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There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number eleven.

The Abbey Ruins. Rufford. Judy.

I forget the name of these but, my mum used to grown them in Ireland- Are they tree Lupins? Anjela.

Pigs sleeping in the sunshine. Liz.

HMS Warrior in Portsmouth part of the Historic Dockyard collection. CH.

Some of the tulips at the Tulipmania festival. Lindsay.

I have installed two cameras covering two Swallow nests today. I will put them on now and then through the nesting.

Lady’s Foal has been out into the corral sunning himself for a good part of the day. I am hoping to let him out with Lady into the Horse field tomorrow, as long as the weather stays fine.

Some how the Gosling are staying alive. I really don’t know how as the Goose is spending a good deal of the night on the banks of the Lake. This warm spell has started to cause a goods amount of blanket weed to start to form on the Lake. We put in barley straw in the Summer of last year The chemical in the straw normally stops it and will last for a couple of years. A few years back it got really bad and we spent a great amount of time scrapping it off of the top of the water. It looks as if we may be doing it this year.

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There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number six.

Bluebells were just coming out in the woods at Rufford Country Park, Judy.

Waterfall in Glen Nevis near Fort William,Scottish Highlands. Lindsay.

Mimi, our cat age 15, who died about 6 weeks ago. Anjela.

Another photo I took at the airport last week. Julia.

Watering the garden found this little frog hopping around. Liz.

Lady had a Colt Foal last night and we managed to miss it. There is always a first time, missing Lady giving birth was the first time that I had ever missed one of my Horses Foal, and I am not best pleased about it. I had checked Lady yesterday evening when she came in from the Horse field and there was no sign of her Foaling. I put the alarm clock on for 2.am. Lady was a bit fidgety but showed little sign of Foaling. I woke again a 4.pm and had the shock of my life when I saw the Foal.

There are so many things that can go wrong and if it does you could well find a dead Foal. It happened a number of times when we had Cows Calving and it is not nice for any animal to have their offspring born dead or die shortly after being born. Unfortunately the Foals feet must have caught the side of Lady’s Virgina causing some nasty tearing of the skin tissue inside and out, that has needed Lady to have twenty stitches. It could have been worse for if the tear had been larger it could have caused tearing to urethra that could have been life threatening.

If you were watching whilst the Veterinary was stitching Lady, you would have seen that we had a piece of string tightened by a length of wood. It is called a twitch, it acts as a natural type of sedative by releasing . I should imagine that you would think that it was barbaric and would be painful, I can promise you that it is not. We have given Lady painkillers and she will need antibiotic for a couple of days, she should then be fine.

The Barn Owl Trust aviary webcam has been changed to the inside of the Barn that the Nest Cam is situated. You will be able to see the Barn owls going in and out of the nest box when the Adults are feeding the Owlets. A new webcam page and thumbnail will be put on the site over the next couple of days.

Lock of the Lowe’s fitted the PTZ camera that we supplied them. It will be showing the Red Squirrel and Pine Martin feeding area. It will be able to be moved, so you should be able to see a lot more of the Locks wildlife. There needs to be some adjustment made to the broadcasting to make it a much better picture.

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There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number one. Nearly out of photographs.

The sea rolling through the breakwater of Whitby harbour.Lindsay.

Remember the Man and Ram Statue? I didn’t know it could be moved. Gave me a shock when I saw it. Judy.

Pelicans in Sanibel Island Florida. Anjela. Connecticut.

Chicks under a heat lamp. They hatched on Thursday. Liz – North Yorks.

The grannys bonnets are in my garden, taken today. Barbara.

We got our first pictures of the Griffon Vulture Nest webcam last night. The picture was very good, but unfortunately it went off soon after. Simon was going away for a couple of days and I had no way of contacting him. The Internet connection in Anderlucia is by Satellite, it having a low broadband speed that looks as if it may cause it to be continuously cutting off. I am going to speak to my expert tomorrow to see if we can get it to work more reliably.

I am not very happy that the USA Osprey camera is not working. I should think that the eggs cannot be far from hatching. When I phoned Peter in the USA on Friday I was told that he is away on holiday until the Monday after tomorrow. It would not be the best time for the webcam to be off. When he comes back from his holiday we will have to see if we can make some arrangement for the webcam to be reset when he is away, or the webcam will not be worth having. I am sorry about it.

