This evening I’m a happy man as I finally managed to photograph the annoyingly elusive black woodpecker (Dryocopus martius). These birds, along with the golden oriole I photographed earlier this year, have been tauting me for decades. Similarly, neither species of bird seems to sit still long enough  to be photographed. They’re crap photos I […]

I really thought we’d get away with a mild winter this year and thus didn’t bother switching off my water. After seeing this week’s forecast, with temperatures dropping below minus 20, we headed out to the house to switch everything off and drain the pipes. It never saves everything – there’s always the odd tap […]

Last week a friend of mine was telling me about some ghost footage he’d seen online and asked if, when I was doing my ghost hunting several years back, I had ever seen one. I showed him a copy of Carpathian Ghost Hunter but the photo I’d wanted to use as an example looked terrible […]

It’s that time of year again when the valley in which my house is located resounds with the baying of rutting stags, day and night. This year there are quite a few of them. It’s amazing to be in the middle of a challenge and to watch these giant beasts screaming at each other. One […]

A double rainbow… Summer just wasn’t long enough this year. In fact, life isn’t long enough. There are so many things to do and see, and places to go. Autumn is being a real let down with night time temperatures around zero, meaning it looks like we’re just going to go straight into winter. I […]

Well, they’ve been on my bucket list ever since I learned of their existence in my area but last night was the first time I’ve ever seen them in the flesh. Raccoon Dogs (or Psík medvedíkovitý, as they’re known in Slovakia), possibly the most primitive form of canid on the planet, are an ‘invasive species’ […]

Yesterday we returned, exhausted, after a week’s holiday to the tiny resort village of Arillas, Corfu. Prior to going I was a bit concerned that we’d be in some mega resort filled with lager louts and 24 hour nightclubs but the opposite was true. It was peaceful, beautiful and filled with nature. We stayed at […]

Summer is finally here and with it comes a selection of animals that we don’t see at other times of the year. Sadly, even after a horrifically long and cold winter, we’ve only had a few hot days thus far. Hopefully, the weather will pick up at some point. Probably the most noticeable summer visitor […]

This weekend I finally retired my old trail camera, an RD1000. I think it cost me about 70 GBP 4 years ago. It’s not the cheapest of trailcams but it’s certainly not a higher end one (such as a Bushnell, Browning or Moultrie). As I need a game camera merely to record the different species […]

Is Spring really here? The landscape says yes:   but the weather says no. It’s May and we’re still getting subzero temperatures at night and the occasional snow storm. Regardless, I put out my old trail cam in a much deeper part of the forest (about a 90 minute trip there and back) with the […]