Nature stories...

BEAT

Tell us one of your favorite nature stories.

One of mine...
I was camping a couple of years ago and awake before everyone else I went outside and sat listening to a woodpecker, I let me eyes search and search through the trees trying to find him, I knew he must be close because the pecking was loud. Finally after sitting for awhile I stood up and turned around and there he was pecking on our cabin roof. I found it amusing but the time I sat there alone in the woods listening was a peacful moment that you dont find very often. I like to sit and find myself there in my memories when I need to get away.

I often go to the Lake and sit on the rocks watching the waves rush in as a way to escape from the craziness, be surrounded by nature is a wonderful way to relax and bring yourself back down to earth.

Exit

One day my girlfriend and I were walking along a trail in Kananaskis, Alberta. It was a really peaceful place and we only passed one or two people all day. Anyway, I noticed a little chipmunk/squirrel (?) running around a little, so we stopped and just stood there looking at it. And surprisingly, it came over to us rather than running away. We stood there looking at him for a few minutes. He had an acorn (or something similar in his paws) and every so often he'd stop running around us and nibble on the acorn. It was just really cute looking.

It's probably sad though that he felt so comfortable around us because it probably means he's seen plenty of humans and is no longer scared of them, and unfortunately that might do him harm some time.

Forests like that are my favourite type of natural environment, they can be so peaceful if you just sit there quietly. I remember another time in Calgary, I was walking through a forested city (but incredibly peaceful and empty) park, and I stopped and sat down on a fallen tree trunk, and all of a sudden I hear this noise. Then again. And again. And I notice that there are things dropping from the trees and hitting the ground nearby. Then I saw a squirrel run down the side of a tree and pick up what was dropping. And as I sat there, I noticed a whole gang of squirrels all over the place, all dropping nuts from the trees and running down to collect them. It was really cool.

Anyway, here's 2 photos of the first squirrel/chipmunk. Not sure which it is

BEAT

Awe, he is a cute little guy...you are right though it is dangerous for him to be so trusting, the wrong person may come along some day and do him harm.
People dont understand these things and the fact that feeding them makes them that way and it may seem ok to them to feed them but the next guy may be feeding them poison , but you get my drift.
It is nice to have a connection with nature and wildlife but we must also learn how to preserve it.

BEAT

I am going to stick this because I want more people to tell thier nature stories.

Today I experienced a beautiful thing without even leaving the house, the sound of birds chirping. It has been a long winter and though it isnt quite over yet the songs of Nature waking from its slumber are upon us.

What a beautiful sound to hear after silence and cold for what seemed like an eternity. Nature is shifting and soon everything will be green again and flowers will bloom...I cant wait to be able to sit outside all day or all night and be surrounded by it once again.

BEAT

I wish more people would share, a nature story can be anything that happened while you were outside

For example, a funny bit:

I was at the park with my little cousin and a flock of seaguls flew over us, I turned to her and said I bet one of them craps on me...
10 seconds later, A big wad of bird poo smacked me in the arm.

Luckily it hit my skin and not my clothes, I grabbed a leaf off a tree and wiped it off and went on my way laughing all the way home.

BEAT

well, I am going camping for the first time as the adult.
I will be taking along my little sister and younger cousin 11 and 12.
I bought a monster size tent and last weekend we did a trial run in the back yard to see how it would go.

I got the tent up and down surprisingly easy...ran into 3 problems.
Having the flashlight on in the tent attracted bugs and we had no bug spray.
so put that on my list.

Woke up at 6am stiff as a board...am not a kid anymore so sleeping on the ground didnt agree with me,
put an air mattress on the list.

And lastly, woke up at 6am frozen like an ice pop...so taking a portable heater along.

Everything else was cool though...I will be back on sunday and post about our camping trip then

skittishkitten

A few years ago I was cleaning the leaves out of my cactus bed when I heard rustling in the grass behind me. I thought it was one of the dogs coming to "help" so I turned to shoo them away since I didn't feel like picking cactus thorns out of their nose and feet. However instead of a dog there was this HUGE bullsnake approaching me rather quickly. Apparently he thought my digging through the leaves sounded more like his next meal. I screeched and jumped to the side which caused him to yank back also. He quickly decided I was a bit more than he wanted and went the other way. He lived around my house for over 2 years ....I nicknamed him "Fred" . I figured if he worked at keeping the mice down then he was more than welcomed to stay !

BEAT

thanks for sharing SK

Well, I took the girls out camping for real this time over the weekend, all in all everything went well. It is the first time I have gone campong on my own as the only adult, I took along my sister (11) and cousin (12).

We got the tent up okay but I didnt bring an extension cord so we were unable to use the space heater, it turned out we didnt need it anyway. We were lucky there.
I brought an air mattress so I wasnt as sore as I was from sleeping on the ground the previous weekend.

