Knowing your poo and recognising other signs is a good way of getting to grips with what animals are in the area. I do not often see mammals in our woods but they are obviously often about.

Commonest is rabbit poo this is virtually spherical and about the size of a large pea. Colour varies depending on how old it is, gradually getting bleached and washed by the rain over time. This obviously applies to all types of poo.

Deer have similar little piles of poo as rabbits but their poo is often more cylindrical and invariable one end is pointed. The bigger the poo the bigger the animal. This photo is almost certainly Roe deer.

This next one is Red deer poo, and is somewhat larger, you can still see that some have the pointed end which is characteristic of all deer poo.

Some animals like badgers and foxes have quite a varied diet, which will be in tune with what is available in that season. This poo seems to have a lot of cherry stones in it and it was on the path near the entrance to our wood. It is almost certainly Badger.

We often get fox poo which is similar to dog but generally longer, thinner and with a fine tapering pointed end, but it will vary, again depending on what they are eating. Should you wish you can poke it about with a stick to see what it is made up of. The presence of bits of bone, feathers, fur and beetle cases, will distinguish it from dog poo, which generally does not contain such items as they are fed on tinned dog food and biscuits. This next one was photographed on a rock next to a stream where Otters are known to be present, however it has in it what looks to be beetle cases and so it is most likely Fox.

This next photo also has beetle wing cases in it but the poo is much smaller and so it is probably Hedgehog in origin.

Fascinating as this is, I will attempt to get more photos of poo and add them to this page.

OK so here is some Wild Boar poo.

And now some really good Wild Boar poo, probably a large male.

Sheep; fresh and possibly still warm but I did not check that out!

Off course poo is not the only indicator of what has been visiting, footprints, pellets, and this for example would indicate that a pigeon was on the menu, probably of a Sparrow hawk. Barbed wire is not great for the wildlife but it can indicate what is about. Here we have Wild Boar hair caught on the wire.