Braco 200: The deserted sawmill

This will be one of a series of posts this year that I will be writing for the history of my village which was founded 200 years ago this year. And I know it's not a great idea for child bloggers to list the place where they live, but it's been mentioned in pretty much every newspaper article about me ever, so it's no great secret.

In my village there is a great walk along farm tracks through one of the big estates near my village. I walk there most days, often first thing in the morning before school or last thing at night to see animals like roe deer, red kite and salmon. Although a lot of people in the village use that walk, only a few know that just a few metres from the track is an amazing old building hidden from view.

Water mills were quite common in the area about 150 years ago, and the force of the water was use to drive something, like a mechanical wood saw or a grain grinder. This building is mostly destroyed, with no roof left, but the huge water wheel remains, half visible. Here is what I found.

Inspiring a primary school class

Here's something I thought I would share with you this week - it's a video I did for class nine at Dunmore Primary School in Oxfordshire. Their student teacher, Mrs Long (whose son also has a nature blog), sent me an email asking  if I could send them a message to inspire them as they were beginning a week of learning about bones and would be using my book as a guide.

I thought this was a brilliant idea, and did two videos, the one above which I did for them at the start of the week, and which posed a little mystery for the class to solve. (They also sent me a video of the class back at the end of the week which was brilliant to see - thanks Class nine !)

If you're a teacher and your class will be studying bones, and you'd like something like this, then send me an email and I'll try to help out. I can't promise anything, because the videos take a while to film and edit, but I will try and do something. Here's the other video which gave the answer to the skull puzzle !

Why we should reintroduce lynx

Imagine walking through the woods on a bright spring morning, the trees silent, except from the tweeting of birds. Then you get the strange feeling that you are being followed, stalked even. Then you catch  glimpse of an orange body, and see the tell-tale tufts on the ears.  You know what it is- but it a predator that has been extinct in the UK for 1300 years !

This could happen soon. The Lynx UK Trust is suggesting a scheme that is trying to get lynx re-introduced in to Scotland. If it is approved, they will bring four to six lynx onto each of three privately owned estates in Norfolk, Cumbria and Aberdeenshire that have loads of shelter and are rich in deer. And it won't be as dangerous as you think: unlike many big cats, lynx prefer to stay well away from humans.

The incredible frog skeleton

Ever since I was young, frogs have been one of my favourite animals. and a few years ago I even had a young frog in my room for a short while to study it, which I kept in an old fish tank. You can read about that here. I've always thought that frogs are cool with the way they have adapted to jump and swim.

The day after I appeared on The One Show, I received a kind email from a man called Mr Lydamore asking me if I would like a frog skeleton.It had been in his family for a long time after he found it under a cooker - he doesn't know how long it was there, but it could have been decades. It was a very kind offer ! This is what I've learned from it: