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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 sent in by Clive.

Iffley lock about 2 miles down-stream from Oxford. Clive.

Iffley lock weir stream. Clive.

Iffley Church. Clive.

Elephant Hawk Moth Caterpillar, this was about 3″ long, and found in the garden. Clive.

A steam ploughing engine at the 2008 Great Dorset Steam Fair. Clive.

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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.

Hever Castle Kent. Sarah.

Another part of Hever Castle. Sarah.

Lake in Hever Castle grounds. Sarah.

Side view of Hever Castle. Sarah.

Photo of wild turkeys that have shown up in our back yard over the last week to eat the birdseed that drops to the ground.They are a bit blurry since some nasty children began scaring them into the woods.The children got a right good scolding from my husband and I and hopefully will
not do that again.:-) Marie/NJ

An update from Michael in the Virgin Islands for the new underwater camera.

Things here are going well but slowly. I have received all of the approvals that I need and the mounting bracket for the cam is be
manufactured. I have a company that specializes in underwater welding constructing a lock box for the underwater mounting as to insure the safety of your equipment. That should be completed by Wednesday.The solar power supply has been ordered and we are awaiting delivery as well for the Pelican case that all of the equipment will be mounted inside for protection against the elements at the broadcast point. The network connection is ready on the receiving end.

Here on STX, it is the height of Hurricane season so at times goal accomplishment is a little tough. Many leave the Island for the month of August and some for September too. This just slows down getting things done.

I know this is an inconvenience but I am doing as much, as quickly, and as properly as can be done. I wish it was easier but after 9/11, everything has gotten tougher as far as dealing with the government. With regards, Michael

Sent in by Elaine
Why Parents Drink

The boss wondered why one of his most valued employees was absent but had not phoned in sick one day. Needing to have an urgent problem with one of the main computers resolved, he dialled the employee’s home phone number and was greeted with a child’s whisper. ‘ Hello ? ‘

‘Is your daddy home?’ he asked.

‘ Yes ,’ whispered the small voice.

May I talk with him?’

The child whispered, ‘ No .’

Surprised and wanting to talk with an adult, the boss asked, ‘Is your Mummy there?’ ‘ Yes ‘

‘May I talk with her?’ Again the small voice whispered, ‘ No ‘

Hoping there was somebody with whom he could leave a message, the boss asked, ‘Is anybody else there?’

‘ Yes ,’ whispered the child,

‘ a policeman. ‘Wondering what a cop would be doing at his employee’s home, the boss asked, ‘May I speak with the policeman?’

‘ No, he’s busy , ‘ whispered the child.

‘ Busy doing what?

‘ Talking to Daddy and Mummy and the Fireman , ‘ came the whispered answer.

Growing more worried as he heard a loud noise in the background through the earpiece on the phone, the boss asked, ‘What is that noise?’

‘ A helicopter ‘ answered the whispering voice.

‘What is going on there?’ demanded the boss, now truly apprehensive. Again, whispering, the child answered,

‘ The search team just landed a helicopter ‘

Alarmed, concerned and a little frustrated the boss asked, ‘What are they searching for?’

Still whispering, the young voice replied with a muffled giggle…

‘ ME . ‘

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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, sent in by Judy. There is only one day of photographs left.

Close up of a Moth I saw in our shed
Head of the moth
Passion flower in my garden
White Dahlia in my garden
A Red Squirrel taken on SWT2 cam. Judy

I thought that you maybe interested in the reply that we got from the Met Office about a complaint we made two weeks or so back, and our reply.

Thank you for your recent feedback about Met Office weather forecasts for Watchet in Somerset .

We are sorry if you have seen a Met Office forecast that you felt was misleading. We understand that it can be frustrating for people trying to plan activities around the weather, which is why we do always try to get the forecast right.

Met Office forecasts are produced from our computer models. These use data fed in from many thousands of observations as a starting point and run programmes which take various mathematical equations of motion, thermodynamics and state to predict the behaviour of the atmosphere. There is then a process by which forecasters quality check the model’s output before forecasts are issued.

Our forecast model data then feeds into a site specific forecast model which is then run to produce the site specific forecasts for our web site, the BBC weather web pages and others. Our forecast model data, once checked, also forms the basis of the guidance issued by the Chief Forecaster in our Operations Centre and products to all our various customers, including information supplied to the BBC for radio and television forecasts.

