I just started doing this ride again (after a break). Now it is spring and there is a colony of bee eaters (Merops apiaster) that are doing their burrow-in-the-bank nests. Must be 100 of them with their lovely colours (even better than kingfisher), their trilling whistle song and their crazy aerobatics. Nature's BASE jumpers, they throw themselves into the air (from a thin branch or a power line - they have only tiny little feet) and *then* start to fly.
Also saw otters in the river, mongooses scurrying from one place to another and a flock of skittish finches.

Wonderful thread, btw