On the road, as the sun sat low in the sky, the commuter traffic buzzed all around me. As I turned on to a single-track lane, the site of a vast woodland loomed on top of the hillside above. Slowing my car to gawp into the lower section of trees, I could still feel the pressure of the working day behind me. But with my first day of holiday this year, I was not going to be rushed.
Pulling over to let a dark saloon past, I fumbled around for a pair of well-used binoculars, as I could see a brown body in the margin above. Pressing my eyes to the glass, the beast was plucked from the lush spring undergrowth as the head of a cock pheasant sprouted, followed by a long, proud tail.
Pulling up in a farmyard at the edge of the wood, I emerged from the car to the calls of
