how often do you get to see wildlife?

Badgers, foxes, mink (nasty litte things), bitterns, the kingfisher who sits on his branch and the more common birds at our nature reserve. Get too many rabbits in our fields, see the odd fox, muntjak, the barn owl hunting late afternoon, and the kestrel earlier in the day. I have a crow and his mate come and pick up any dropped horse feed. There is a colony of magpies nearby and I had to laugh this morning. It's so windy it was trying to fly and not moving until a gust of wind blew it backwards. Mother gets several jays on her bird table although they are woodland birds. I find wildlife fascinating.

 

Those goat photos are fantastic! I love goats.
I forgot the birds of prey - I saw a golden eagle in aviemore and further down where I live we see buzzards a lot. Also bats, a barn owl and a stoat. We had rats too until I got an air-rifle.

The beavers are already here - they came to Knapdale Forest at the end of May!

My fella thinks he saw a big cat on the grounds where he works on his way home late at night. Anyone else I wouldn't have believed but he doesn't drink a lot or take drugs and he is pretty normal. He was actually shaking when he got home and not a lot phases him usually. There have been quite a few other sightings up here in the same area.

 

i think it's quite possible. i used to live on the haldon ridge in devon, right next to dartmoor. many collectors kept big cats there and in the rest of the uk. in the mid-70s the govt brought in liscencing laws, and many owners couldn't afford to keep them. rather than having them put down, some were released. given the abundance of deer and empty forest in both dartmoor and scotland i wouldn't be surprised if they survived for a time, maybe long enough to meet and breed? the romantic in me likes to think so.
i saw a labrador-sized black cat chasing some deer up on haldon hill. i was no more than ten yards away on a motorbike, and i'd only had a one-skinner that afternoon. a friend of mine nearby watched a silver lynx feed from his cat's bowl outside his house a couple of years ago. there were wild boar near us in devon as well, confirmed after an accidental farm release.
i'm all for it. bring back all the predators, wolves etc. makes those sunday afternoon walks a little more exciting eh?

 

We used top have a pair of buzzards here but haven't seen them for a couple of years or more. The odd bird of prey escapes from our local rapor centre sometimes. Weasels, go ages between seeing them. Canny little critters.

 

a weasel is easily distinguished, a stoat is totally different.

 

I have a lot of trees behind my house so i always see squirells doing acrobatics, have seen a few bats about at night as well as a few foxes but thats about it, i did see a duck once by my garage as well which was odd

 

Mike those are quite clearly sheep.

Call yourself a Welshman?!!

 

I was replying to the thread sorry (it say's sheep in the description with pics) .

 

nice sheep. i'd like to see the six horned ones.

 

Couldn't find a pic of one but the one i saw when i was there had 4 pointy horns & 2 curly ones, looked mad.

 

thats a really good centre too

have Buzzards and Kites here in the village, also seen a falcon-possibly a perrigrine?
loads of kites when i go see my GF near High Wycombe.

We have some owls to, they used to use the GTI as a dining table, no more as its in the garage. but i still bloody hear them hooting/screeching away 11pm most nights.

Often see the barn owl when i take the dog out on a dusky evening.

the guinea fowl up the local woods are quite fun to see.

 

We don't seem to get stoats here more is the pity. Bats, bloody ungrateful little sods. Put bat house on my stable and they ignore it. I would love some. I want one of those Welsh goats!!!!!! The first screech owl (little) I heard terrified me. I was down a remote track in the dark with dogs and thought someone was being murdered so crept through the field and found out what it was.

 

the local animal centre, Suzanne may know it to?
they have some cheetahs which escaped a while back, found in someones garden near by

 

Anyone visited the Anglian Wolf Society? I did and am glad I did. They are kept as wild as possible, mostly unwanted that is why they are there but they have bred a few. Keepers do not go into the areas whilst wolves are in there. A couple of the females are walked on leads and will come up to you. When feed time comes they let you put offal/ dead rabbits in difficult places, some under all manner of heavy logs etc which most people would struggle to move. A man had to help me with mine then the wolves are let in. Mr Wolf has no problem getting under heavy stuff. They are beautiful animals, nothing is wasted with a wolf, teeth, hair, skin, claws, they eat the lot. As in the wild, they do not get to eat every day and they make them find their food. The males are vasectomised.

 

Seen my first hedgehog this evening, alive, for a long time.
Just managed to miss it as it was making itself a moving road hump.

 

I live in northern Scotland and see all it has to offer regularly without trying. Usually have a deer run accross the road in front of me once a week. Still yet to see a Golden Eagle though.

 

Cool hedgehogs are wicked. I saw my first hedgehog up here a couple of weeks ago, bold as brass just wandering at the roadside. I also saw my first very first red squirrel. I was out on the front doorstep sulking about the state of my LR having a coffee and a cig and the sun was shining so I just closed my eyes and was enjoying the unaccustomed warmth, then when I opened them the squirrel was right opposite. He was so red and bushy, really pretty.

 

Got alot of noisy owls at my house at the min, 4 or 5 won't shut up ALL NIGHT tawny,barn & possibly little owl. 3 x stoats & weasles have got ahold of my daughters wabbit 3 times during the day (killed the other wabbit at night before that) and it took me or the missus to scare them away (i'd run from her if i was a weasle pmsl) the pair of Buzzards have left said bunny alone so far and the 2 hares who live near the farm.
Saw my 1st wild Perrigrine falcon,above the A1 on a very tall lamp post,near Gosforth,eating a pigeon (of ALL places)
And last but not least,a deer in the field over the road whilst sitting on the "throne"

 

I see loads of of badgers, hedgehogs(had a massive one living in the rag pile in the garage), woodpeckers, buzzards, and Im sure theres others. Recently Iv seen a couple of hares and followed a monkjack deer down a lane for a far while.

 

cheeky swifts/swallows or house martins won't stay out of my garage, get hell of a fright when three of them come bombing in while working on the car.

Hoping they haven't planned on making a nest in there.

get to see a fair bit now we live in the sticks properly.