One of the things about riding I like the most is the amount of wildlife you wouldn’t normally see in your day to day life.

I’ve seen badgers and owls, plus the usual foxes, squirrels and rabbits but today’s sighting of a seal in the tidal section of the river Medway, just outside of Maidstone, has to top the lot.

It’s right made my day, it has.

There’s one in Lewes as well.
Think they get re-homed in tidal rivers by one of the animal rescue charities down here.

Cool. One of the main reasons I ride is I love nature

We’ve seen deer about a mile away from the centre of Burnley, just down the road from the football ground.
Towneley Park too.

Still can’t get my head around it.
🙂

I’ve seen deer in Prestwich and at Rivington in the past year or so.

I’ve seen deer in some abandoned allotments between the Aire Valley trunk road and Three Rise Locks, there’s all of 30 metres between the two. Not at a silly time of night but 1730 on a summer’s evening.

There’s a surprising amount of wildlife around if you take the time to look. Obviously certain times of day like dawn and dusk tend to be better but even during the day there can be lots to see. We were down in the Wye Valley a few weeks ago and stopped to have our packed lunch and I noticed a grasshopper close by – managed to coax it on to a blade of grass I was holding so the rest of the group could have a look. Been ages since I’ve seen one.

If you ride in a group, it’s one of the best reasons for getting fitter – if you’re out front, you’ll be seeing all the fun stuff before it scarpers.

If you’re at the back of the group you might guess that sheep, cows and crows is all there is!

I had a frog appear in my tent while camping at the Big Bike Bash last month

Daft things, frogs. When I was putting a new fence in at my last house, I dug a load of post holes and left them overnight, to find, the next day, each hole with two or three frogs in. My Dad was all for chucking the concrete in over the top of them, but I fished them out.

Partridges everywhere at the moment. They’re a right bugger to dodge because they can’t run in a straight line and won’t leave the trail!

I’ve seen a lot of badgers on night rides recently – one barreled out of a set and into my front wheel at about 25mph (me, not the badger) amazingly it was ok, and I didn’t fall off!

Also loads of Roe Deer up at Haldon. Many more than previous years.

One of the best bits of MTB especially riding solo and odd times.

Having said that could have done without the hen pheasant who tried to commit suicide in my front wheel on Thursday afternoon!

but today’s sighting of a seal in the tidal section of the river Medway, just outside of Maidstone, has to top the lot.

I hope it survives.

Got up early(ish) about 0600 the other Sunday, and as I wheeled my bike out of the cellar, and into the back garden, a mink ran back down the garden, then into next doors.
Very closely pursued by two surprisingly fast Westies.
Could’ve been a very different outcome had they actually met 😐

Oh, yeah. Forgot about the Pine Marten that was sat on bit of singletrack at Woodbury Common. I squealed to a halt, and it just sat there eyeballing me and finishing off whatever it was eating, and then sauntered off into a bush

I saw a peacock outside Geoffrey Butlers in South Croydon early one Sunday morning.

Seals are quite happy in estuaries. I work by the river in totnes at the top of the dart and there are a couple of seals that come up to hunt mullet at high tide.

On a night ride a couple of years ago, startled a fawn, which carried on running down the trail ahead of us. When we got to the bottom and the daft bugger spotted the fence, it turned round and started running back up toward us. I’d fallen off by this point, bike on its side with front wheel in the air at 90 degrees to the ground. The thing jumped the bike, but clipped my wheel with her front hooves, nearly went otb! We were laughing like hell, until I realised that her clipping my tyre had actually punctured my front tyre. Bugger.

I saw a hippogryff in the pentlands the other day. I’ve seen their spoor before so I was pretty sure they’re up there but it’s the first time i’ve actually seen one. It was ****ing a dead sheep, classic hippogryff behavior.

It’s also that time of year when squirrels go crazy, just running around for food and forgetting any sense of self preservation as they run across the trails in front of hikes….

Seen seals on the rocks in Pembrokeshire, but not whilst riding. Most unusual thing I saw was a 3ft long snake a couple of miles from Cardiff City Center on the Taff Trail.

Chilterns riders who frequent the Maidensgrove/Stonor area will have seen plenty of fallow deer in their time. Saw the full herd (?) the other week, with some very cute ickle foals braving it over the trail… (We’d stopped and lowered lights at this point, I hasten to add).

Red kites and badgers are a local fixture, and hares on the downland are a real treat. One of the best moments was following a tawny owl for about 50 metres down a bridleway, fully lit by head torch.

Our house is built on a steep slope so the front and back doors are both at ground level. We are also out in the country. During that hot spell about a month ago we’d got both doors open to get some air movement through the house. I was walking upstairs and wondered “What’s the cat looking at?” as he was crouched in a funny posture. As I got to the top of the stairs and approached the back door and saw what had got his attention: a hare just sat there about a metre inside the house. It looked at me for a moment or two then in its own good time turned round and lolloped slowly out of the house and down the lane!

The cat hadn’t brought it in as he’d gone up the stairs just before me. Hares don’t get myxomatosis so it wasn’t suffering from that. Simply no idea why it had decided to wander in to the house.