Nature stories...

looksee · 16-05-2007 8:58pm

I've recently created a 'pond in a pot' which so far just has a waterlily in it - yesterday 'our' blackbird sat on the edge of it, then spread his wings and dived in! I've seen sparrows bathe in a puddle, but the pot is quite deep.

This same blackbird is a bit psychotic though, we call him Herbert. The previous couple of years he would come and sit on the railing outside the glass door and peer in till he saw our cat (who is very old and geriatric) then do the alarm call -and on - and on - and on, even though the cat was indoors and taking no notice (he's actually embarrassed!).

One day he was sitting on the wall at the bottom of the garden with a beakful of worms, shouting abuse at the cat who was asleep on the path - or pretending to be. Anyway in spite of the beakful he sqawked on and on, till Mrs Herbert turned up and literally chased him along the top of the wall till he headed off where he was supposed to be going, back to the nest.

How could you not be anthopomorphic about a bird like that... great entertainment though!

blackbelt · 10-07-2007 4:46pm

Mine is different from most others.It happened while I was working in Bray.I was by the coast from the morning time onwards until 2pm.I had heard that there were dolphins in the area so I half expected to see them.

Not much was happening and I wasn't taking any notice until I heard a splash behind me.I saw a dark movement in the water which turned out to be mackeral and then this majestic dolphin jumped out of the shadow with some fish in his mouth.Its very rare to see bottlenose dolphins on the east coast.Usually you see harbour porpoises if you are lucky and you are nearly guaranteed to see seals.

It was an amazing moment.

Roen · 29-12-2007 11:27am

Well I managed to see my first Stoat ever there a few weeks ago. I was driving toward the Comeragh Mountains for a walk when a Stoat ran out in front of me with a dead rat in it's mouth. I stopped the car a few feet from it. It got to the other side of the road and then stopped, turned around and looked me in the eye. It then dropped the rat and scarpered off into the bush.

When I drove back that way later on the rat was gone. I'd been hoping for years to see one of them. Of course the camera was in the boot

nacho libre · 21-05-2008 4:40pm

I saw a Pine Marten for the first time recently.

TREVOR H · 21-06-2008 12:35am

Two badger stories.

While staying with a group in the hostel in Killarney National Park, one of the lads couldn't sleep. There was a full moon so he sat out on the grass in front of the hostel star-gazing. At some stage he dozed off. He was woken by a badger sniffing at his arm. He jumped up with the fright and the badgers took off in the other direction. I don't know who was more frightened!

I was camping in Lough Key forest park. My girlfriend and I went for a walk after dinner. It was dark when we returned and as we approached the tent we heard noise from inside. At first we thought someone was robbing our gear. We then we heard something running through the woods at the back of the tent. I guessed it was some kind of animal at that stage. When we got into the tent the cooler bag had been ripped open.
The next morning I went into the forest to have a look. As well as finding one of the bananas from the cooler bag I found a large badger set nearby.
Not exactley going to make onto 'When animals attack 78', but was funny at the time.

nacho libre · 13-08-2008 11:33pm

This evening i saw a mink in my garden for the first time ever. My cat didn't take kindly to the invasion of his territory so a stand-off ensued. There was much hissing from the cat but the mink was not flinching and just stared down the cat. Eventually the mink decided to run off but the cat foolishly decided to follow after the mink but the mink was having none and ended up chasing off the cat before disappearing over the wall. I wanted to video it but i was afraid it would all be over before i got the digital camera.

Whispered · 09-09-2008 1:56pm

I was on my way home from work one evening and got a call from my boyfriend that there was an injured bird in the front garden, what should he do. He didn't want to touch it, because he wasn't sure where it was injured, so he stood guard over it until I got home.

When I picked her up she was droopy, with a very very slow heart beat and couldn't hold her head up. I brought her in and put her in our spare room, with water and a bit of food. Over night there was a bit of improvement, but she wasn't eating at all and was very weak. It was also stormy out so I decided to keep her for the day and see how she went. I asked for advise on boards and was told that chances are she wont survive.

By the end of the day she was sitting on the bed listening when I spoke to her with her head cocked and then that night had a feed of bacon fat and sugar (ewww).

I woke up the next morning to bird song from outside and from the spare room.

I opened the window and left the room. Came back a few mins later and she was gone

. My spare room was covered in poo, but I was so happy.

ODD-JOB · 07-10-2008 11:35pm

I spent 3-4 months in the outback in Australia , mostly camping in remote bushland and eventually in the rain forests. my desire for adventure led to to some fasinating encounters and experiences !

