Wild Animals in the Neighbourhood

This week, Denzil, in his Nature Photo Challenge, is eager to see what shots of wild animals we can come up with. Let’s see what I can find round here in the UK.

Squirrels, for sure. Grey squirrels certainly. They were first introduced to England from America in 1876 as an ornament to the gardens of stately homes, and by 1930, had largely eliminated our native red squirrels: though I have seen them, rarely, in parts of the Lake District and in Scotland. I have to admit this red squirrel was spotted in Spain.

Grey squirrel in a very bad mood.
Red squirrel enjoying a snack..

What else?

  • Rabbits by the score emerge at dusk to start nibbling.
  • Hedgehogs have become depressingly rare. This photo is older than I’d like it to be.
  • I came upon this toad on a riverside walk near home.
  • One photo is very close to home. Field mice start to move into our kitchen as autumn arrives. This fellow is in a humane trap before being moved on and out. We don’t kid ourselves that this is super-humane. Dumping the poor creature in nearby but unfamiliar countryside is not likely to end well. But what to do?

I’m going to visit my son and family in London for the next two shots, because I see far more foxes there than here in the countryside. Recently, the house next door to them remained empty for a few summer weeks. A fox family took advantage.

The deer in nearby Studley Royal Deer Park are not exactly wild – but they’re not tame either- they’re never handled by humans: and some stags escape into the wild for their holidays before returning in time for the rut. Truly wild deer are common here, but not keen on photo opportunities: so here are two groups from the Deer Park: fallow deer in the shot below, and red deer stags in the featured photo.

We shouldn’t end though without a trip to the seaside. Let’s go to the Farne Islands and then to Pembrokeshire to do a spot of seal-spotting.

I’ve found that visiting posts from fellow-bloggers in far-flung parts of the globe has produced sights of -to me- very exotic creatures. I hope at least some of these shots will seem different to them.

Oh, I almost forgot. I seem to have given myself a task: collective nouns for the animals and creatures I feature. Here goes.

Squirrels: a scurry, a dray, a colony, and a squad.
Rabbits:  colony, nest, down, warren, bury, kindle, leash, trace, trip, drove, herd, fluffle, flick, husk, and wrack.
Hedgehogs: a prickle, array.
Toads: a knot,  lump, a nest, a knab, a knob, a squiggle.
Mice: horde, mischief, nest.
Fox: earth, leash, skulk.
Deer: herd, bunch, mob, rangale, bevy, parcel.
Seals: bob, pod, herd, harem, colony, rookery, plump, spring, crash.
Unknown's avatar

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

59 thoughts on “Wild Animals in the Neighbourhood”

  1. I’ve seen very few red squirrels, the first in the wild, so to speak, being a bold little fellow in Helsinki botanical gardens. The last fox I saw was strolling along as I closed our bedroom curtains, clearly the owner of our street.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. They are magnificent, aren’t they? And the rut will be starting soon, so they’ll be even more so. Poor toad. He wasn’t at the head of the queue when good looks were being given out. But I bet he was successful at passing his genes on (if he is a ‘he’).

      Like

  5. That’s a lot of wild animals in your neighborhood! Wonderful captures.
    Amongst your collection, the “knots” and the “mischiefs” are the only ones common in these parts they almost are not “wild” anymore! 😊

    Liked by 1 person

  12. A nice collection of wildlife you have (mostly) around you! Field mice are cute but I agree we don’t want them in the home, so you probably have the least worst solution. And I love your collective nouns, especially a prickle of hedgehogs and mischief of mice 😀

    Liked by 1 person

      1. True, but we once had four tiny orphan hedgehogs move into our garden after (we assumed) Mum met her fate on the road. They stayed about a week while we fed them dog food, then must have felt big and brave enough to moveon. So for that week we definitely had a prickle of hedgehogs!

        Liked by 1 person

  13. beautiful collection Margaret. We have, every summer, a hedgehog family. The one we spy most these days, must be the über-father – he is decidedly big, fat and sniffels very loudly when coming for a drink and the occasional low hanging strawberry….

    Liked by 1 person

  19. Oh, I love a prickle of hedgehogs! You’re lucky to have so much wildlife in your area. We used to get grey squirrels here but it’s been a few years since I last saw one – I think the area may be too built-up now for them. So that just leaves the urban fox and rarely a night goes by that we don’t see or hear one of them!

    Liked by 1 person

  20. Love our British wildlife exotic or not. And of course the collective nouns. We often have a scurry of squirrels but rarely a fluffle of rabbits. As for hedgehogs – none at all this year

    Liked by 1 person

  21. An excellent collection of creatures. Some of the collective names for rabbits were a bit surprising. I suppose there are so many because we’ve lived so close to them. My favourite among them is ‘flick’ because that’s what you see once they see you – a flick of their tails.

    Liked by 1 person

  23. Pingback: Your photos of Wild Animals – Denzil Nature

Comments are closed.