As of February 2016, after 416 posts, and over six and a half years of blogging, I'm taking a break. I've explained why here. There's plenty of past posts to read, though - hope you enjoy them !
Looking for a brilliant present for a young naturalist ? Buy my book ! Available from Amazon UK, Amazon US and worldwide but buy from a local bookshop if you can.
Before I start: I've just flown back in the last few hours from Faclan, the Hebridean Arts Festival in Stornoway. Thank you to everyone who came to my talk at An Lanntair yesterday - it was brilliant to see so many interested faces and sign so many books ! (they completely sold out). Hope to see you again soon !
This week's post is more of a spot-the-animal. I'd left my trail camera on a roe deer path last week, about a mile west of the badger wood, and among the other things it filmed, I also had a few frames and video that looked like the picture above. Nothing there, I thought, until I looked closer. But actually, there is a quite common but *very* well camouflaged animal there ! It's one that I've only seen myself once. Can you spot it ?
Okay, it's hard. So I'll give you another clue. Can you spot it now ?
What about closer still ?
Surely you can spot this master of disguise now ?
Because this is one of my favourite birds - a woodcock (Scolopax rusticola)! And it's the first time I've filmed it on the trail camera - even if it is camera shy !
If you want to see a woodcock - then a museum is your best bet. They are shy, nervous and INCREDIBLY well camouflaged, resting for much of the day and searching for insects in the earth with their long beak. This one was foraging right in the middle of the day, between 1pm and 2pm.
The video is quite peculiar. The bird constant moves its body, bobbing up and down, more than is needed to keep balance. Is this to hide in plants which are blown by the wind ? Does it help it detect or attract invertebrates to the surface ?
I first blogged about my first woodcock skull over five years ago, and my knowledge has improved a lot since then. Now I can spot that the ear bone appears to be in the wrong place - under the chin - instead of the lower back part of the skull where it normally is on birds and mammals - but that's because a lot of the time the beak doesn't stick out horizontally - but vertically down - and when it does, the ear bone is where you expect.
The eye sockets are huge and on the side of the head - this is an animal, like sheep and deer, that had evolved to look around and behind it to look out for predators. It is an animal that is hunted, not that hunts. In fact the woodcock has 360 degree vision which makes it very unusual.
Whether I have had more footage of the woodcock I don't yet know - I'll check again in the next few days, and maybe see whether I can somehow attract it to the camera !
I'm Jake McGowan-Lowe and I am a bone collector, naturalist, blogger and author as seen on BBC's The One Show, Autumnwatch, Winterwatch, CBBC Wild, Newsround and BBC Breakfast.
I've appeared on the BBC alongside such experts as Sir David Attenborough, Chris Packham, Nick Baker and Ben Garrod. BBC Wildlife Magazine says I'm one of the 50 most influential conservationists in the UK, and The Courier ranked me as the 24th most influential person in 2015.
I am fourteen years old, and I live in a beautiful part of Scotland. I love walking, exploring, watching wildlife and collecting bones. I've been collecting bones since I was six, and I blogged here every week between July 2009 (when I was seven) until February 2016, when I took a break.
You can read more about why I began blogging here, and my advice to other kids wanting to blog here.
Like this blog ? Buy the book ! This blog and my collection led to a book deal for a brilliant childrens' book published by Hachette Children's. It's now been published in the UK, Ireland, the USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands (called Het Grote Bottenboek van Jake) and South Korea.
It was even shortlisted for the prestigious Royal Society 2015 Young Person's Book Prize !
I'm currently on a break from blogging, but to get a notification if/when I start up again, sign up to get my new posts by email (usually just one a week)
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There have been stories about me in The Times, the Daily Telegraph Magazine, the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday,The Sun, Scotland on Sunday, the Sunday Mail, the Dundee Courier, the Perthshire Advertiser, the Stirling Observer, onBBC Radio Scotland, on the STV news, and I've even been on CBBC Wild, CBBC Newsround, The One Show, BBC Autumnwatchand Winterwatch !
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