Snowy Dogs!

We woke this morning to find the frost of the last week or so replaced with a sparkling white blanket of snow.
Chris and I are like kids when it snows and we wasted little time in getting out to enjoy it. We headed up the track that leads from our house up into the forest. A few folk had ventured out before us, but their tracks soon peetered out until the way ahead was completly clear: a perfect canvas for tracking wildlife.
We soon found however that not even the wild animals, save a lone fox probably heading home in the early hours of this morning, had beaten us to exploring the fresh and wintery world and so we simply enjoyed the views and the beauty of the icing sugar coated twigs.


Fox and Whisper looked so joyful as they bounded about and are now curled up fast asleep. Fox beside me on the sofa and Whisper in "her" armchair.

 Here's what they got up to...
Fox led the way, but made sure that we were all keeping up!
He took time to survey his kingdom...
And allowed his princess to admire the view with him.
Chris attempted to make snowballs from the very powdery snow. It didn't work very well and the dogs were not terribly impressed!
What's that? We're going home already?

Walney Island

On my recent trip home to Cumbria, my Mam and I took some time out to have a nice mother-daughter stroll down the local beach much to the joy of Fox and Whisper. Despite the cobbles playing havoc with my recovering sprained ankle, it was lovely to be back down on Walney where I spent many happy days searching rock pools as a child (and as an adult for that matter).
Walney Island is a small sliver of land that lie's in the Irish Sea like a defensive barrier across the tip of the Furness Peninsula, protecting Barrow-in-Furness its docks and surrounding areas. Walney Island measures just 11 miles in length and just under 1 mile in width at its widest point, making it the eighth largest island off the coast of England. Walney is particularly well known for its wildlife and both the Northern and Southern ends are nature reserves and designated sites of Special Scientific Interest. The island even has its own endemic flower: the Walney Geranium.Sadly this had to be a short visit on this occasion, but we were still able to enjoy a rare gap in the clouds as the dogs happily raced in and out of the incoming tide.

Beaver Dogs

OK, I know that this isn't my beaver blog, but here is a little snippet...
As any beaver tracker worth their salt knows, you can't be a good beaver tracker without a good beaver tracking dog... ok so I made that up, but Fox and Whisper are learning to be useful while accompanying me to work.
For Fox, this is nothing new. He started helping me to track water voles when he was very small and will also "mark" any otter spraints that he finds while we are walking waterways.
By lavishing praising them whenever they sniff at a beaver scent mark or feeding station, they are becoming quite enthusiastic about helping to spot where the beavers have been.
I need to dedicate more time to this than I've been able to recently, but hopefully they will be very useful one day!
Fox likes beavers because they leave sticks all over the place just for him to steal. See him sneaking into the corner of this beaver dam photo?