One particular day took us to a place in the Top-end called "Cahills crossing". A place where the crocodiles converge , as fish get trapped at the crossing to the Aboriginal reserve. The East Alligator river becomes very shallow at this point, and prey get trapped until a higher tidal level occurs.

So off we set into the forest for a few hours , well off the beaten track. My friend Marcus decides he wants to wait till the bats awaken to get some good shots of them (photographs). the bats are on every branch and every tree , hanging upside down ,.... you could pick them off like fruit if you wanted

they flock in their 10's of thousands down the river , the only clear sonar area for them to fly peacefully !

So cutting a long story short(er).... darkness decended like a cloak over the sunset, taking 8-10 minutes to go from clear daylight to total picth black darkness.
all of a sudden we found ourselves many miles from the car , and in a totally strange isolation.

Its amazing how the noises change between the actvity of daylight creatures and nocternal creatures.
In that 40c searing heat , most animals lie low till sundown , and literally like a light switch , the atmosphere changes with dramatic effect.

The idea was to get out of this place and back to the safety of the car, quickly!.....the only thing was we were so lost in the darkness and the only way to find our way back was to trek along the river-edge untill we found the crossing !
Newither of us could see the hand in front of our face , and both fully aware that countless croc's were around , and now in hunting mode.
During the daylight , I remembered seeing signs by the crossing :

which basically instruct to keep distance from the water, and also to keep your dogs away.

Fight and Flight syndrome has well and truly kicked in and to say I was freaked out would be an understatement !
With about a mile left from the crossing we stumbled (literally) upon a group of wild feral pigs. These pigs are black in colour and are as dumb as it gets. They tend tto freeze on the spot and hope for the best when they feel threatened.
So naturally we couldnt see the buggers until we walked into them ! A mass panic evolved , with the pigs screechng and bolting in one direction and Myself and Marcus screetching equally as loud bolting in the other direction !!!
Eventually got out of there safe and sound and we drove in silence for what seemded like 2 hours , slightly stunned by the whole day's events.

pipeliner · 20-10-2008 3:56pm

My grandmother passed away about 10 years ago and to prepare her house for sale some minor renovation had to take place. After about 2 months since the renovation had been done, my mother went into the house just checking up on it, when she came to the sink. She saw a teabag in the sink so she thought the lazy b*stards didn't even clean up after themselves, until she wnt to pick it up and it sprouted wings. A near-dead bat was in the sink and frightened the life out of her.

The closest neighbours heard her screams and ran up to the house thinking she was attacked.

nacho libre · 09-11-2008 1:40am

last week i saw a young rat running around in the backyard for several minutes( it was stopping and every so often was up on its hind legs and sniffing the air) when suddenly a kestrel swoops down and grabs the rat. i realise this isn't unusual at all, it's just that i've never actually seen this happen before.

somethingwitty · 23-11-2008 1:18am

I was sitting on a bench in the suburbs in Paris a month ago and it was dark. There was a big road behind me and a big park infront of me-cut off, however, by a large fence. A fox came running up towards me and he didn't see me. He noticed me when he was about 5 feet away from me and stopped and stared at me in the eyes for about 2 minutes, not moving a muscle. I just stared back and tried to stay as still as possible. They are so beautiful. He must have decided I wasn't a threat because he started pacing up and down the foot path, trying to find a gap in the fence to get into the park. It was quite sad to see. He disappered then into some bushes beside the mad busy road.

Beside my home in Ireland, there is a barn owl who regularly flies out infront of the car at night time. They're fantastic to look at.

Hedgehogs come to my aunts house at about the same time every night to get fed. Its so cute!!

Anytime I see deer out in the wild.

A pidgeon flew into my head in McDonalds in Amsterdam.

Rancid · 13-12-2008 8:44pm

This morning, in Dublin city centre, right on the corner beside the Cultivate Centre (just off Parliament Street) where the overgrown foundations of a building are railed off, I saw 2 magpies and a rat among the weeds at street level!
At first it looked like a game, Rat would move 6 or 8 inches to the left, magpie 1 would hop after him, Magpie 2 would change position which in turn made Rat duck down and move again. This went on for 5 or 6 mins.
I'm sure the Magpies were worrying the rat, he appeared trapped although there was a huge amount of space about 20 foot below.
I walked around the side of the railings and the magpies flew away.
The rat disappeared instantly into the overgrown weeds.

All this was at 11am this morning.

Blue850 · 02-03-2009 9:19am

We've got a pair of red squirrels using our bird feeder, there is a little wood behind our house and we used to catch glimpses of one, then we got a pup, he disappeared, but since the snow and frost, he's back and he's brought a buddy, and every morning they have breakfast at the feeder:D They keep fighting over the same nuts, so one grabs a nut and scurries up onto the garden fence to eat it, while the other sits on the feeder. We've also got 3 pheasants,one cock and 2 hens in the field next door.

