how often do you get to see wildlife?

literally just seen three elk walk past the window, two elklets and their mum. fing massive!
must have been at least five foot to the shoulder. no wonder the dog went missing for so long when she found a dead one.
i suppose it helps living in the countryside, and the western world is getting more densely populated.
how often does everyone get to see wild animals?

 

Oh wow, elklets. I like the sound of those. It must be beautiful where you live.
I live in North East Scotland and we are meant to be in a red squirrel area but I have only ever seen them squashed on the road never alive as they are very shy. We often see deer when we are out walking and hares in the springtime when it is dusk. When I lived in brighton a vixen had 3 cubs in my garden, but I am glad we don't get foxes up here becuase of my chickens and ducks. We sometimes get pheasants visiting to raid their food. I don't think any of that beats elklets though!!!!

 

I see a few mangy foxes & lots of Chavs

 

gaz:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D8jhzizdlA

karmann, i understand you're soon to be repopulated with wolves, beavers, lynx and possibly bears? some project on a lord's estate somewhere down there?

 

Couple of times a day. There's a Squiggle and some birds outside my office window now.

Out on my MTB I've pretty much seen the full range of UK wildlife over the years. Adders, Deer, Foxes, Badgers, ducks, geese, swans, etc.

Obviously my daily riding life is filled to the brim with ****ing horses and their arrogant drivers and Cows. I like cows a lot. A lot brighter than I thought they were, not enough to put me off whopers like, but close.

There's MASSIVE cows in the Alps, no fields per-se, just huge open spaces with ribbons of electric fencing coming down where the DH trails are, but they get through a lot. Steaming down on a few years back through cloud, visability down to about 8m's chasing my mate, ans all we can hear is the clunk/ding of Cow bells, before we knew it flying into a herd of them flat-out, mate zips through a fast left-hand berm and has to duck under ones head. Was brilliant, wish I had a helmet-cam on for it.

 

There are plenty of birds of prey knocking around my house and on the way to work. Saw a buzzard in a field at the side of the M1 this morning. I quite often see Pippistrelle bats feeding in the garden during the summer, and there's a pair of grey heron at uni. And if you get up early enough in the morning, you might see a rabbit or hare in the garden. I've seen deer tracks on our land at times, but it's very rare to see them before they hear or see you.

I am fairly out in the sticks though. Only ever seen two foxes in the countryside during my entire life, but loads when I'm in towns. Never seen a badger, but it's very obvious when they're about, and seen lots of setts.

That said, I did used to find wildlife for a living so I've got a good idea of where to look.

 

I was sat in a peacefull park the other day with a client while looking at some sparrows fling about in the bushes....


Then a bird of pray swooped down & shot into the bush & came out with one & pinned it to the floor then flew off & all the birds were going nuts in the surrounding bushes making some kind of warning call.

Caught me out as i wasn't expecting any of it.

 

every day, take the dog out i get to see most things,

 

Squirrels and bats regularly in the garden - lovely to see. Also quite often see foxes - last night one walked across the main road as I was driving along. He looked really cross at me being there, just stood and frowned at me in the middle of the road! Had to beep at him to get him to move out my way!

And rats. Too many rats! In my garden, along the road, in my shed and used to be in my loft! I hate them!

 

i'm lucky as i live in the a*se of france, sheep in the field in front of us, cows to the rear, where deer's & boars are roaming free, oh and we have 2 barnowls who have taken up permanent residence, shame they keeping c*appin' on my ruddy van

 

has anyone ever seen a big cat? largely thought to be a myth, though i'm pretty certain i saw one once in devon..

 

see lots and lots here!
Massive parrots sitting on the balcany when i wake up. Kangroos in the fields as i drive to work....and getting attached by massive Rays when i go for a surf in the evenings! (well, this only happened once but is scared the poo poo out of me lol but i do see sting rays every day in the water)

 

I reckon it's a myth. As I said, I used to find critters for a living, and never heard of anyone seeing anything like a big cat or a big cat print. We had people find heaps of old replacement joints (in the woods near a Crem), a sweepstake on when someone would find a body but never heard of anyone seeing a big cat.

When you factor in that there were about 30 of us at that firm, doing surveys day and night for building projects up and down the country, and a lot of far bigger firms around, if the things were kicking around, someone with some qualifications would have stumbled across tracks, hairs or seen one. At it is, it's always some bloke with a shaky video camera.

 

I once had a wild life..................taxes, responsibility and a mortgage have stopped it

 

My mother lives up there... we went for a wander down the Spey, near Granton, and saw 4 red squirrels in 200 yards. I feel a great affinity for the little bush tailed ginger rats

I spend a lot of weekends up in Northamptonshire, and regularly see badgers, deer, foxes, buzzards, lots of mice in my mate's kitchen, and though I saw an eagle last month (too big to be anything else).

 

Swans and ducks go past the back of my house a lot (on the river obviously!), and although i havent seen any yet i often hear owls

 

Brilliant

 

I've been to Lauterbrunnen near Interlaken in Switzerland quite a bit - although not in a few years now. I have had the cows eperience a lot too. Especially when going hell for leather with no visiblity hearing the cow bell and getting tons of fresh cow pat everywhere - mainly in my face. Can be dangerous too - no grip - I ended up like Schultz from the great escape all tangled up in a barbed wired fence - beer after was the best.

 

We have a load of these :



wild on our local peninsula/hill.

They come down and wonder the streets, eat peoples gardens when the weather up there is bad.

I think they're pretty cool, I don't know of anywhere else in the uk with a population of wild goats like these.

 

Seen some crazy ones on the isle Of Man.





Manx Loaghtan

Also known by: Manx Loghtan
The Manx Loaghtan is found on the Isle of Man off the coast of Great Britain. It is of the Northern Short-tailed type, similar to the Hebridean. The Manx Loaghtan is descended from the primitive sheep once found throughout Scotland and the coastal islands of Britain. The word Loaghtan comes from lugh dhoan which means mouse-brown. This has become the established colour in the Isle of Man although they were formerly found in white and black also. The breed is rare. It is small, with no wool on the face or legs. The face and the legs are a dark brown colour Manx Loaghtan are horned with four horns being preferred but individuals are also found with two or six horns. The horns are generally small on the ewes but are larger and stronger on the males.