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When we came down this morning we found that Jade…

When we came down this morning we found that Jade our fourteen year old Springer Spaniel had died in the night. We had intended to take her to the Veterinary this morning, half expecting to have had to put her to sleep. We nearly decided to take her to the Veterinary last night, but the journey to their open surgery was a distance away, and it would not have been fair on her. The local surgery is little more than a mile away and would have been open this morning

Jade had been ill on and off for the past few months with the problem that she had with her epiglottis that was making her choke. The Veterinary had told us that it would not be advisable to operate on her at her age, although it would be eventually kill her. She has also had a growth that was very large, again inoperable. In spite of of her illnesses she was able to still get about the farm slowly. Even yesterday she managed to get herself outside and lay in the porch, maybe she knew that it would be for the last time. We have buried her by the lake with Cass.

Without any hesitation I would say that Jade dieing in the night was preferable than having to have her put to sleep this morning. She looked very peaceful when we found her with Tass lying by her side. Tass knew that Jade was dieing last night. We found her pawing at Jade trying to get her up, as she had done with the Puppies when she was with them. Jade was responding to her by wagging her tail. Even Kye has been paying more attention to Jade over the past week by licking round her when she was lying out. Jade dieing with Tass and Kye being there, seems to have made it easier for them. They both seem to forget and look for her, but soon get over it.

Jade was a very kind and faithful dog. She had never to our knowledge growled at any one. She would at any puppies that were in the house. She couldn’t be done with puppies, although she had a two litters herself and was a very good mother who produced very nice Puppies. The only trouble with Jade was everyone who knew her, liked her and she would take advantage of it, by scrounging food from people. We called her a user. If a holiday quest gave her food, they would be Jades best mate. When she went missing you knew where she could be found, with whoever had been feeding her. She would put on so much weight that we needed to tell people that under no circumstances was they to feed her tit bits. None of them really took any notice.

We nearly lost Jade when she was a puppy. Two walkers came through Denbury with a Springer Spaniel on a lead. Without me realising Jade followed them. It was over an hour later that I realised that she was missing, and thought that it was possible the walkers had stolen her. I drove around the footpaths like a maniac, through places that even my Landrover had a job to negotiate, I eventually realised that I should go to any car parks in the vicinity of the farm, that walkers may have parked their car. The first one had a car parked in it. As I was about to go to the next one, I saw the walkers. I waited to ask them if they had seen Jade. As they approached the women was hiding Jade under her coat, obviously trying to steal her. When I told them that it was my dog the man got very aggressive and went to hit me. I was a lot more aggressive and very easily got Jade back. But what I will always remember Jade for was that she was the best ratter that I have ever come across, when ever I screamed she knew that I had seen a rat, and more often than not she would get it.

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The sun has brought the Swallow fledglings out flying about…

The sun has brought the Swallow fledglings out flying about a break neck speed, darting, weaving in and out of the barns. They are strengthening themselves for their migration to Africa to follow their food source of flying insects, their main food. Depending on the weather than can stay in this country as late as October, as the flying insects start to get less over farmland and water they will go into barns where there is livestock and feed on the insect that bother the cattle. It amazes me how such a small bird has the strength to fly as far as they do. I should think that once they cross the channel most of their flight is over land, where they can easily stop off. How Geese manage to go as far as they do on a single flight on their to migration to Iceland and Greenland on their way further north beggars belief. WWT tracked Geese on last years migration with fitted transmitters and Satellite Tracking. A few didn’t make it to their final destination. It must be a hard journey.

I spoke to the contractor this evening who is going to make our hay or haylage. He has been out mowing today and found that he was churning the ground up as he was mowing the grass. He was telling me that a lot of farmers have had to use the silage that they made just before the rain for the coming winter, as they have had to keep their cattle in as the ground is so wet. Any one who had made hay in the good spell just before the rain, are selling it for nearly twice the price that that would normally get for it.

After me telling that I had not seen any Deer for a while, one of our viewers, Elaine has sent me a capture shot of a two Deer on the 23rd of July at 22.47pm very close to where the Badgers feed. It looks like the three that have been around the farm for most of the year. We can normally see the Deer on the valley camera, but with the grass being so long I haven’t had the camera on for a while as I did not believe that if we would see them very well, if at all. I will look on my monitor tonight. If I see any I will put them on the Dog web cam.

Jade has been very poorly all day. She hasn’t been able to keep any of her feed down , and is finding it difficult to move about. We will get the Veterinary to look at her in the morning, to see if we can give her any medication.

