Boaring

Looking up from kneeing on the floor, did a double take as STARTLINGLY close was a wild boar staring down my lens! You don't get one of those every day..if ever! All my camera knowledge went out of the window with my brain in overdrive!

This was a fully grown female, a big girl and at this point I just prayed she didn't have piglets as I do know the agression the mother's of any animal have, let alone a boar! 'Do I stay or do I go' now (The Clash by the way) ..... I opted with what I thought was the safest option and stayed right where I was incredibly still and unthreatening but fully prepared to sacrifice my camera if need be. Scared ......yesI was a bit but she was ok but you never know. In the forest, pronounced 'faar est' down there...attacks are rare but the boar are unpredictable and you never know. Not that I have any experience whatsoever with boar - let alone wild ones.

She was foraging around searching for acorns, beech nuts, worms and grubs. The boar have become a menace in the Forest of Dean in that they are thriving but snuffling out lawns, verges and a football pitch even, digging and destroying. The more they establish themselves the more they breed and each sow can have 10 piglets so the population is rising to the extent the authorities are having to think about culling them. I would add that they are amazing to see and because they are fairly nocturnal you don't see them often as they live in the forest of trees. Having scarpered - me that is - she did reappear again drinking the water from the lake a lot later which i was chuffed to capture!

I was stunned by this today! Did have decent shot of a Jay and a tree creeper but this was the most amazing encounter to date for blip!