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Archive for the ‘Fieldnotes’ Category

Finally, a Badger Sighting on my Road

There’s a badger sett near my house.  I don’t know where it is (although I have my suspicions) but I know it is there and I know it is near. For some years now, I’ve been tracking a badger across the field behind my house, where at least one has a regular foraging route.  There [...]

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The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. Robert Frost Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening . I don’t know if Robert Frost ever watched badgers.  Probably not, but he knew the lure of the woods [...]

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Happy New Year! It’s been a hectic Christmas, but I saw in the New Year in my own style.  While the rest of the world was sleeping off the excesses of the night before, I was up before dawn on January 1st, sitting in a forest waiting for Red Squirrels. I was back in Anglesey [...]

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‘Wrong estimation of the intelligence of animals, and the inability to sit without making any sound or movement for the required length of time, is the cause of all failures when sitting up for animals.’ Jim Corbett, The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag . Oh, my hat is frozen to my head, my feet are like [...]

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OK.  So far, I haven’t much success with the badgers at the Hawthorn Sett.  I have yet to answer the fundamental question of how many badgers there are.  If I can find this out, I can see how it changes over the year to come. It’s part of my overall master plan to understand more [...]

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Picture the scene.  It’s been dark for an hour.  I’m perched on a branch of an oak tree, fifteen feet off the ground.  I’ve long since lost any feeling in my legs but my backside feels bruised where the branch has cut into it.  I shift the weight from one buttock to another to try [...]

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A Greek legend describes how Milo of Croton performed a famous feat of strength by carrying a fully grown bull on his shoulders.  He did this by first picking up the bull when it was a new-born calf.  Every day, he would pick up the calf and carry it.  As the bull grew in size, [...]

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It’s been a confusing day.  It’s October, but it’s felt like July.  The hottest day in October ever, apparently.  Mrs BWM and Scarlett are away, so I’ve been doing what any man would do – cutting the grass, tidying the vegetable beds and visiting plumbing shops.  And, what with it being such a nice day, [...]

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All things begin and end on Albion’s ancient, rocky, druid shore                                                               William Blake I’m on holiday on Anglesey at the moment.  We arrived at the same time as the tail end of Hurricane Irene from across the atlantic, which means that the island is being lashed by rain and strong winds, adding a touch [...]

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Woburn Abbey is not very far away from where I live.  Every now an then I like to go for a walk through the deer park.  I know they’re not real wild deer, but the park is a great place to watch deer at close quarters and in fairly natural surroundings. Put another way, it [...]

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