Never seen one before.

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I laid out my cycling gear last night and set the alarm for 4.30 this morning, so that I could do what I had wanted to do all week - go for a ride in the early part of the day.

I was on the road at 5.00 am, and within a couple of miles I passed a recently dead mole on the grass verge. It must have dead for only a short while, as the birds had not got to it. It had a lovely black velvet coat and huge pink spades for feet. It was definitely dead as it was on its back and immobile.

In my 53 years I have never seen a mole, either dead or alive. It occurs to me that cycling is a great way to see wildlife: you approach them in near silence, but rather swiftly, and they are usually taken by complete surprise. I have seen herds of deer crossing yards in front of me on quiet lanes, scores of hares, but I need to see a live badger. Perhaps a night ride will yield some results.

What have you spotted on your rides?
 

Rezillo

TwoSheds
Location
Suffolk
I started winter night riding a couple of years ago and was promised I'd see all sorts of rural wildlife but mainly I've seen rats. However, I did see my first live badger last year, which moved surprisingly quickly along the road in front of me for about 25m before disappearing into a ditch. I'm a similar age to you and that is still the only live badger I've ever seen.

In daylight, I've seen plenty of weasels, a few stoats, deer, grass snakes etc. but my favourite is an area near Redlingfield where a large barn owl regularly swoops over the road in the early evening. An awesome sight in flight. It once perched on a telegraph post stay wire less than 10m from me so I stopped and we had a stare-out for about 30 seconds. Little owls are a fairly common roadside post percher.

If anything runs alongside you, you can find out its speed. After exhaustive research, I can confirm bumblebees fly at around 14mph and a hare can do 25mph for at least 200m. There is also a "25mph from a standing start" dog in one village that bolts down the length of its garden alongside the road to bark at me at the end.

I have seen moles, not from a bike though, but just because our cats used to catch them dead and alive.

John
 

battered

Guru
Make the most of it now, because it's not always light till 10.

I was out last week with a pal, met at his house around 3 and had a leisurely ride around Wetherby/Harrogate, inc a food stop at the supermarket in Wetherby. Got in at 8.30 / 9, surprised to see 54miles on the computer! You can't get that done in the winter so easily. With that in mind I should get out again.
 

colly

Re member eR
Location
Leeds
xpc316e said:
I need to see a live badger.

Watch out if you surprise one. They tend to lose their rag quickly and if you are in their line of sight..........move. Fast.

:wacko:
 

got-to-get-fit

New Member
Location
Yarm, Cleveland
Ive kissed a mole.........i know that sounds bizare but i was a little drunk.



Coming home from a meal one night the wife stopped the car on a country lane as there was something moving in the middle of the road.

I got out and found a mole struggling accross the tarmac, trying to make it to the other side.

I decided to help him out and picked the little fella up .....and walked over to the other side of the road and before i put him down i could not resist giving him a quick kiss on the head.

Lovely little creature, very soft and snuggly ....but also very frightened.
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
I surprised a mole above ground once and picked it up. It was a long time before the toys came on the market, but it felt exactly like a Beanie Baby! I also once surprised a badger on a creek-side path in Cornwall at dusk. It lumbered along for about 30 seconds before going underground. Magic.
 

Helly79

New Member
Location
Norwich
This is one of the reasons i love cycling, i have seen hares in a field, deers, and quite a few different types of birds
 
I have been out chasing a mole just an hour ago.

The ground here is too hard for him to dig into so he has taken to digging around in my wife's nicely dug raised veg bed.

Out there at about 8.30 we were surveying the damage when the ground moved a bit and so I tried to dig the bugger out. when i got to him he gave a squeak and ran away!

When I do catch him the kids want me to let him go by the posh house up the road with the manicured and always stripey front lawn.
 

buggi

Bird Saviour
Location
Solihull
my mum was really cross with my dad once for dragging the wheel barrow along the grass. however, on further inspection, a mole was found to be the culprit. he had gone along the edge of the grass because he couldn't get through the kerb stone.

he got moved to the neighbours garden pronto ! ha ha
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
Over The Hill said:
When I do catch him the kids want me to let him go by the posh house up the road with the manicured and always stripey front lawn.

