This is the weekly round up for the beginning of May. This morning the sun was shining so I hopped on my motorbike, Feisty, and set off for my village house. Once there, I donned my bush garb and traipsed across the now overgrown meadow to go check on my trailcam – I had a […]

I was stunned to see this harrier flying around while out walking behind the house. I’ve never seen one here before. I’m unsure whether it’s a Montagu’s Harrier (Circus pygargus) or a Hen Harrier (Circus cyaneus) as it has identifying marks which associate (and refute) it with both. The black above-wing line makes me lean […]

Terrible photo as she’s about 1 kilometre away, at dusk and taken with my damaged-lens Canon SX700HS on full zoom (hopefully a new camera will come this week). Initially we spotted her as a large black lump crossing a field while going on our usual daily walk. It’s the first boar I’ve seen this year, […]

I’m really starting to get disappointed with what I’m capturing on trailcam and it looks like I’m going to have to set it up in a different area. Like I said in an earlier post, I might as well have it running in a Lincolnshire garden. Where are all the big beasties? I see enough […]

It looks like Spring has finally arrived and the many colours of blossom on the trees are in stark contrast to this year’s miserable grey Winter. It’s funny how the mind changes and one develops a different perspective when the weather changes and nature comes to life again. The forest beckons and I want to […]

The druids used to leave messages to one another in a complicated leaf language using real leaves. As this language was never written down, modern man has no idea what it was. Also, passersby who were unversed in this leaf script would just see a pile of leaves rather than what they stood for. It […]

After we’d returned to the house from the picnic, I set off back up the hill to the forest to place my trailcam where the wild boar seemed to be passing most frequently. There were a couple of spinal columns in the pasture, presumably from young roe deer, which signified either wolf or lynx activity. […]

Easter out here is way too religious for my liking – too much fasting and praying and not enough chocolate eggs. Easter Monday is quite mad though, especially now my daughter is getting older. Gangs of young boys go from door to door with buckets of river water and brandishing woven hazel whips. Their aim […]

Usually, Spring is heralded by the arrival of White Storks (Ciconia ciconia) and soon my region is filled with these huge birds. However, this year the first to arrive has been the Black Stork (Ciconia nigra). We very rarely see these as they are far more shy than the white ones and prefer to nest […]

I knew there were Eurasian Lynx up in the heavily forested hills surrounding the village but I didn’t expect to find such an immense one wandering around a few hundred metres behind my house. I filmed it in the little wooded gully where I captured badger, pine marten, red squirrel, boar and red deer on […]