Month: September 2007

Categories
webcams

Chris Speering from the Hawk ad Owl Trust visited the…

Chris Speering from the Hawk ad Owl Trust visited the Farm on Monday. All in all it was a very interesting meeting, and we learnt a lot from the couple of hours that he was here.

We may be lucky with the Kingfisher, for they do not always migrate. If there is plenty of food for them where they are, they quite often stay. For sure there is a lot of fish in the lake. One of our holiday quests fished a 10lb Carp from the lake last night, not that the Kingfisher would be very interested in that size for a meal. Or guest has seen the Kingfisher a lot whilst he has been fishing. He has been perching on the Bullrushes around the island, very close to where he was fishing.

Chris is involved with a release programme for three Tawney Owls. It is to happen very soon. It is only a maybe, as the broadband connection at the location is not very good, but if it can be arranged we may put a camera at the site. The Young Tawny Owls are encouraged back to a location, so that they can be helped on their initial release. Eventually they will not return and start to fend for themselves.

Chris is to make a report about Denbury and what we do, for the Hawk and Owl Trust. Hopefully this may open more opportunities for additional webcams on our site.

The Lock of the Lowe’s have changed the Red Squirrel and Pine martin camera that we sent to them. The close up camera is now in focus both day and night and is much better.

Bliss came in lame again this morning, I thought that one poultice would have drawn the infected area, and that she would have been sound this morning. The poultice was still on her foot. With the infected area partly open I was surprised to see her limping. We will try to draw the poison out by soaking her foot in hot salty water, this very often works as a poultice would, in open wounds.

One entry on the forum asked if the Badgers were taking longer to eat the feed I put out, or was I putting out more. I thought they were eating it quicker than ever. I have not bee increasing the feed that I put out, and I wont be, as they the way they are breeding they must be getter more than ample.

I wasn’t watching the Badger tonight, so I couldn’t say if the limping Badger was out or not tonight, although I have seen it recently.

Categories
webcams

When the Horses came in this morning for their feed…

When the Horses came in this morning for their feed, Bliss was very lame. She came in limping and feeling very sorry for herself. It is the same leg as she had the infection in her hoof two weeks ago. Then the poison in the hoof made its own way out. In most cases it does happens like that, by far it is the best way for an infection to cure itself, as normally it does not inflame again. Having the infected area opened or poulticed will very often leave some of the poison in the infected area, and it will need further poulticing or treatment. On inspecting the underneath of her hoof it seems what happened was that where the poison released itself, a large pebble got stuck in to the release area and stopped all of the poison from draining out. We removed the pebble from the hole hoping that the remainder of the poison would come out over the day, whilst Bliss was in the field walking around grazing. Unfortunately it didn’t and we decided that we would poultice the infected area.

All those of you who were watching the webcams when Bliss was born at Denbury, about eighteen months ago will know what a star she has been from the first day of her being born. She has been the most friendly and easy Horse that we have ever had, I would even say that we have known. Even with easy Horses like Bliss, when they have pain and you need to treat them they can be very wary of what is going on, especially when they have never hardly had their feet lifted up.

To poultice the infected hoof you need first to clean the area with a hoof pick, and wash it out thoroughly. the hoof pick would have given Bliss a bit of discomfort. A hot poultice is then put over the wound, using an old sock to keep it in place, held with vet rap, a type of sticky bandage. As Bliss was being turned out tonight we needed to make sure that the poultice stayed on. We use a large corner of a thick plastic feed bag, held with gaffer tape. To a young filly like Bliss it is an awful lot of messing about. She was absolutely brilliant, allowing us to do every thing that was needed without a sign of protest. Hopefully by the morning the poulticing would have done the job an Bliss will be back to normal without any pain.

Chris Speering from the Hawk and Owl Trust visited this morning, I will tell you about the meeting in tomorrows diary. We walked the whole farm with him, and as if on cue the Buzzard youngster flew over head squawking as loud as it could. We asked Chris about it disappearing for the week that it has. By all accounts the Adult parents hide from the youngster to help it leave their territory, The youngster looks in for the parent in different areas. We may be lucky to catch it on the webcam again before it leaves for good.

