Spooky running: I can't help it but when... - Bridge to 10K

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Spooky running

pinkaardvark profile image
pinkaardvarkGraduate10
26 Replies

I can't help it but when running at night muntjac scare the bejeebus out of me lol. I went noodling tonight and ran down a muddy trail with fallen branches and a drop off into a river and the I saw the eyes.. too high for a cat and too low for a sheep. And they followed me...

Freaky muntjac.

Anyone else get their HR up with the local wildlife 😂

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pinkaardvark profile image
pinkaardvark
Graduate10
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26 Replies
AnnieW55 profile image
AnnieW55

Not me. It's all wild bunny rabbits and foxes round here. It's them that hills that get my heart racing 181bmp this morning.

Oldfloss profile image
OldflossAdministratorGraduate10

Well ..there was an incident with a badger... I am not sure who scared who the most... :)

EB43 profile image
EB43Graduate10

Well a couple of the rats around here must be the size of deer 😁. Did see a barn owl this morning which was really unexpected and fabulous.

Well I did have a fly past from a pheasant one glorious morning. It flew out of the hedge next to me and flew across my line of sight. It did give me a fright as it was early in the morning and there was no one except for little old me,the fields,cows and sheep. It gave me such a fright I found myself hysterically laughing out loud almost all the way home 🤣🤣🤣😳

JaySeeSkinny profile image
JaySeeSkinnyGraduate10

The occasional fox, an odd deer (that was on holiday) and lots of cats staring balefully. Oh and rabbits, hares, pheasant and now and again a pair of ducks who seem to have got lost. Dogs, of course. But nothing scary.

We dont have any wildlife, the local hunt has killed them all! But muntjac are quite aggressive little beasties. I saw them all the time when walking the dogs in Oxford, along with roe deer, foxes etc.

Noodling? Are you a musician?

pinkaardvark profile image
pinkaardvarkGraduate10 in reply to

Lol I meant as in to noodle around ie exploring. No my music experience stops at the strat lying in a corner gathering dust hehe

in reply topinkaardvark

I know what you meant, but it’s such a musical term. You have a rolls royce guitar and dont play it? Shame on you(says she who is sitting in front of two expensive harps that have only been played once in the last month)

pinkaardvark profile image
pinkaardvarkGraduate10 in reply to

It's ok it's only a squire. Chinese manufactured. Has humbucker pickups though and does sound nice when someone else plays it lol

Irishprincess profile image
IrishprincessGraduate10

Yesterday in broad daylight the dogs were out in force (I guess the nice weather brought all the walkers out) and they mostly intimidate me because they are lead free and usually want to play. But I don't know this for sure and some of them are big bu**ers who look like they're going to eat me. I think my heart rate was high the whole run 😭😩😖

Lordi profile image
LordiGraduate10

Sounds like that Zombie Run app would be a blast there on the dark fens? 8-0

pinkaardvark profile image
pinkaardvarkGraduate10 in reply toLordi

Sadly I don't run with a phone as I find it too heavy and annoying or I would give it a go. Maybe need to try with the running belt. Can you run any distance you want with it?

Lordi profile image
LordiGraduate10 in reply topinkaardvark

Have not used it but others on here do. Old Floss?

HeleneCorsa profile image
HeleneCorsaGraduate10

Blimey, that'd scare the life out of me. I think the collision-with-a-bat incident made me jump (though not as much as the oncoming cyclist who stopped, and started crossing himself frenetically, haha!) but the absolute worst was almost falling over a log that turned out to be a dead coypu. That was HORRIBLE.

pinkaardvark profile image
pinkaardvarkGraduate10 in reply toHeleneCorsa

reminds me of the time I slid on a badger :)

HeleneCorsa profile image
HeleneCorsaGraduate10 in reply topinkaardvark

:O

HeleneCorsa profile image
HeleneCorsaGraduate10 in reply toHeleneCorsa

How on earth did that happen? Do you have a lot of badgers in your area?

Wildlife is lovely, but it is not necessarily our friend...

pinkaardvark profile image
pinkaardvarkGraduate10 in reply toHeleneCorsa

It was sleeping a hard night off.. well that's the euphemism I use for flat badger. They are like normal badger but don't smell as good and often have tire tracks on them in addition to the black and white stripes. There are badgers everywhere in blighty, they seem to outnumber hedgehogs these days. I rarely see a sleeping hedgehog anymore it seems.

The badger in question was flatter than is the norm and quite slick in it's jacket of entrail and other accoutrements, so flat in fact that I did not see him, nor smell him in time for my footfall and following slide... I say he but he could have been a her. I will stick with he though as I swear I saw some mashed potato.

HeleneCorsa profile image
HeleneCorsaGraduate10 in reply topinkaardvark

That's weird, I remember when I was younger we didn't see them often whereas hedgehogs were pretty ubiquitous.

pinkaardvark profile image
pinkaardvarkGraduate10 in reply toHeleneCorsa

I suspect there has been some sort of territorial conflict with the badger winning out in the dispute due to it's larger size and the support of Bryan May. youtube.com/watch?v=5cIlr-L...

Pm3eak profile image
Pm3eakGraduate10

I think it the fact that Muntjac have fangs that freaks me out! The 'Undeer', as it were: I wonder if garlic or a crucifix might deter them?

We don't have too many here-we would eat them, being peasants-but I regularly get scared by snipe. A lot of our paths go through wet pastures and they wait until you have almost stood on them before exploding into the sky, seemingly flying in all directions at once. My gravestone will probably read:

'Here lies Paul

Whose heart was so weak,

It was stopped by a bird

With a long straight beak.'

Even worse are the badger cubs! Around July they start screaming to each other and to their Mum when they wander off and get separated; if you've never heard it, believe me, it is blood-curdling.

pinkaardvark profile image
pinkaardvarkGraduate10 in reply toPm3eak

They have fangs ! :O

I thought that was just chinese water deer.

Pm3eak profile image
Pm3eakGraduate10 in reply topinkaardvark

Yep, armed to the teeth ( groan, sorry about that).

They are more accurately called 'tusks' and only the males have them, using them to fight in breeding season. They aren't quite as spectacular as those displayed by Chinese Water Deer but I still wouldn't want them sunk into my dogs...deer can be feisty!

pinkaardvark profile image
pinkaardvarkGraduate10 in reply toPm3eak

Oh dear! I will have to be careful then :P

VictoriaRuns profile image
VictoriaRuns

BADGERS

badgers have no fear of people and will charge at you. V. scary

misswobble profile image
misswobbleGraduate10

I once jumped as high as a house (I kid you not) over a snake! I thought it was a fallen branch blocking the path so I thought I’d kick it out the way. As I got nearer I thought better of it as I thought to kick it would mean a broken ankle, as it was big one. Anyway as I was heading down the hill, now almost upon it, the “branch” reared it’s head cobra like! 😳😳😳😳😳 I vaulted over that fecker like an Olympian 😁.

It was a large female grass snake but I didn’t know that then. I thought it could have been an escapee from some menagerie.

😁

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