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By the look of it a Swallow has started to…

By the look of it a Swallow has started to nest already on the nest at the top of the roof. I could be wrong, but it does look very much like it. There is no reason why they should not be. We will have to keep an eye on it. For anyone who has not seen the nest cameras scroll down on the Dog thumbnail, it is below the
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What a change to wake up to a sunny day. The weather report looked pretty grim for our area last night. With the amount of rain that we have been getting we decided to stable the Horses last night, to give them a break from constant rain in the night. As it happens I don’t think that it was as bad here as they forecast. Mind you what different about the forecasters getting it wrong. They reckon that we are in for a good week. Lets hope they are right. We are in desperate need to make some fodder for the Horses being it hay or haylage.

Before we can even think about making anything the ground has got to start drying. If a tractor went on the ground with it being so wet, it would just churn the ground up, any fodder that we made would have dried mud in it. That will go for everyone who tries to make it. Being in a valley, that is very fertile we tend to be able to make our fodder early in the year. We never have to put fertilizer on the land to make our hay for the Horses. The valley this year is going to cause us problems as the land will stay damp longer. The seeds on the grass will mostly had dropped by now, so the quality of any hay or haylage we make will not be as good as normal. The other problem we are liable to encounter is that as soon as the weather is suitable for mowing the grass, every other farm will want to do the same. Not having our own farm machinery to make our own hay and haylage we rely on contractor to make it for us, as soon as the weather breaks every one who uses contractors will need them. The weather we need to dry the land is hot and windy.

We took the Dogs for a walk up the valley this afternoon to see just how wet the ground is. It didn’t help when we had a heavy shower. I know that I am moaning again, but just how do they manage to get it wrong so often. The forecast for my area today was no rain. It take some believing that they can get it wrong so often. Without the shower the ground was very wet. The heavy rain and flood has caused a lot of the grass to have fallen over so that nearest to the root it is starting to get soggy. I’m not sure if to cut it and try to dry the grass by turning or leave it a few days before mowing, hoping that the sun will dry the bottom. I cant afford to get it wrong.

There are a number of Badger Setts on and around Denbury. When we first moved here I found eight. One has stopped being used, and another has little activity. A couple of hundred yards from the sett we show on the webcams, is a Sett in the our wood, with the ground being so wet we can see that there has been a lot of activity getting to it. It is always a good time after heavy rain to see what Wildlife has visited the Valley. There has been a lot of Deer activity going on. There was an entry on the forum a week or so from someone who had seen three Deer on the Badger webcam. I haven’t seen any for nearly two months

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The Lock of the Lowe s fitted a new camera…

The Lock of the Lowe’s fitted a new camera today. A close up of where the Red Squirrel and Pine Martens can be seen. I had hoped that they may have got the Pan, Tilt and Zoom camera up and working, so that we could have seen the Osprey fledglings learning to catch fish from the Lock. With a bit of luck they may get it installed before the Ospreys migrate in a few weeks time.

I know why the Kingfisher perches on the branch now. Both last night and tonight I have seen some very large fish swimming nearby it. Going by the size of the branch the fish must be at least a foot and a half long, probably weighing more than 10lb. Mind you a fish that size would be able to swallow the Kingfisher. There were a lot of fish in that area, that a Kingfisher would make a meal of.

I didn’t post it on the forum, but some one mentioned that they prefer the cameras at Denbury and Lock of the Lowe’s, because that some of the other locations were distant and were not on that good of wildlife. We supply all of the cameras and we know what work does go into installing and keeping them going. Fixed cameras cant be altered at will, and would have been installed for a specific reason. One of the Rye Harbour cameras has a minor problem and cant be put right until the Gulls have finished nesting, or the Gulls may abandon the young. Alteration do take place from time to time to keep you all interested.

Karen mentioned that Springwatch were always looking for new locations. Our webcams have been offered to the BBC and will always be available to them. This year they put on very good web cams, but nothing that they could not have got from using our web cams, which would have saved them many thousands of pounds. In fact I reckon going by the content, that they got their ideas from us. To make matters worse we had some outside contractor, who was working for the BBC on the Springwatch production, emailing me telling that I was taking their ideas and that I was claiming to be the provider of the BBC webcams. He also assured me that the BBC would make me stop. I couldn’t even be bothered to answer his email. We were one of the first doing webcams and have done a few very firsts in the bargain.