The Gosling managed to make it through another day, I must admit I am surprised. The Goose is taking them to the island of a night, It is definitely helping. I had made arrangements for one of my Lads to collect four Canada Geese Goslings today, but they had been sold without the person who was buying realising. After the disappointment of loosing the Geese and Goslings every year, we decided to get two pairs to live on the lake permanently. If we buy Gosling we will be able to get them to get use to being housed of a night when we feed them inside, and they should also stay on the Farm or at least stay around the Farm. I spoke to another person this afternoon who is confident that he will be able to get me two pairs, hopefully with a couple of weeks or so. We are also going to try get a pair of breeding Turkeys.

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There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number eleven. Nearly out of photographs.

I was driving down through Burrington Coombe l and came across these goats. Julia.

This is my first capture of the infamous Buzzard! I shall be shimmying up the lamp post next week LOL. Karen.

Young ducklings on the lake, they were so cute. Elsie.

Spring in the Gardens. Rufford Country Park. Judy.

Shetland ponies on the Shetland islands. Lindsay.

The Goose with the three Goslings managed to survive the night. Mrs Goose had the good sense to return to the island. Just in case I electric fenced at the end that the Fox came from to take the Gander, I also put a couple of gates at another place that the Fox would have an easy way to get to the Geese, but it still leaves many places for a Fox to get to them.

We don’t normally feed the Geese when they are on the Lake, but yesterday afternoon we gave the Goose and Goslings bread. The Goose had obviously been fed before by people, as she came straight over for it. We will do all we can to keep them alive but I really do think that the Goslings have only a little chance. The other pair of Geese flew in this morning. They will nest if they can get on the island but I fear they will finish up the same way. I am very tempted to chase them off of the Lake and hope that they will find another place to nest.

We let Emmi, Sox and Lady out into the main Horse field of a day and Breeze and Arnie of a night. If we put all the Horses in together, Breeze will cause problems being the herd leader, she will try to herd them up causing a few kicking session, so as last year we are going to electric fence off an area for Breeze so that she gets use to the other Horses. It will help to stop any major problems when we let the Horses run together. As soon as we let Breeze in to the Horse field, Ewy make her way to be with her. Ewy has been on her own, mainly in the Horse field for the whole of the Winter.

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A beautiful little white duck which someone had dumped in…

A beautiful little white duck which someone had dumped in the ford at Rufford Country park.The other ducks used to bully her so she just stayed in the ford. How can people do that??

This is heather, from a distance I thought it was an Azalea. You can just see the back end of Max sniffing around. Elsie.

Fuschias. Lindsay.

A Racoon came out at dusk this week- I had left some ‘Weetabix’ on the fence and it loved it- scooped it up with its ‘hands’ Anjela, Connecticut.

Photo I took at the airport last week. The field in the foreground had dozens of rabbits leaping around – as though they were welcoming the day!! I tried to photograph them but they could only be seen in highly pixelated magnifications! Julia.

The Gander was missing this morning. Some thing happened in the night at about 3.25am. I had the cameras recording during the night to try to find out what may have taken the Gosling the night before. For some reason the Geese did not return to the Island last night as they had since the Goslings had hatched. It could have been that what did take the Gosling, had taken it from the Island. It is only a guess but something had stopped them returning to the island.

Going by the recording at 3.25pm a Fox stopped by the spot on the bank near to the camera. He had a drink and went out of view of the camera. The Geese had been resting at the spot until about half an hour before the Fox arrived. The other lake camera I had left so that the whole of the Lake was in view, but very little of either side of the banks of the Lake. A little while after the Fox had gone from view of the other camera, the Goose returned to the Lake from the stream side of the Lake. The Gander was not seen on the recording from then on.

I walked around the Lake at about 7.30pm, other than a couple of feathers near where the Fox had drank there was no sign of the Gander. The couple of feathers would have not been caused by a Fox attack, and there was no other evidence that a Foxed had taken the Gander. I thought, I think that I probably hoped that the Gander had flown off and would return later in the day.

