Quantock Hills. An Area of Outstanding Beauty

The last walk of the programme was led by Nick Salter (Forestry Commission Area Forester) and myself as we took a dozen people around the red walk in Ramscombe to look at how modern forestry operates.  Despite being cold the warm colours of autumn were fantastic as a back drop to the walk.

For me leading events is immensely rewarding and results in some of the most memorable experiences I’ve had in the job.  Introducing people for the first time to the hills or to some aspect of wildlife that can be found living around the hills is great fun and even though it doesn’t always go to plan (sorry to those who came on one of the deer rut walks and heard nothing, better luck next time) we usually have a nice time.  It has been a particularly good year for Quantock AONB events this year, we held 12 events this year ranging from a beautiful Dawn Chorus walk back in May to some pretty wild storytelling in August, a fantastic star gazing event in September when we were blessed for the first event with huge starry night sky, not such great skies for the second event, but still a hugely enjoyable experience thanks to a wonderful mobile planetarium! The Fungi walks in November are always popular and again we had some beautiful weather and some pretty fabulous fungi was found too.

Even after all these years being out and about on the hills I still get to witness some amazing sights such as last week on patrol I saw a Short Eared Owl quartering over the heath and earlier in the morning heard a stag roaring several times.  I guess a hind had come into season late and cause a little flurry of activity.

Anyway plans are being drawn up as I speak for next years events with a particular slant to events for the younger audience.  Keep you posted.

Here are some images from the year's events.  From left: Wild Stories for Wild Children, Deer Rut (image Matt Peaster), Nightjar Watching, Fabulous Fungi