Month: June 2007

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The Swallow chicks were not to keen to leave the…

The Swallow chicks were not to keen to leave the nest. When I turned the nest camera on this morning two of the Swallow chicks had fledged. There was only one left and that was balancing on the wire next to the nest. When we returned from feeding the Horses that had also gone. I joked that with the rain that we were getting, they wouldn’t stay out to long. I turned the new Swallow nest camera on until this evening when hopefully the fledglings would return. Half an hour later on checking the nest they had returned, bit to wet outside, I should think. One has been in and out of the nest, trouble is the other two are hoping it has food for them. With the rain that we have been promised, the fledglings could be in for a very precarious time. It was good to see that they have returned to the nest tonight, after leaving the nest when it brightened up this afternoon.

Although the final report by the Government’s Independent Scientific Group on bovine TB, that was published today, advises that Badger culling would be meaningless, there is still the decision of the Government to be made. You would think as most logical people would, that the decision on the cull would be made on the report published today, and all the other evidence from both Government departments and outside bodies. Not if The National Farmers Union has anything to do with it. A recent report on a Badger cull in Ireland, clearly shows that in spite of their cull, the are increases in Bovine TB in all of the areas of the cull. Other evidence indicates, that Cattle are the cause of TB in Badgers, and it goes on and on, with no evidence that Badgers cause TB in Cattle. Cattle testing in herds before movement, has also shown a large decrease in incident of the disease. The National Farmers Union cant let it drop, they have been kicking the same ball about for years. It wont matter what evidence you put before the NFU, they will never accept it.

It hasn’t of course, but if the report published today had of found overwhelming evidence that Badgers were the cause of Bovine TB, and that a trail cull should take place. What would have been the outcome if the trial had shown a reduction in TB. Eliminate every Badger? That is what it would suggest. And would it be right. Of course not. I am confident that the Government will note all of the overwhelming evidence against a Badger cull.

I have just found this statement from the National Farmers Union, on the BBC website of today. Quite obviously they are not interested in scientific evidence, more in trying to save face.

National Farmers’ Union president Peter Kendall said he would seek urgent meetings with ministers and officials to devise a culling strategy that would make a worthwhile difference to the disease situation. “I simply do not accept that the industry cannot devise a culling strategy that will reduce the reservoir of TB in badgers,” he said. He added that better testing and tighter controls on cattle movements would be worthless unless something was done to stop the “relentless cycle” of re-infection of cattle in the TB hot spot areas by disease spreading from badgers.

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It has been one of those days today and we…

It has been one of those days today, and we all get them, you know what needs to be done and with what you have got to do. With all the will in the world you are going to do it. And none of it gets done at all. That has been my day today.

The first thing I do in the morning is to reset the cameras from the night scenes to the daytime. Then I update the forum, an easy job you may think. Not so, glad to see all your inputs, unfortunately you are not the only people who do leave messages, there is so much advertising and links to other sites, including filth, you would not believe it. On a good day there is maybe forty or so, on a bad, so many that I need to phone my data base and get them to delete the rubbish. Some times as many tens of the same material are put on, probably in annoyance that I don’t approve them. This morning was a good day, ten lots of rubbish and just one from the regulars, informing me that there was a Heron on the sacks floating in the lake, waiting for its breakfast. Did I run to frighten it of, not the first thing that you want to be doing before feeding the Horses and a cup of coffee, especially as I reckon it must be a good two hundred metres from the farmhouse to the lake. Best part about it is that it has been back four times, and I have had to run to the lake every time. Believe me, I hate that Heron. I have tried putting Scarecrows to frighten it off. Like a fool I even went a purchased a plastic Heron when we first put fish into the lake. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that they keep Herons away, they don’t.

Later in the morning a strange car came down the drive. I am always careful when people ask are you Mr so and so, by the dirt on the car and the two dogs in the back, the women driver could well be a Farmer or a Horse person. Who’s asking I enquired. Don’t be so aggressive she told me, I am only try to help you out, and she was. I didn’t think that I was coming over as being aggressive, and I told her so. But my expression made her think I was. Have you got Sheep? she enquired, here we go I thought, with green ear tags? what have they been up to now. Well they are Mr so and sos field. Who the women was, I don’t know, she was nothing to do with the farm where she told me the sheep were. How she knew that they were mine I cant imagine.