Everything went fine, The hardest part was building a fire. I didnt bring lighter fluid...instead I thought I'd be smart and bought some starter logs whcih were the size of 2 pencils together. I used all twelve of them to get the fire started, I thought it wasnt going to work at first but finally one of the logs caught on and it burned a lovley fire for us to roast marshmellows and hotdogs by.

The moon was nearly full as we sat by the fire and watched it. We even got a bit silly and danced around the fire for a bit...it was fun.

We lucked out in that teh campground was having a haunted hayride that night, so the girls were excited. I was also selected to be a judge that night for the campers who decorated thier camper for halloween. I was one of three judges and we got to select 1st,2nd,and 3rd place prizes. So I enjoyed that part of it.

It was so nice to just be outside, I would have rather slept outside than in the tent but with the amount of bloodsuckers flying around I decided not too.

Camping is meant to be relaxing, and while it is at night after you have set up camp and everything it doesnt explain why I was so tired and sore after a relaxing camping trip, hahaha probably because I had to ....load up the car, unload the car, set up tent...load up tent. assemble bed. fetch fire wood, build fire. cook, clean relax before going to bed.
then, take down tent load up car, unload car, wash everything including car...relax from relaxing camping trip. hahaha

It was fun nonetheless. I will definitley make it part of my spring,summer and fall plans every year

Even having fun requires a bit of work but in the end it was worth it.

Black & Gold

As I live in the country, strange nature stories happen regularly. Last week, I was driving home on my street at about 10p.m. and a fox just crossed the road right in front of the car. I remember once, when I was about 12, when a yellow butterfly just landed on my head... That was weird.

dubadub

For bird watching, www.birdweb.net
South Dublin Branch
Also,
www.birdwatchireland.ie

magnumlady

A bat flew into our house on Tuesday night, it was amazing! It took me nearly an hour to get it back outside though!

madonnar

My daughter was staying in a log cabin somewhere in India, she was having a siesta when she saw a little lizard darting up the wall being chased by a snake, wisely she just watched motionless but the boyfriend panicked and threw a towel at the snake which made the snake topple off the wall and land on the bed! Both of them screamed and ran out the door to the amusement of all the other guests who were lounging around the pool.
Daughter and boyfriend were naked

boneless

I just saw a sparrowhawk take a starling out of the hedge in my back garden. She (yes... she) crashed into the hedge and dislodged about five or six starlings and took one on the wing! Fantastic sight!

Rossonero

My brother has a new house and hated when house martins built nests on it. One day he went out with a long pole and destroyed the nest to my disgust. One house martin was around and swooped down in attack. My brother had to retreat inside.
He showed his face 10 mins later. There was no bird in sight. Then 10-15 house martins appearred and proceeded to be quite aggressive!
He always leaves the nests alone now.

When I went sailing to France on a yacht, I was surprised to see the amount of nature 50 miles off the coast; a lone lost pigeon arrived trying to land on our boat before flying off, it's wings beating frantically. Lots of butterflies, wasps and dragonflies also landed. I never knew that they migrate.
We saw dolphins, porpoises, flying fish also.

Dave!

Some nice stories here

I haven't got much of a story, but one time while I was in college walking around, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye, turned around and there was a robin red breast sitting on the wall! It was gorgeous, and it was one of those really sweet natural moments where you kinda get a bit of appreciation for the planet I turned a bit and tried to take out my camera phone and take a picture, but looked back and it was gone

I actually saw another robin in the same place a month or so later, tried to get the camera out again but it was gone

Still, it was a beautiful sight and I like to walk past that area every so often in the hope that I'll see one again. Lovely creatures.

boneless

DaveMcG wrote:

Some nice stories here

I haven't got much of a story, but one time while I was in college walking around, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye, turned around and there was a robin red breast sitting on the wall! It was gorgeous, and it was one of those really sweet natural moments where you kinda get a bit of appreciation for the planet I turned a bit and tried to take out my camera phone and take a picture, but looked back and it was gone

I actually saw another robin in the same place a month or so later, tried to get the camera out again but it was gone

Still, it was a beautiful sight and I like to walk past that area every so often in the hope that I'll see one again. Lovely creatures.

Your UCD I think? Take a walk down by the ponds behind the Vets block... I do it quite a lot. There is an amazing amount of wildlife on our doorstep!!

I've seen at least 36 speices of birds, fox, squirrel (grey!!) and a possible hedgehog... it was too dark to confirm, but the sounds were right.

I've been trying to get a group together in UCD for a while now, if you are interested PM me.

Demetrius

boneless wrote:

I just saw a sparrowhawk take a starling out of the hedge in my back garden. She (yes... she) crashed into the hedge and dislodged about five or six starlings and took one on the wing! Fantastic sight!

I saw something like that two years ago. I looking out the window at some swallows that had just left their nest and were perched on the clothes line. The parents were feeding them on the wing. I thought this was cool until the next thing blew me away.
The land at the back of our house slopes down and is covered in nettles and briars. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something approach from that direction keeping low. It was some sort of bird of prey. It plucked one of the fledglings off the line and continued on without stopping, with the rest of the fledglings darting off and the parent swallows swooping at the bird of prey. It was one of the coolest things Ive ever seen.

