Tag: buzzard

Categories
webcams

There are five photographs on the Photo page starting from…

There are five photographs on the Photo page starting from number eleven, sent in by Jill.

Norfolk Lavender – across the road from where my parents lived for many years

Autumn reflections – a pond in my forest

Swans preening on the river behind my office

Sunset on Skomer Island

Another pic of the field of marigolds in Kent with church in background and meadow cranesbill in foreground. Jill.

Cutting the grass to make the hay has definitely brought the Buzzard and Owls to the Valley. Last night the Owl was on the pole a couple of times, and the Buzzard on and off for most of the day. With the grass cut it makes it easier for the Voles to be seen by both the Owls and Buzzard. With a bit of luck both will start hunting the Valley for a lot of their food. There are also a lot of Rabbits in the Valley. The new cameras digital zoom makes it easier to get close up to the Birds and to get better images. I am still getting use to the new cameras control as you have probably noticed. I also will need to get some more infra red lamps placed so that most of the valley can be viewed. I will keep an eye out for the Buzzards soaring above the Valley, if I see any I will try to follow them on the camera.

The weather forecast seems to be letting us down again. It promised a lot warmer weather with a bit of cloud and wind. Lots of cloud, little wind and chilly. Tomorrows forecast is now a bit different from what they said last night. I can see that we are not going top make our hay before the rain that is promised for Friday. I know I keep on about it, but the Met Office is a sad excuse, in any other business there would be many heads rolling with the times that they get things wrong. A couple of weeks ago we were told that we would be able to get forecasts for months ahead. They are unable to get the next 24 hours correct, so how they will manage months ahead I really don’t know. Some years ago we had forecast for long periods ahead. It fizzled out very soon after it started.

Categories
webcams

The Bird on cam 1 this afternoon was a Buzzard…

The Bird on cam 1 this afternoon was a Buzzard, I must admit from a distance it did look slightly like an Osprey. Buzzards do come in various colours and sizes, so a lot a people do mistake them from other Birds of Prey. Now that we have made the hay we should be able to see the Buzzards more. We hear their screeching call a lot this time of year, as this time of year they will be teaching their young how to hunt, mostly catching Rabbits. I should think that is what it was eating this afternoon by the way it was ripping at the carcass. Quite often when we go down the valley we see the young Buzzard on a fence post eating what the parent birds have caught for it. It could well be that the close up shot that we saw, was the Chick calling for food. I am sure that the early distance shot was an adult.

Now that the grass has been cut in the valley I will leave the camera down there on more of a nighttime. With grass as long as it was there was very little chance of seeing much. With a bit of luck we should be able to see more of the wildlife in the valley, including the Deer.

I saw a Moorhen on the with a couple of Chicks on the lake yesterday, they were on the straw sacks. I haven’t seen them about today. We are still having a Rat problem around the lake, we saw one under the birds feeders and have had to put the poison down again. All I hope is that a Rat didn’t take the Moorhen Chicks. They normally last longer than the Goslings and Ducklings.

Touch wood the Sheep are staying where we want them, It took a good couple of days to fence the area around the lake to keep them in. There are so many places that they could of got out of, so we needed to make sure that it was all fenced. It is a good area to keep the sheep for they will keep the grass down, hopefully so that we do not need to mow it as often .We managed to catch all of the Lambs. The needed weaning off of the Ewes, and we have put them into one of the stables until we are able to take them to market to be sold. If the Lambs had stayed with the rest of the Sheep they would soon had been through the fence taking the rest of the Sheep with them.

Categories
webcams

The Buzzard knows that it has a good chance of…

The Buzzard knows that it has a good chance of a meal by the Bird feeders. The Birds when feeding on the feeders always drop some of the seeds onto the ground. There always seems to be a Pheasant in the area and they mop up some of the seed. But it is also a good food source for the Rats. That is why I have a problem about using Rat poison to get rid of them. There is always the chance that a poisoned Rat, that the poison has not worked fully on, will be eaten by an Owl or a Buzzard.

The Buzzard although protected, is still liable to be shot by people who rear Pheasants for game shooting. They believe that the Buzzard will kill Pheasants. They may rarely kill the odd one. The main food source for the Buzzard are Mice, Rats and Rabbits. I wish they would work a little harder on the Rats.