Once you know that the Sheep are in someones field you need to find them. The women told me that there was a Ewe and two Lambs, the ones that we hadn’t managed to catch. I was surprised, as they were running with the Lambs who can squeeze through the bars of the pen. Most of the time the Ewe would be lying next to the pen, but I just couldn’t catch her. The women told me roughly where they were, but it still took me an hour to find them. How the women had seen them, other than on horse back I cant imagine, the lane goes no where that you would even take a Landrover. I started to walk toward them, and they legged it into a wood. That was enough for me. I went and spoke to the farmer who’s fields they were in, and apologise. He obviously had not told the women. To say the least I am a little baffled.

I didn’t manage to get the other Badger camera up, that I wanted to. Although I did strim an area near the new camera, it has made it easier to see the Badgers tonight. Only one person commented on it on the forum. I quite liked it, but there is a minor problem tonight that was not happening last night with the picture seemingly being a little out of focus. It could be the nettle in the fore ground.

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We managed to get one of the two new cameras…

We managed to get one of the two new cameras up and working today. It is a fixed camera that is positioned to look at where the Badgers come out to feed. As you see the Badgers come into view the sett entrance is just a matter of inches away. It has taken a couple of days to run the wires and fit the camera and other parts needed to get it working. The wires have to run in the trees and all along the Badger runs, that they use to get to one sett entrance to another. It has to be got into the roof space of the farm house, then about forty feet in the loft before being run to the ground floor of the house, out of site. Not a job I particularly like. To make matters worse the runs of sett are through bramble. I finish up being scratch from head to toe. The picture will probably need adjusting once I see how it looks tonight. I will be showing it on different cameras, including the Swallow camera. It should be a good position as often the Badgers use the spot it is positioned on, to play and socialise, the trees hide that area from the main camera. Let me know what you think.

As long as the piece of equipment I have works, I will try tomorrow to fit another camera to the rear of the entrance. The piece of equipment hopefully will allow me to put two signals over one wire, so two cameras should work. The manufacturers reckon it will, let hope they are right as the equipment is a few hundred pounds. I will be jumping about if it doesn’t. If it does work we should be able to see more of the Badgers. I am also going to put molasses onto the jump. I should think that they will like the taste, if they do it will keep them out longer.

I have been watching the new camera as I am writing the Diary, and can see what needs doing to make it better. For the next few days you may see that I have been trying different angles and height,

Anjela asked about the Rats around the lake. The Rats ate a lot of the poison, and as they had not eaten any for a couple of days, I moved the cage to the area of camera one. As much as I did not want to put the poison down in that area, I really had little option. I tried various other ways of getting rid of them, that were a waste of time. There were to many large Rats to allow them to keep breeding, without me doing any thing about it. They started to take the poison today. It will take a good while to clear the area. I will have to start checking two or three times a day to make sure no animals or birds eat any of them. I wanted to put the cage by the Bird feeders around the lake, that will have to wait until I can get my hands on a new cage, or the one I have got is able to be put there. To make sure that the Birds do not eat the poison I manage to get an old Magpie cage trap. Inside of that I put a petrol can with holes at each end. The Rats need to go into the cage and then into the can to get the poison. I have also covered the cage up with a piece of plastic with room at the bottom for the Rats to go under.

There are a few breaks in the clouds tonight, not enough t put the telescope on, but I maybe able to try the piece of equipment that was sent to me from the US.

Elsie, didn’t get the photos.

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The paragraph below had been has been written by Dr…

The paragraph below had been has been written by Dr.Barry Yates, Manager of The Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. I am hoping to twist his arm for him to write about the Reserve twice or more a week.

Rye Harbour Cam 2 update. Today the first Common Tern chick hatched, and now it has about 25 days of non-stop feeding and growing ahead of it. At first the chicks stay in the nest with an adult, while the other parent goes off to find suitable food – perhaps a shrimp, or flat fish, but ideally a sand eel. As the chicks get larger and don’t need the protection or warmth of the adults they will start wandering around the island and swimming in the water with their tiny webbed feet. With over 80 nests of Common Tern and half a dozen of the Black-headed Gull on the web cam island it should provide much interest. BUT BE WARNED, many chicks will not survive, perhaps due to starvation of bad weather, or attacks from Herring Gulls or Foxes or Badgers (yes, even on islands). It is a hard world for most wildlife and here at Rye Harbour we try to help the seabirds by trying to exclude the Fox and Badger using electric fencing. In this way we have built up a large and successful population of many ground nesting birds that are declining elsewhere – such as Lapwing, Skylark, Redshank, Grey Partridge and many others.
Barry Yates

We nearly had a disaster with Branston and Woody this evening. When the Horses came in for their feed, I somehow forgot to close Woody’s stable door. Not the brightest thing to do. When we noticed that I had not closed the door, Branston was in the stable with Woody. Fortunately Branston was helping Woody eat her feed. Not like Woody to allow that, I would have expected her to have got rather annoyed, and to at least of bitten Branston, if not a hard kick. Two days earlier it would have been a different story, as although Woody was unwell she was in season, she could have well finished up being mated by Branston and put in Foal. The last thing we would have wanted for Woody. I wasn’t sure how Branstone would be if I went in with him and Woody in together. We managed to get him out of the stable with waving arm and moving Woody’s feed outside. It could well have turned out differently.