Dusty87 · 23-08-2009 6:29pm

I was out one evening in a field and was coming to the bottom corner of the field when i seen A red thing moving in the ditch i would be walking back up along. I knew it was fox. I lay down and stated to crawl along the grass. I had the camo jacket on but a light brown hat. Like an eegit i put long grass hanging out the sides to try and conceal the colour of my skin. If anyone seen me!!!!! After about 10mins of crawling i was within 30 yards to see two cubs playing and rolling about. I got to literally 20 yards, it was amazing being so close in daylight watching them. Me being greedy decided to get closer, when a big vixen, i mean the biggest i have ever seen by miles jumped out and made a hissing/rasping sound i can only describe as that of Dracula you see in films. And with that the 3 of them were gone. I could write loads more. It was amazing to see. I dont know why as ive seen plenty (not as close) but my heart was racing. Your probably thinking nothing special about this but i will take that memory to the grave. Boy, she was big.
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GrizzlyMan · 24-08-2009 12:40pm

I went camping up the north one weekend, and woke up with a cows head looking directly into the tent, very funny but at the time was pretty freaked out haha:D

Amtmann · 08-09-2009 3:48pm

One of the best nature memories I have is from a nice summer's afternoon in 1997. I was walking in a meadow that was full of hollows and briars. As I was strolling along I heard the blood-curdling scream of a caught rabbit. A moment later, as I walked past a hollow, I looked down and saw a beautiful red fox crouched down with a live rabbit in its jaws. It had just been caught. The fox looked up at me, and I looked down at it; and as for the rabbit, it didn't know where to look! The fox and I regarded each other for about 20 seconds. Then he suddenly released the rabbit which promptly bolted up the bank and into a hedge, while the fox did a volte-face and ran the other way leaving me there alone, cursed by one and thanked by the other!

Mothman · 10-09-2009 10:47pm

An example where we are just best leaving things alone.

I'm a keen damselfly/dragonfly watcher as a result of having a large pond in garden.
There was a Common Blue Damselfly struggling in spiders web. So I thought I'd release it. It took a while as the thread was entwined, but I managed and I was delighted to see it soar gracefully up until "snap" and it was gone...

The "snap" was the closing of a Swallow's beak...

There's a moral in there somewhere

d32 · 01-06-2010 11:33pm

mmmm dem damsels are delicious!!
we were out drinking in phoenix park one night-well i was wrecked so i curled up at base of a big old beech-a lovely nest...woke up to a hot sun and the deer grazing quietly in a circle around me-i've never felt so safe in all my life.
i know i know-phoenix park at night fairly- interesting...

trebor28 · 02-06-2010 2:45pm

i live in the midlands out in the country so have numerous examples of seeing foxes badgers hedgehogs etc. have loads of old sheds with no doors so they are full of swallows nesting. everyday i go into one one or two swallows go zoomng by my face. completely used to it now dont even bat an eyelid i just stay still and they miss me.
some of my more memorable experiences are as follows.
was out with my dogs in the middle of a field and then something fell down about 40 yards to one side of me, walked over closer to find two kestrels duelling on the ground. wanted to get closer but the dogs were close by so i didnt want to alert them to it so had to walk away.

we had a buzzard around our place over the winter.beautiful bird, such a huge wingspan for what looks like a small bird. used to see him about once a week or even more. unfortunately he hasnt been seen for a few months, hopefully he just moved to a different area. would hate to think that some local f*cker did something to him/her.

was on my bike 300 yards down the road from me with two of my dogs, just coming up on this gate then a pine martin popped out from the gate looked up at us and scampered across the road and into the ditch. the dogs gave chase but he had disappeared thankfully.

around this time last year we had a sparrowhawk around that would ambush pigeons at our back gate. one day i saw a pigeon on the ground which was wounded and couldnt fly but was hobbling around, i was wondering what had happened him. i turned away for a sec and when i turned back there was the sparrowhawk and the pigeon having a face off. some scene, especially as the hawk was about the same size. had a camera with me but was caught in the moment and just watched.

numerous others but they are my best ones.

trebor28 · 10-06-2010 12:45pm

was out down a lane this morning and saw a hen pheasant and her chicks which cant have been more than a few days old. they were tiny.

almost didnt see them at first. she jumped into the ditch and just stuck her head into the bushes. the chick were just doing the same. got out the phone and got some video footage, but its not great. the chicks were just standing there shoving their heads into grass etc., bit like a ostrich with head in the sand. the mother was making hissing noises at me. didnt hang around long, so hope they are all ok.

Nature stories...

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