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More good news from the Barn Owl Trust We have…

More good news from the Barn Owl Trust. We have been asked to get involved with Web Cams where a wild pair of Barn Owls have nested for the past few years. It is in a Barn at a location near Liskeard in Cornwall. The Barn Owls nest box is in need of renewing. A new nesting box will be made to accommodate the camera. We hope that we will be able to broadcast in both colour in the day and mono of a night, with IR lamps. We also hope to be able to install a exterior camera to watch the coming and goings of the adult Owls and the Owlets when they fledge. I not sure if the nesting site is a permanent roost of the Owls. We had hoped to have been broadcasting a Barn Owl Roost from a site near Liverpool. Although the cameras were ready to be installed, we could never get together to make it happen. this one looks pretty certain, and should be up and running within a couple of months.

The Veterinary is coming early next week to scan Lady and Breeze. When he is here I will get him to look at Woody. She is still loosing a lot of weight and quite honestly looks a bag of bones. Although she does not seem to be in any pain. She is staying on her feet a lot longer than she has been in recent times and getting around well. We will keep her going while she is a the moment. With the feed that she is getting, she should be increasing weight, but it is the opposite, that in the end will make her so weak that we will have to take the inevitable course of action. What concerns me, and has for a week or so, is that at times she will aimlessly walk around the field. Part of it is that Breeze sees Woody as a threat to her herd,. Woody needs to show that she is still part of the herd, walking around in sight of the other horses, waiting for the opportunity to mix and be with the herd, gives her the feeling of security of still being part of the herd. Woody would be much better off grazing than walking around. It was my intention to put Woody in with Lady and the Foal in a separate field when the hay was made. The bad weather put a stop to that. It would not be good for Willow to not be able to mix with the Fillies now.

Jade is getting more tired by the day now. She spends most of the time sleeping, showing her face now and then and maybe going out for a little walk in the farm yard. Of course she knows when it is feed time. Jades favorite sleeping place, was in behind the Aga. There is an old inglenook in the kitchen, that use to house the old kitchen range and bread oven. The size of the Aga allows a gap both sides and at the back. When Jade went behind it you could not see her. She rarely goes behind it now, as it would be a struggle to get in and out. Kye is making it her spot.

I haven’t seen any Bumble Bees, Bees, Wasp or Hornets since the last hot spell, if you can remember it. Thinking about it, do blackberries need pollination by the Bees before they turn to fruit? If they do maybe that is the reason we have no Blackberries, only the flowers. We had a couple of Hornets in the farm house during the hot spell, so I know that there is a nest nearby. All of the apple tree were pollinated so there were Bees around earlier in the year. Thinking again none of the windfalls apples have been eaten by the wasps this year.

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The Badgers may be slow coming out tonight as the…

The Badgers may be slow coming out tonight as the Farmer in the field adjacent to the Badger field is mowing the grass.

After telling you about the Colt Foal that was a kicker, it reminded me of a Cow that we once had. The Cow was a Charolais breed, you would know them if you saw them in a field as they are all white and originated from France. I must admit I have made very few business mistakes in my life, but top of my list was getting Cows. When I first moved into Denbury all that I had as far as livestock was concerned was two Friesian Horses. The window of the farm house kitchen looks over to what now is the main horse field. It is about an 8 acre field and looked pretty empty with only two Horses in it. I will get some Cows I decided. I knew of a man in Yorkshire, who like me was playing at farming and had cattle including Charolais. He was also a collector of Horse Drawn Carriages, again like myself. I had about ten carriages, all of a hundred year or more in age. I must admit I really did like the Carriages, all had been restored to a very high standard. One was a Horse Drawn Hearse that we did funerals for undertakers with, all around the UK. That is where the Friesian Horses came into it. They come from Friesland in Holland and are jet black, being the traditional funeral Horses. Both the Horses and Hearse are regularly on the telly, when there have been Horse Drawn Funerals shown. The Horses Jack and Sargent would be over twenty now.

Like a fool I decided to exchange the Horses and carriages for cattle. I was a very poor cattle farmer, as I am a sheep farmer, I should have stayed with what I knew best and really enjoyed being around, as I am now with the Horses. To make matters worse, just after I got the cattle the BSE scare started. The cattle that I had exchanged for my Horses and carriages, worth many tens of thousands of pounds were virtually worthless. To make matters worse I hated being a cattle farmer, or trying to be one I should say. Easy to look after in the summer, but a horrible, nasty, smelly hard job in the winter. It is hard getting up at all hours of the night with the Horses when they are foaling. When you have twenty five cattle that are due to calve, it is believe me a lot, lot worse. It didn’t matter how many times that I checked on the cows that were due to calve, all through the night, I missed the births more than I witnessed. Quite a few that I had last seen only an hour before I returned an hour later, had calved, with me finding the calves in the birth sack and had died not being able to breath.

