Now, you know how I keep trying to have a quiet day. Well, first bit was good. Then when Stephen got back I went to the woods. All I had to to was pick up ScroteCam#1 (we call our security/wildlife cameras Scrote Cam, as you do), and bring it back to charge up the batteries and fill the seed feeders for the little flying chickens AKA blue tits. Not difficult. Not eventful. 30 mins maximum.
Except, of course, this is me, and nothing is ever quite as simple as it seems. First of all I moved ScroteCam#2 to see if I could pick up more piccies of the wildlife in that bit of the woods. Didn't check the piccies, just moved it and changed the SD card. Then I headed down to ScroteCam#3. This was its first night in the woods, so I was just checking to see if it worked. Except that it had captured a bloke in a motorcycle helmet walking round the coppice at 6.30 last night, not long after I'd left - he was a very long way from anywhere he could legally park a motorcycle or quad, so why on Earth did he have his helmet on? I always took my helmet off as soon as I got off the bike! Hmmmm. I spoke to Stephen and we agreed to replace ScroteCam#2 to cover the main crossroads in the wood in case they come back on quads or off road bikes. Just as I was on the phone I heard shouts coming from the bottom end of the wood by the canal, so I headed off down there.
It turned out that a dog (rottweiler) had fallen into the canal. People had been trying to rescue him but he was stuck on a narrow ledge, and getting colder and weaker. He'd been in there the best part of 3/4 hour, poor chap. Some folk had made the long walk from the towpath through the neighbouring farm to try and help and we pinched a rope and tried to pull him out, but , bless him, although he was trying, he was too weak and cold. So the bloke, Rob, got into the canal (YUK) and between us we managed to push and haul him out. He was a lovely, lovely doggy. Very cold, shivering, but very grateful and waggy. By then there was quite a crowd on the towpath opposite us, and we all phoned everybody we could think of, and I phoned the warden at the local nature reserve but he wasn't on duty, however he gave some suggestions as to where the dog might have come from. We made an improvised lead and the doggy had a lovely walkies up through the woods and then went into the building and dried off Rob and the doggy who'd been in the canal and gave the doggy some biscuits (he did a lovely sit and gave us his paw). Then there was some shouting from the neighbouring farm and it turned out that somebody had, through the grapevine, tracked down the owner and sent them to Alvecote Wood, but they turned off into the neighbouring farm instead. Happy person re-united with her doggy. Its collar had broken, he ran off, and then got himself stuck in the canal, poor thing. He was a rottweiler/alsatian cross - beautiful dog. All happy all round.
So, I pottered off to get ScroteCam#1 which was my original mission, about 2 hours later! The neighbouring farmer was spraying his crop, and he stopped for a chat. Said somebody had broken in through his gate and driven a vehicle around all over his crop. I told him we'd captured somebody with a motorcycle helmet on one of our cameras.
Finally got home, exhausted as I'd walked miles back and forth through the woodsHe and had all the doggy stuff to deal with. Downloaded the pictures to find that Mr Motorcycle Scrote had appeared on TWO of our cameras, and had been wandering around our glade and coppice. Pictures sent to Police, not that he is recognisable, except definitely the same person (same boots!). Second camera was set too low to get his head (I was looking for wildlife, not people). Also not admissible as evidence, but it would be interesting to see if they have had reports of similarly-attired people doing bad deeds elsewhere.
So there we are - a very eventful visit to the woods. If the SWOG newsletter is a bit behind schedule it is because I've been rescuing doggies and trying to catch intruders!