Jan from Herts asked would a Badger cull effect the Badgers the Badgers at Denbury. until a Government announcement on a cull is made, probably some time this month, we really don’t know. For sure some part of the Southwest will be used for the experiment. It was when a gassing cull was tried some years back. The public and media out cry stopped the gassing. Rumour has it that any cull this time will be by licenced shooting. We will give details of any licenced person on this site, for they will need to apply for the licence. Believe me any person applying for the licence will not be doing the shooting because of Bovine TB cull, but for the enjoyment that they get out of shooting animals. I know a few of them.

Thanks Elsie email me the photos.

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I shouldn t think that it will be to long…

I shouldn’t think that it will be to long for the Swallow chicks to have fledged. The nest looks far to small for the three of them now. I think that the parents are thinking the same, as I have just seen an adult bring in some hay or straw, surly not to make the nest larger, or do they? Touch wood, at least this nest has survived. The fledglings normally return to the nest of an evening, for up to a week. Although the fledgling from one nest last year return for a bit longer. Unfortunately the place that the nest has been built, doesn’t allow a very wide angle camera view. It would have been good to have seen them returning to the nest, and perching on the wires that the nest has been built around.

The first Swallows nest that I found that was built on a electric junction box, has got 5 warm eggs in it. I should thing two of those wont hatch as they were probably left by the previous occupants. When the fledglings stop returning to the current nest, I will be able to move that camera, to show this nest. I have also found another Swallows nest in one of the barns. I put a camera up and I showed it this afternoon. I don’t think that the eggs have hatched yet. I will be able to move the camera to show a Dove nest that is in the same barn. As much as I have tried, I have been unable to find any nests, of other types of Birds.

I am not one who get to excited about global warming. Although I do believe there is a need for us all to be environmentally friendly. Recycling is necessary, as much to protect the world resources and to stop the lose of the rain forests of South America and Asia, for the sake of the creature that inhabit them. Although having rotting food in plastic tubs for two weeks, seems to me a bit of a contradiction. Surly it would be better to be rotting underground, that letting off harmful gases into the ozone layer, every time you open the tubs, to put more rotting food into them. Anyway a long way round to ask, if like here are your Blackberry bushes flowering. I have never seen so many flowers and never at this time of the year. I have never know Blackberries to be any earlier that the middle of August. I cannot imagine that they will fruit twice. A very important part of Birds diet will be missing, as they go into the Autumn.

Last night I saw fourteen Badgers on camera two. I maybe wrong, but I thought that there are a couple more smaller cubs, that were not out with the fourteen last night.

By the end of this month the Government are expected to give a decision on if there is to be two experimental areas for a Badger Cull. And it is an experiment to see if the areas show a decline in Bovine TB after a Cull. There is no evidence that Badgers are the cause of TB in Cattle. Recent evidence and the testing of TB in Cattle before they are allowed to leave a farm, only if free of TB, shows that the movement of Cattle to be the cause of Bovine TB, and that the cattle droppings spread the disease to Badgers. If the Government allows a Cull, it is understood that licences will be given to individuals who apply for the licences to shoot the Badgers. Under the Freedom of Information Act, we will be entitled to know who is licenced. The National Farmers Union, are the main instigators of pushing the Government for a Cull. They have recently had a national advertising campaign to publicise their insurance. Those wildlife enthusiasts who love wildlife and the Badgers, who are insured with the NFU, may consider alternative insurers.

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Willow wants to be friends with every one She is…

Willow wants to be friends with every one. She is very similar to Bliss in her ways. All Lady’s Foals have been the same, friendly and very easy to manage. To Lady’s annoyance, Willow seems to be spending more time with Bliss and Misty. Lady will suffer it for a while, when it has been to long, the with her ears back she walks towards Bliss and Misty to let them know. Of course it is not their fault, Willow just likes to be with the youngsters.

With Woody loosing her Foal, I was concerned that Willow would lack the company of another youngster to run about and generally interact with. She is doing that with Bliss and Misty. Willow seems to be having a great time racing around the field with them. You may have seen Willow rearing up and giving little bucks, when she is with the youngsters, this is to try to get them to run with her. I will need to get another Foal, for when Willow is weaned off of Lady, so that she has the company of another foal over the Winter.

