How to find deer part 2: sounds, paths and dusk

Last week I wrote about how to tell if deer lived in a wood by looking for footprints, poo and deer fences. This week I am going to write about more signs to help find out whether deer live in the area you are exploring.

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I've got a new baby brother (again) !

Today I got a new baby brother called Harry. Since he was born this morning he was been in an incubator, which is like a plastic box for new born babies to keep them warm and safe. He is in there because when he was born he had mucus in his lungs, and the incubator helps him breathe. He is going to sleep in there tonight. He is really cute.

I have another brother called Sam who was born 18 months ago. When he was born I wrote about it here.

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How to find deer part 1: fences, footprints and poo

I am really lucky where I live because the forests are full of deer, and it's easy to find lots of deer bones. The woods to the east of my village and the huge moor to the south are full of roe deer, and the huge forest to the north is full of red deer. (Here's something I wrote before which tells you the difference between roe and red deer). 

When I am exploring a new wood, and I don't know whether deer live there, I know to look for lots of clues as to whether there are going to be deer around. Often you can walk through woods and not see a single deer, but there are always lots of clues they leave behind. There are so many types of clues I am going to write about it over two weeks.

Here are some of the things I look for:

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I've got my Chief Scout Silver award !

I've got my Chief Scout Silver Award ! It's the highest award you can get when you are a cub scout, and to get it I had to complete six challenges. The award is signed by Bear Grylls who is the Chief Scout and who is one of my heroes.

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The buzzard with the broken neck

Last week I wrote about corvids, which are the family of birds that have crows, magpies and things like that. This week I am going to write about a bird whose skull I have that I think was killed by corvids.

A few months ago, Dad was walking back home through Cat Skull Wood, which is the wood in the Pheasant Woods where I found my cat skull. In a small clearing at the edge of the wood he found this skeleton:

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Four different corvid skulls

Corvids are a family of birds that include all the big black ugly ones, like ravens, crows, jackdaws and rooks, as well as some prettier birds like magpies and jays. These are big powerful birds that can knock buzzards out the sky and kill them, and I heard about a sparrowhawk that was killed by a crow.

There are over 120 species of corvids, but only eight live in the UK. They eat whatever they can find, even meat, but they don't have a hooked beak to rip animals over, so they have to wait until the carcasses are opened up before they can eat. That is why you see so many on motorways to eat the roadkill.

I have five corvid skulls, but two are from the same bird, and this week I am going to write about them.

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