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Morning all lovely view of the kingfisher on Cam2 this…

Morning all – lovely view of the kingfisher on Cam2 this morning – brilliant flash of electric blue as he flew off stage right!
Thanks for putting the Meerkats on Cam1 Mr.F – I can’t see them just now so maybe they are sheltering from the wind inside their little house – I see you’ve put some logs in there for them to play on – I bet they’ll enjoy that!
Elsie I hope you have better news about your stair lift. Just keep pestering them and stressing that you cannot keep climbing those stairs!! I’m guessing that your only loo is upstairs, so tell them you can’t manage without a stair lift – or a downstairs loo! The cheaper option I am sure would be the lift!….Jill(E)

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VAL LIKE YOUR PICTURES Have you ever seen so many…

VAL LIKE YOUR PICTURES, Have you ever seen so many birds on one tree . Your lodger is a little cracker id love her you will miss her when she goes home. mary llandudno

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I had quite a panic with the Meerkats late yesterday…

I had quite a panic with the Meerkats late yesterday afternoon. I lifted the roof of their house to put their evening feed in and the only one in the House was Bitsy the other three females were nowhere to be seen. I could not believe my eyes and needed to take a second look. The three females had escaped and were nowhere to be seen in the enclosure. I went outside and checked the outside of the enclosure and there was a hole where the Meerkats had burrowed to make their escape.

After a short while one was seen by our Holiday Guests and after a short chase I managed ti net it in tone of the Turkey enclosures. As I had no way of keeping it in it finally managed to jump out of the net. Another of the females was seen in in the Driveway of the Farm about a hundred metres from its home. When it saw those that had seen it it ran into the Emu enclosure and was chased by the Emu into the Woods a lot further away. On my return to the enclosure area one was seen by the hole they had burrowed out of and it had gone back in. I realised but more with hope that they would all return to their enclosure as it was starting to get dark. After nearly two hours of panic and a lot of help from our Holiday Guests and their Children all of the Meerkats were back in their home just before it got dark. I blocked up the entrance of their house to make sure that they would not be able to escape until I had made safe the enclosure to stop any more escaping. I finished the work this morning. A very small void to one side and the back of the Meerkat house was large enough to allow the escape and was concreted so we should not get that problem again. The intention was to get the webcam working today. I managed to get it nearly finished and it should be working by Sunday.

I must admit I was sure I would not see the Meerkats after their escape and feel very fortunate that they returned after such a short time that they have been in their new home.

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I collected the Meerkats yesterday Three Females and one Male…

I collected the Meerkats yesterday. Three Females and one Male. They are a little nervous in their new home but still managed to eat their first meal. They will soon settle. Their house and enclosure took longer than I had thought it would. The first roof that I made for their house had to be remade as I didn’t believe it would hold the heat that well. Making the new roof put me a day behind, Their enclosure is 6m x 4m filled with 5 tonne of sand. That took a bit of moving. Under the sand is a thick metal mesh base to stop the Meerkats from digging their way out. I did make one mistake that caused a bit of a panic after I had released them in to their new home. Somehow I had missed filling one of the post holes that hold the enclosure up, if I had not realised there was an easy escape for them. The Meerkat house has under floor heating and out side we have a 500 watt security light that comes on when they get close to the light giving out heat for when they want to be outside in the Winter months.

I hope to be able to show the Meerkats on a temporary webcam over the next couple of days, it will only be for a short period as I will be using the cable that supplies the cottages with the webcam feed. I will let you know when I will show them. I hope to have the permanent webcams going within a week or so. There will be an outside camera and anther in their house.

At last I have managed to capture the sheep that went missing with Ewy. Unfortunately Ewy is not with them so I must now assume the worse that old age finally caught up with her and she has died. I only managed to catch the missing sheep as those that were in the field that we fence to keep them in found a way out. As some of the Ewe were in season the rams in the missing group came to mate bringing the others with him I was then able to walk all in to the fenced field that I have now hopefully secured.

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As you can see on the Gallery we have started…

As you can see on the Gallery we have started to build the enclosure for our soon new arrivals. The enclosure fencing should be finished tomorrow. The housing will take a couple of days but we should be able to make a start on it again tomorrow. We will need to landscape the enclosure but that should not take very long. It wont be long.

As some of you are aware the cost of broadcasting the webcams on Wildlife TV has cost me a very large amount of money for the bandwidth used when you view. A little over a month ago I was told by the person who supplies our bandwidth that the cost was to double. Unfortunately I was not prepared to pay the renewed charge unless we got some help from those broadcasting who have never been asked to contribute any of the cost. I have also supplied to most again at a very large cost, sometimes in the

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Found the time to do the Bees today Got some…

Found the time to do the Bees today. Got some bad news for the sadistic lot the Bees were so calm that only one came near me. I must admit I was a little wary after getting twelve stings to my right hand and a few on my left I went to the hive with the smoker and extra protection for my hands, but I didn’t need it I am pleased to say. So the Camel wont be needed Pete.

There has been a pair of Little Grebes on the Lake for the past couple of days. They don’t normally visit this time of the year. We see them at the beginning of Spring and late Winter but never stay to nest. I tried a couple of times to catch them on the webcam but only nearly got to see them.

One of this weeks Holiday Guests reckon the saw a Barn Owl in the Barn last night. Some of you may have seen a Tawney Owlet sitting on the wire on webcam three last night, that is why I reckon the sighting of the Barn Owl was right as the same person saw both so he would not have been mistaken.

