Kitchen Garden Forum

Inbetween watching the English rugby teams biting the dust, I was thinking of some amazing things I had seen.
When on hols at a Christmas years ago, outside Newton Abbot, there are ditches with amazingly clear water. Anyway, my wife and I were walking alongside one of these, and saw a Comorant, swiming underwater. It was an incredible sight. Another time, when fishing in a river near Berwick, I stood transfixed for at least half an hour, so near a kingfisher,I could have leaned over and touch it, watching it, diving into the water, after small fish, off a branch. To finish off this dit, I stopped the car on a small lane near my home, and watched,from about 15 feet, a Sparrow Hawk, swooping onto a vole, looking distainfully at me, and flying off with it.
They are a few of the wonderful things I have seen, that will stay with me as long as I am here, on this mortal coil!

Those are memories to treasure! I remember standing on a harbour wall in Cornwall with my children when they were small, watching a magnificent conger eel catching and eating fish in the incredibly clear water. Another rare wildlife glimpse I treasure is the sight of a wildcat in a forest in the north of Scotland, stalking prey, apparently completely oblivious to our presence.
Regards, Lyn.

Driving on the road from Oakham back to Leicester a few years ago I stopped to watch the hunt charging across a field towards a wood after the pack of dogs who in turn were chasing a fox.

Whilst all this was going on the fox slipped out of the side of the wood came up the field and sat about twenty feet from me to watch the hunts continued frantic efforts to find him

You can't win 'em all

i still get excited when i see deer running along on the roads near my house.
i saw dolphins in scotland and the maldives
i like to see the rabbits hopping in the fields.
i once saw a red kite swoop down and catch its prey down the lane.
i like to be aware of the things around me-i try to mae a concious effort each day.

ps-theres always something bizzare in newton abbot!!

for bizzare Newton Abbot aint in the same league as Glastonbury

Amazing in the bizarre sense wildlife sight today.

In the middle of the tracks at my mainline railway station in north London, half a fox and no spatter.

eww peter that is certainly grim!
i have to say 'fox/badger/squirrel heaven' if i see that

We always used to get some blonde haired beauties round my way in the summer, but i have not seen them this year.
Reckon they must have gone down Devon way now.

i'll let you know if i see them OH
must say i've never visited your neck of the woods-as it were
i'll pencil it in for next year!
i'm off to st ives on saturday!

Dear jopsy, if you come up to my neck of the woods, make sure you put your best frock on, as we are all quite posh up here.
I love St Ives, such nice people go there.

ooohh i need a new frock-i'll bear that in mind!

i love watching flowers grow over time in my garden-back to the point

While in Wales this summer with my family and The Grocks family, there was an incredible moon. We were sitting there around the fire and I thought there was a quad bike up on the moor, with a farmer checking his sheep. Then, over a matter of 15 minuits the moon rose over the moor. It was a clear, full moon that was so bright it lit up the entire area. The sky was clear and there were shooting stars all over the place. It looked like a meteor shower. We could see all the different areas on the moon. It was beautiful.

Then there was the fox in Croxteth Park that I saw whilst walking the dog. There was also the woodpecker making it's nest, the red kites flying overhead. The smell of jasmin that had taken over a neglected garden. The bats flying over the lottie at dusk. The Canadian Geece and Hooper Swans flying over to land on the lake in the park.

For an urban environment, there is so much wildlife here. It suprises me all the time

I used to do a garden maintenance job once a week in a big house near Hungerford and they had Peregrines nesting in an old oak at the bottom of their garden. We watched the babies turn from white balls of fluff into little fighter jets over the summer. Best bit was when they were learning to fly and we had babies flapping round the tree while the parents were sitting in another tree shouting encouragement.

Sue

Dear Sue the big house you worked at, wasn't Chilton was it.

We overlook Morecambe Bay with its ever changing bird population, we get Spotted woodpeckers and Barn Owls and Little Owls in the garden along with a Kestrel, Pergrines nest nearby there is also a Badgers Sett, Foxes , Deer ther a loads of shrews in the garden too, we have grasshoppers and many butterflies and moths and also bats, I feel very priveleged to get such a close view of all these creatures