Today's Wildlife Encounter

[ba-ba]

I've a friend who lives in Oslo:

Fresh snow overnight so I was concentrating on the ground looking for signs that other people had been out and about. One pair of footprints, and then some old ski tracks, and then suddenly "oh those look like elk tracks", look up, arse of a big elk right in front of me.

[noel]

Possible male hen harrier today. Largish bird of prey, strikingly light underside with very obvious black wing ends. Sleek and fast-looking. I hope it avoids the various perils around here.

[wheezing donkey]

Possible male hen harrier today. Largish bird of prey, strikingly light underside with very obvious black wing ends. Sleek and fast-looking. I hope it avoids the various perils around here.

Yes, the females are brownish red; the males are almost white bordering on pale blue. The other give-away is the 'slab sided' head, appears very flat around the eyes, as in a barn owl. Also a rather 'erratic' flight pattern, similar to a lap wing. The long 'swept back' wings appear to be disproportionately slender.

Ian Roberts, Bowland FR

PS Your local constabulary should have an appointed Wild Life Protection Officer ( usually a local village 'bobby'), get the information of your sighting to him/her.

[Derby Tup]

Half way between a heron and a gull Noel. I’ve seen two, including one on the day I met Stef for the first time

[noel]

Thanks WD and DT.
That sounds about right then. It was a bit gull-like and definitely had slender wings. I've now heard that someone else has seen one there earlier in the week. I've told the RSPB now, so they'll alert any authorities as needed.

I'm really pleased to see one - a first for me.

[noel]

Four large red deer (no antlers). They ran off to behind the hill we were on and then obviously changed direction as we saw them trotting across another hill a few minutes later.

[noel]

A barn owl - in our "barn" (open-fronted shed). We've not seen one in there before.

[Derby Tup]

Nice one Noel

I saw a woodcock yesterday

[noel]

Nice one yourself. I don't think I've ever seen one of those.

[Derby Tup]

Find a decent-sized wood and check it out around dusk mid-late spring. You might see one circuiting above the canopy grunting. In the woodcock world it’s referred to as roding; in the human world think of it a bit like dogging