Please be assured that our forecasters do work hard to ensure our forecasts are as accurate and consistent as possible. The British Isles experiences some of the most complex weather systems anywhere in the world and any forecast issued will always the best possible from the information available. We strive for 100% accuracy but there will be times when we do not get the local detail absolutely correct.

Although the computer models are vastly improved compared with even a few years ago, there may be small errors which are magnified over time, for example the timing or position of any low pressure area or weather front passing which can make quite a difference to the forecast for a particular locality.

Over recent years we believe we have made great strides in improving the accuracy of our forecasts and I can assure you we are constantly working to improve this. A number of initiatives are being worked on such as recent improvements in the computerised forecast models. Feedback from customers such as yourself is invaluable in bringing potential problems to our attention. Planned upgrades to our supercomputing capacity, due to become operational in the next few years, will allow higher resolution models to be run which will provide even greater improvements in local detail and guidance. Clearly we will be expected to provide more accurate, targeted and localised forecasts in the ye! ars to come and this is where our efforts should and will be directed.

Regarding your query about more detaiIed forecasts for the specialist farmer, I wonder if our Talk To A Forecaster service might potentially be of benefit to you? This is a consultancy service where you can talk directly to a forecaster in our Operations Centre to request weather information for any land area in the UK the next few hours or for up to five days ahead. There are more details of this service on our web site at http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/services/talkfc/. However, we recognise that a paid consultancy service may not be appropriate for all c! ustomers. We do also offer a telephone service called Weathercall where you can obtain a five day forecast for locations within the UK via telephone, fax, web download or SMS. There is more information about this service at http://www.weathercall.co.uk/ .

In summary, we are sorry if you have been disappointed with forecasts on some occasions. I hope the above at least reassures you that we aim to address concerns about forecast accuracy. Thank you once again for your valuable feedback, which will help us improve our services in the future, and for taking the time to contact the Met Office.

Yours sincerely, Martin Kidds Customer Feedback Manager

Dear Martin,

Our location is Taunton not Watchet, fourteen miles difference, quite obviously the correct information was not passed on, unless of course you have emailed the wrong complainant.

I did not feel that the forecast was misleading, it was. Bad weather forecasting is not frustrating, it is annoying and causes unnecessary problems. I can not for the life of me understand that you always try to get the forecast right. Surely the equipment at your disposal try does not come in to it. My complaint was of a forecast given at 10.pm that was completely opposite ten hours later.

I have found your forecasting to be in the region of 25% wrong. Since my initial complaint some two to three weeks back it would be more than 30%. So it is not unreasonable to suggest that forecasts produced from your computer models. data fed in from many thousands of observations various mathematical equations of motion, thermodynamics and state to predict the behavior of the atmosphere are clearly not working.

Frankly I do not care where your model data is fed, finishes at, and to whom, to go out where. I only asked for an explanation why the forecast I received was wrong just twelve hours later.

I would not suggest for one moment that you do not try to get your forecasting right, unfortunately for all who use it you do not. If the British Isles weather forecasting is so complex and challenging for the Met Office, stop forecasting.

I have not seen any improvement in your forecasting over recent years. Three or four years ago I complained as I had 15 acres of hay ruined because of your forecasting, it most defiantly it has not improved since then.

As for your Talk to a Forecaster service. If they are that good why is it not being used for all forecasting, especially as the Met Office is taxpayer funded.

Your email has not answered my complaint of why you got a forecast completely wrong twelve hours after it was given. I am going to try this service www.weather.weatherbug.co.uk unless you tell me that the Met office supply their information.

Regards

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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. As we have lost our email inbox we have just a very few photographs left.

I told Karen of Stoke that I would send her some party photos of the raccoons. Hope everyone gets a laugh.

Party time in a ravine in Toronto

Me, I don’t like parties. Isabel.

Pine Marten on SWT2 cam. Not excellent quality but they were taken on the spur of the moment. Judy.

Piglets having a drink at Sherwood Forest Farm park. Vicky.

Marie/NJ seems to be having a problem logging into the webcams. Is any one else having the same problem. I have asked people that I know and asked them to try assessing the site. None have said that they are having problems.

The Swallows look as if they are nearly ready to fledge. Those on the webcams are the last nest that we have seen at Denbury, other than the Doves. The nest is the only one that we managed to see from the beginning. I nearly missed it as it was well hidden behind a beam in the Barn. Very often the Swallows use nests that have been used before so we tend to look in the old nests. This year only one old nest was used.

We have not had a reply from Elsie.

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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. As we have lost our email inbox we have just a very few photographs left.