The Cow that I originally going to tell you about, was if I remember about twelve years old. She was a moody, mean old so and so and kicked like a Horse, instead of the normal cow kick from the side. At any opportunity she would kick at any thing that moved. When she calved, she was a nightmare. The person that I got the cattle from never told me about her, until I had experienced her antics the first time that she calved at Denbury. I would pen those due to calve in a separate area from those cattle with calves or who were due to calve, This made it easy to find them in the night. On checking her one night, I had found her laying flat out on her side, with the calves head showing at the beginning of the birth. With the help of a calving aid I managed to pull the calf off. Feeling quite pleased with my achievement of a live calf, I proceeded to move the calf in front of the cow, so that the mother and calf could bond. Well no sooner than I started to move the calf, this moody ungrateful maniac got to her feet, quicker than a 100m olympic champion could get out of the starting blocks, with head down she charged at me like a Bull. The pen that the Cow was in was only a little bigger than one of our stables. Being made up of gates, I would normally have climbed over, as I would a ladder. I didn’t have time for that, I dived over the gate head first, still getting hit in my side by the Cows head, finishing up spreadeagled, face down in the cows messy straw bedding. She never got the opportunity again to attack me when I helped her calf on other occasions, I didn’t hang around moving the calf, I was out of the pen quicker than she thought about getting up.

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I found the nesting site of the Kingfisher today I…

I found the nesting site of the Kingfisher today, I went to the lake to try to get the focus adjusted on the fixed camera that I want to put on the branch that it lands on. As I was trying to adjust the camera, the Kingfisher flew right in front of me, into the area behind the feeders. After one of the holiday quests had told me that he had seen it fly into that area I was hopeful that it was the area of the nesting site. I stood very quietly in between trees in a very small copse, that that surrounds a spring fed pool. It wasn’t long before the metallic blue and orange flash past in front of my eyes, far to fast for me to follow where it had gone. After directing my eyes in various positions around the pool area, I finally saw it fly into a leafy area on a bank, to the back of the pool into a small hole. I watched for another five minutes or so and left so as not to disturb them when I saw one of the Kingfishers leave, for I had been told some while back that Kingfishers will abandon their nests, even with chicks in it, if they feel in danger. Today was only the forth time in fourteen years that I have seen the Kingfishers at Denbury. I see that most of you who have told on the forum, that it is the first Kingfisher that you have seen. We have been the first on a number of occasions of showing different wildlife. Are we the first with the Kingfisher?

Someone mentioned on the forum how big they thought Willow the foal was getting. Who ever you were, you weren’t wrong. I reckon that she is the biggest foal we have had for her age, with it has comes independence. Most of the time she hangs out with the two Fillies. When the Horses are let in of a morning and evening for their feed, we let the Fillies in with Breeze and Arnie. Willow tries to go with the Fillies into their stable area, and what a performance it is to get her to go with Lady for her feed. I am watching Bliss and Misty on the web cams grooming with each other as I am writing tonight diary. Hold on bliss has had enough of that. Both of the Fillies have had a growth spurts and are now nearly as big as Breeze who is 14.2hh. They are going to be getting on for 16hh when fully grown. The best part of all the youngsters is that they are kind. Although Misty has her moments with Bliss. I don’t know if any of you remembered a Colt foal a couple of years back that we showed the birth of on the web cams. From nearly the moment he was born, he was a kicker. We needed to watch what ever we were doing with him. I got a few kicks from him when I pushed him slightly to move him on. Within a days of being born, when I tried to help him find his mothers udder he let one go. You don’t get many like it, mind you, you wouldn’t want many either.

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I spoke today to the person who I mentioned a…

I spoke today to the person who I mentioned a week or so ago about the Water Vole. His name is Derek Gow and has a Web site www.watervoles.com. He breeds Water Vole in Devon and has done a number of release programs around the country. We didn’t get around to speaking about a release program at Denbury, but we did discuss the possibility of setting up cameras at the location were he breeds them. Derek is initially going to send some photographs of the site to give me a idea of the possibilities.

There may also be another camera on line soon from the Barn Owl Trust. I don’t know to much about it, other than they have a number of this years chicks, that have been rescued. I will let you know about it as soon as I know more myself.

I haven’t seen the ducklings on the lake for over a week. With the camera looking at the branch where the Kingfisher perches, I would have expected to have seen them swim past there at some time. I know that most of the rats have gone from around the lake, so it looks like that I am going to have to think again about what may be killing the Ducklings and Goslings. It could well be a Stoat or Weasel. I have not seen any remains of dead fish around the lake, so I don’t think that it is Mink or Otter that is having them. But I do need to find out.

