Strange Thing you see whilst out in the countryside

[low plains drifter 10,848]

21 hours ago, peterhunter86 said:

I've seen a magpie fighting a stoat,and twice I've seen young pike about 3 or 4 inches long jumping out of the water catching flies and when I was about 14 me and me mate's were swimming in the canal and a mink got in and came right up to us and swam around us for a few minutes,and the funniest one was seen a camel and a pony fighting each other in a field 

I saw a magpie and a rat fighting over a scrap of food neither seemed overly bothered by eachother, there's a field I pass by that has a Bactrian camel in with the lamas or alpacas, I remember one time a hare running into the field then lying down as we walked over to it with four lurchers and a terrier the dogs could smell it but we couldn't find it, another time there was a misty figure in a field which disappeared, the figure not the field that was a weird one

[Daniel cain 46,707]

another first for me ..been doing a job, building retaining walls,steps,fencing for a customer few weeks back,garden backed on to a stream and horse stables,I set a few live catch traps,ended up with 23 rats out of the garden,came in one morning,rat in the trap,I out the trap in a builders bucket,put my coat over it until the end of the day....when I got home and picked up the trap...there's was 12 little pinkie rat pups in the cage...rat had given birth and not eaten them....the rat pups went to the kids cornsnakes and mother was rehomed with my terrier pups ...

[low plains drifter 10,848]

20 hours ago, paulus said:

I was bream fishing at a gravel pit a couple of months ago, left my peg to have a piss and have a quick word with my mate in the next peg, 10 mins max. when i got back there was 2 crows on my bait tray, They had trashed my bait tray, they had open my bag pulled out my lunchbox that was now at the waters edged. had a tub of spare worms out and smashed through the plastic top, all my bags of dead red maggots had been ransacked and dead maggots everywhere, Then to top it all one had shit all over my seat. 

 

[bell 3,606]

Couple of weeks ago came round a bend and 2 squirrels were scrapping with 2 stoats in the middle of the road , never seen anything like it !

[Nicepix 5,650]

DC's post about the raptor reminded me of when we were travelling to our friend's house about 3 years ago. As we drove down a quiet country lane we saw a buzzard standing on the breast of a dead wood pigeon, pulling the feathers off it and chucking them away as they do. Standing by watching all this was another wood pigeon. It was only a foot away from the corpse. As we approached the pigeon flew off, then the buzzard flew off and then the corpse flew off. 

[peterhunter86 8,627]

On 24/10/2022 at 17:33, Nicepix said:

DC's post about the raptor reminded me of when we were travelling to our friend's house about 3 years ago. As we drove down a quiet country lane we saw a buzzard standing on the breast of a dead wood pigeon, pulling the feathers off it and chucking them away as they do. Standing by watching all this was another wood pigeon. It was only a foot away from the corpse. As we approached the pigeon flew off, then the buzzard flew off and then the corpse flew off. 

A buzzerd flew over my head about 30 or 40 feet in the air struggle to hold a live rat 

[paulus 26]

I have had a cat bolt into a purse net. dogs retrieved little owls whilst lamping. Whilst ferreting a motorway junction roundabout spotted a European eagle owl watching me sat up a tree. Caught a pound and a half goldfish from the cut, My mate won a match on the cut the other year with an 8lb sturgeon, The strange thing is, its us who have the knowledge of what's going on in our countryside yet we are the people who are never asked what's going on in the countryside before decisions are made.

[Nicepix 5,650]

3 minutes ago, paulus said:

I have had a cat bolt into a purse net. dogs retrieved little owls whilst lamping. Whilst ferreting a motorway junction roundabout spotted a European eagle owl watching me sat up a tree. Caught a pound and a half goldfish from the cut, My mate won a match on the cut the other year with an 8lb sturgeon, The strange thing is, its us who have the knowledge of what's going on in our countryside yet we are the people who are never asked what's going on in the countryside before decisions are made.

Our shoot bordered a country park. All three farmers we rented off put in for the Stewardship scheme to get grants. That meant the land had to be surveyed. The people who came to do the surveys had also done one at the country park. After they had completed it they showed my friend, who ran the shoot, the results. They also told him that the shoot was light years ahead of the country park as regards species and habitat. The difference in their opinion came down to pest control. The country park didn't do any.

[paulus 26]

5 minutes ago, Nicepix said:

Our shoot bordered a country park. All three farmers we rented off put in for the Stewardship scheme to get grants. That meant the land had to be surveyed. The people who came to do the surveys had also done one at the country park. After they had completed it they showed my friend, who ran the shoot, the results. They also told him that the shoot was light years ahead of the country park as regards species and habitat. The difference in their opinion came down to pest control. The country park didn't do any.

Shock, Horror, predator/pest control is beneficial to wildlife in general. Gamekeepers are good for the countryside, The big issue with that is, they are very selective as to what species that need to be controlled .  I have lost count of the amount of bumble nests i have come across dug out, Is it surprising that our ground nesting birds are declining when there main predator is left to run amuck. 

[Greyman 29,742]

24 minutes ago, paulus said:

I have had a cat bolt into a purse net. dogs retrieved little owls whilst lamping. Whilst ferreting a motorway junction roundabout spotted a European eagle owl watching me sat up a tree. Caught a pound and a half goldfish from the cut, My mate won a match on the cut the other year with an 8lb sturgeon, The strange thing is, its us who have the knowledge of what's going on in our countryside yet we are the people who are never asked what's going on in the countryside before decisions are made.

I caught this one and another one sharing a set with a fox saw them all coming and going on a trail cam over a few weeks

[dogmandont 10,059]

1 hour ago, Greyman said:

I caught this one and another one sharing a set with a fox saw them all coming and going on a trail cam over a few weeks

Dug and bolted them with terriers while the earth's were very active with other stuff. 

[dytkos 17,863]

Bolted a moorhen whilst ferreting and a shelduck whilst foxing.

Cheers, D.

[South hams hunter 8,938]

Marsh harrier coming into a call was a strange sight; they sort of hop in. 

[dogmandont 10,059]

A rucksack half covered in sand on a river bank, when opened it had massive dildos and gay porn mags in it. Lol. 

[gnipper 6,589]

21 minutes ago, dytkos said:

Bolted a moorhen whilst ferreting and a shelduck whilst foxing.

Cheers, D.

Them shellducks make you jump when they hit a purse net