OMG! I expect a bit of Class War on the various gun-control threads....but using moles as a weapon is a low, low blow...:biggrin:
 

gbb

Legendary Member
Location
Peterborough
Now you mention it, i've only ever seen one mole....beautiful black satin fur. I was driving along and i think it had fallen off the grass verge onto the road and it couldnt get back up the kerb.

Seen on the bike ?
Osprey in trees about 200 yards away. Only ever seen them flying high between the Nene Washes and Rutland...this one was about 10 miles into my ride, nearly fell off the bike with the shock of seeing him.

Nearly ran over a badger two years ago. Pitch black night, scared the freeking daylight out of me.

Grass snakes a few times, theres excellent ground for them within the old brickpits nearby.

Lizards once or twice, not big ones but boy do they move fast.

Red Kite abound round here...in the right area, i'll see 6 one one ride sometimes.

Columbine ? Its a flower, very beautiful (to me anyway)...only ever seen one before, then rode past one in a ditch...had to turn round to admire it, and i'm not even a flower person :biggrin:
9_sm_columbine_flower_05.jpg
 
xpc316e said:
I laid out my cycling gear last night and set the alarm for 4.30 this morning, so that I could do what I had wanted to do all week - go for a ride in the early part of the day.

I was on the road at 5.00 am, and within a couple of miles I passed a recently dead mole on the grass verge. It must have dead for only a short while, as the birds had not got to it. It had a lovely black velvet coat and huge pink spades for feet. It was definitely dead as it was on its back and immobile.

In my 53 years I have never seen a mole, either dead or alive. It occurs to me that cycling is a great way to see wildlife: you approach them in near silence, but rather swiftly, and they are usually taken by complete surprise. I have seen herds of deer crossing yards in front of me on quiet lanes, scores of hares, but I need to see a live badger. Perhaps a night ride will yield some results.

What have you spotted on your rides?

I have an old badger that sits in the bushes and watches me go by every morning when I am on a really early start.

I also have foxes and on one occasion a deer that nearly ran me over.

...and all this in the centre of a town
 

rusky

CC Addict
Location
Hove
colly said:
Watch out if you surprise one. They tend to lose their rag quickly and if you are in their line of sight..........move. Fast.

:smile:

Agreed! If you're on a MTB at night, they feel they have the upper hand. Nothing says pedal fast like a pissed off badger!

OTOH, I used to feed some semi tame ones round a friends house. They came into the house via french windows & ate loads of bread & honey.
 

Cubist

Still wavin'
Location
Ovver 'thill
got-to-get-fit said:
Ive kissed a mole.........i know that sounds bizare but i was a little drunk.



Coming home from a meal one night the wife stopped the car on a country lane as there was something moving in the middle of the road.

I got out and found a mole struggling accross the tarmac, trying to make it to the other side.

I decided to help him out and picked the little fella up .....and walked over to the other side of the road and before i put him down i could not resist giving him a quick kiss on the head.

Lovely little creature, very soft and snuggly ....but also very frightened.

GO easy on the kissing wildlife thing. There was a (slightly) mad dog-handler in West Yorks who kissed a fox that had been hit by a car. The fox didn't take all that kindly to being kissed and bit him. It cost him an eye.

Best time to see wildlife is of course at night. I used to do a huge amount of lamping, and that really brings out the best in the countryside. I once took a friend with me and we parked up on a banking overlooking some fields. The lamp lit up some eyes about 500 yards away , which quickly grew to several pairs, all approaching quite quickly. They turned out to be half a dozen fallow deer, an incredible sight as they thundered up the banking and leapt the hedge about fifteen yards away, by this time fully illuminated by the lamp. My mate who had never seen a deer in the wild before was abslutely speechless for a good while afterwards.
 
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