Later I got one of my Lads to walk around the Lake in case I had missed anything. Unfortunately I had, for in the bushes in an area that the Geese would not have gone, he found the remains of the Gander. With the Goose with her Goslings going onto the Lake on the right hand side at the time that the Gander would have been taken, I cant imagine why he would have been on the opposite bank in the bushes that he was found in. I can only imagine that Gander had faced up to the Fox instead of getting back into the Lake, and that the Fox had chased him to where he was killed. The way that the Gander would guard the Goose and Goslings, he seemed a bit cleverer that previous Ganders

I was going to try to get the Geese to return to the island before I went to bed, but if they had made up their mind to stay on the bank they would only had returned when I left. I don’t hold out a lot of hope that the three gosling will survive more than a day or so, the Goose may also be taken. I will put up an electric fence from the direction that the Fox came from, and try to get the Goose with the Goslings to return to the island, but I am sure that I will be wasting my time.

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There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number one. Nearly out of photographs so I will have to start showing only three a night.

A Goldfinch on my Feeder. Judy.

Banksy is a part of Bristol culture – this one is opposite the Bristol Royal Infirmary. The Child is “popping” a paper bag behind the Police Marksman!; Julia.

My Welsh slate water feature awaiting connection to water pump. Im not using the stone around the bottom as the kids have just put that there [little rogues]. Karen.

These Geese were running towards us hissing. Elsie.

Maddi’s village.

Unfortunately there was a Gosling missing this morning. We can only guess what happened to it. I thought that this year especially after four of them surviving for over a week that they may make it through to a size that they would fly off of the Lake. Again like every year we don’t know what has taken the Gosling, but I should think more than likely it is a Magpie or Crow. What ever it was for sure it will return for another. This week we have had Holiday Guests that have been fishing on the Lake, making it unlikely that any thing would take the Gosling whilst they are fishing. It is early morning that they are vulnerable when the Magpies and Crows are first looking for food for their nestlings. I will put the recorder on tonight to see what is threatening the Geese.

After I had fed the Badger last night I checked on the valley camera. There were three Roe Deer grazing. One was an adult Doe whose belly was moving very noticeably, as do Horse when the Foal is moving inside of them. If it wasn’t a Kid making her belly move, she must have had a severe belly rumbling going on.

On Tuesday we turned Emmi and Sox out into the Horse field. I put the camera on for you to see. Sox had a quick bucking session and they both grazed for a while. Yesterday we let Lady out with them. Emmi was not best pleased being on her own with Sox the day before. She was a lot more settled with Lady in the field with her. Both Emmi and Lady seemed to want to spend more time waiting at the gate. I guess in the hope that we would put Breeze and Arnie in with them as they could see them in the small paddock opposite the Horse field. With Breeze wanting to be boss that would not have been wise as for sure there would have been a kicking session. We have been putting Breeze and Arnie in the Horse field of a night and in the small paddock during the day.

Elaine, I am not sure if the Badger who is waiting for the feed of a night, is one of last years Cubs. It is not a very large Badger, so it could well be.

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There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number eleven. Nearly out of photographs.

Just after sunrise. Julia.

A Pair of Crested Grebe. They were displaying just before this photo was taken. Judy.

Mixture of tulips in my front borders. Karen.

I told one of you about this clematis called Pixie, well here it is in bloom but not fully grown yet. Elsie.

MY SWEET LITTLE CAT TIGGS WHO WE LOST A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, SHE WAS REALLY TINY AND VERY AFRAID OF EVERYTHING APART FROM US . LYNNE

Thornton went missing yesterday. We spent a good two hours looking for him. We thought that he may have gone down the valley on his own and spent a while looking for him down there.

For the past three to four days we have been letting Thornton out of the Farm House to free roam around the Farm. Gradually he has been. getting adventurous and going out of sight from where we can see him, but he could always be found close by, often returning when called. On a number of occasions before we have let him free roam, we have taken Thornton to the Sheep pen. He was not made welcome by the Ewes. He never went into the pen but the Ewes would try to butt him through the bars. The other Lambs would avoid him when he attempted to mix with them. We looked around the Lake and in the Stream, passing the Sheep pen on the way. It was only by chance that we stopped to look at the Lambs in the Sheep pen on the way back. It was there that we found him,. sitting in between a couple of Lambs, as if this had been his life since being born.

