Afternoon off school

Yesterday I had the afternoon off school due to open evening, so the school closed early, giving me time to walk around the wood without rushing before it got dark.

Amelia and I had a great time wandering around and playing on the rope swing in the woods. Three hours went very quickly

I was out looking for anything that caught my eye, but particularly Fly Agaric as I know where a patch appears every year under the pine trees. It looked like something had been nibbling them.

A lot of the leaves on the trees are just starting to turn brown and when the wind blew great patches of leaves fell.

All the dry fallen leaves on the floor isn't very helpful when I'm trying to be quiet and creep close to get a photo of a bird or animal. I could hear the Goldcrests in the trees but couldn't get anywhere near them.

We found a few Barn owl feathers in a place where I regularly find feathers from a Barn owl, but I have never actually seen one around that area, but I don't often go there at dawn or dusk.

Out in the field, on the way back home, three Kestrels were hunting, one female and two males. They were using the telegraph wires to sit on, then swooping down into the field after something, only to return without catching anything.

Southern hawker

Fly Agaric

The night before we popped in to the woods to see if the badgers were around. After about 5 minutes these three came out, along with the cub and its mum. A couple of the badgers were picking off the blackberries with their teeth from the bush behind the sett.
At one stage we had eight badgers around us.
I put my trail camera out at the side of our garden and was happy to see the badgers still come up to visit us, even though it is at 3am.