Categories
webcams

I made it a point yesterday to walk through the…

I made it a point yesterday to walk through the valley, I went on my own at about midday. The main reason for me walking the valley was to see if I could see or hear the Buzzards, I would usually have taken Tass and Kye with me, but being that we have recently seen a number of Deer on the webcams, there would be more of a chance of seeing them , if I were on my own, if there were any. Tass will come to heel immediately she is called, or when we need to be very quite, I only need to click my fingers. Kye is very good, but she does hesitate, and has not yet got use to coming to heel as Tass, when I click my fingers.

Although the whole Denbury is in a valley, I call the part where the valley camera is, the start. To get to where the valley starts you need to pass through the orchard on the track that also passes the Bird and Squirrel feeders. Once into the valley I crossed the stream making my way up the hill to the wood, that you can see on the right hand side. I walked along that wood first, as it is the wood that I believe that the Buzzards nest. Every year I try to find the nest, but I have never managed to find it. You can also usually see the Adult Buzzard fly close to the side of the wood.

There was no sign of any of the Buzzards. I turned left at the end of the wood making my way down the hill, crossing the stream at the far end, then turning right into the little paddock that I described as my favorite spot on the farm. The small bales of hay that we had made last week were still lying where they had been made. Seeing them reminded me that the contractor had not brought them in. They need to be in before any rain, being small bales they would spoil, if rained on.

There were a number of the bales of hay under the old Ash tree. I pulled a few of them together so that I could lay out for few minutes to listen to the quietness. I must have dozed off for a few seconds, only to be woken by a distant shotgun being discharged, At the same time a movement to my right, made me look into that direction of the wood, just as a Red Deer Calf came out of the wood. With the paddock being small, the wood is only at the most ten metres from where I was laying. I didn’t move a muscle as it made its way to my direction, grazing the new grass that was shooting up after being mowed to make the hay. Within a minute the Hind followed into the paddock, after jumping over an low barbed wire, that was once part of an old fence.

I was surprised that the Hind had not noticed me, especially as a light breeze would have been blowing my scent into her direction, obviously she hadn’t, for both the Calf and Hind carried on grazing, at times within three metres of me, for at least twenty minutes. Keeping still in the position I was in was making me ache and stiffen up, giving me little alternative but to sit up. I moved very slowly so as not to frighten the Deer to much. The Hind looked at me then carried on grazing. It was not until I stood up did she slowly make her way back into the wood, with her calf following close behind. later that evening I managed to catch them on the webcam.

Categories
webcams

Tonight just after I had finished feeding the Badger I…

Tonight just after I had finished feeding the Badger I had to go a local Supermarkets Pharmacy on an errand. I made sure that the cameras set before I went. I did drive quite fast as it was a fair way. Just about a half a mile from Denbury, along a minor road a young Tawney Owl flying low as if it was swooping onto its prey flew into the front wing of my car. I stopped and picked it up, hoping that it had just been stunned, It was not dead at the time, but unfortunately died about ten minutes later.

By the time I got home it is now a bit late to finish the Diary. I will tomorrow.

Categories
webcams

I have been surprised at the sudden disappearance of the…

I have been surprised at the sudden disappearance of the young Buzzard. In fact I have not seen or heard any of the Adult Buzzards for about the same time. I should think that it was at the beginning of this week that I last saw the youngster. I had it on the main Badger webcam sitting on the fence. Maybe one of our viewers saw it, please let me know what day if you did.

I was speaking to a birding person earlier this evening about the Buzzard suddenly disappearing. He thought it odd, but did say that the parent Birds do chase their youngsters away from their territory, and when the Adult Buzzards malt, they can be a little elusive, but is this that time. I cant remember it in other years, although this year was the first that I had one of the youngster on the webcam for as long as I have.

There can various reasons for the sudden disappearance of any Animals or Birds. Birds of Prey have always been a target for Gamekeepers trying to protect the shooting for their employer, many as well as their employers are prosecuted in the courts. Gamekeepers poison dead Rabbits for the Bird of Prey to eat. What a way for them to die. Obviously it really does concern me that one possibility is that the Buzzards have been poisoned or shot. Chris Speering from the Hawk and Owl trust is visiting Denbury on Monday. I will speak to him about the sudden disappearance and take his advice. Another option is to speak to the RSPB.

