Last night we saw a Tawny Owl on one of the power lines. It had been there quite a few minutes before it flew off. This in itself is not unusual I hear you say. And quite right too.
What was unusual was this. It flew across the garden just as a bat flew in front of it and the owl actually hit a power cable! I have no idea whether the ultrasonics from the bat confused it because owls have incredibly sensitive hearing, or if it was a young bird or possibly even sick and weakened. It did fly off into a tree so I'm hoping it was OK in the long term.
Sunday 20 June 2010
Close encounters
On Thursday and Friday just gone I was running a private course for a chap called Chris. He was keen on learning about tracking and was up for an intensive 2 days of solid learning and experiences.
Well we certainly managed some fantastic wildlife experiences. The first one was whilst squatted down in the middle of a track talking about camouflage. A little earlier we had heard a rabbit screaming, having been caught by a predator - most likely a fox. After a short while the screaming stopped but then started up again a little further along a field edge. This happened about 3 times and I speculated that it was a vixen teaching her cub(s) how to kill.
Anyway, whilst talking to Chris I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and told Chris to be quiet and not move. It was a fox cub coming round the corner! How cool was that. What was even cooler was that it kept on coming towards us and eventually came up and sniffed us both before heading off into the undergrowth. So where cub goes - mum goes!
I thought she couldn't be too far away so we decided to stalk down the track and see if we could see her coming up. Well we did indeed meet her just on the corner but the interesting thing was she didn't actually see us but she did smell us and then legged it at high velocity. We were only about 10 feet from her before she ran. An absolutely brilliant experience!
The next day we were walking up another track and I heard a noise down near the stream. So we stopped, waited and a few minutes later a young male Red Deer appeared - then another three turned up. Interestingly they decided that they weren't going to hang around but the first one was slowly working its way up towards us.
To cut a long story short - this youngster made its way right up to us and leaped onto the track about 10 feet from us. It stood there for a few moments and then saw us and bolted. It then stopped and didn't really know what to do because it just stood there before bolting again. It did this a couple more times before heading off up a bank and disappearing into the woods. We then had a fun half an hour or so tracking it on hard ground and marvelling at how high it could jump in one leap.
Needless to say it was a great couple of days with some fantastic close encounters. It just goes to show the power of the zone in.
Happy tracking.
Well we certainly managed some fantastic wildlife experiences. The first one was whilst squatted down in the middle of a track talking about camouflage. A little earlier we had heard a rabbit screaming, having been caught by a predator - most likely a fox. After a short while the screaming stopped but then started up again a little further along a field edge. This happened about 3 times and I speculated that it was a vixen teaching her cub(s) how to kill.
Anyway, whilst talking to Chris I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and told Chris to be quiet and not move. It was a fox cub coming round the corner! How cool was that. What was even cooler was that it kept on coming towards us and eventually came up and sniffed us both before heading off into the undergrowth. So where cub goes - mum goes!
I thought she couldn't be too far away so we decided to stalk down the track and see if we could see her coming up. Well we did indeed meet her just on the corner but the interesting thing was she didn't actually see us but she did smell us and then legged it at high velocity. We were only about 10 feet from her before she ran. An absolutely brilliant experience!
The next day we were walking up another track and I heard a noise down near the stream. So we stopped, waited and a few minutes later a young male Red Deer appeared - then another three turned up. Interestingly they decided that they weren't going to hang around but the first one was slowly working its way up towards us.
To cut a long story short - this youngster made its way right up to us and leaped onto the track about 10 feet from us. It stood there for a few moments and then saw us and bolted. It then stopped and didn't really know what to do because it just stood there before bolting again. It did this a couple more times before heading off up a bank and disappearing into the woods. We then had a fun half an hour or so tracking it on hard ground and marvelling at how high it could jump in one leap.
Needless to say it was a great couple of days with some fantastic close encounters. It just goes to show the power of the zone in.
Happy tracking.
