Discovery of the day!

[goosey]

Why not have a place to post about what we have found on a wander that has been either mind blowingly fantastic, or we have just been pleased to see again or for the first time . It could be a place, a thing or animal etc etc - the world is your oyster!

[goosey]

I have been wanting to find some antlers for years, ideally red deer antlers but we don't have red deer in my local NP, NP Zuid Kennemerland and I only saw them for the first time in the wild last month. So my chance of finding them is limited.

Anyway we have plenty of Fallow deer and Roe so I have always been on a specially look out during rutting time.
I had visions of hanging bird feeders from one .

Today I found this Fallow deer antler, quite a young male by the look of it. The antler was smaller (52cm long) than I imagined they would be, but rather heavy.
I think the end where it breaks off from the head is interesting (it reminds me of a polypore fungus) and the fact it has a little hair still attached.

[chris butterworth]

It's a bit late, and it was at night ( ), but nine days ago I was able to confirm that Natterjack Toads were still present on The Wirral, after fears that they might have become locally extinct. There had been no reports for the last couple of years, despite some intense searching by a lot of people. After doing a lot of work with them at the beginning of the century ( ) it was a touch distressing when negative reports were becoming the norm. There were just two males heard calling and no strings of spawn have yet been reported. There again there was little to shout about in 2006 untill the toadlets emerged and I counted at least 14,000 of the little blighters .

Chris

[goosey]

We went up to Dodd Wood today at Bassenthwaite to see the ospreys - which we did all three of them, dad, mum and juvenile!!!!! The piccies are not worth looking at, it was just the pleasure of seeing them so clearly this year -granted it was through a scope.
But then to top it all Bassenthwaite was the host to my very first ever wild otter . We were on the opposite side of the lake to Dodd wood. Apparantly there are two but we only saw the one, who care's it made my day!
We were chuntering on how happy we were, how the otter was larger than we thought then we spotted an osprey flying over the lake - good day or what!

[chris butterworth]

Sounds like a cracking day Goosey, Otter and Osprey . 10 years ago there would have been little, or no, chance of getting both in England. BTW Bassenthwaite is the only lake in the Lake District

Chris

[goosey]

We had a good day over at the Oostvaardseplaasen - still no White-tailed eagles but my discovery of the day is a Painted lady butterfly!
It may not sound grand but after an absolute glut of them in the country in 2009, in 2010 I didn't see any and in 2011 I only saw two.
So seeing my first of the year today really made my day .