We called Thornton’s name expecting him to follow us back to the Farm House. It was well past his feed time so he must have been wanting his bottle, but other than as quick glance our way we were completely ignored. We returned to the Sheep pen with his feed. By this time he was out of the pen grazing with the other Lambs. He came straight to his bottle, drinking the milk down in double quick time. There was no stopping him from going into the Sheep pen where the Lambs had returned to when we approached with Thornton’s milk. One of the Ewes went up to him to see who it was. That was the only contact. It was if she was acknowledging his return. Thornton followed the Lambs around the pen, settling whey they did.

We had already decided that we were going to Minehead for some fish and chips. As Thornton looked settled in the Sheep pen we decided that we would leave him there until we returned. On returning, we found Thornton waiting by the Farm House door. He came straight into the Farm House and crashed out on one of the Dog beds that he has made his own, where he was so worn out. We are wondering if Thornton will eventually go back to being a Sheep. He didn’t wonder off today, but when we went to the Sheep pen went inside. As the day before one of the Ewes acknowledged him, and Thornton walked around with the other Lambs.

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Sorry I have just got in fed the Badgers and…

Sorry I have just got in, fed the Badgers and I now need to answer some important emails. I will do the photographs and Diary tomorrow with a nice story about Thornton.

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There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number six. Nearly out of photographs.

These are pots recovered in the Lost Gardens of Heligan.I presume they were used to “force” the rhubarb! Lindsay.

Pair of ducks pictured at Savil Gardens. Bec.

The Cows are out in Barrow Gurney. Julia.

Woodpecker on my feeder in Connecticut. Anjela.

I took this picture of this unusual tree root at Savil Gardens in Surrey. Bec.

Sorry no Diary tonight.

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There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number one.

Azalias at Llanhydrock in Cornwall. Lindsay.

BABY BLUE TIT. LYNNE.

Wintertime in Woking. Bec.

All that swimming tires you out! Jacqui.

View from Maddi’s kitchen.

The Wrens nest got raided by a Magpie this morning. I saw the Magpie leaving as I went to see why the nest was not there. I thought at first that it may have been the Lambs that had knocked the nest off of where it had been built. It wasn’t built in the best place, that’s for sure. It was facing Southwest where we get the wind and driving rain from, and it was so obvious that I was surprised that it hadn’t been had by a Magpie before. I nearly moved it around to a slightly different position last night, but the bale of hay was facing the wrong way. The intention today was to build a few bales in front of the bale with the nest on, to then move it around about nine inches over a couple of days, then the Wren would not have noticed. It is to late now.

It was the first time that we had the opportunity to show a Wrens nest on the webcams. For years a Wren use to build it nest just above head height out side the Farm House Kitchen door, but the entrance hole was to small to allow us to get a camera into it. We have moved the camera to the other end of the haystack to where a Robin is nesting. The nest is getting on for a foot inside of the hay, between two bales, so it is difficult to see right into the nest. Hopefully it is far into the bale so that the Magpie doesn’t see it. I don’t know how long that the Chicks have been hatched, so that may well fledge at any time. As it gets darker, although it will be in black and white the infra red lamp should make easier to see into the nest. The reason I was showing the Wrens nest was that the eggs had not hatched, so we would have been able to see them for a good time.

I cant believe just how dumb the Geese are. This Morning as we were feeding the Horses we saw them walking towards the Observatory. It is not particularly far, but in between is the sand school. Why they would want to cross it I cant imagine. Once in the sand school, he area in between to the Observatory is where Branston and Lady graze. Not the safest place for Goslings. After I had a cup of coffee I went to see where the Geese and Gosling were. I found them near the Observatory trying to get into my neighbors field. There is a wire fence in between the wooden rails. The Gosling could have got through, but no way were the Geese going to, as much as they were trying, unless they had found a gap to go underneath. The problem would then have been they would never of had found their way back through. The only way then that they would have got back to the Lake was to cross the stream. With six foot banks either side of the stream it would have been a little difficult for the Goslings. At least the Goslings managed to make it through to another day. It is the longest that any have survived. Going back onto the island of a night must have a lot to do with it.