Attenborough moment today..

elderone

Went for a ride today and have to say had my best cycling experiance.I was heading home down a quiet country road when a big buzzard that was sitting on top of a telgraph pole ,hopped off and swooped down level with me at almost touching distance.
For what seemed ages he just flew next to me at head height as i cycled along.It was a truly stunning bird and
something that will stick with me for ever.
I think my karma is back in balance now after having a terrible experiance to having a once in a life time one.
Stunning.

chrisaonabike

Wow! Sounds amazing.

keef66

Lucky bugger!

Had a few creatures galloping alongside me. Probably just a couple of seconds, but it seemed longer in each case. Once a hare kept up a steady 15mph run until it found a gap in the hedge. I got the impression he could have gone a lot faster if he'd needed to. The most memorable / slightly scary was a roe deer which accompanied me for a bit while I was going through a village close to home. Overtook me on the inside, then bounded across the road in front of me before leaping a 4 foot hedge and disappearing. I can still vividly remember the sound of scrabbling hooves on tarmac, and me just thinking "please don't take me out"

tomhowells

Beats my Squirrel hands down! Although I did have a near miss with an Urban fox - got the feeling he could've taken me out at any given moment, had he chosen to!

Mikey41

Wow! really is a once-in-a-lifetime thing there!

elderone

Bet that deer was a sight to see aswel,even if bit scarry.Get sheep on the roads and they can be unpredictable like rabbits,but that today was amazing.

Headhuunter

I remember being out on a ride with my dad many years ago when a large black or black and white bird, either a Magpie or Raven/Crow type of thing flew down as we rode past and started to attack my dad's helmet, clawing and pecking at it whilst making loud cawing noises... Luckily it b*ggered off fairly quickly and he managed to hold it together and not fall off...

rich164h

I had something similar happen last year when an Owl swooped down and flew about 10ft in front of me at the same speed for a while. Stunning things. A Buzzard alongside would have been amazing though.

bompington

Buzzards can attack - there is a well known psychotic one near here (Perth) that has left people with seriously messy scalp wounds.
Great moment though. I can almost trump it with 2 owls that flew past this morning, really clear view thanks to all those Chinese lumens....
Bit different but it also reminds me of a time when out hillwalking in Galloway, leading a group up a steep hill, we had stopped for a rest when suddenly out of the mist an eagle cruised slowly past less than 20m away & maybe just 2m or so off the ground. You know how everything looks bigger in the mist? Left me speechless.

stifflersmom

Had something similar in the New Forest in the summer. Saw a large bird of prey, a Goshawk I think, on a post to my left. It was early morning with the sun rising behind me, next thing I saw a shadow next to mine on the road in front of me, turned round and the bird was following me, about 10 metres back and just above my right shoulder. Followed me for 30 seconds or so before flying off.
The New Forest is good for wildlife - cows and ponies (docile) and deer (skittish) are quite often seen. I nearly soiled a nice pair of bibshorts when a small deer jumped out of a hedge a few metres in front of me.
Most of my riding is in the Peak District...sheep, rabbits and squirrels are the most common creatures seen. Their stupidity can spice up a descent!
I've also (unintentionally) run over a few small frogs, they make a satisfying popping noise, and unlike slugs they don't stick to your tyres and cover your brake calipers with slime.

elderone

some good stories coming here.theres lots of buzzards around here and you see them almost daily but this was just one of them moments that lasted over 10 seconds and was amazing,(cant see what mrs moans about seemed well long enough lol).

leedsmjh

Had a similar deer moment when riding a horse near Brimham Rocks. A somewhat lunatic ex-racehorse that I could barely keep under control so it was a heart-in-mouth moment.
Most memorable wildlife sighting whilst cycling was a very fast rabbit being chased by a stoat who both shot out of the bushes next to me and sprinted ahead of me up the road for a bit. Ended badly for the stoat when 4WD came past. Seen a stoat dragging a dead rabbit over the top of the hedgerow whilst out cycling as well.

