Bishop Hill What a day!
May 22, 2008 Sui generis I had a simply amazing morning today.
I had dropped off daughter and son No.1 at school and was taking son No.2 back to the car, when we decided to play Pooh-sticks at a little bridge just down the road from the school. As we leant over the side of the bridge something swam out from underneath us. I was speechless for a couple of seconds before my brain could work out what it was I was seeing.
It was an otter! Broad daylight, bold as brass. The river is only about a foot deep - a burn would be a better description. He (or perhaps she) paddled upstream a bit, and as we ran along the pavement to catch up, did an about turn and paddled back again. A few minutes later, he did another about-turn and headed back upstream. He hid under another bridge for a short time and then crept out, much to the delight of the crowd of toddlers who had were by now watching from above. He eyed the children for a couple of seconds - just a little cockily, I thought - then he headed off upstream and disappeared into the undergrowth.
What a wonderful experience. Reminds me why I spurn the delights of big city living.
Reader Comments (4)
You just made me believe again.
Something rather peculiar happened to us on the wildlife front yesterday. My son had scaled straight up the side of a 50 foot cliff...(can feel the SS on my back right now)...and had looked over the top. He came down and said in slightly shocked and incredulous tones "I think I've just seen something like a cheetah."
I have in the past, given absolutely no credence to reports of big cats in the countryside, so I didn't take him terribly seriously at the time, but I had to eat my words in the next couple of minutes.
We all walked on a little further on to a point where the cliff flattened out into a bank up which we could all climb. All four of us looked over and could see, by now in the far distance, an animal which appeared to be the size and shape of a cheetah, but which looked at this distance to be a sort of greyish brown, running at a roiling speed across the top of the field, along the tree-line of very wild woodland.
It was certainly not a deer or a boar...just the wrong shape. I really don't think it could even have been a big greyhound...again just not the right shape. The shape and the running style looked feline.
People we then bumped into to said matter-of- factly..."Oh yes, there are big cats up there". My guess is that we will never find out but it has made me realise that I should keep a more open mind about some surprising things!
But the correct thing for it to be, of course, would be an old grey donkey.