Funsterdelux

I have a few nature stories, being from the country.

I saw a woodpecker once in Montreal, when I was wandering around the park of Mont Real (Mount Royal) thus its name Montreal

nollaig

Not really my nature story but my mother told it to me.

When she was a kid, a robin hurt himself outside their house. But they nursed him back to health. He would fly alongside my mother (& sometimes her brother). He let her pet him just once ever. They had the stations and apparently the robin sat on the window sill outside and sang for the duration of the mass.

nollaig

As I live in the country, strange nature stories happen regularly. Last week, I was driving home on my street at about 10p.m. and a fox just crossed the road right in front of the car

Has this not happened everybody at some stage?

nollaig

Has this not happened everybody at some stage?

Or do I take living in the country for granted?:D

snorlax

i'v got a pair of robins nesting in my garden at the moment, i think they are the ones we've been feeding (they seem to love oatmeal, and we use the meshed wire for peanuts to prevent the young birds chocking on them when they hatch).
it's really nice because every morning they always sing in the garden. although i think the blackbird is pretty cool to for it's vocals at dusk.:)

Red Hand

nollaig wrote:

Has this not happened everybody at some stage?

It has. However i remember seeing four foxes in the one day during the summer.

Banphrionsa

Jeremiah 16:1 wrote:

It has. However i remember seeing four foxes in the one day during the summer.

Case of bread crumbs. Four foxes? Ahhhhh, it must be the wine, they are multiplying before my eyes.

theanty

Went out for a lovely country walk with my two dogs recently and I was about to pass a field that had no fence around it. Standing there looking back at me was a lovely white cow, my dogs got all excited and I thought I'd better turn around and go a different way, not wanting to startle it. To my utter amazement it followed us and started to catch up! I started to walk a bit faster, it walk faster, freaked me out a little! Anyway I was afraid it would follow me to a main road so a few shoo's and loads of gentle but firm encouagement later it headed back to the field. It's 'escaped' a few times since and even had a couple of pals in his posse patroling the neighbourhood....dunno if it's my imagination but place does feel a safer, no disrespect to local law enforcement!

Fingalian

I was in a field recently at dusk and a Barn Owl flew from around the corner which was about 60 yards away.I was standing still about 5 feet out from the hedge and facing him so I saw him the second he came around the corner. He flew towards me with slow beats of his wings, parallel to the hedge but a further 10 feet or so out and about 6 feet off the ground. He was looking ahead at the ground and I had frozen but as he flew by he turned and looked directly at me, but he kept on the same track, popped up a couple of feet to get over the hedge and into the next field and was gone.
Deadly!:D

artieanna

hi from west of ireland.... heres a few shorts ones... my brother is on the road alot esp narrow country roads (his job) and sees amazing things one day he came upon a wild duck walking on the road with six ducklings he had stop and get out to clear them off the road. I went there when he told me, but there was no sign of them (which was good, no car hit them).
About two weeks ago as he was driving along, a swallow swooped down and plucked a butterfly out of the air, he said it was unreal the speed and agility of the swallow, poor butterfly tho!!!
and finally my story in july I saw a humming bird hawk moth, it flew from flower to flower not landing and extracting the pollen or nectar from the flowers, it was amazing i followed him around the garden till the midges got the better of me!www.uksafari.com/hummingbird.htm i never saw one of these before..

artieanna

nacho libre

Not really exciting but recently i saw a cat involved in a stand off with a stoat in my backyard. This went on for a few minutes till the stoat ran off then the cat chased after him, only for the stoat to stop and make a noise whereby the cat then retreated.

magicbastarder

Exit wrote:

One day my girlfriend and I were walking along a trail in Kananaskis, Alberta. It was a really peaceful place and we only passed one or two people all day. Anyway, I noticed a little chipmunk/squirrel (?) running around a little, so we stopped and just stood there looking at it. And surprisingly, it came over to us rather than running away. We stood there looking at him for a few minutes. He had an acorn (or something similar in his paws) and every so often he'd stop running around us and nibble on the acorn. It was just really cute looking.

Anyway, here's 2 photos of the first squirrel/chipmunk. Not sure which it is

if my memory serves, they're called least chipmunks - here's one i got a photo of at lake louise:

magicbastarder

double post

scop

Like the lads in UCD I'm well acquainted with the little robin redbreast who hangs about. He's quite cheeky and will chance his arm at getting quite close. He lives right beside the Arts block, and when there's nobody around he tends to come into the smoking area which can brighten up a morning quite well! As a Dublin lad I don't get much nature though I do enjoy it so this is always a nice thing to have.

looksee

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

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

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

I saw a Pine Marten for the first time recently.

TREVOR H

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.
__________________

GrizzlyMan

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

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

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

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

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

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.