|
The Modern Antiquarian Forum » Wild life sightings at ancient sites |
Log In to post a reply
|
|
|
|
| Topic View: Flat | Threaded | |
tjj 3606 posts |
Edited Jan 21, 2010, 16:03
Jan 21, 2010, 15:59
|
||
|
Whenever I go out locally around Avebury/Wiltshire Downs I always see something in the way of wild life that makes the walk memorable. I was going to add this under the Funny Stories thread but thought I take the chance and start a new one ... if no one answers, no problem. Two or three years ago I was walking up Waden Hill at Avebury; the track was next to a field of bright yellow rape - suddenly a brown creature charged past me on the other side of the fence. Taken by surprise for a split second I recall thinking 'that's a bloody big hare', realised later it was a muntjac deer. My first close up of one but have since seen them a few times.
|
|||
|
TheStandingStone 218 posts |
Jan 21, 2010, 16:09
|
||
I was at a very large rath once that had a medieval church built in the middle of it. All that was left at the church was the outer walls and trees were growing in the middle...There was a gate into the church which I climbed over. While navigating the trees I noticed out of the corner of my eye something moving by my feet. It was a bloody great badger! It hadn't noticed me so I backed away slowly and climbed out. It must have been severely ill not to notice me and to be out in the middle of the day...but it was a shock..particularly knowing how nasty they can be...I didn't want to be trapped in this ruin with it.
|
|||
|
wideford 1086 posts |
Jan 21, 2010, 16:13
|
||
There's a Muntjac colony in Bury St. Edmunds that I tried to photograph, but they bounce across rapido like demented alsatians in fancy dress. Going round the Orkney coast, especially near brochs, there's one group of animals that usually put their seal on a visit ;-)
|
|||
|
postman 848 posts |
Jan 21, 2010, 17:21
|
||
|
tjj wrote: I was going to add this under the Funny Stories thread but thought I take the chance and start a new one ... if no one answers, no problem. I suspect this could be a long thread. My first such encounter happened on the way to Duddo five stones, The footpath to the circle was a bit unused so my wife and two year old son turned back to the car whilst I carried on with my four year old daughter on my shoulders. Taking it slowly over a stile we quietly entered a field full of some foul kind of crop that aloud no egress through it, we just started the walk round the edge of the field when a female red deer jumped up only ten yards or so away from us, it made us both jump and we just stared at it as it bound through the infernal crop at least six feet high with every jump. My daughter still remembers it now. Since then I saw a common lizard at Mulfra quoit, boxing hares at Avebury, a Golden eagle at the old man of storr, really close to a red kite at Nant tarw, a grass snake at a taula in menorca, and a brief encounter with a fox at a cave in the peak district.
|
|||
|
postman 848 posts |
Jan 21, 2010, 17:28
|
||
an arms legnth away from nesting swallows at a fogou in cornwall, bats at Cairnholy burial chamber in scotland, and a whole lot of buzzards every where, on the way home last time we went out a buzzard flew low across the road infront of us and hit the people carrier infront, it went up, then fell to the ground wings stiff and outstretched
|
|||
|
postman 848 posts |
Jan 21, 2010, 18:04
|
||
A small brown toad at tyfos stone circle, barn owls at the ring brodgar and greycroft stonecircles, and geckoes all over menorca, I'm sure thats close to all of them, I think.
|
|||
|
Branwen 824 posts |
Edited Jan 21, 2010, 18:23
Jan 21, 2010, 18:19
|
||
|
postman wrote: a buzzard flew low across the road infront of us and hit the people carrier infront Ouch. What a shame. My first year on the bus tours to the highlands I would drive along the road that runs alongside Loch Laggan, spouting my spiel into the microphone and trying to concentrate on what is a very dangerous bit of road. As you get to the worst stretch where it narrows, just by Dun Da Lamh hillfort, I got a shock. This ewe and her two lambs were startled by a large goshawk swooping out of the trees at them. I only narrowly avoided killing them, as there is cliff on one side and a drop off on the other, so no where to swerve to really. It happened regularly at Dun Da Lamh for the next three months, so that I realised the Goshawk was deliberately trying to scare the lambs under the wheels of the buses. Confirmed one week when I saw it feasting on one. Then there was a month with nothing. The sheep had grown accustomed to it, and refused to startle anymore. So all quiet, and I got less twitchy. Until, that is, I was driving up to the hillfort part of the road as usual, saw some sheep, and suddenly the Goshawk came screaming out of the trees straight at the windshield! Missed it by inches and effortlessly flew ahead of the bus for a minute before flying away. It was now trying to startle the drivers into hitting the sheep instead of the other way around. Just about died of a heart attack I can tell you. It did that for about a month, which the tourists loved. It gave up in the end, I hope, and didn't just end up like the buzzard you mention. I was too busy keeping one eye on the skies and one on the road a few weeks later when a brightly coloured pheasant went up in front of the bus. So calm was I after the all the other stuff I just swerved and interrupted my history commentary to comment on the bird itself - only to have the dun coloured female he was with fly straight into the offside mirror in an explosion of feathers and screams from the bus.
|
|||
juamei 2013 posts |
Jan 21, 2010, 19:50
|
||
|
I was looking for a shortcut up the hill behind Rempstone circle up to Nine Barrows down when I stumbled across a whole herd of deer including a massive stag. None of them moved a muscle so I backed away slowly and went the long way round... I've seen a stoat near Stanton Drew, a weasel near The Coffin Stone, a fox within 5 metres on the dorset ridgeway and all sorts of wild birds that I didn't recognise!
|
|||
Moth 5236 posts |
Jan 21, 2010, 20:20
|
||
|
Off the top of me head: Young Peregrine at St Just in Brittany http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/80705/st_just.html (the birdlife on the heath was generally wonderful there) Deer at dolmen in Denmark http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/60431/dyssekammer_i_kdeby.html (they were closer to begin with....) Loadsa lizards all over just about every stoneything we went to in Sardinia. Buzzards in loads of places, particularly memorable at Greycroft http://www.flickr.com/photos/71451816@N00/3639443962/in/set-72157619855638003/ Beautiful flock of starlings at Boskawen-Un. love Moth
|
|||
thesweetcheat 6219 posts |
Jan 21, 2010, 20:30
|
||
Wonderful stuff Moth.
|
| Pages: 10 – [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 | Next ] | Add a reply to this topic |
|
|
|
| The Modern Antiquarian Forum Index | |
