Holiday Heaven

The very warm and dry spell has (unusually) continued into the Bank Holiday here in the UK and although today is slightly cooler, it remains dry. Temperatures have been as high as 26 degrees C.

I would have been disappointed if I had gone abroad for the hols, but for once, I made the right decision and stayed right here.

After last weekend’s successful Woodlife Trails course, it was time to chill out. I went to Lowt’s wood and again the timing was perfect as all the bluebells were on spectacular display. I also found the some early purple orchid and bugle.

I came across some fallow, but they had already spotted me and the nearest I could get was about 40 yards. The pic at full digi zoom and not that good.

I continued to help out doing some work in our new ‘Nature Reserve’. I removed a dead branch that had fallen across the entrance to the rest area. I’ll give you an update on the progress in another post.

On Bank Holiday Sunday, JP and I went down to Hatfield Forest and set up the Woodlife Trails stall. It was great to see loads of young kids interested in the skulls and containers full of feeding sign, scat and teeth. Most think they are dinosaur skulls until you tell them that they can see everything on the table in the forest (errr…except the oryx hair – which is included to defeat the know-it-all; I mean designed to challenge the expert.)

Even the lure of the chocolate Easter egg hunt didn’t move many people away, and we came away at the end of the day with most of our leaflets gone.

Last night, an early evening safari around the outer fields and disused tracks revealed a large lapwing nesting area.  You really had to watch where you were going and I left the car to walk carefully along the track on foot. There were a few nests with eggs in…

…and, by carefully observing where the mother had walked before she lifted off, I was able, with great difficulty, to find these chicks...

They were brilliantly camouflaged.

I left the area by another route, did a few anti-surveillance circles and false trails in case a predator had been watching and carefully left the area.

This May Day Bank Holiday weekend, we will be travelling down to Kent for the annual Bushcraft Magazine meet. Perhaps I’ll see you down there.

Thanks for the visit.