Because of the weather forecast, when the Horses came in for their feed tonight we had intended to keep Lady, Willow and Woody in for the night. I had been watching Lady and the Foal on the camera. With Lady being so restless, even with the rain coming in, it would be better for them to be out in the field. When we went to get them out, Woody was laying down and had not eaten her feed. Normally if we get Lady out of her stable Woody will get up straight away, wanting to be out with Lady. Tonight she stayed laying down. On checking her half an hour later she was laying flat out. I was thinking that she may be getting a little better, as she has been eating well. As I have said before, her condition has to be taken day by day.

Going on from my Sons encounter with the Bull, that I told you about on Monday. A Lady I knew some years back, was very seriously injured by a Friesian Cow. She was a Farmers wife who milked their herd. She was a Lady in her late fifties, and had milked Cows all of her life, so she was very experienced. At milking times Cows get into a habit of going into the milking parlour on their own. On ringed fenced farms, you only need to open the gates. Most times the Cows are waiting and make their way to the parlour. There is a hierarchy in herd, some Cows get very annoyed if it is broken. On farms where is needed to go on the road, the Cows still know there way to the parlour, but you need to walk with them in case one decides to take an unwanted detour. It was on walking back with the Cows that the Lady got injured. She was following behind the herd, but needed to get in front of them. as she was passing them, one of the Cows turned towards the Lady, pushing her into a hedge and started to gore her. There was no one there to help her, but somehow she managed to get away, sustaining, broken ribs and head injuries. She was hospitalised, but did make a full recovery.

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Sorry tonight is going to be a short Dairy as…

Sorry, tonight is going to be a short Dairy, as I did not finish until late, putting up a new IR lamp where the Badgers and their Cubs have been playing of a night. Although I had put another lamp pointing into the area last night, it was a little to far away to give a good picture. Hopefully the one I have put up today will be as good as that pointing to the feeding area.

I also cleared an area two days ago, so that you are able to see one of the entrances to the sett, that can be viewed on camera one. At the moment there are cables in view. I am running a new cable to show different views of the Sett and the entrance on main Badger camera. If the piece of equipment that I have got works, it should be possible to use one cable for two extra cameras. I have been assured by the manufacturer that it will work. They will know all about it if it doesn’t. I am altering it about a bit, as although there are a lot of Badgers, other than when the Cubs are playing, all that can be seen is the Badgers eating the feed I put down. And they are eating that very quickly. Knowing how the Sett and the entrances are positioned, I should be able to show the Sett in a different light. The camera that are now in place will remain to be the main cameras.

A number of you have asked how many Badgers are there. Some of you have said thirteen, one maybe Fourteen. Tonight I counted thirteen on camera two, but I don’t think that I saw any of the small Cubs in that total, Although I am not sure. When I first put a camera up under three year ago there were three Badgers in the Setts. In two years it has gone from five, to how ever many there are now, depending on how many of the Sows gave birth.

I hope any of you who went into the NASA web cams, that I put the URL on the forum, have enjoyed them. I have only managed a quick glance on this mission. Very often you are able to see inside the space craft and the Astronauts working outside. More often than not with sound.

Over the next few days for very short periods in the day, just now and then, you may see the same pictures on both cameras one and two. That is because I will need to turn the electricity off to wire in the new cameras to get them working.

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Although the Sheep are penned up the Lambs are able…

Although the Sheep are penned up, the Lambs are able to get through the bars of the pen, to be able to wander where ever they want. They don’t go to far from the Ewes, but far enough to be out of site from the Ewes, who call out endlessly until the Lambs return. Now that more are in the pen, Kye is not so keen to go in with them. Over the last few days she has decided that it is more fun to chase the Lambs. Kye chases the Lambs as she would Tass, when they are playing together. Unfortunately for Kye we cannot allow her to chase the Sheep even in play. If we did, for certain one day it would turn in to Kye hunting and ultimately seriously injuring or killing one of the Lambs. If she ever did chase sheep in hunting them, we would have little alternative but to have her put to sleep by the Veterinary. Not what we would want to do.

Every year a lot of Sheep are killed by Dogs. Last year two of our Sheep were killed by a single Dog, that we first noticed on camera that we have set up around the farm. If I had not seen the Dog It would have killed a lot more than the two. When Dogs attack the Sheep in packs, they get into a frenzy, and seem to get worse the more that they kill or injure. If not stopped the will kill and injure many in a flock.

