My first horns

My first horns

So there you go, that’s how I got hooked into the wonderful world of bone hunting… (see last two articles) now this next chapter marks the next step I took, which was to take steps into an interest in taxidermy and  deer skull mounts, all caused by this next find.

Up to now,  nearly all the skulls I had found so far had been from species that have very little variations between males and females. But this next find was instantly recognisable as a proud and fierce male buck or stag.

I found him whilst out dog walking with my parents in a wood at the foot of our land. I spotted him in a dried up little creek, just a skull and a couple of longer bones such as tibia and femurs. It had obviously been washed down from higher up the bank, and collected in the roots at the bottom of the creek bed. I guess the smaller and lighter bones had been washed away, further down where the dried up creek joins a small river.

As he was my first definitively gender identifiable find ( and because I was 14 at the time) ,I named him Alfie, and he is still referred to as such amongst my family as he was the first of many that my parents have helped my find and recvover, the most memorable of which was the horse skeleton I intend to cover in a later post. I thing their presence at Alfie’s discovery, seeing how excited and interested I was, was and still is the reason that my parents continue to take an interest in my hobby, actively encouraging and supporting me in a pastime that many consider a little macabre and creepy…

until next time folks, keep collecting