Nature Trail: What do you see on your runs? I... - Couch to 5K

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Nature Trail

BahamaMama1 profile image
BahamaMama1Graduate
23 Replies

What do you see on your runs?

I am very fortunate to live in a beautiful part of the UK, I use my surroundings and flowers and creatures to distract me as I am plodding along.

So far this week I have seen a pair of buzzards, a woodpecker hammering on a tree in the woods, endless rooks being very noisy, sheep and very soon lambs, primroses, violets and camelias as others have said. That is just the tip of the iceberg.

What do you see and what shall I look for tomorrow?

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BahamaMama1 profile image
BahamaMama1
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23 Replies
MissUnderstanding profile image
MissUnderstandingAdministratorGraduate

This is such a lovely topic. I’m really lucky to live quite rurally so I often see buzzards, rabbits, pheasant, foxes, bats, deer, kestrels, plus many of the common birds you’d expect! At the moment, there are lambs in a lot of the fields and some very fat horses. Hopefully that means foals to come! I really enjoy running the same routes through the year and watching how the landscape changes. Nature is a wonderful thing.

Deer in field
Hedgehogs123 profile image
Hedgehogs123Graduate in reply to MissUnderstanding

I'm like you, I live quite rural so most mornings I see lots of brown hares and last week the herd of roe deer stopped to watch me run by, deciding that I clearly wasn't a threat!🦌

Oldfloss profile image
OldflossAdministratorGraduate

Wow.. that is super, lucky you... if I am at home run in the fields just down the hill ,and like you see Nature at it's very best...no deer though.. I ran into a badger one morning... literally... he was as surprised as I ! My fields are fairly empty but the lanes I run along near them are full of sheep or cows who I often exchange greetings with.

If I am in my home at the coast.. I run by the sea and across the many trails and tracks that lead to its bays and beaches... I have lot of favourite runs there.

Thanks for posting this, I hope we get lots of replies... I think you should try and spy a little mouse or a shrew tomorrow :)

Across the fields to the sea...
BarbaraPym profile image
BarbaraPym

luckily I run by the river and see plenty of birds and hear woodpeckers, also,lots of friendly dog walkers and other runners.

Oldfloss profile image
OldflossAdministratorGraduate in reply to BarbaraPym

That sound to be just so beautiful and a friendly location too. That is so good to hear !

Yesletsgo profile image
YesletsgoAmbassadorGraduate

My run is through farmland by a river, and the farmer has a llama which I very rarely see but I know it's there.

Llama
Oldfloss profile image
OldflossAdministratorGraduate in reply to Yesletsgo

Beautiful!

TimeInNature profile image
TimeInNatureGraduate

I’m in a city by the sea so it’s mainly gulls along the seafront or dogs out for a constitutional with their human companions 🦮. In the park its often squirrels 🐿️ and the occasional rat 🐀 . I I have also seen an urban fox now and again 🦊

Oldfloss profile image
OldflossAdministratorGraduate in reply to TimeInNature

Wonderful runs there !

CH951 profile image
CH951

Squirrels deer,plenty of dog muck 😜😜😜 I am fastenated by the people who pick it up then throw it in2 the trees 😀😜 xx

Leotigris profile image
LeotigrisGraduate in reply to CH951

waiting for the mythical poo fairy to come and collect it?

Leotigris profile image
LeotigrisGraduate

I'm in London so it's mainly foxes but quite a few squirrels and a variety of birds - mostly parakeets, lots of small brown birds and a few with flashes of colour (they all move too fast for me to identify), but I've also seen a Jay.

Oldfloss profile image
OldflossAdministratorGraduate in reply to Leotigris

Wonderful.... everywhere...nature.

Clumella profile image
ClumellaGraduate

Not a sight as such, but during my early morning run (and first 25 min run of C2K!), I was delighted to be distracted by the song of a goldcrest. It was almost as if the little fella was cheering me on! I love listening to birdsong, and this was just what I needed to lift me to keep going for the last 5 minutes.

Oldfloss profile image
OldflossAdministratorGraduate in reply to Clumella

Glorious fanfare for your running!

clarys profile image
clarysGraduate

Thanks for your post - which motivated me to get out and run, so that I could see what birds and animals were around. Hard work running against a strong wind, everywhere is very floody, and most of the small birds are sheltering, but I did manage to see curlew, little egret, some lesser black-backed gulls, a couple of friendly spaniels, and a local farmer went past on a quad with a trailer on the back containing a ewe and two tiny lambs.

Frenc profile image
FrencGraduate

It sounds as though you live in a lovely part of the world with lots of wonderful things to spot on your runs! I think the most amazing thing I’ve seen was on an early morning run in the dark along a country lane when an owl 🦉 swooped overhead. It was so low it almost touched me. That and a really weird creature that I still have no idea what it was, so I convinced myself it had escaped from the nearby zoo 🤣.

Cassie_7 profile image
Cassie_7Graduate

I love observing what is going on too! I live in an urban area but on our walks we have seen lots of foxes, and even badgers in our neighbourhood. Late one evening there was a badger running along our road, admittedly it is usually a lot quieter at night! There was even a badger going a long the high street lol. They are amazing animals and it is amusing to hear their claws clattering on the tarmac. I wouldn't go down a blind alleyway if I saw one though...those claws and teeth! One night I startled a young fox, he froze in floodlights on a driveway. I stopped immediately and kept very still, and he looked straight at me, then he wandered off casually, cocked his leg on a lamp post and disappeared under a fence lol.

JetSetWilly profile image
JetSetWillyGraduate

A lovely post! Spring is on its way!Every run is a gift! No matter how easy or hard!

I love you all

Jet!

Cowladyrunning profile image
CowladyrunningGraduate

This is a lovely post! I love looking out for nature when I run and am also very lucky to be in a very rural area in Wales. You don't have to be rural though - I grew up in the busier South East (Kent) and learnt all my nature spotting skills with my Mum as we walked loads around the hop fields and fruit farms and housing estates! I often have wow moments for anything from a lonely primrose in the hedge to red kites circling above.... My favourite sound has just started too... the sky larks are about!

Crolla profile image
Crolla

Well, I live in London and run around 8am, so a lot of the time it's cars, buses, parents pushing buggies and schoolkids walking four abreast the pavement (to be fair they always move out the way when I ask). But I also run partly through the common, and I'll see dogs, walkers, horses and the occasional rabbit. If I look up, there will be some birds - some of them being parakeets (they're noisy!).

On my way back, there's a moment where the sun is sitting in the trees and as I run, it's like a kaleidoscope flickering. Last week, I was away for a few days and took the opportunity to run alongside the sea. So lovely to breathe in that salt air.

Lovely topic.

BahamaMama1 profile image
BahamaMama1Graduate

and the lambs are here, super cute and such a distraction 😁

MissUnderstanding profile image
MissUnderstandingAdministratorGraduate in reply to BahamaMama1

Isn’t it just the best time of year to be in the fields!

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