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Emus always look so much more relaxed when they haven't got a Rod shoved up their arses.
Very cool 👍
When I ride in the Peaks my wife usually walks and when we get back we have a chat about what we have seen. I think it's because I am biking I usually get to see lizards, shrews, stoats etc. Today I saw nothing while she saw 2 hares, an unspecified small bird of prey and an interesting beetle so I am spitting out the bitter ash of defeat while she revels in glory
Btw if on a bike ride we stop at Christmas Tree Farm in Downe village on the North Downs for coffee we see rheas there. Rheas are very similar to emus and ostriches.....loads of feathers and long necks.
Christmas Tree Farm also has those long-necked sheep, also known as alpacas.
Rare Scottish MAMiL meets Rare Scottish Reptile. Not today, but spotted the wee guy a few weeks back. Typically see them once or twice a year around this spot.
Slow worm?
i grew up by roundway park. hope to have a ride there one day.
But I saw a hare on a ride yesterday and some buzzards
Saw a red squirrel yesterday, which is a rare sight around these parts (Tollymore, Northern Ireland). I feel very fortunate that, on my local trails in Cavehill, belfast, there are 3 kestrels which regularly hunt while im riding.
Saw a vole yesterday! Ran into the road then ran away swiftly.
On my mid-week ride past Cow Green and over Cronkley Fell I passed outcrops of sugar limestone, formed by the intense heat of the magma that also formed the Whin Sill (so quite cool now, not so much then 😊). The Whin Sill itself is also impressive at Cauldron Snout/Falcon Clints/Cronkley Fell.
Went round a few trails in Falkirk and was reminded that outside the population areas, it looks a fantastic place!
Always surprises me as growing up here I couldn't wait to get out, but once again, I'm reminded that my childhood thinking was way off the mark!
Christmas Tree Farm also has those long-necked sheep, also known as alpacas.
I convinced one of my riding buddies once that they were actually long necked sheep. 😁
My dad used to have slow worms living in his compost heap down south. I really thought Scotland would be too cold for them.
They migrate - up here during summer and down your way in the colder months...in winter they are known as slower worms in Scotland as there isn't enough heat to let them move much.
Last year saw these dancers under Spaghetti Junction
Wollaton Park is getting ready for rutting season
And a teenage Robin was very happy scavenging around the food stops
They migrate - up here during summer and down your way in the colder months...
Yeah you see them gathering on power lines before their mass migration to Scotland.
I always know that winter is round the corner when the slow worms return back South
Not so much seen but found out about this today on our Saturday morning ride.
87 years old and 258 miles in 24 hours.
Outdoor yoga retreat today; we were joined by loads of quite sizable dragonflies. Amazing to watch them.
I was escorted by some yellowhammers last week on a ride for a short distance. They were moving far quicker than me 🙂
Saw a mahoosive caterpillar. Later we saw a calf that was so recently born that its mother was still tucking into the afterbirth. 😲
Griffon vultures. About 20 of them circling high up above the valley.
This is in Piemonte, not Essex.
Massive birds. Beautiful.
"A calf so recently born that its mother was still eating the afterbirth."
Mr Farmer is pretty bloody efficient if he's managed to get the ear tags in the calf before the mother had chowed down on the after birth!
Yesterday I saw my first rabbit of the year on the usual patch I see them annually.
In last few months I've had a barn owl flying just in front of me, several deer, several hares and a slow worm I gently rescued off the road.
It's been a good year for spotting wildlife while riding!
Yesterday I saw my first rabbit of the year on the usual patch I see them annually.
In last few months I've had a barn owl flying just in front of me, several deer, several hares, a bat flying just ahead of me and a slow worm I gently rescued off the road.
It's been a good year for spotting wildlife while riding!
Hen harrier day before yesterday and some hares.
Saw two eagles circling yesterday but I was on a boat so it doesn't count 🙂
Vintage vehicle meet just down the road 
Cows enjoying a dip in the canal. 
Yesterday, there was a phone box in the village. I thought it's much-used look was pretty cool 😊
Sign inside from BT explained how your village can preserve it by adopting it for £1. But with no telephony service. With some negotiation you can get telephone services restored.. this one didn't. I picked the cobwebs from my ear and cycled on.
Also cool was the fact that they put a telephone number to contact to find out where the nearest working box is lol!
Even if it did work, who would you be able to call these days, the only numbers I know are my own mobile and our family's trim-phone number from the 80s. "Hello, 471438!"
I saw a very nice black Aston Martin DB6, unfortunately I wasn't fast enough to get my phone out to take a pic
Red squirrel on Thursday's ride, a weasel and a medieval broch on Friday's run, and many lizards, some wild goats and some roman ruins on today's walk.
Ice cream??
Elephant hawk moth caterpillar pictured and a young grass snake (too fast) today.
An adder (my first) and a pair of osprey
I got adopted by a Spaniel. I think it was lost. It ran with me for a couple of miles, while I tried to get a phone signal to ring the number on it's collar. Poor thing was getting hotter and hotter. Passed it off on a couple walking the way it'd had come, and they agreed to try to get hold of the owner...
Saw a red squirrel on Saturday in Mugdock. they're getting more frequent now, whether they are increasing in population or just being displaced due to felling, I'm not sure.
each time I see one I'm surprised by how small they are relative to the greys we get i the garden.
I was on the Pennine Way near the M62 at Windy Hill when a guy came walking the other way completely naked except for boots & a backpack. His lack of tan lines made me think he does it quite regularly.
Saw a red squirrel on Saturday in Mugdock. they're getting more frequent now, whether they are increasing in population or just being displaced due to felling, I'm not sure.
each time I see one I'm surprised by how small they are relative to the greys we get i the garden.
Mugdock? Wow. Wonder how much of it is down to Pine Marten populations recovering? They're apparently super-efficient at jacking the big, dopey greys.
Tonnes of wee gingers up at Pitmedden the other night - every beech tree had a little waterfall of empty shells cascading down from the branches.
Voels! Too quick to get a photo though.
Today a (90% sure) a Golden Eagle.
Big, but smaller than a griffin vulture and their wings are a different shape.
A rat on the canal and a lighthouse.
Cormorant on the hebden water in hebden bridge
