Lots of birds, and a mysterious find by the river

This week I have been away skiing in the Cairngorms, so the walk Dad and I planned today was fairly easy. We decided to walk along one of three rivers in my village, which is mostly straight, but we knew that sometimes there were otters down there. We didn't see any otters but we did find something else which we didn't expect !

It was sunny but cold and the ground was frozen. The river isn't very wide, but it was moving fast. It runs alongside a train track and I saw loads of trains which we were out.

My birthday skull

Today is my tenth birthday ! I have a busy day planned and I am going to the cinema and my uncle and aunt have come over to stay as well. I even have a special birthday skull which I am going to write about today.

A few days ago the postman came with a parcel for me. It was from my friend Mrs Powell who is a bone collector in England. I opened it and the first thing I saw was a box full of leaflets about plants which is cool, another box which said "Happy 10th birthday, Jake", which had a birthday card, a present, and another box which had this amazing skull which is from...

A trip to RSPB Vane Farm

Last month me Mum Dad and my baby brother Sam went to the RSPB reserve at Vane Farm, which is in Fife in Scotland. We've been RSPB members for over a year but we hadn't gone before. It was a beautiful sunny day and I saw loads of things.

Strange bones #7 - the strangest bone yet ?

I've had this bone for ages but it's only been this week when I've worked out exactly what it is. It's the strangest bone I think I have because me and dad couldn't find any other pictures of it at all.

Years ago, me Mum and Dad were in the Pheasant woods, and I think it was the first time we were ever in Duck Skull Valley. Duck Skull Valley is a valley between three sets of woods which is great for watching roe deer in the winter. It has a small lake in the middle, and I was exploring the lake when I found a duck skeleton right next to it with all the bones in a pile.

Winter birds

It's been a great Christmas but very snowy, so it's difficult to see many bones because there is the ground is all covered in lots of snow. Even though its been snowy and cold I've been on lots of walks and seen lots of wildlife, especially birds, so this week I'm just going to write about birds.

Because its been so snowy, the easiest wood to walk in is the Pheasant Wood, on the other side of the river to my village. There are actually lots of pheasant woods around where I live. During the year the gamekeepers look after the pheasants, then in winter people pay to shoot them. Here's a male pheasant on the left with a female pheasant on the right. They have very long tails. I have a pheasant skull in my collection.



Pheasants are quite fat, an they don't like to fly very much, so they just walk around on the ground. Here are what their footprints look like in the snow.

The Mallard Duck Skull

This is the mallard duck skull that I found back on a walk here. When we found it it was still rotting away. Normally when we find bones all the flesh has already gone, but this one we put in some water and just left it there for about two weeks, then daddy sprayed it with the hose and then it was just the bone. Here's what it looked like when we found it:

What I'm working on at the moment

I've been really lucky on walks recently, and have a load of new bones to work on. Here are some of the ones I've found in the last month or so.

Sheep skull

I wrote about finding this here.

I've cleaned up the sheep skull, and it now is on my shelves in my room. I'm going to write more about it later. I never found the other horn or the other part of the jaw, which is a shame, even though Daddy went back to try and find them. It would have been great if we had all the bits. But it's still the best sheep skull I have, and I have four.

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Two walks and some new bones

This week the weather has been better, so after school I have been on two bone walks again. Two days ago I went a bone walk to Tam Breck wood with daddy. My dad saw a roe buck but it ran away fast do I didn't see it, and further on we saw two roe in the fields. Then we found this rabbit skull.




The first bones I collected were rabbit bones, and I still collect them if they're good enough. I have about ten rabbit skulls, and it's really easy to find lots of them, but not many are in good condition like this with all the teeth, the nose bones, and the brain case. That's because whatever kills them, like a fox, often bites the skull as well.