Beth, USA. Doves in the UK, or a least at Denbury breed all year. As you can imagine we do have a few here.
Karen. That was a Pheasant that you saw earlier this evening. We don’t get any Grouse in the West Country or a least not at Denbury. I should think that you meant Red Grouse, I believe that they are mainly found in the North of England and Scotland, where the are the preferred choice for game shooting. There use to be Black Grouse in the West Country, but unfortunately no longer. Some Farmer near Denbury put down Quail and Partridge for shooting. I did consider introducing Quail at Denbury, but they would not know where our boundaries ended, they would have soon been shot. Most of the Game Birds are very colourful, looking at their best freely walking about, rather than being on a plate. The camera that you saw the Pheasant on was at the lake. The new tower is replacing the main Badger camera. It has been installed and we are waiting for a couple of pieces that I am having made to put the IR lamps on. The telegraph pole that the camera is now on will also have to come down.
After seeing Elaine’s entry on the forum about the SWT webcams not working. I spoke to Peter the manager at Lock of the Lowe’s, who got both camera working again, when I checked the cameras a little later number two camera were off again. There must be a problem with their broadband connection at the Lock. They are at the end of the line, and I am surprised that they do not have more problems than they do. Peter does not like for his cameras to be down, so I am sure they will be on as soon as possible.
I didn’t get a chance to set the Telescope up last night. The idea was go up to the Observatory after I had fed the Badgers. Up to about 7.pm the Sky was reasonably clear, probably a better night for me to identify the Stars than the previous nights that I had tried recently. Half an hour later it was so cloudy it would not have been possible to even see any Stars at all. It is not much different tonight, the first quarter of the Moon is just about visible behind the clouds. hopefully in the next couple of days the Sky will be clear, so that I can set the Telescope up. I am a bit more confident that I can now do it. Cross your fingers.
I was concerned that the Swallows, that we are showing were going to be late in strengthening themselves for their migration. I had to go into the barn that we are converting, in there were two nests that the Swallows chicks were still being fed. It is getting late so I do hope that they can will make their migration.
Maybe out of view, the Badgers did have it on their toes when I went to feed them. I rattled the feed bags and made some silly noises and they did mostly disappear. One I admit did get brave after a few second, walking towards it, it did scurry back a bit.