergrowth.

[clarion]

Over the weekend, we saw:

Red kites - up to sixteen gliding over the field

Longtailed tits - a large flock of them

Pied wagtails - all over

bats

Hares

Rabbits

Interesting large black beetle with purple lines on its back and a vivid blue detail on its head I found in my shoe

[Wobbly John]

Charlotte, Liz and I watched a muntjac for some time before it disappeared into the undergrowth.

One scurried down the road in front of me at Darsham, before suddenly diving through a hole in the hedge.

Saw a huge herd of deer a few miles before we crossed the A12.

[rogerzilla]

Oh - I nearly forgot - on the way out of Stowmarket towards Needham Market (whoops), rabbits *everywhere*, on the verges, roundabouts and road.  Live ones.