did a lap of the wall this morning and there was a buzzard sat on a rock who took off and flew down the singletrack, only 5m or so in front of me for about 50 metres.
made my day 🙂

flew down the singletrack

was he on a strava run?

It’s great when that sort of thing happens.
I followed a fox with a squirrel in it’s mouth once. It was so pleased with itself that it didn’t realise I was right behind it for about 50m.
I had an owl swoop so close one night I could feel the beat of it’s wings.

😆 Headfirst!

I was on a night ride a couple of weeks back, whilst on a canal tow path I caught some eyes in my lights.

Next thing the animal turns and bolts up the track the same direction as me, and then dives in to the canal. From what I could tell it was a cat.

However I stopped quickly and scanned the water for about 5 minutes and nothing came back up 😥

It was so pleased with itself that it didn’t realise I was right behind it for about 50m.

Our cat came into the garden last night obv on some sort of mission and got within 3m of me (sitting on a chair admiring the results of the night’s fettling) before it noticed I was there.

The look on its face was priceless

I’ve had this twice with barn owls.

Once it was cold & pitch black. I had my Lumi’s on & twisted one in it’s direction to get a better look. This illuminated the ditch I was riding along quite well, resulting in the owl swooping down almost alongside me & following my light. Pretty sure he was using it to look for tasty morsels. After 400m or so, he gained a bit of height and flew over my head into another field.

Made my day, that did!

Jonah, was the bird at the top of the Wall trail/Piccadilly? I may have had the same one fly right in front of me heading downhill on the link road from Whites this morning- he was nearly close enough to touch at one point flying just ahead of us for 100m+, gutted we didn’t have a gopro on at the time!

My dog rolled in some fox shit this morning , he Is still outside on the decking. After being scrubbed 3 times I can still smell Basil Brush’s Keech. 🙁

I’ve had a similar thing with a Tawny Owl in my local woods. I got so close it’s wing brushed my face as it made a sharp left turn off the single track.

My would say “not the owl story again dad” if she saw this.

Pretty sure he was using it to look for tasty morsels. After 400m or so, he gained a bit of height and flew over my head into another field.

Owls are amazing and I’m so jealous you got so close to one, however they use their ears, not eyes for seeking out prey.

however they use their ears, not eyes for seeking out prey.

A bit of trivia on this: Owls’ ears have different openings on each ear (that is, they’re not symmetrical). So as well as being able to tell which direction sound is coming from left-right as we do, having one earhole higher than the other means that they can tell how high the sound is as well.

Its possible that the buzzard did not want you getting too close to its territory, nest.
Google attacked by buzzard
eg
http://current.com/community/90413463_real-life-the-birds-as-jogger-attacked-by-buzzard.htm

quite common in certain areas, and best avoided.
You can hear the buzzard call out first, then the swoosh as it skims over your head for a warning shot. If you dont move away fast enough for its liking then the talons come out.

But then again it was probably just a harmless encounter with a slightly surprised bird.

Had a Buzzard swoop right down in front of me as it was trying to take off from a tree. Was over kinver, brilliant but crapped myself as thought we were going to hit each other

Makes you glad that you’re not a rabbit.

Last year had a big stag, full rack of antlers burst out of the ungrowth just in front of me, run down the trail for 20-30meters or so and then dive off the track.

Awesome, they are pretty big up close.

Had a couple of similar experiences with barn owls – also followed a badger along a 100m or so of singletrack last winter. Get a real buzz out of it when it happens. (Please assure me Cougar isn’t Chris Packham . . . .)

On a Scuba nightdive was checking out some snoozing Parrotfish in a coral wall, when a sodding great (5-6 ft) Moray Eel decided to stick its nose in the torch beam looking for an easy meal, some inches from my mask – scared the Living Crap out of me i can tell you. But a truly memorable experience!

Same thing happened to me at night with an owl. It was amazeballs.

The Owl was on a nightdive?… amazeballs indeed! 😀

Blasted goshawks here in the Fod throw things at you! They seem to like flying up the tracks and when they spot you they pull up and drop what they are carrying.

When night fishing on hasla wall (portsmouth) a bloke who was fishing a hundred yards or so away came over for a chat. As we stand there gassing I look over to where he was set up and there were 3 sets of eyes over his gear…. Foxes took off with most of his bait and all of his catch. He wasnt impressed! I on the otherhand nearly pi$$ed myself laughing once he’d gone….

We had a pair of red kites in the Barton Hills until recently when some scumbag poisoned them! Police are testing local outbuildings for traces of the poison so fingers crossed they find them. Would love to meet them face to face for a ‘discussion’ on their reasons for doing it though, was always a pleasure to see them circling during a ride.

Flying along on a bike is the closet most of us will ever get to flying, I love being flanked by any kind of bird and watching it.

Have done similar with bats too – the headlight on the bike attracting bugs and the bats just rolling along with me picking out food

There are a few owls and red kites I see regularly in the woods where I ride. Amazing creatures.

Badgers on the other hand… they always scare the crap out of me – running alongside, hidden in the undergrowth before darting across the trail resulting in mucho braking and a girly scream (me, not the badger).

Deer too… the buggers seem to really enjoy jumping out in front of me. I’m sure they lurk behind trees, plotting, waiting.

I had a similar encounter with a buzzard while rolling down a fireroad at Dunkeld a while back – you could really feel the strength of its wingbeats up close, just a couple of powerful flaps then it could glide for a miles.

Being able to see wildlife is one of the best things about biking in my opinion, have seen loads of exciting birds and animals over the years. The most recent was a weasel crossing the bikepath on the way to work this morning. The most memorable was probably a magnificent white fallow deer stag I saw on a frosty morning the day after my Grandad died. I’m not at all superstitious, but things like that certainly make you wonder.

chop chop, it was the trail after piccadilli (373?) but there are loads of them up that valley, and they are becoming more visible now the trees are being felled.

Must be a thing with buzzards. I had exactly the same experience when out on my KLX once time, the bird just cruised head of me for ages – I guess maybe 20mph with no wing beats!

I was quite enthralled, superficially it looked very relaxed and effortless but there were continuous small movements from it’s tail and wing tips.

My earlier comment about badgers may have jinxed my ride tonight. Crashed into one resulting in a spectacular over the bars incident.

No sign of the badger afterwards so I presume/hope it’s ok.

A large glass of wine is easing the pain.

do squirrels count? if so happens all the time at thetford usually running for dear life though

Night ride following group , bat popped in front of me and flew along for a few seconds in my lights – possibly picking up insects disturbed by riders in front of me.

We rode past 2 rutting stags on a night ride once (only tiny ones, new forest – none of your scary Dartmoor shit). They didn’t even pasue for breath as we went by about 3 feet away.

I’ve had plenty of animal encounters including a couple of deer, which jumped into the road in front of me and my cycling buddy then one of them failed to jump the opposite fence. It panicked and bounced from fence to fence several times before it made it over, the commotion was so great that for 100 yards down the road we were spitting bits of grass, leaves and deer bristles out of our mouths.

Best I ever saw was when I was in woods quietly riding along when suddenly all hell broke loose and it seemed like every bird in the wood fled, all in the same direction, all screeching in alarm their own equivalent of “run away!” A few seconds later three red kites came over at treetop height, looking up I could see the light through their wing feathers and their heads moving as they scanned the trees for lunch. Amazing.

Oh and once on a climbing holiday in Skye, we came down out of the cloud and stopped on the glacial lip of the upper corrie for a rest when along the main glen came two adult and one juvenile golden eagles, circling on the thermals and checking the hillside for food. They passed within 100 feet of us and carried on slowly up the glen, amazing to watch.