Today's Wildlife Encounter

[Llani Boy]

Doing my squirrel trap round this morning I had 2 unexpected firsts. A red squirrel in one trap and then a pine marten in the next one. Photo as proof and then released unharmed, I wouldn't stick my fingers anywhere near that marten, big gnashers.

A Pine Marten, fantastic. That certainly trumps my Buzzard/Sparrowhawk encounter.

[harv]

Saw one in a wood near Penrith about 10 years back. My mate who I was with grabbed my arm and said “look Harv, a monkey!”

[Mike T]

Saw 3 deer in Skelghyll Woods yesterday - a very quiet noise like a falling leaf, but it continued - and there they were, making their way through the undergrowth. Lovely to see.

[Flem]

Driving home from my run this evening, along an empty country road through the Berkshire Downs in the dusk, with wire fences on either side of the road. I suddenly became aware of a large shape in my left side vision looming out of the gloom and got ready to brake. A large stag, with what looked to me to be pretty impressive antlers, leaped over the fence, trotted across the road a couple of metres in front of me without, apparently, a care in the world (and with no consideration at all for causing me to slam my brakes on) and, without breaking step, hurdled the fence on the right of the road and disappeared on to wherever it was going. I was glad the snow hadn't really been sticking much.

[Mossdog]

Most mornings for the last couple of weeks, I've spotted a stoat, bold as brass, through the kitchen windows, either carrying its catch back to the byre or heading out to forage again. It seems to drop the catch off and then, a few minutes later, head back out along the same track into the field. Presumably stashing the catches for later. Looks magnificent against the snow and doing a great job of reducing the local rodent population.

[molehill]

Big fluffy polecat this morning.
We have a weasel living in the wood store somewhere, spotted it dragging a near fully fledged pigeon off a while back 💪.

[Gambatte]

Many squirrels visit our garden regularly. They are super cute and we'd like to buy a camera with motion sensor to take films.
Any recommendation?

[noel]

Mrs Noel bought me one for Christmas. I'll ask her and get back to you.

[bigfella]

From your forum name, don't you also have a birthday around Christmas?

[noel]

Strangely no. I was born in May. My parents wanted a name that was individual and couldn't be shortened. This after my mum was named Juliet (which she likes), but was then referred to as Julie (which she's less keen on) by everyone in her family and consequently then by my dad.

Being called Noel means I get more Christmas cards.