[mini]

Caught this fella from my kitchen at lunchtime;







Better get my string out and get down the butchers

[n_man]

Saw a pod of two hundredish dolphins as we landed in Wellington last week. Beautiful sight with them just playing about and spraying water.

[SA Chris]

Brought some wildlife home with me this weekend too. Just found another tiny tick this morning on my waist, in spite of doing a thorough chimp check on Sunday night and finding a couple of others. Keep an eye open for them in Mull dave.

[Dr T]

saw a sparrow hawk being mobbed and generally bullyed by a half dozen crows down Dorchester way on the weekend

[fatneck]

Could hear but, frustratingly, not see some form of woodpecker while out in Cheshire this morning.

I was in a certain wood near Helsby the other day and saw a Greater Spotted Woodpecker. Was quite pleased as I haven't seen one for quite a while!

I hear Woodpeckers pretty much every day, its very rare I see them though, the Greens especially.

There's a Green woodpeckers nest very close to a banned S Lakes limestone venue. Noisy little blighters they are!

[dave]

Keep an eye open for them in Mull dave.

tell me about it. on skye i only needed to walk within earshot of a piece of bracken and there'd be dozens on my strides. nasky fuckers - one of my mates got lymes disease from one in sweden a few years back.

[SA Chris]

Friend of ours got it on Rum (the island, not the drink). She is still struggling 18 months on, it's nasty.

[AndiT]

We went up Kinder at the weekend to 'Dark Side of the Moon'. We saw a load of Mountain Hares, one of which was still fully white, which was nice.

[dave]

those kinder hares are dynamite. the ones i saw up at woolpacks were about the size of Diefenbaker from Due South.

[SA Chris]

See them often ski touring up in 'gorms. I think that they must get pretty pissed off that they go to the effort of growing a white coat over winter for camoulfage, then standing out like a sore thumb because there is no snow.

[BB]

This one was snapped in cornwall last weekend. The missus nearly stood on it.

[stom]

Saw two male badgers fighting outside the house a couple of nights ago.  The noise they were creating was horrendous.  I thought one of the neighbourhood cats had been got by a fox, but when i went outside to look a huge badger scurried out from under a car closely followed by another!

[Bonjoy]

We went up Kinder at the weekend to 'Dark Side of the Moon'. We saw a load of Mountain Hares, one of which was still fully white, which was nice.

How was DSotM, worth the walk? Is that on the Downfall?

[Monolith]

I've seen more buzzards than pigeons of late!

[andy popp]

We went up Kinder at the weekend to 'Dark Side of the Moon'. We saw a load of Mountain Hares, one of which was still fully white, which was nice.

How was DSotM, worth the walk? Is that on the Downfall?

Definitely worth the walk - I thought it was quite spicey! Its on Upper Western buttress before you get to the downfall, you could carry on afterwards and do Raggald's Wall, if you haven't already.

[SA Chris]

saw a sparrow hawk being mobbed and generally bullyed by a half dozen crows down Dorchester way on the weekend

Saw hawk of some sort getting hassled by crows yesterday, seems to happen a lot?

Saw loads of LBJs in and around the Philorth Nature reserve where we parked to access surf.

[n_man]

See them often ski touring up in 'gorms. I think that they must get pretty pissed off that they go to the effort of growing a white coat over winter for camoulfage, then standing out like a sore thumb because there is no snow.

  made me chuckle

[AndyR]

Saw the first bear of the year yesterday - was looking a bit groggy after a long winter's kip.

[fatneck]

Pretty sure I saw one of these handsome chaps at Fairy Steps last week. They're not that uncommon, but on the RSPB "Amber" list (i.e second level endagered) and a first for me!

A Wood Warbler

[SA Chris]

bear of the year

Didn't know they held a contest

[Fiend]

Red Kite @ Pallet Crag yesterday, was nice.

[Johnny Brown]

Props to fatneck for being able to seperate a wood warbler from a Chiffchaff, Willow warbler etc

Had my first Short-Eared Owl of the year at Stanage last night - always a treat, plus have seen lots of Ring Ouzels this week whilst out monitoring them. Got within 2' of a very tightly sitting female. On the way back there we could hear a Grasshopper Warbler, amazing noise that seems to move around.

In town I've also discovered a couple of massive Barbel lying below the bridge near work. Brightens up the trip to tesco for a mars bar.

[SA Chris]

In town I've also discovered a couple of massive Barbel lying below the bridge near work.

Don't tell lagerfish, or they won't be there for long. He'll by fryin' up a whole mess o' catfish (needs a Cletus accent to work).

[lagerstarfish]

Barbel hunting season don't start till 16th June. Even I wouldn't kill a barbel.

Saw a couple of barbel in the Don at the back of Hillsborough College.

[Mr Cat]

not quite wild wildlife - but got some resident birds at the back of mine - robin, blackbirds, sparrows etc and as I always feed them every morning and yesterday I saw a small blue empy eggshell on the ground - I'm assuming some little bird has hatched..

most likely the sparrow or blackbird...