Some weeks back when I made my views known on Game and Rough shooting, I did not go into the killing of Birds of Prey by poisoning that is done by Gamekeepers to stop Birds of Prey from taking the Game Birds, that are put down for their so called sport. This shows even more why this type of shooting should be banned. Of course Landowners have to control various Animals and Birds or their crops would suffer. Unfortunately most shot for enjoyment, I wonder for why. Very little that is shot is eaten. All the Landowners that I know don’t need the few pence that they would get for a brace of Pheasants or a few Rabbits. I suppose it could be that it is the only way that some try to prove their manhood, sad.

I could be wrong about the disappearance of the Buzzards, and tomorrow they will all be back. I hope so. I will let you know..

Val you must learn to count, there were three Swallows in the nest, when I turned the camera on this morning. Mind you I think two of them have been in and out of the nest all day. I should think that they will all out at some time tomorrow. I will keep the camera panned out so that you can hopefully watch their progress.

Categories
webcams

Finished the concreting in the base for the new camera…

Finished the concreting in the base for the new camera tower today. As one of my Lads said, just got to hope that we don’t find one of the Badgers cemented in, when we check it in the morning. The concrete will take a few days to set, so that we can put the tower up.

It was good to see the report that Ospreys have been seen on the Chew Valley waters. Of course unless we know if they are ringed and what number they have, we can never be sure where they have been nesting, or what nest they originated from. It would be good if they came from the Lock of the Lowe’s, but I should think that they are more than likely to have come from a site in Wales.

Osprey were once visitors all over the British Isles. Being that they are using Chew Valley as a stop over, there could be a chance that a pair may nest there at some time. As I told you last week, Peter DeMarie from Delaware USA, contacted me last week about webcams at a site that is just a couple of hundred yards from his home. Peter is a Osprey monitoring volunteer for the State of Delaware. He has emailed me some photographs of the site that is by his house. The Osprey nest is a platform on top of a pole. It is in the middle of a lake surrounded by houses. The complete opposite to the sites in the British Isles, that seem to be in isolated areas or on Water Companies Lakes and reservoirs. I will try to have a word with the people in charge of Chew Valley. Who knows they may be interested in a webcam at their site, for at a quick glance, they do have a large assortment of wildlife there.

Categories
webcams

The fish and chips shop we use in Minehead is…

The fish and chips shop we use in Minehead is called the Sheppards Plaice, Alcombe Road. It has recently been taken over. Although the food is very good and cooked fresh why you wait, is just a tiny bit not as good as it was, with the previous owners. Don’t dare use the shops that cater for the holiday makers, it crap. There is a little place on the front at Minehead, we were quite late and went and ordered from it. They got the fish out of a packet. Needless to say we finished up being a little later. Don’t know what they did with our order, but I reckon the Gulls would have turned their nose up at it.

The main badger camera has been up for about two and a half years. I have told you before that it is on a telegraph post a least thirty foot up in the air. None of us a Denbury are keen on height, properly an understatement. The Lads are better than me with heights, but they would not go up the telegraph post. When I first came to Denbury I could hardly stand on a chair without being petrified, three rungs up a later and that was about it. In the past three years since I have been doing the webcams, I have got a lot better, but I am still not happy at the top of a small ladder. The picture quality of the cameras that are high up, do suffer as they don’t get cleaned as they should. Rain stains, cobwebs and dirt ruin the picture quality. A while back I told you that I thought that I would have to change the main Badger camera as I was having a little trouble with it. Fortunately the problem sorted it self out, although one of kind viewers did offer us assistance with changing the camera.

Hopefully we should now not have that problem any longer, for a kind company has donated to us a real posh, proper CCTV tower that tilts over with a winch. Today my Lads have been digging the hole to put in the bolts to hold the tower in place. As the tower weighs nearly 200 kilo the hole has got to be very big to hold the tower in place. Tomorrow we will be concreting the hole to secure the bolts. I should think that we will need to mix over a tonne of concrete. All I hope is that it is not to hot, like it was today, or it is going to be hard work. I suppose you can guess that we have finished making our last hay, by not wanting it to be to warm. Once the bolts are concreted in we will need to wait a week, to make sure that the base is really strong, for the weight of the tower. Of course we then have the problem of getting the camera down from the telegraph pole. When it is done it will make the keeping the camera clean and maintained a lot easier.

