It is good that we can still see the Swallows after they have fledged. The camera is not as close in as the last nest and I am able to zoom it out. Up to a couple of days ago there were five in the nest, but I have only seen four perching on the wire. The other one may have found another spot to perch and the adult is feeding it there. I will look in the barn tomorrow. I have only seen four nestling in the other nest, the other one may be behind the other four. Why do they builds such a small nest, they are always overcrowded near to the time that the chicks leave.
Tomorrow I am going to have to move the Rat baiting cage back to under the feeders, near the lower Badger feeding area. We did kill off a lot of the Rats, but obviously not enough. Going by the way the Ducklings are getting on , we must have finished off most around the lake.
I must have been off my trolley last Thursday, especially as I hate Rats so much. I phoned up a person who is involved in the release program of Water Voles, offering Denbury Farm as a release site. We are going to speak about it next week, but I reckon I may just have second thought on that moment of madness. They are actually very different in many aspects than a Rat. I didn’t realise but they are vegetarians, but they still look like a Rat with a stubby nose. The person I spoke to said that they are quite elusive, mind you Rats are meant to be as well. He told me that there is a place where they breed the Water Vole for release programs, that we may be able to broadcast from, but I think that I may want to find out a bit more about them first.
Denbury would be a good site for releasing the Water Vole. We have the lake and a scrubby area around it, we also have the stream that runs through the farm. By all accounts that is very important for a release program, as the Water Voles can then colonise in different areas along the stream, don’t worry I not talking myself into it. There main predator are Mink, that is why they were nearly all killed off, and release programs have been necessary. Other predators are Rats, Heron and the Otter. A couple of years ago I went to the WWT at Slimbridge, they have Water there. As we were leaving our host pointed out a Water Vole to us. I was feeding on the lawn by some hedging. It had quite a large audience, all of which were delighted to see it. I wasn’t to enthusiastic, and I bet most of them wouldn’t have been either, if it been in their garden, or even worse in their home.