Aberdeen Angus taken at Sherwood Forest Farm Park. Vicky.

DUCKS RUSHING FOR SOME BREAD. LYNNE.

I think her name was Kenya she

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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 sent by Lynne.

STUNNING SKY ABOVE THE PEAK DISTRICT. LYNNE.

BOAT IN A HARBOUR IN PEMBROKESHIRE. LYNNE.

MY ELLIE IN THE BLUEBELLS. LYNNE.

LICHEN AND BLOSSOM. LYNNE.

PEAK DISTRICT DERBYSHIRE. LYNNE.

The breeders of Reindeer that we thought that we were going to be able to get another one from to go with the pair that we are getting, were unsure if they were going to let any of their females go. As it is coming close to the beginning of the breeding season it was important to get one in the next few weeks. I had already made a few phone calls yesterday to try to find another female but only managed to get answer phones. This morning I made a follow up call to one of those that I rang yesterday and managed to get the owner of one farm that I had phoned, who did have a couple of four to five year old that he was selling. The price was getting on for half of what I was expecting to pay from my first contact, so I decided to have the two that he was selling. I will be getting a phone call at the end of the week and will make the arrangements to collect them. As well as being less money, they are a lot closer to collect them from.

I spoke to Cricket St Thomas this afternoon to find out if the Padfoot, the Male Reindeer that is coming to Denbury has started to shed his velvet. I was told that the velvet is starting to look dry. A good indication by all account’s that the blood vessels are starting to dry up. This happens a little while before the velvet starts to drop. I also asked about Fleur the female that we are getting. When I went to see her and Padfoot about seven to eight weeks ago she had a very small set of antlers, that is why I said the she was the female in the middle of the photograph that was put on the Photo page yesterday. I was told that Fleur has a good set of antlers. Hopefully within a few weeks we will have Fleur, Padfoot and the two females back a Denbury.

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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.

2 Barn Owls aged 22 weeks they were called Dawn and Dusk. Jan.

I took these photos today (21st August) at Cricket St Thomas, I wondered which of the Reindeer would be going to Denbury? The Monkey we thought was pregnant and fed up! and the Lemurs are just so laid back. Rose W’canton.

The Reindeer that are coming to Denbury are the Male with the very big antlers, That I could not mistake, and it looks like the female right in the middle. We are also hoping to buy another female. We know where we can get one from but there are various places in the UK that have movement restrictions because of Blue Tongue disease.

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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, all sent in by Lynne.

ANOTHER SQUIRREL !! LYNNE

HOT AIR BALLOON ABOVE CHATSWORTH HOUSE DERBYSHIRE LYNNE

MILL STONES NEAR HATHERSAGE DERBYSHIRE LYNNE

NUTHATCH IN MY GARDEN LYNNE

MY TAME RESIDENT ROBIN LYNNE

Sorry I forgot to update the Photo page last night. Saturdays being the holiday change over day a Denbury, we are busy and it wasn’t until late last night that I realised.

I haven’t checked the new Squirrel feeder that we have put up for the first part of the Squirrel obstacle course to see if it being used, but from what I can see from the webcam it does look as if it may have started to be used. Trouble is the Buzzards seem to have found it to as you may have seen on the webcam at about 1.pm today. It looks as if it is one of this years young and it is very well marked. It must be the one that one of our Holiday Guests from last week had seen and mistakenly taken as an Osprey. As much as it would be great to have an Osprey at Denbury I don’t think that our Fish in our Lake would be to thrilled about it, and we wouldn’t be best pleased to lose any of our Fish.

As well as Wildlife Holidays we have started Fishing Holidays at Denbury. I am not a great fan of the sport but we need to have Holiday guests for as many weeks as we can through the year and fishing is helping. We stocked our lake just over seven years ago with quite small fish consisting of Mirror and Crucian Carp, Tench, Roach and Rudd. We had seen large Fish swimming around the Kingfisher branch but it wasn’t until this year that we knew just how big they had grown. Earlier in the year Carp up to about 10lb had been fished, and in July and August Carp up to 20lb had been caught with many between 8lb to 13lb. It is now even more important to keep the Herons and Otters away from the Lake. That is the benefit of people fishing. The Heron or Otters wont come to the Lake if there are any people around the Lake. We are going to have to fence to stop Otters or Mink. The posts are in place when we electric fenced the area to stop the Otters a few years back. We will be able to use those posts to put wire fencing up, with an electric fence wire at the top. With the fencing in place it will also protect the Black Swans when they arrive next month, and the Geese, if any come next 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 one. The first photograph is from Anjela with a long writeup. After just getting back from Fish and Chips at Minehead Harbour, it will save me from writing a Diary.

