Cycling UK Forum

I can hear owls hooting outside my window.
Lovely. Has anyone got any wildlife spotting stories
or pictures?
When we lived near Bath, a deer jumped out in front of my husbands bike.

Had a lovely experience last week whilst cycling in East Sussex.
We'd just come off the Cuckoo trail and had continued along an off-road section of (I think) route 21 towards Mayfield.
The route goes along a bridlepath through a heavily wooded section.
We were just emerging into a clearing and came upon four deer, which all looked up as we approached and stood staring at us for around a minute before prancing away.
Most unexpected and a real pleasure.
Also heard owls hooting most of the night on our campsite and one flew right over my head as I was walking back to the 'van late one night.

The wildlife that I encounter on a ride are a major part of my enjoyment. Birds are a big pleasure - you have some wonderful encounters in wild places. I was riding through Bowland Forest on one occasion (it's called 'Forest', but there's not a lot of trees) and I was monitored for about a quarter of a mile by a large owl flying about ten feet (ish) above me - I think it was a barn owl, but you can't get a good look in that kind of situation.

I look at the flowers in the hedgerows when on a long climb - it gives something of interest on long, slow climbs. In a climb of 1,000 feet, there are about 30 to 35 varieties - that's in passes from one dale to another, so it's quite wild country, even at the bottom. And the flora changes with altitude - although white clover seems to be able to thrive anywhere. There are places I know where I can see three different varieties of wild orchis within yards of each other. People further south may very well think that's nothing, but up here - there's not a lot of them about.

The other night, at the fag-end of a longer ride home from Dent, I was riding from Settle to home in the dark, and on remote, quiet, uninhabited and obviously unlit lanes. I have decent lights, and I was constanly picking up pairs of eyes on them - usually the animals flee, but occasionally you can recognise a fox. Occasionally also the 'eyes' will be a hunting cat - but never on a cycle.

For a while, I rode home from work after 21.00hrs - over the hills near home, and about ten miles of it was on isolated, unlit quiet lanes, and at dusk, in summer, it was almost as though there were flocks of bats. Balmy nights with plenty of moths - it's a lovely life on a saddle cycle-cat.

We have deer in the garden most days. We are surrounded by woodland, so you name the animal that lives in the woods, and we have them visiting!

Seeing wildlife is what makes a cycle ride for me.
I'm a country cat, having been brought up in Dorset.
I could do with a few books so I know what flora and fauna I'm
looking at.
It's nice to go for a ride, then just sit and take in all around me.
We have a nature reserve with a pond nearby and it changes throughout the year.
Who needs television?

One morning in early August, I came downstairs and opened the curtains, to see a polecat not ten feet away, investigating the woodpile. Unfortunately it had gone before I got my camera. I've never seen one in the wild before, let alone in the garden.

Max

In Wales last year near LLangollen, we stopped by the river for lunch

On the opposite bank, there appeared an Otter, looked around, waited until I reached for my camera and shot off into the undergrowth

It's not unusual to hear a cuckoo in spring, but very rare to see one. This year they were flying around on the moors not a mile from THAT accident blackspot in the locked thread. Curlews are common up there and we've also had a few sightings of little owls. Tawny owls I've seen flying parallel with the bike, hunting along the bank which drops away from the Baslow/Sheffield road towards Cordwell Valley and on one occasion about 15 years back I had a real shock from what I think was a low flying red kite. At that time they were only supposed to be in parts of Wales (since re-introduced in the Yorkshire Pennines) but I don't know another bird that size with a triangular tail. Evening/night rides often catch a hare, fox or badger in the headlights.

Mick F wrote:

Deer3.JPG

We have deer in the garden most days. We are surrounded by woodland, so you name the animal that lives in the woods, and we have them visiting!

Bears

Not seen bears ................. yet!

What about the Beast of Bodmin?

Llangollen. Ll is indeed a single letter in Welsh, but by convention only the first L is capitalised unless the whole word is.

Boy #1 was terribly pleased the other day to spot a squirrel and discover that on a bike you can get a lot closer to them before they scamper off then either walking (because you're going slower) or in a car (because of the noise).

diapason0 wrote:What about the Beast of Bodmin?

We have the Beast of Bolsover here.

diapason0 wrote:What about the Beast of Bodmin?

Funny you should mention that .....

We've lived in this spot for 15 years, and for many of those we had a couple of dogs, and latterly just one. Both sadly passed on. Border Collies, last one went 5 or 6 years ago........

I would take them round our wood every morning first thing - usually 6ish - and once I saw a Big Cat. The elderly dog with me saw nothing, but I saw it. Brown and huge, and it loped away - cat-like - through the undergrowth away from us. Size? Perhaps as big as a Retriever or Labrador dog. Certainly not a domestic cat, FAR bigger.

I was sceptical about these Big Cat sightings until then. I ain't sceptical now.

Do most places that start with the letter 'B' have a beast? I've just been reading about the Beast of Berkshire (http://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/news/article-23112-more-sightings-of-the-beast-of-berkshire-/).

This is scarily close to where we live. Also, there are some very large, unusual droppings in our garden recently. I used to work with a chap who had what could best be described as the Observers Book of Wild Animal Droppings. Unfortunately he has moved on. How we laughed ever time I cracked the "that's a s**t book" joke