Wednesday 12 May 2010
Tip of the Day - 7
If you want to collect rain water from the trunk of a tree or a stem of a plant, tie a cord or some cloth around it and use that as a drip line! Direct the drips into a receptacle and there you have it. Remember that you may still have to purify the water.
Wednesday 21 April 2010
Foxtastic
I was out with the dog last night and the little darling decided to leg it and chase a herd of deer! I wasn't too impressed with this behaviour but it did give me the chance to see some other behaviour!
Whilst waiting for the mutt I was watching a fox, about 100 yards away, meandering through the woods. He was blissfully unaware of me despite my many attempts at calling the dog! Anyway, as I watched him saunter up a slope I was little surprised to see him jump up onto a fallen log and walk along it seemingly just for the hell of it. I've never seen that before so I found it quite cool!
Then the dog decided to join me and so Mr Fox decided it was time to move on ... rapidly!
Whilst waiting for the mutt I was watching a fox, about 100 yards away, meandering through the woods. He was blissfully unaware of me despite my many attempts at calling the dog! Anyway, as I watched him saunter up a slope I was little surprised to see him jump up onto a fallen log and walk along it seemingly just for the hell of it. I've never seen that before so I found it quite cool!
Then the dog decided to join me and so Mr Fox decided it was time to move on ... rapidly!
Thursday 25 March 2010
The Outdoor Show
I'm off to the Outdoor Show tomorrow for 3 days at the NEC.
I'm going to be on the Bushcraft and Survival Skills Magazine stall and will be giving a little talk and demo on each day. It means a nice early start for me tomorrow so wish me luck and hopefully I may see some of you there!
Have fun.
I'm going to be on the Bushcraft and Survival Skills Magazine stall and will be giving a little talk and demo on each day. It means a nice early start for me tomorrow so wish me luck and hopefully I may see some of you there!
Have fun.
Sunday 14 March 2010
Friday 29 January 2010
Tip of the Day - 5
I strongly recommend that you do not try to strop a Scandi grind knife with a belt - unless the belt is laid flat on a hard surface.
In many bushcraft books it is suggested that you can use a belt to strop a knife by attaching the belt to a tree, for example, and then holding the belt under tension. This does work to an extent and is perfect for a convex grind knife NOT a scandi. This is because you can't get enough tension in the belt to stop it from rolling round the edge of the knife as you strop. So with a scandi this would eventually turn it into a convex (in an extreme case) - in practice it means that you will be blunting the edge a little by this method.
That's why I say that a belt is ok on a flat surface - that way you do not get the leather curving round the edge in the same way as you would if it was under tension.
Give it a go and see if you get a better edge doing it this way!
In many bushcraft books it is suggested that you can use a belt to strop a knife by attaching the belt to a tree, for example, and then holding the belt under tension. This does work to an extent and is perfect for a convex grind knife NOT a scandi. This is because you can't get enough tension in the belt to stop it from rolling round the edge of the knife as you strop. So with a scandi this would eventually turn it into a convex (in an extreme case) - in practice it means that you will be blunting the edge a little by this method.
That's why I say that a belt is ok on a flat surface - that way you do not get the leather curving round the edge in the same way as you would if it was under tension.
Give it a go and see if you get a better edge doing it this way!
Friday 22 January 2010
Tip of the Day - 4
If you own a pair of waterproof trousers that don't have zips on the legs and you always find that you have to take your boots off to get them on without covering the legs in mud - then try this tip.
Put plastic bags over your boots and then put on the trousers! This way you don't get mud on the inside of the trousers and the plastic bags also make the boots slide in nicely.
Put plastic bags over your boots and then put on the trousers! This way you don't get mud on the inside of the trousers and the plastic bags also make the boots slide in nicely.
Monday 18 January 2010
Tip of the Day - 3
Remember to look up occasionally when out tracking - it's always embarrassing to walk straight past someone or something when engrossed!
Thursday 14 January 2010
Wednesday 13 January 2010
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