This picture was taken by me, at Ding Darling Wildlife reserve in Sanibel Island, Florida. It is a lone crocodile. Crocodiles were once seen as far north as Sarasota County, those populations are almost completely gone — with the exception of the lone female on Sanibel Island and the occasional crocodile that travels north in the summer.

Jeff Combs, a park ranger at Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge, believes the crocodile was born on Pine Island, where she was first found in 1980, and has never left the area.

“Females stay in their spot for their lives,” Combs said “This is home to her.”

Once abundant in Florida, crocodiles were hunted for their hide and much of their habitat was destroyed before they were put on the endangered species list in 1975. Much of their habitat was lost to a combination of urban development and the conversion of wetlands to agriculture.

“Crocodiles aren’t really found up north much,” Klett said. “On the Atlantic side, all possible habitat has been developed.”

The saltwater creatures tend to nest in areas where there is more brackish and freshwater, because it takes hatchlings some time to adapt to their saltwater environments.

Today they are rarely seen outside of the protected areas of the Everglades, Key Largo and around the canals at Turkey Point Nuclear Power plant near Biscayne National Park.

Florida Power and Light has developed a crocodile management plan to promote and protect the species there. The man-made area around the nuclear power plant is considered to have the fastest-growing population of crocodiles.

The federal government began buying land for Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge in 1980 and today it provides 5,000 acres of nesting and nursery habitat for the American crocodile. The refuge, which also provides habitat to five other endangered species, is closed to all but researchers partly because female crocodiles are known to abandon their nests after even one disturbance. Also the above crocodile has been taken back twice to the Everglades but amazingly has found her way home to Sanibel. Anjela.

2. Sunset from our balcony in Toronto.

3. Our balcony facing North in Troonto

4. Winter from our balcony facing North in Toronto

5. Balcony facing North in the summer

Rosie’s Mum in Toronto.

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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 sent in by Clive.

1/ Wild Buddleia growing in Sandford lane. Clive.

2/ Narrow boats in Sandford Lock, the deepest lock on the Thames. Clive.

3/ The Kings Arms Pub on the Thames at Sandford. Clive.

4/ Narrow boat going under the “Iron Bridge” at Kennington. Clive.

5/ Hinksey Lake, a mile outside Oxford was dug out to supply gravel when the railway was built, then used as a reservoir for the old water-works. Now just used for leisure. Clive.

At last after nearly two years this morning we managed to get Ewy captured in a stable to check her over and give her a pedicure. It was very easy, she went into the stable on her own. We had got Arnie and Breeze in for their morning feed. Ewy decided that she would follow Breeze but she stopped short of following her into the stable. Instead when we got Lady, Emmi and the two Foals in for their feed Ewy walked by their side to their stables. There are three stables in a row where Lady and Emmi are stabled, they are stabled either end with the middle stable empty but left open of a nighttime for Branston to use if it is raining. We usually close it when the Mares and Foal come in for their feed, this morning we forgot and as Lady and Emmi went to their stables with their Foals Ewy went into the middle stable. I quickly closed the door, and did she protest, kicking the floor and bleating out. We went back to the Farm House for a cup of coffee and to allow Ewy to settle before we handled her.

It was time for Ewys pedicure. Walking back to the stables we could still hear Ewy protesting and she didn’t look happy when we looked over the stable door. I was going to take a photograph of Ewy over the stable door for the Photo page, but decided that I would get one as she was having a pedicure. As we entered the stable Ewy was at the back still protesting. Without warning at full speed Ewy charged at the stable door that was showing a little light through the opened door of no more than a few inches, she pushed her way through with such force that she nearly knocked me off of my feet and through the door she went to freedom. There was no stopping her, somehow she managed to get through a gap in the fencing that none the other Ewes have managed.

It was never our intention not to let Ewy back with the Horses once we had checked her over. As far as Ewy is concerned she is a Horse. She grazes with the Horses, roams around the fields with them and eats out of the same bowl of food as Gypsy and Willow. The other Ewes and Lambs have been grazing in the Horse field for the past week or so. Ewy doesn’t want to socialize with them and Willow and Gypsy get quite annoyed and kick out to stop the Sheep other than Ewy from eating with them. I wasn’t best pleased when Ewy made her escape, there will be another day.