The Rats problem has got to be sorted out on the lower Badger feeding area, and around the lake where the Goslings were taken. I am not to worried that any other animals or birds will be poisoned by eating a poisoned Rats around the lake area. I have already started to make sure that the Rats will eat what I put out. I put out a cage last night with bread in it. This morning all the bread had gone. The cage will stop the birds from getting to the poison, but I need to know that it was Rats that ate the bread last night, and what I have put out tonight. Tomorrow I am going to put up a powerful IR lamp, it will allow me to see what is eating the bread. If it is Rats as I suspect, I can then put the poison in a container that the Rats can get to, so as they do not spill the poison where the Birds will eat it.

I purchased some years back a couple of Rat traps, but they were not to successful. I found one of them today. I will try that in the Badger area, for I know that I will kill the field mice and voles that also use the area, if I poison to kill the Rats. The Badger sett is quite close to the farm house. If I am not careful we could get Rats in the house.

Elsie asked what I pondering about around the lake this morning. I was seeing if the bread had been eaten, that I had left in the cage to poison the Rats, when I saw the Fish chasing to fertilize the eggs. I was watching them.

Angela I have not seen the person who is to shear the sheep. He was to phone me in the week. The sheep have been in the Horse field for the past two days. I bet they disappear when he comes.

I have never seen a Barn Owl on the farm.

The Stud told me that Lady is coming into season, She may have gone to the Stallion today. If she did, I would think that she will be back on the farm by the middle of next week.

Categories
webcams

This morning when I went to fill the bird feeders…

This morning when I went to fill the bird feeders, I startled the Buzzard that had been perched on the feeders last evening. It was in the orchard close to the feeders, eating a freshly caught young Rabbit. The feeders are a good vantage position to swoop on Rabbits, that have many warrens in the banks along the side of the pathway, by the orchard. Now that the Buzzard has caught one Rabbit in the area, I am sure that it will return regularly.

There are also a lot of Squirrel that use the feeders, and they are as likely as the Rabbits, to be a dinner for the Buzzard. The Rabbit warrens are very close to where the Rabbits graze, and is a quick and easy refuge for them. The Squirrel when startled, will run the length of the path, about fifty metres in the open, to their drays, or where ever they hide out, so for sure if the Buzzard returns, the Squirrels will be a target. There were six Squirrels in the area today, so one or two will not be missed.

We tried to get Ky to swim in view of the camera this afternoon. If you missed it, you didn’t miss much. In view of the camera she had a paddle, with the water a litter deeper than the underside of her belly. We walked around the lake and out of view of the camera, she then decided to plunge her self into the water. After a quick swim and paddle she came out. We thought that she had, had her swim for the day, until walking back she decided to plunge herself in again. Unbeknown to Ky, it was quite deep, with no paddling area. A bit of panic set into Ky and ourselves, she was trying to doggy paddle and lunge herself back to the bank at the same time, but she was getting nowhere fast. It seemed like forever, but of course it was only seconds. One of us may have had to paddle out to rescue her. I don’t know if it would have been me, for she somehow managed to get back to the bank, to having to be unceremoniously dragged out of the lake by the scruff of her neck. Surprisingly it did not put her off, for although she did not swim, she did paddle once again when we got back into view of the camera.

Lady and the Foal went off to the stud this afternoon, for Lady to be covered by a Stallion called Generous. We have only sent her for a walk in covering, so that they are returned back to the farm, as soon as possible. As soon as she has been covered, hopefully within a few days she will be returned. We have purposely sent her to the nearest Stud to the farm, that has good Sires. It is in Dorset, a little over an hour away from us. I wont send Horses on long journeys if I can help it. Believe me some horses are sent on journeys of many hours, including overseas by ship and air. Lady and Woody will miss each other. I can hear Woody calling out as I write, and Lady wasn’t best pleased once she realised that she was in the Horse box, we could hear her calling out all the way, as the Horse box drove up the drive. Woody hasn’t been to good today, she hasn’t eaten her feed and has been laying down a good deal of the time that she was in the field. Her condition is up and down from day to day. It does seem that she is a little better, on the bad days. We will just have to wait and see how she goes through the Summer. It would have been nice if she had have been able to stay out with the other Horse tonight, but then it is not possible to keep a check on her. Branston is company for her, although she does put her ears back every time he puts his head into her stable. Without lady being around, she may decide to be a little kinder to him.

