[Closed] More ramblings..

wonderful stuff, thanks for sharing

Cracking post. Hooray for happy chattering badgers! 😀

My favourite recent experience of this sort was racing a somewhat puzzled owl, a Little Owl I think, whilst out on a solo night ride. It flapped alongside me for a good 10-20 metres, presumably whilst trying to figure out what on earth I was, before dropping down on some unfortunate rodent. Splendid.

Top post and cracking pics. Nice one sharki. 🙂

Not quite in the same league, but just riding into work today I saw tons of rabbits, a pheasant and some cormorants, plus I got to enjoy the fresh air and see the first signs of autumn approaching.

Makes you realise how much of life you miss when you wrap yourself in a tin box to drive from one enclosed, weather-proofed sterile shelter to another.

Cheers Sharki, nice one.

First signs of Autumn!
Oh yeah, the leaves have started falling, fly algaric and other funky fungi are popping up. Chestnuts and wall nuts are almost ready the harvest, as well as a bumper crop of hazelnuts.

One thing that did surprise me yesterday was the sight of wild strawberry flowers and a few unripe fruit..Summer is still holding on, just.

Excellent footage and pictures, sharki, I've yet to see a Badger in the flesh (A live one at least)

Oh those baby badgers are gorgeous.
Sharki - I think you should send that clip into the BBC for Autumn watch when it comes onto our screens in a month or so.

We have badgers in the garden every night, they have a well trodden path now. Every Morning I go downstairs and replace the little divets of earth, where they've been digging for earthworms. A neighbour gives them peanut butter sandwiches 🙂

fantastic mate. I got to watch an 'ant war' for hrs and hrs last summer reds vs blacks, wish id had some kind of time lapse camera.
will you re-post this mid-winter when the darkness is getting to me, the beauty of nature is the only thing that keeps me going in the darkness that is a welsh winter

Great pics - and it must be slug mating season - I saw some this morning too.

Thanks all.

Not the first time i've been told to send in a video. My shrew one got several nods as it's fairly rare to capture a shrew, midday, trying the eat a beetle.

🙂

Ants! hee he, reminds me of a time this year when i was lying on the ground watching them carry a vast array of food items back to the nest. I ended up having loads of them crawling over me. 😕

Most of the posts i start are of this type, so should be easy to find when the winter sets in and you need your fix. I'll be out looking for winter life and snapping/filming whatever interests me.

But first we have the Autumn, mating slugs, fabulous fungi, rutting reds and the murmuration of starlings, also much much more.

True story.

On the way to an emergency call in a rapid response car i hit a badger crossing the road but obviously didnt stop as i was on the way to a 'chest pains' call....got to the call and needed an ambulance to convey the patient to hospital....when the ambulance crew arrived they mentioned that they had passed a badly injured badger on the way....i felt awful and told them i had hit the badger on the way here, they said it wasnt dead and i should go back and take care of it.

They left for hospital with the patient and i drove down the road to find the badger, it was in the verge in a bad way so i went to the boot and got the crow bar from the rescue kit....then proceeded to beat the badger to death.

Didnt get another call so pootled up to the A&E for a cuppa, bumped into the crew who'd taken the patient and one of them asked if i'd seen to the badger....i explained what i'd had to do and he looked horrified, turns out when he said to go back and take care of the badger he meant to take it to a vet....i was a little embarrassed but i maintain my actions were for the best.

That'll be a whoops then.

I heard a similar story involving a cat, tragically the man whom hit the cat, found another cat sleeping under the hedge and proceeded to beat it death, mistaken identity..

But with death comes life and that's natures way.

theres some great pics of our countryside sharing m8s there sharki, but when are you going to organise another of your ass-breaking, lung busting (for me anyway!)tours of the quantocks?

Autumn + mud = best time of year for riding!

Organise? ME!

It's not like i'm never not free to turn up and ride.

They should be self organising now, with me just getting an e-mail stating: Large group of people off the internet, to meet at some random location for sweat, mud and tears, bring a bike, a sense of humour and some lurpak.

Give me a date and time and i'll give you a location to meet and a ride to remember.

But please, make it after the affects of these antibiotics, as i need to be near a loo at all times.. 😳

i explained what i'd had to do and he looked horrified, turns out when he said to go back and take care of the badger he meant to take it to a ve

A few years back we were out round Hayfield, when I got to the bottom of the campsite descent a pair of distressed walkers were talking to the rest of the gang, one of them had hit an ickle baby bunny on the way down and broken it's back. The walkers had brought said bunny down and were asking if we could sort it ouy since we'd caused the problem

GeeTee1972 manfully stepped up and said of course we could. He gently took the bunny from the walker, turned round and snapped its neck, then threw it into the undergrowth.

"Is it dead?" I asked

"Must be, just pissed all over my hand" he replied

The walkers looked horrified. They expected us to take it to the vets. Sorry, but small animals die. It would be more cruel to keep it alive, and this way Mrs Fox will be able to feed her cubs tonight.

Later on, in the pub, I told Greg "I couldn't have done what you did there mate"

He looked proud and as he was about to reply, I added "cos I couldn't cold bloodedly [b]murder[/b] an ickle bunny like that"

Cue one very crestfallen Greg, and a bunch of riders wetting themselves at the puppy-dog expression on his face

Sharkie - that shrew looks like it burned up more energy getting into the beetle and consuming it, than it got from the actual meal.

Great stuff.

nbt - I remember that teeny baby bunny incident well, sad but had to be done.

They need to eat their own body weight in food a day..
The Carabid it picked on was a sizable meal, however it is also one of the toughest armoured beetles, so would of expended an awful amount of energy in catching, killing and eating it, i suspect this one was old and missing a few teeth. 🙂

That's some amazing videos there Sharki! Well done mate! 😀

Nice one Sharki!
Its amazing what you can find if you look 🙂

Thanks some more.
Pete, surprising the footage that can be captured with a bridge camera and a little vision, hopefully I'll have something one day that will handle close up vids and distant action.
a months time, I'll be hiding out in the hills trying to capture some rutting.

becki, its getting dangerous now riding a bike as my eyes are constantly on the search for nature.

nice stuff 🙂

Todays wee deer encounter.