Seen on the ride...

[piedwagtail91]

yes. i was away about 8.30 doing my august "century ride" to log on the cycling plus website. i like it round there ,though it was a bit cloudy today.

 

[Pete]

Just seen a duck and 4 ducklings wandering around our car park at work. We're at least 3-4 miles from the nearest water. Can only imagine parents set up home during the flooding and have been left stranded now the waters have subsided.

You know, that reminds me of a little scene I witnessed over thirty years ago. No kidding: strange how vividly it stands out in my mind even now! Warm summer's day, cycling from Otley descending Hollins Hill (a busy main road) into Shipley, came to a queue of halted traffic. Being on the bike I could get to the front. There was an AA patrolman (not a policeman, mark you!), parked his van right across the road, and standing there holding up the traffic both ways. And why? Mrs. Duck and her little troop of newly-hatched ducklings making their way slowly across the road. All the held-up drivers were charmed and no-one hooted.

I salute that AA man, all these years later.

 

[craigwend]

Occasionally ride parallel with a white barn owl on some routes near me, mind you the funny spectacled kid with glasses and a scar on his face chasing it does not look as impressed as I am

 

[TheDoctor]

Foxes, hares and a slow-worm (I think. Snakey thing of some sort anyway).

 

[Arch]

Stoats/Weazal type things, not sure what they are, pretty rare but look like the viscious things people kept on the northern estate where I grew up .

If they are as big as ferrets, they are polecats.. (the ferret is just the domesticated version of a polecat) Unlikely to be a pine marten in Suffolk, I think, but possibly an otter? Mink even - but if you see one of them, run the nasty bugger down... Coming over here, eatin' our voles...

As for stoats/weasels - you know how to tell them apart?

Weasels are weasy to identify, stoats are stoatally different...

Seriously, weasels are tiny, about half the size of stoats, (I think stoats can take a rabbit, while weasels take prey more on the scale of mice and things) and stoats have a black tip to the tail which weasels don't. In fact, that's what the black dots in Ermine robes are - stoat tails.

 

[rich p]

There used to be a bit on Braden Beat or That's Life where blokes used to tie up their trousers at the ankle and put ferrets down their trousers. Hmmmm, not sure why, but I seem to recall that they put several down at once. How many of the critters could you get in there, Arch, as an obvious expert in ferret affairs?
I don't know for sure, of course, if you're an expert in getting into mens' trousers

 

[Arch]

There used to be a bit on Braden Beat or That's Life where blokes used to tie up their trousers at the ankle and put ferrets down their trousers. Hmmmm, not sure why, but I seem to recall that they put several down at once. How many of the critters could you get in there, Arch, as an obvious expert in ferret affairs?
I don't know for sure, of course, if you're an expert in getting into mens' trousers

Ummm, glossing over that last question...

Ferrets? I guess there might be physically room for oh, 6 or 8 ferrets a leg, depending on how baggy the trousers were - but they'd have to keep still and not fight... I suspect more than two or three per leg might get a bit hectic...

 

[Pete]

I believe that after a while the Guinness Book of Records refused to take in any submissions about ferrets in trousers or whatever - due to a commonplace dodge of feeding the ferrets on tranqillisers...

Arch, FYI I have seen a weasel take on a rabbit - and win! A young rabbit, true, but still three times the size of the weasel! The weasel just had it by the throat and hung there while poor bunny-wunny squealed and tried to shake it off. No contest.

 

[Arch]

Arch, FYI I have seen a weasel take on a rabbit - and win! A young rabbit, true, but still three times the size of the weasel! The weasel just had it by the throat and hung there while poor bunny-wunny squealed and tried to shake it off. No contest.

Yes, having checked in my Fauna Britannica, it says weasels do take small rabbits. They certainly have a bite on 'em!

Mind you, a friend told a story of when he had a hamster as a kid and it was running about on the floor. He took one bite out of an apple and put it down on the floor where he was sitting. A minute later, it appeared to be running aware across the floor - the hamster had it and was making off with it. Imagine carrying a dinner about twice your body size away, in you mouth!

Apparently, the funny bit was when the hamster tried to get the apple in through its cage door, which was too small...

 

[radger]

As for stoats/weasels - you know how to tell them apart?

Weasels are weasy to identify, stoats are stoatally different...

I thought weasels were weaselly recognised

And, despite their vicious reputation, our cats have brought us dead weasels. (I say 'our,' they're the cats that live at my parent's and annihilate most of the local wildlife. They were mine 10 years ago)

 

[chris42]

Just remembered!
saw a trike on my ride the other day with tri aero bars on the front

 

[Paulus]

Recently I have seen a pair of Red Kites out near Hertford, and a Weasel near to St Albans. You can tell a weasel from a stoat as they are smaller, only a three or four inches tall, but quite long in the body so from a distance they could look like an enlongated rat.

 

[Mr Phoebus]

Saw three gorgeous little owls sitting in a barn by here.
Stood close to two magnificent stags and some deer here.
On a clear day you can see as many as thirteen counties from there
I really enjoyed the view, the Malvern hills being very clear.
Lovely day out, 93 mile ride.

 

[Mr Phoebus]

Pygmy Shrew, wandering aimlessly in the road, managed to pick it up and put it back into the hedge.

 

[515mm]

Saw our next-door neighbour's cat mobbed by a dozen large crows once. She just sat there whilst they dive-bombed her and made a huge amount of noise.

One of them became too brave, came too close - right up to her and, POW! Pussy got her lunch.

I gave her a round of applause and a small, ragged cheer. (I'd had it ages...)