We have still got one Ewe with two Lambs running around loose. They should have gone to market with those we sent off last Saturday. As much as we have tried we cannot catch them. Some while back they were at the same farm that we had to collect the lambs from a couple of weeks ago. I couldn’t catch them then. Some how they found their way back to Denbury and have been loose ever since. The Farmer who’s land is on the other side of the wood, will be be planting it with corm soon, for sure he wont want any sheep on his land then. Some how we need to catch them.

I hope you are not getting to bored with watching the branch in the water, waiting for the Kingfisher. I have fitted another camera up so that it can be seen on the dog cam, but for some reason I cannot get the focus set properly. I have been checking to see if the Kingfisher has perched on the branch today, I have not seen it as I did yesterday. I have seen it fly past the branch, so quick unless you know how fast they do fly, you would not realize that it was the Kingfisher. Got that wrong, I hope you saw it at 8.55pm just as I was writing that I hadn’t seen it all day, there it was.

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It must be well over a week since the Swallow…

It must be well over a week since the Swallow chicks left their nests and they are still returning. The first fledglings from the first nest perch on the wire every night, and sometimes in the day if it is raining. The fledgling from the roof nest are going back to the nest of a night and when raining. It could be that the nearest perching place is at least six foot below the nest. Now and then they perch there. They all seem to be managing well in this bad weather. I have not managed to find any other nests to watch, but again it is still not to early.

I cant remember if I told you when I had converted the holiday cottages. We had a booking for a holiday in the four bedroom cottage. In the kitchen area a Swallow decided to nest in the ceiling space. We hadn’t noticed it until we went to put the plaster board up. We couldn’t remove the nest as the eggs had hatched, There wasn’t long before the booking. Every morning we would check to see if the chicks were ready to fledge. Of course when you want them gone they seem to stay longer. We finished the cottage as best we could. We were fortunate that we had stable entrance doors fitted, so the was little chance that any creature could have got into the cottage, as we were able to close the bottom part, allowing the adults to get to the chicks with the top part of the door opened. We also had to make sure that no other birds tried to nest in the cottage.

There was no way that the cottage could have been used with the Swallows nest still in the ceiling space. You don’t realise how much mess they make until you experience it. To us it looked even worse. The day before the holiday guest were due we found the fledglings sitting on the kitchen worktops. They weren’t given the opportunity to go back to the nest. That came down real quick, the plaster board up and painted over, having to plaster it at a later date. We left the door open until the day the quest were due to arrive, and on the first opportunity when all the Birds were outside we closed the door. An Orthodox Jewish family with eleven young children had booked the cottage for the fortnight. No television was allowed, but the children enjoyed the Swallow fledglings flying in and out of the cottage. Mum weren’t best pleased though.

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I have purposely left camera 2 viewing the branch in…

I have purposely left camera 2 viewing the branch in the lake for a good part of today, as I have seen on my monitor the Kingfisher’s darting across the screen, so fast that if you blink you will miss them, and on quite a few occasions one has been landing on the branch. I say them, as I am convinced that there is a pair nesting in a bank behind the trees that you can see a small amount of on the left hand top corner of the screen. If they are where I think they are, they will nest there as many as three times in a season, laying up to seven egg each time. Their nest is normally a hole in the bank, that can be as much as two feet back from the entrance.

There are not many people who have been lucky to see a Kingfisher in the wild. I have only seen one twice on the farm, in the fourteen years that I have lived at Denbury. I have also seen them on a very quite stretch of the River Tone some years back. They are very territorial Birds. On pair would be the most you would see on a lake of our size, or on a river bank for us much as a mile. They will breed up to three times in a season, nesting in a hole in the bank, that will go back as far as two feet from the entrance. They will produce six to seven eggs in each clutch.

I really shouldn’t want them on the lake, as they will catch as many as twenty fish, as long as three inches in a day, between two of them, that is a large amount in the course of a year. They are another Bird that was persecuted, one because of the fish they caught, and fishermen would use their brightly coloured feathers for artificial flies, for fly fishing.

We sent five Ewe’s and Eighteen Lambs to market yesterday. It should have been eleven Ewes, but changed my mind about sending the six friendly Texel’s off. On getting back on the farm I realised that I had made a mistake. I will take them next Saturday. There are three Lambs unaccounted for. They may have got washed away in the flood. Tomorrow I will have to phone about and make sure that one of my neighbours has not seen them. After the outbreak of foot and mouth disease a few years back, there is an awful amount of paper work to do before you can send animals to market. I didn’t pursue it for long, for by all account’s the lady booking the sheep into the market, told us that we should not have used the vehicle we that we took them to market in. Cattle Markets are a depressing place. All of what we took to market looked lost, as did all the others that were there. After I sell this lot of Sheep, I wont be having any more.