Tag: branston

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For a few days the Diary is going to be…

For a few days the Diary is going to be very short as I am trying to get the Internet connection working properly from the telescope observatory back to the farmhouse. At the moment it is very intermittent and is not allowing me to control the telescope remotely. As the farm house is at least 150m from the observatory I wont be running back and forth to get it aligned. The problem I should think started after gale force winds last winter, it caused the wires from the observatory to the farm house to sway and eventually sag very low, Branston must have run into them pulling them to the ground. Both Branston and my self were very lucky not to have got electrocuted. All the wires to the observatory are run overhead. There are four wires that are needed to control the telescope webcams, two coaxial wires for transmitting the camera signals, a networking cable to control the computer, that allows me to remotely control the telescope and a mains electricity wire. The mains electricity had not fused when it fell to the ground. I had not noticed the wire was down for over a week when I could not get a connection. In all that time that the wire was down Branston could have trod on it, for sure that would have been to end of Branston. I had rolled the wire up ready for it to be put in position. I had obviously believed that with it being on the ground that it would have blown its fuse.

I managed to get a camera on the nesting Dove last evening. I had so many choices as there are at least six Dove nesting in the area. One had nested by the side of a roll of wire that I use for the camera. To get the camera working I needed more wire and had to move the reel. When moving the reel my hand was within an inch of the Dove who never flinched, just watched every thing that I was doing.

Karen asked the name of the big Horse in the field. It is Arnie for obvious reasons, being that he is 17.3hh. One soppy lovable gentle giant.

Doesn’t look like we will be making hay for a while with the forecasts that I have seen. The forecast for our area today was showers this morning, It poured down none stop for over two hours. I am going to write down what the forecast is each day, so that I make no mistake and see how often they get it wrong. Actually it will be less work if I keep a record of when they get it right.

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Branston started to open one of the barn doors about…

Branston started to open one of the barn doors about the same time as Bliss started getting out of the field, to join the older Horses. The door bolt was designed in a way that you would think would be impossible to be opened by an animal. I should think that the previous farmer at Denbury, had his dairy cows knocking the bolt open, or sliding the bolt with their tongue. The bolt has been designed so that you need to pull it out before you are able to slide it across, and Branston has managed to do just that. At first we blamed each other for leaving the door open. I was only when we were making the feed up one day, and Branston started to open the door in front of us, did we realise that he was opening the door. For Branston it serves two purposes when he open the door. One he is able to get to the feed, the second he is able to walk through the barn, to an opening that let him out to get to the other Horses. He is pretty slick at opening it. It is only four or five steps from the door to where we make the feed up. Before we can get back to doing the feed after he has opened it, he manages to open it again. We now have to tie the barn doors to stop him.

There are only two Duckling left on the lake. Some of you probably saw them sitting on the sacks with their mother. They have survived for two weeks. That is longer than any from the previous clutch. I know that a lot of the Rats have gone. I moved the cage with the poison in, over a week ago back to the lake. The poison is still being taken, but not as much as when I first moved it. The weather has been dreadful for the Duckling. The first day that I saw them was on the morning of the flood. I should think that some of them have died for other reason than being taken by predators.

The last Swallows nest that we put a camera on, is up at the top of the apex of the roof in one of the barns. The roof is a corrugated metal roof. Yesterday was very warm for a change. The tin roof would have got very hot and it would have been very hot at the apex. The chicks did look as if they were gasping because of the heat. It is very high where the nest has been built. The nestlings are looking over the side of the nest as if they know it, and they don’t look particularly happy.

Yes Jill, the Telescope is all ready other that setting it up with the stars for alignment, with the Skyscout that was sent to me from the US. Unfortunately the weather other than yesterday has been to bad to have it going. Although it is in an observatory, I cant take the chance that it may get wet. I have a very good Solar telescope attached to the main telescope. I would put that on in the day if it was going to stay dry. But I need to set the main telescope up first so that the telescope tracks the Sun as it is moving. With the Solar telescope you can sometimes see flares and sunspots, that I gather are very interesting to Astronomers. As soon as it is possible I will put the telescope on. What we have done with broadcasting of the Solar System over the web has never done before. When we have had it going it has been very good.

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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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There seems never to be a dull day on the…

There seems never to be a dull day on the farm. One of our horses, Branston a colt, has learnt how to open a gate inwards, it allows him to get out of his enclosure and cause havoc, where ever there are other horses. Without us realising, he has been doing it for a few weeks. We have been blaming each other for leaving the gate open. Today we caught him at it. Branston is only two, you would not expect him to be doing that at his age. He would not have learnt it from another horse, he would only have seen us opening the gate inwards.

On the other occasions that Branston had got out, he first goes to Arnie’s paddock, where Lady, Woody and Breeze are also turned out in the day, after a few menacing threats, that makes the mares run riot around the paddock, Branston realises that it would not be wise to have an argument with Arnie, and trots up to Smugglers paddock, further up the farm drive. Smuggler is a four year old colt, about the same size as Branston. They have a argument across the gate, biting each other until I managed to catch up to him, to chase him back to where he belongs. Before I could get into the position to chase him back, he decided to leg it further down the drive, towards the road. I managed to get in front of him, to turn him back, by running round the lake to cut him off.

As I got Branston back to his paddock, I could hear horses behind me, when I turned I could not believe my eyes, there was Smuggler and his paddock mate Sunny, running so quick toward Branston’s paddock, I could not get time to close the gate. I turned Sunny but Smuggler got into Branston’s paddock, a situation you really don’t want. Two unfamiliar colts are very liable to hurt each other. Branston at his age would initially be very submissive, but Smuggler you just don’t know what he would do, if he decided to start attacking Branston, Branston would retaliate, where it would end, you can never know. There was a lunging whip leaning against the wall. Cracking the whip, a lot of running around and shouting, we managed to chase Smuggler out of Branston’s paddock. After blocking the drive to stop Smuggler from running up the drive, towards the road we got him and Sunny back into their paddock. We never make a mistake in tying Smugglers gate. I can only think that Smuggler or Sunny had been playing with the tie, when Branston was at the gate he push it slightly open, allowing Smuggler and Sunny to squeeze through. Fortunately none of the horses got hurt, but it was very close.

Don’t make to much of Lady not being rugged up tonight. Although the excitement of the colts getting out, could bring the foaling on, I left the rug off as it is not that cold and the rug was nearly over her head last night. I don’t like to strap the rugs up around the legs, to keep them on, so near to foaling, if you miss the foaling there is a chance that the foal may get caught up in the straps. We are waking every hour to make sure she is OK, although I reckon we are awake more than asleep, we seem to be more tired when we get up in the morning, than when we go to bed. The sooner she foals the better