Back to the new webcam and the enclosure that we are putting up. Not Ostrich, done them, although we may be getting a lot more Emu. Just waiting to be told when I can collect them so I am not counting my chickens before they arrive. And you are not wrong Elaine and Mary, I have trouble keeping Sheep in and they don’t burrow. And a no to Donkeys, pigs of any type, any type of Cows and I wouldn’t punish myself with Sheep, I still haven’t forgot the performance with the Bagot Goats. The holes for the enclosure have now been dug and we will start to make the enclosure tomorrow. Not to long to wait. With a little luck and hard work and we get the enclosure finished we may get our new additions this week, but for sure it will be the week after when Margaret and Marie are here. You will have to be patient. Mind you if it were on the other foot I would be pulling my hair out.

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What a sadistic lot some of you are asking if…

What a sadistic lot some of you are asking if I had given the Bees the second dose of the treatment. Just waiting for me to tell you that I had been stung again. Sorry I cant give you that satisfaction for it was raining on Sunday when I was going to do the job, and you don’t do Bees in the rain I was advised. I have been trying to do it ever since but I have just not managed to find the time as I have been collecting materials to make a new enclosure area for a new webcam that I am starting to set up on the Farm. I am 99% sure that it is going to happen but I don’t want to say any for two reasons. One reason I will tell you when I get the new animals on the Farm, the other because I want to torment you. But it will be worth waiting in suspense for when I tell you.

I got a phone call last night at just before 11.pm from a lady who was concerned about a Badger that was laying flat out looking rather dead or ill next to the feeding area. I must admit it didn’t look to good to me when I viewed the webcam so I made me way up to where it was. Trouble is in my haste I forgot that that just before the gate that I get over to the feeding area an old dead Elm tree had fallen and I finished up flat on my face. The noise I made cursing and falling had woken the Badger who must have been a sleep. I reckon he may well have had a good helping of the fallen apples in the Orchard. I did curse the Lady at the time. But It was good that she phoned as only the day before I found a dead Badger very close to the Farm entrance that more than likely came from our Sett. There were no signs that it had been shot, probably run over. But there is always the chance that it was poisoned.

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I never realised how long ago that I last managed…

I never realised how long ago that I last managed to do a Diary. It seems just a few days ago that I sat down and wrote.

The Kingfishers have been seen a lot more this year than last. I reckon that last year we missed them as they were landing on the wire and not the branch. I will remove the branch so that the is not a choice for the camera to be trained on, although this morning a Moorhen used it for a perch. Talk about the Moorhens we have a lot more on the Lake this year than we have ever had. I have only seen one Coot probably because the Moorhen has been taking the Coots Chicks as they have the Mallards. Just as well as it has been an exceptional year for breeding on the Lake there now being so many Mallards they are taking the Swans feed before they have a chance to eat it.

WE eventually made our hay. Not very good as it rained on it for well over a month and we have only managed to make half of what we normally would make. No good complaining for if we needed to buy it in it would cost a fortune if we were able to get any. You could reckon on paying about

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I never realised how long ago that I last managed…

I never realised how long ago that I last managed to do a Diary. It seems just a few days ago that I sat down and wrote.

The Kingfishers have been seen a lot more this year than last. I reckon that last year we missed them as they were landing on the wire and not the branch. I will remove the branch so that the is not a choice for the camera to be trained on, although this morning a Moorhen used it for a perch. Talk about the Moorhens we have a lot more on the Lake this year than we have ever had. I have only seen one Coot probaley because the Moorhen has been taking the Coots Chicks as they have the Mallards. Just as well as it has been an exceptional year for breeding on the Lake there now being so many Mallards they are taking the Swans feed before they have a chance to eat it.

WE eventually made our hay. Not very good as it rained on it for well over a month and we have only managed to make half of what we normally would make. No good complaining for if we needed to buy it in it would cost a fortune if we were able to get any. You could reckon on paying about

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Some of you may have seen over the past few…

Some of you may have seen over the past few days some Sheep in the Valley. This afternoon for a short moment I thought that the Sheep had broke through the new fencing that we had put up in the Horse field to keep the Sheep in. With the earache I got from my neighbour’s about our straying Sheep it was the last thing that I needed. I didn’t hang about checking in case there was a way out in the fencing for the other Sheep to escape. On getting to the Sheep in the Valley it was obvious by the way they scarpered that it was the group that was with Ewy that we were unable catch. Although we had looked for the Ewy groups through the Summer it was the first sighting that we had, but unfortunately there was no sign of Ewy. Mind you Ewy is a Sheep with her own agenda so it is possible that she has had Lambs and is on her own in the Woods. Of course it may also be that she has died as she was getting on a bit. We can only wait and see.

When in the valley I checked on the cut grass that I had hope to make hay with. I don’t reckon that I am going to be very lucky with it as it is well wet and smelling. If we have a bit of a dry spell we may be able to make silage but it wont be very good. We did manage to make seventeen bales of haylage and with what with the remainder of last years hay that we have left as long as it is not a long Winter we may just scrape through.

In case you don’t know the difference between hay, silage and haylage I will try to explain. Most will know that hay is completely dried grass. Silage is newly cut grass that is baled shortly after and wrapped in plastic film or put into a large pit and covered very tightly in plastic to stop air getting to it. If silage is not wrapped or covered and air gets to it mould so sets in and it heats up making it not edible. Silage is fed mainly to Cows. Haylage is grass that is left to nearly dry then baled and wrapped in plastic. As long as air does not get to it it is a very good feed for Horses and has a sweet smell. Most Horses prefer it to hay.

The new Swan has now settled in well and is getting on with the Cob. A good sign is that he is allowing the Pen to eat with him. We have not seen the Swans that flew away since I last told you about them, but I reckon they will be back.