We have a footpath that goes through the farm. At both end of the footpath there are gate, where I have put up signs, telling people to keep their dogs on leads. The signs are so prominent that they cannot be missed. You would be surprised how many people choose to ignore and disregard them. I regret that I have no patience with the type f people who do choose to ignore my signs, they get severely verbally abused. They would soon want me arrested, if I had a Bull in one of my fields, who chased them.

One of my Sons was chased by a Bull six years ago. I promise you it was a classic. He had decided to take a short cut across some fields, from the farm, to meet friends in a nearby village. One of the fields had Cows in it, The best part of it was that he saw the Bull, but decided that it was not a threat. You guessed it, half way across the Bull charged at him. Fortunately both of my Sons have represented the County in athletics, and did he need it. He could not get to the fence to get out of the field, his nearest refuge being a tree, that after initially going round and round it, trying to avoid the Bull had to climb up it. I cant remember how long he said that he was up the tree, but it was a good while. In running away from the Bull he had lost one of his trainers and his mobile phone. Eventually the Farmer came to his rescue. He never got his trainer or phone back. When I asked him why he had not gone back to find them, he told me that he had forgot what field it was. Of course I believed him. I must admit whilst writing about it I have been having a little laugh. Some Breed of Bulls are not allowed to be put in fields that have footpaths running through them, they should tell you something. The most obvious is the black and white Friesian, the main milking cattle.

The majority of you went for Willow for the Foals name. That is what we will name her as her stable name.

If your entries on the forum a not shown, please email me, we very rarely do not allow any.

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It will just be a short Diary tonight It has…

It will just be a short Diary tonight. It has been very hot and humid on the farm today. To get a little cooler we went to Minehead for Fish and Chips on the beach, and a cool breeze.. On the way back the Police diverted us on a long diversion to get back home. There must have been an accident. The road to Minehead is very windy with very few overtaking places. There is always the potential for serious accidents on the road, so we didn’t get back until late.

Last night I followed the Badgers with the camera, to slightly left of the feeding spot, where I saw the Cubs playing with the adults. I don’t know if any of you saw any of it, the picture was very dark. I had only recently taken an IR lamps down that was pointing in to the direction of that area. The Badger Cubs were really going for it, enjoying themselves and bouncing all over the place. The adults joined in. It went on for a good time, and very enjoyable to watch. So enjoyable that I did not want you to miss It, so I spent the morning putting the IR lamp back up. Hopefully it is working and in the right spot. More important, lets hope the Badger and the Cubs play in the area tonight.

The piece of equipment that I purchased from the US for the telescope, is on its way to the UK. Susan the very kind lady who it was delivered to in the US, sent it on yesterday. All going well it should be here by Friday. Although there have been a couple of clear nights, when I could have put the telescope on, I decided to wait until I knew that the setting were 100%. This piece of equipment will help me do that. When I use it I will explain what it does. I reckon a few of you will want one.

Willow seems to be the preferred name for the Filly Foal. If it does not alter by this time tomorrow. We will name her that.

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We were going to name the Filly today with one…

We were going to name the Filly today, with one of the names that some of you liked. We cannot remember without going back on the forum, what the majority wanted. We liked both of the names, they were Whisper or Willow. Let us know what you think. To Lady’s annoyance she is becoming a little independent, very often wandering off with Bliss and Misty. When Lady calls for her, she now sometime doesn’t hear or pretends not to. Misty and Bliss get the blame, with Lady pacing over to them, with her ears back in a threatening posture.

As I am writing I can hear the Magpies intimidating the other birds. How they get away with darting in and out to take the Badgers feed, I cant imagine. A couple of times I thought that one of the Badgers may have hurt one of them. It is surprising how fast the reactions of Badgers are, and also how fast they cover the ground when they are on the move. The shape and size of them gives the impression that they are slow and awkward. Far from it, they can outrun me, and they can keep going at a constant pace for miles.

Over the past week or more there have been two or three Herons on the lake every day, after the fish. I have made you aware of my feeling for the Herons. I don’t want them here. That is why you may see me scanning the lake with the camera, from time to time over the day. As well as seeing what there is on the lake, it is also to look for Herons. From the house to the lake it is about a 150m. Believe me, when I see one on the lake I don’t hang about to get there to frighten them off. I don’t suppose that I see many of them.

Breeze is really getting the hump being behind the electric fencer on her own. We have had Breeze longer than any of the Horses, so she is a bit special to us, and we do feel guilty having to do it to her. We know that there is no alternative, but it doesn’t help. When we give the Horses a little feed in the morning and of a night we put Arnie in with her. I shouldn’t think that it helps a lot, probably it make it worse, as he is only in with her for an hour at most. Tomorrow we will get Breeze in with Arnie for a few hours. More than likely she will go out for a ride.