Big Cats in the British Countryside?

A few weeks go the local paper carried a story that a big cat, panther?, had been seen. While these stories come up from time to time, and it is possible that there are feral big cats in the British countryside, this is the first time I have heard reports of one locally. So I went for a look myself and spoke to several people. Most were sceptical, but one man said that he had seen it. So I gave him my number and I told him if he saw it again to call me, as I wanted to try and film it.

Well, I got a call and yesterday morning I went out to try and film it. I discovered the trail it was supposed to be using and I laid in wait. I did see a cat, a big black tom with a dirty red collar on it. No panther this. So I went back to my informant and he was excited and asked if I had filmed it. I told him that I had seen a moggie with a collar but that was not a big cat. As he told me what he had seen, I realised that we had indeed seen the same animal but his perception was far more embellished than my much closer observation. In his mind it had been at least twice the actual size.

There was no scoup there. I doubt that it is anything more than this big old tom cat.

So in the afternoon I thought I would see if I could catch some of the birds that feed in my yard. I have been seeing some of the larger birds, Jackdaws and Starlings precariously landing on the fat balls to feed, and I thought that would be great to catch on film. So I set the camera up to film them. This gave me time to do some editing and to try and get more of the footage catalogued. Its all very well filming this stuff but if I cant find it latter...

And I did get a couple of short films put together. I am still teaching myself the editing process and this is all good practice. These I posted to You Tube and while most of my stuff only gets a few viewings, one got over one hundred seventy in the first few hours. That amazed me as none of my films contain gratuitous stupidity.

Anyway back to the birds in my yard, I kept on changing the tape, and while the birds were coming in not one landed in the area the camera was focused on. While I was changing tapes though I did spot a sparrow with nesting material in her beak. So I turned the camera on the area that I suspected the nest entrance is and yes a nest is being built. However its to high up to film. So maybe next year.

One thing I did do though was take a walk down to the River, as I wanted to see if I could see where the bats are roosting in the rocky cliffs known as the crags. While searching for the locations that I thought could be in use, I spotted the nest of a Peregrine Falcon. I had to stop myself from filming it, I don't have a licence to do so, yet. Fortunately it is well hidden and if my observation was right it has two chicks.

Then today while on the bus coming back from a shopping trip to the supermarket, I spotted a buzzard. Only briefly but less than seventy meters away before a copse of trees obscured my observation.

But the best one was very early this morning, I had stayed up all night to see if I could see the Fox with her cubs. Well about a hour before dawn, I saw her and two cubs. Not only that I saw a pair of Barn Owls quartering the same field. Who needs sleep when there is wildlife to watch. ZZZZzzzz