Autumn Forest Impressions

After a long time I was able to visit my beloved mountain forest again. It was a relief! I love the forests in autumn - all these colourful leaves. Unfortunately the leaves covered the ground so much, so there was a rare chance to find any bones. But hey, I know where I have to look ;)
More about my new skull and some photos under the cut!

It was a bright sunny day and I grabbed my bike and rode up to the mountain forest. I was so happy when I stood between the first trees. And there were also my cryptic shrubbery and the lovely but cliffy abyss. These two spots are always my first places to go before I enter the forest itself.

I'm not that scared of heights, but there was a fox skull near the abyss. I only saw the back of it. I thought it would be toothless anyway so I left it there. It was too risky to grab it anyways and I didn't want to crawl over the path for to grab it safely.
In the shrubbery were some fox skulls as well - YAY! But all lost their canines, what a pity. So I left them there as well.

But some buzzing flies got my attention. The place was a bit higher in the shrubbery, covered with trunks. I circled the shrubbery from the outside and entered it again on the upper side. The reason of the accumulation of flies was a skinned carcass: it was the body of a badger. And next to them was a skull of a roe deer - le gasp!
The skull seemed intact and was stuck between a crotch. I tried to release the skull with a stick, because I didn't want to go too close to the smelly badger but the skull was stuck very hard! Nooo! Now I had to move myself to the skull. I tried not too breath... It was worth it, because my new female roe deer skull is a blast!

It's the skull of an adult animal and it's almost perfect. Too bad there was no lower jaw anymore. It's my second find of a roe deer skull, so I'm very happy with it.
I don't know how old that animal was when it died, but the teeth are a bit worn down.

The two gaps on the lower back of the skull are also fused (one not fully yet). You can read about these typical bone gaps on Jake's blog.

I think it was a three year old female shot by a hunter.
The skull itself is very stained and my Mum suggested a peroxyd bath. But I denied, because I like the color of that skull. And I don't like peroxyd - it stinks, is acid and expensive.

I also found two ticks: one baby tick on my hand and, many hours later, a monstrous one on my neck... Ooooh, I hate these critters so much!

I shot some photos from the forest too and I want to share them with you. Please enjoy.

Now, winter is coming... ;)