Stop Reading This Blog NOW!!

As Richard and I both have backgrounds in the so called 'land-based' sector, he in conservation and ecology, and I in game and wildlife management we often use words, and you will have seen them on this blog, like habitat and environment. Depending on a plant or animal species habitat preferences it may be given a specific name, Riparian species for example;

Riparian species inhabit, surprise, surprise, the riparian zone; that is an area where land and river or streams meet. Those species might include 'hydrophilic' water loving species such as Alder and Willow for the trees, wading birds, beaver, amphibians and just as they have their particular niche even within their general habitat so do I. 

This picture was taken from just outside the Warren Street Underground station in London and  this is not my natural habitat, I have never been keen on cities, or towns and built up areas like this do make me very uncomfortable if I have to be there for any length of time. I live a 'bushcentric' life being outdoors, in the 'bush' to use the Australian term is my niche habitat. Yes I live in a house and drive a car and have a mobile phone and my job often involves paper work, but I am outside every day, I teach outside, I forage for food outside, I feed my pheasants, stalk deer, coppice, split firewood and burn charcoal, all outside.

This is my Natural Habitat;

Mt Ruapehu, New Zealand, I spen two nights camped at the bottom of this beautiful mountain listening to the nocturnal activities of Kiwi's (the bird, not the fruit or the people!). 

The view from the top of Mt. Sabestapol in New Zealands Southern Alps. the largest mountain in this picture is Mt Cook, the tallest mountain in New Zealand. On my way to the top I saw this amazing bird;

This is a Kea, once shot as a pest by sheep farmers due to it's inquisitive nature and habit of eating carrion and pestering lambs, I watched this bird for a long time from no more than ten or fifteen feet away while resting on the way to the Mueller Hut on the Sealy Range in New Zealand, it was craning it's neck at all sorts of strange angles to try and drink out of a small crevice in this rock.  

A panoramic view looking back up at the mountain I had just descended near Trento in Northern Italy. 

  

Riddy Wood in spring as the first of the bluebells start to flower.  

These pictures sum up what my natural habitat is, as long as I'm outside amongst nature I am happy and I'm sure most of those of you who read this blog and practice bushcraft and other outdoor activities feel the same way. I live a 'bushcentric' life, you should try it too don't live your outdoor life through nature documentaries, you tube clips, books or the internet, that means you should stop reading this blog NOW, and go outdoors. You don't have to travel across the globe to have a life that is close to nature or 'bushcentric' you won't see any bird more beautiful anywhere in the world than our kingfisher, nor a predator more efficient than the stoat or weasel, the fungi taste as good here as in Eastern Europe, the deer leave tracks to follow here just the same as the elk do in yellowstone park. 

Wherever you live there are experiences to be had that will bring you closer to nature, take advantage of them. 

Geoff