Whats your most unusual British Sighting?

[coasty]

Reading another thread about wolves reminded me of the time when I was a teenager I was fishing on Scarborough Marine Drive late at night when a Adult timber wolf walked past on the opposite side of the road.. Must admit to some nervousness at the encounter, Sadly it was shot the following morning. It had escaped from the local zoo. I wondered what your most unusual sighting in Britain had been....

Andy

[mh68]

Mine would be one of the Wallabys living wild around the Loch Lomond area....that was before the wild population became widely known about. Me and a mate thought we were seeing things at first

Mark H

[yellowhammer]

Probably a mating pair of garter snakes in a country park in Kent.

[naturelover]

Seeing a white collard dove again today.

[Kayleigh]

I saw a hoopoe in Towcester a few years ago..It flew off with these massive black and white wings that fluttered like a large moth..Wired but wonderful

[Ukwildlifeo]

Probaly the canary i saw flying at break neck speed and then smashing into and bouncing off a window....which was then swiftly caught by the kestrel (that I hadn't noticed) that was chasing it. One of those 'did I just see that!? moments

[epops]

the pelican down at brantham a few years ago was rather unusual it stayed for ages and in the end it was taken for granted it would just be there or i once saw corn sake in my next doors garden we caught it and kept it for a couple of years

[aeshna5]

Seeing a Crimson Rosella in local country park looking totally at home!

[ChrisJB]

An escaped European Eagle Owl, that spent a few weeks in my sixth form college grounds, about sixteen years ago. What a beast.

Regards, Chris

[kent marshman]

hi coasty years ago on pegwell bay east kent a pair of flamingos tried nesting on the mud flats, loads of ringnecked parakeets in east kent

[Gill Catton]

I was once sat at the top of a deer hide in the cotswold woodland where I grew up and I had just watched a fallow doe weave her way through bramble scrub to where she had hidden her fawn when i heard a harsh call and my instant thought was 'that sounds like a macaw!' then I thought no it can't have been must have been a crow with a sore throat and in that instant two blue and yellow macaws flew past me like they owned the place - it was really surreal!

in that same woodland I have also had a pair of mandarin fly over my head which was very odd but I had heard stories of them being present so it was less of a suprise...

[rlchew]

The Red-necked Terrapins that used to inhabit the fleet at my local patch in Pitsea, Essex .... almost certainly as a result of that terrapin craze many years ago when they were bought as pets and then dumped.

Upcoming .... the snow that appears to be forecast for my area at the weekend .... can't remember the last time I saw any.

Richard

[Fourwings]

Mine is the Red-breasted Nuthatch that I saw along with many other twitchers in Holkham pines, Norfolk, way back in 1990, most certainly a bird that I never expect to see again unless I visit the USA!!

[paulchandler6]

I remember seeing the RB Nuthatch as well, very unexpected. It turned up as I arrived on Scilly and I recall quite a few birders booking the boat back to the mainland to drive to Norfolk to see it.
I stayed on Scilly and saw it in November.
However the most unusual was a Vitelline Masked Weaver that turned up in my garden for a day.

Paul

[DaiTheDragon]

The sun!

Dai

[tufftie]

Not that unusual perhaps but definitely the best was watching dolphins play in a cove between cot and Sennen.

[Bub-les]

Originally Posted by DaiTheDragon

The sun!

Dai

The way this year is going I wholeheartedly agree

[epops]

I'd love to say a great white off the norfolk coast but id be lying lol

[dartmoordreamer]

i've got to say three african grey parrots in a small patch of woodland close to heathrow airport

[DaiTheDragon]

A few years back I saw a Squirrel swim across a small lake I was fishing. It looked really odd as it kept it's tail upright, I supose to stop it getting waterlogged.

Dai

[Bullseye]

Flamingo,pelican,a pair of black swans (living wild for years,just turned up one day !),a "mating ball" of edible frog,Common Frog and Common Toad,all were males !,terrapins,quite a few small ones and two about a foot long,and my first sighting of an Alpha male wildboar.

[witham]

Going down a local single track country lane near where I live and seeing what I thought was an injured animal moving in the road, I slowed up and it was a Stoat slowy dragging a young Rabbit, which was easily twice as big as it was, across the road, it didn't seem put off by my car so I stopped and watched it until it was safely in the long grass at the side just incase a 'boy racer' came zooming along. I wish I'd had my camera with me.

[therealbobbo]

Some years ago,I was walking,on Ilfracombe pier,(which was demolished,during the year of the pier),when a young lad,who was fishing,reeled up an octopus,which dropped off,just before it could be grabbed.His bait was still on,so he went down again,and the octopus grabbed the bait again,and managed to drop off,again,never to be seen again!
During the same holiday,when I was walking round the Capstone,in Ilfracombe,I saw a Bonaparts Gull,which was flying backwards and forwards,along the cliff,probably looking for a mate.bobbo

[trampas45]

when i was a young boy (a few years ago now) i saw a dead basking shark that had been washed ashore on the beach at maidens, near girvan in ayrshire. it took the local authorities nearly one week to decide who should dispose of the carcass. as it was summer time the weather was very hot so it didn't take long for the shark to start decaying. the smell will go with me to my grave. eventually the council had it towed to sea. imagine that happening today? there would be an uproar.

my other unusual sighting is a stagecoach bus arriving on time. how i wished i had my camera with me!!!!!!!!!!!

[Wild-Woman]

We had a Love-bird knocking around the area a few years back but I think our local Sparrowhawks may have made a meal of it. It's bright plummage was a bit of a give-away!