Categories
webcams

I read that someone wants the closeup camera of the…

I read that someone wants the closeup camera of the Lock of the Lowe’s Squirrel and Pine Martin back. The camera was changed over, as focus was really out of a night. I sent a new camera and lens up to the centre last week. They Hope to have it working this week some time.

On Sunday the Badgers were a bit jumpy, our new holiday guests were using the hide, they possibly may have spooked them. You can always tell if the hide is being used, by the Fox not being about. You would think by the way that the urban Fox ignore humans, our Fox would be use to them by now.

Those Rabbits are big. I should think that they are getting a bit of the Badger feed. If they get much bigger they may be t slow to get out of the way of the Fox or Badgers, to both they would make a good feast.

Sue should have been at Minehead for the past two evenings. We went there last night for fish and chips. Didn’t stay to long as it wasn’t to warm, even with a jumper on. Tonight was a different story, it was so warm that we didn’t need jumpers, and for a change we had a Chinese take away. Bit messy on the beach, but well worth it. It did start to blow up a bit. Time to get back to Denbury.

Our boiler stopped working last night. I have been smelling oil around the tank area fr a while. On checking the tank the bottom had started to rust away. It looked more like a sieve than a tank. I knew that I would have to change the tank sometime soon, and by luck when I went to our farm suppliers last Saturday, they had one on one side. Whats this I asked one of the assistants. It a double tank but the outside tank has a split in it, the inside tank is good but we cant get the outside one renewed, I was told. I jumped in quick, how much do you want for it I asked. I thought that I may have been told two or three hundred pounds. Fifty pounds he said. That fifty pound was out of my pocket and into his hands so quick that I didn’t realise that I had given it to him. What a stroke of luck, it was meant to be. I never for one moment thought that I would have needed it as soon as I did.

I was up very early this morning, to go and collect the new oil tank. The old metal one was well covered in bramble, it took one of my Lads and myself a good hour to clear the bramble, to be able to get the old tank out. We needed to get a rope around the tank, to pull it out of its place. The only way we were going to move it was to drag it out with my car, with my Lad driving. Instead of just pulling it out, it started to tip forward, it didn’t help as it was a steepish incline, and then it suddenly started to roll, how this big heavy metal cube could roll as quick as it did I will never know. It must have weighed three hundred weight, and there it was bouncing and rolling into the direction of my car. The car was attached to it by the rope, so there was no way that my Lad could get away from the tank. I screamed out to him to pull it as fast as he could, in the hope that once off of the incline it would stop rolling. Fortunately it did and the car and tank came to a standstill, a good hundred yards from where it started.

Now to the point of the story, when we looked behind the place where the tank was, we found what looks like a new Badger sett, that our Badgers have started. It could be an extension of the main sett, but I am not to sure, as there is a large rock area in between the main sett and the new excavations. We have built two stables into the rocks, that is how large and rocky it is. It is also a good twelve metres from the nearest hole of the main sett. The main sett, if it is an extension would now be a good fifty metres plus. The new sett is just a few feet from the farm house.