MrSweary

Last Attenborough moment I had was a couple of weeks ago when a mouse that had been living in an old Tesco box in my shed decided that the best place to hide when I disturbed him was up my trouser leg.

We were both somewhat surprised I think and both quickly decided that it wasn't the best place to hide.

Subsequently I feel a bit bad for poisoning the little fella but frankly if there was any chance he might move on from chewing some old gardening gloves to chewing on any part of my new bike he had to go.

keef66

Last time I had to do some rodent control it was because one had developed the habit of sitting on the warm engine of my wife's car, chewing on the HT leads and leaving mouse turds everywhere. Mouse trap + chocolate. Never fails.

simona75

Pheasants are out in force round my way. They will often fly/run out of the hedgerows as I go by. It being shooting season I think I may sent some of them to their doom!

MrSweary

simona75 wrote:

Pheasants are out in force round my way. They will often fly/run out of the hedgerows as I go by. It being shooting season I think I may sent some of them to their doom!

Pheasants are impressively stupid animals. Beware when the wind is up - it gets under their tail feathers and makes them even more skittish than usual. Used to watch them in the garden dancing about like they were on hot coals when it was windy.

Reane_Machine

simona75 wrote:

Pheasants are out in force round my way. They will often fly/run out of the hedgerows as I go by. It being shooting season I think I may sent some of them to their doom!

I've had a couple of pheasants fly out of their dens by the roadside just as I go past.

I never see the buggers coming either so when they burst out across me and fly away it sh*ts me up no end!

Great to see wildlife out and about though, a couple of roads I regularly ride on never feature anything more interesting than a dead squirrel or 5, but when I get a chance to go out into the Peaks it's glorious.

t4tomo

I've cycled alongside some great tits on my morning commute through London.

elderone

t4tomo wrote:

I've cycled alongside some great tits on my morning commute through London.

Think some photographic proof may be required on that one.

Cleat Eastwood

My attenborough moment was when Claire Balding wore a gorilla suit and sat on me.....best twenty quid I ever spent.

unixnerd

I got knocked off my mountain bike by an owl once. I disturbed it in the dark and it flew right into my head!

big_p

i watched two wolves attack a young elk on top of a frozen waterfall when i was snowmobiling in canada a few years ago, and i have the photo's too.

http://s746.photobucket.com/albums/xx10 ... =slideshow

elderone

wow,now that is a stunning moment.nice one

Pigtail

That's amazing. Some great photos. What was the outcome for the Elk?

big_p

we hung around for another half an hour and some stupid bint that was on the tour with us, thought the wolves were being cruel started crying and then screamed a stupid noise which startled the wolves and they buggered off back into the woods.

dont know why, but photobucket has the set in reverse.

Pigtail

Cheers - people don't cope very well sometimes seeing nature in action. We're filled with ideas about nice cuddly animals, and the reality doesn't match.

Photobucket seems to do that if you upload multiple photos at the same time. You can rearrange them in your folder though. If I remember correctly it's just drag and drop.

cornerblock

big p wrote:

i watched two wolves attack a young elk on top of a frozen waterfall when i was snowmobiling in canada a few years ago, and i have the photo's too.

http://s746.photobucket.com/albums/xx10 ... =slideshow

Now that's an Attenborough moment.

big_p

i thought it was going to jump over the edge at one point, it must have been a 30 meter drop, we were on the other side of the river, maybe 100 meters away, it was at a place called wapta falls, in British Colombia,

looks like a nice place in summer.

Mikey23

Had a close encounter of the buzzard kind myself this morning down here in east Cornwall. 'twas quite still and cold so not good flying weather and passed one sitting on a fence post.i startled it so it flapped off a little down the road to another fence post only to find I was up with it so it did it again and again till it got to the end of the field. Had it alongside me for about a minute. Lovely ...