The pony skull I bought for £1

I was hoping to write about the Times magazine feature on kid bloggers today, but it isn't in the magazine today so it must be in  next week. So instead I'm writing about this which is the pony skull I bought about a month ago on eBay.

I don't buy a lot of skulls on eBay but this one was special and a real bargain. Only one other person was bidding on it. I was prepared to pay £10 but I only had to pay £1.04 and about £5 postage.

Strange bones #11: The buzzard skull that wasn't

On Tuesday me and Dad went on a walk in Suicides Graves wood. First of all we went down to the south-east corner where there is sometimes a herd of red deer, but although we saw lots of tracks, we didn't see any deer. Then we worked west through the wood, following red deer tracks and paths, and looking for bones.

We found a lot of bones, including something that was either a lamb or a red deer calf, but nothing worth bringing back. That was until we were at the edge of a clearing when dad spotted this at his feet. We searched around but couldn't find any other bones near it.

Where can you find animal bones ?

This is one of the things that I have been meaning to do for ages. The question I am most often asked in emails is where do I find all my animal bones ? I don't really have any big secrets. I am lucky where I live because there are lots of animals, and I do lots of walks. Sometimes on the walks I find lots of bones and sometimes I find none. But here are ways to find bones for some of the animals in the UK.

My pipistrelle bat skeleton and my first licence

This is a story about my first bone licence. For collecting most bones you don't need a licence at all, and  if you find something you can usually keep it without asking as long as they weren't killed illegally. Some types are animals you do need a licence for because they are protected in some way.

The types of animals that you need licenses for are different from what you might think, and the law is complicated. I did a lot of research this year so I knew for sure that I didn't need a licence for my golden eagle skull, but I did have to check with Scottish Natural Heritage and DEFRA, and I have to keep information about where it came from and how it died. When I was talking to Scottish Natural Heritage about the golden eagle, they told me I did need a licence for another skeleton. It was one I wasn't expecting. It was my pipistrelle bat skeleton !

I've changed my blog address !

Did you notice I've changed my blog address ? From now on, my blog is at www.jakes-bones.com which is simpler than the old jakes-bones.blogspot.com address, although that one will still work too.

Everything should work with the new address now, but if you notice anything broken, let me know !