Categories
webcams

There were more lambs born over night and today unfortunately…

There were more lambs born over night and today, unfortunately none were able to be viewed on camera. We were concerned that the Foxes had taken a lamb last night. As I was coming back from feeding the Badgers, I heard a fight going on between the Foxes, how many were fighting I don’t know, but it was the worse Fox fight I had ever heard. It was coming from the area very close to where the Ewes and Lambs were. I could only imagine that the Foxes had taken a lamb and were fighting over it. This morning I could only see one lamb with Minty and of course thought that one of her twins had been taken. Checking the Ewes and lambs this evening, we found Minty with both her twins lambs, and could not see any others missing. What ever the Foxes were fighting over so fiercely, I cannot imagine.

Four pairs of Buzzards have been flying above the farm today, it happens every year. They must be marking out their territory for the coming breeding season. It varies from year to year how many pairs fly above the farm. A few years back their were fourteen pairs. Some years they return for four or five days, flying and gliding in the thermals for hours at a time. Only one pair stay in the area of the farm, the way they hunt the valley, they must nest in the woods, but I have never found out where. It is good to see the Buzzards around the Farm, and they let you they are, with there call.

Although the Buzzard is about two thirds of the size, and has different colouring of that of a Golden Eagle, for those who have only seen the Eagle in a book, they could be excused for thinking that a Buzzard may have been an Eagle. I remember some years back that our local newspaper reported a Golden Eagle sighting, within a mile or so from the Farm. I cant believe that it was not a Buzzard, and surprised that our local newspaper would not have questioned the sighting.

We managed to knock a pole into the lake today, we can now find a branch to push into it, hopefully to make a landing site for the Kingfishers, to fish from. I had to get into the boat to help my lad keep it still as he was unable to stop it from moving, to be able to knock the pole in. I had it on camera, thinking he would be doing it on his own. Fortunately I was out of the sight of the camera when we had finished, for when we got to the bank, my lad got out first, and decided he was going to act daft, I have a better word, but you would not want to see it. I was sitting in the back of the boat, when he got out the boat it was well down in the water, he pushed the boat away from the bank so hard that the back started to go down, how I did not finish up in the water, I don’t know. You would not want to know what I called him

Categories
webcams

We try at least four times a week to walk…

We try at least four times a week to walk around the whole farm. Although the farm is only sixty acres, it is in a long strip, and it is more like walking a hundred acres, with each field having different aspects.

The farm is in a very beautiful secluded valley. On entering before getting to the farmhouse and buildings, there is a three hundred metres driveway, with the lakes to one side, that opens up at the end to open fields, like entering Shangri-La. On both sides there are woods that line the sides of the valley, that really does make it haven for wildlife.

It does not matter how many times we walk the valley, we never tire of it, we are always looking for new tracks and foot prints of the wildlife, little bits of badger or fox hair that may get snagged on the barbed wire as they have gone under. We have taken out most of the barbed wire, but a little has been missed. With the different season smells and plants, there always seems to be something to talk about on the walks.

In the woods you often hear the breaking of twigs and catch a glimpse of the deer that trod on them. This time of year you can hear the Buzzard menacing the Rooks, and see the Rooks mobbing the Buzzard in retaliation, determined to chase it away. As big as the Buzzard is the Rooks nearly always win the confrontations, out numbering the Buzzard by many.

It looks very much like we have missed the snow, when we do get it, you can see animal and bird tracks in places that you have never seen before. The Badgers have well worn tracks that they have followed, some say for hundreds of years. The tracks in the snow show just how many Deer, Fox and Badgers have visited the valley, that you would not have known about if it had not snowed.

A question on an entry yesterday, asked the what Deer have been on the cameras over the past few days. The three are Roe deer they are smaller than the Red, now that you have seen the Roe you will know immediately when you see a Red.