Categories
webcams

I managed to catch the last two lambs this afternoon…

I managed to catch the last two lambs this afternoon. Since I have had the rest of the Sheep penned in around the lake, in an electric fenced off area, the elusive Ewe with her Lambs have been getting quite near to them. But just not near enough for us to be able to cut off an exit. Every time that we have thought that we could catch them they were able to make their escape. The area around the lake that the Sheep are fenced in has been been grazed so tight to the ground, we have needed to feed them hay. This afternoon when I went to give the Sheep their hay, the Ewe and her lambs were by the fence, next to the rest of the Sheep. I had them three parts blocked in. The Ewe kept threatening to run past me, the only exit that she thought that she had. She did have another exit, if I had pushed her to far, she would have gone through a large mass of weeds, and made her escape. I was on my own, so for sure I would not be able to catch the three of them. If I could catch the two Lambs it would not be difficult to catch the Ewe at a later date. After about ten minutes of the Ewe just staring at me, she decided to turn in to the direction of the weeds. Thankfully instead of her going into to the weeds she walked towards the chain link fence behind her, her two Lambs keeping very close to her. There must be a hole under the chain link fence, for the Ewe was on the other side of the fence before I knew it. The Lambs seeing the Ewe on the other side of the fence, instead of following her through the hole charged into the fence, all that I needed to do was to grab hold of one of their back legs and they would be caught. I managed to catch hold of one, the other Lamb decided to try to make its escape by running past me, fortunately I managed to get my hand around his leg before it got past me. Now I needed help to get the two Lambs to the Stable where the other Lambs are kept, a good hundred yards away. After a lot of shouting help came and we managed to get the two Lambs back to the stable. The Ewe is running around the farm yard trying to find the Lambs. By tomorrow she will know where they are, so we should be able to catch her.

Where I have managed to keep the Ewes contained around the lake they have grazed the area so well that there is hardly a weed about. All that there are, are the stalks of the nettles, if they were cut back the Sheep would keep the area very neat and tidy. To make matters worse two of our holiday guests go to the lake to fish, and need to go into the area with the Sheep on their way to a fishing spot. Dolly and Minty being so friendly go up to our guest for attention, and to be stroked. Please don’t get rid of the Sheep why we are here pleaded the lady, they are so friendly she told me. When people come to holiday at Denbury they do expect to see farm animals. I will need to think again about selling all the Sheep.

Categories
webcams

Not showing the Bird feeder and Squirrel nest as mentioned…

Not showing the Bird feeder and Squirrel nest as mentioned on the forum is down to me being a bit lazy. In between the camera and the feeders there are a large amount of bramble, that grows into the view of the camera. I do try to knock it back, but unfortunately they are very large bushes and it is difficult to knock the middle down as it is so far in. The easy option would be to put weed killer on them, but the Badgers have made their runs in them. We will be cutting the hedges shortly and they will be cut back them. The squirrel haven’t been using the feeder very much, in the past month or so. Where I would normally need to fill the feeder every two days, it has stayed nearly full for weeks. This time of year the Squirrels will be getting ready for the Winter, eating and stashing away the Hazel and Sweet Chestnut, of which this year there are more on the trees than I have ever seen at Denbury. I will get my Lads to knock the bramble back over next few days.

As we walked down the valley this afternoon with Tass and Kye the Sky was full with Swallows flying, strengthening themselves for their migration. I have never noticed it before, like it was today. They must have been bred on the farm, so there must have been a lot of nests that we missed, when we where looking for nest for the webcams. How they don’t crash into each other when they are darting in between each other I really don’t know.

I was telling you what webcams we are hoping to be doing soon. One that I tried on the farm last year, was with the Bats that we have in the farm house loft. You have no doubt seen that we do have a lot of Bats on the farm. On the cameras around the lake and valley there are always many to be seen. When I go to feed the Badgers of a night there are also many flying about. This time of year from our lounge window we can see them coming and going from our roof space, but when I go into the loft to look for them I can never find any, although some years ago when ever I had to go into the loft, there were many flying about up there. There are also a lot of the Bat dropping up there. I set a camera up in the loft thinking that I would see them flying around, that was a complete waste of time. I don’t know what type of Bats that we have at Denbury, by the different sizes of the Bats that I have seen on the camera when on the lake, there must be more than one type here.

There is a lot of baking of fruit pies this time of year, on the farm. We do get quite an assortment of fruits here. Plumbs, Damsons, Gooseberries, a variety of Apples from the Orchard and Blackberries. I am surprised that there are so many Blackberries after we had a lot of flowers and no fruit during the summer. This year there is a lot more fruit than normal.

Alex asked about the Horses, for those who may of missed their names when I told you a while back, the big Dark Bay is Arnie a 17.3hh Dutch Warmblood, the Palomino is Breeze our 14.2hh three quarter Arab, Lady with her Foal Willow are Thoroughbreds, the Bay is Bliss a yearling, as is the smaller Dark Bay Misty, both of which are also Thoroughbreds.