Welcome to Wildlife TV/ Denbury Farm Forum

Where you can post about wildlife, webcams on Wildlife TV, ask each other questions and keep in touch with other forum users. As with the last forum we have no rules on your postings, we want it to be a friendly place, so no politics or religion unless it is to do with subjects that relate to wildlife. Please do not use the Forum to make contact about holiday bookings.

PLEASE SEND YOUR PHOTOGRAGHS To info@denburyfarm.co.uk

 

27,428 replies on “Welcome to Wildlife TV/ Denbury Farm Forum”

So pleased Mr F has started doing the blog again. Have watched the webcams for many years, sat up watching the foals born many years ago. Have enjoyed reading the gossip from Denbury, can relate to it as we have stayed there a couple of times. Fab place to stay, hope to stay there again next year with my family to celebrate hubbies 75th birthday. Great place to walk, fish and enjoy the wildlife.
Diane

Its been a few years Jenny a lot has changed but so nice Mr F has started the diary/blog again, nice to see and find out what is happening on the farm 🙂

Hi Jan Totally agree with you and hardly anyone apart from Elsie posts on here now ! Hope you and hubby are both well ?
Jenny x

Yes we’re ok thanks, enjoying seeing so many red kites now, I was naughty and put a chicken drumstick on my shed roof as one was flying around over the house one day and within 10 minutes it had swooped down and took it, it was brilliant 🙂
hope you and hubby are well too 🙂

Our Life at Denbury Farm Blog 9th August 2017
http://denburyfarm.co.uk/category/blog2/

A few more photographs of the Fox family at Denbury Farm, although you can see them every night on the webcams feeding with the Badgers and sometimes the Deer.
Going by a black and white photograph in the left hand corner of our Facebook page dated the 8th November 2004, we have been broadcasting the webcams for eighteen years. A few of our regulars have been on the journey with us for all of that time.
When I first started to do the webcams, I was not long coming to Somerset from London. It had always wanted to live in the countryside and after spending many years holidaying with a friend it soon became wanting to be a Farmer. LOL, more like wanting to own a farm
Although I had always like seeing animals they became what I believed to be a nuisance. The Fox taking our chickens, the Badgers digging up the fields to find worms and the Deer eating our grass that was needed for our cows. Yes , we did when we first came to Denbury had a small herd of pedigree Charolaise cattle. I must have been stark raving bonkers. They shit for England, and I had never worked so hard. But that’s another story, that I will tell
As soon as I started the webcams I realised how important our British wildlife is. It is not wildlife, it is life that is wild and most if not of all is very precious. Seeing how the Fox are with their cubs you can see that it is some form of love. What form of love it is It would be hard to guess. Maybe similar to humans, why not, so I find it now very difficult, if not impossible to accept in these days any hunting with dogs or game shooting. Fox hunting is repulsive and I really cant get my head around any person would want to see an animal suffer the way Fox do when they are torn apart by a pack of dogs. There is no justification or reason to ever allow hunting to be legalised.
The older viewers of the webcams may have seen the Fox on our webcams walking in between our sheep with newly born lambs. The sheep never moved and the Fox was just sometimes inches from the newly born, even once or twice with the lambs being born. Its rubbish that Fox target new born lambs.

Gosh I know I have been watching your camera’s for years but can’t remember the year I started watching, I remember watching one of the horses giving birth, you have always been passionate about the wildlife and that is what I love about your site, long may you continue. Enjoying your new blogs 🙂

Our Life at Denbury Farm Blog 5th August 2017
http://denburyfarm.co.uk/category/blog2/

Mrs Farmer on a walk with our dogs was in the valley this afternoon and came across a small herd Roe Deer in the valley field. Two Bucks,  four Doe and a couple of Fawn. Over the past few weeks the herd have been growing and we have seen them on the webcams from a Doe and a Buck to what Mrs Farmer came across today. Not a large herd but large enough for them to be rutting and there may well have been others in the woods that surround Denbury Farm, for we have seen them with our thermal camera of a night time. Mrs Farmer would be the first to admit it was a shock, for although we had seen a Red Deer Rut some years ago, this was the first Roe Deer and for it being able to be witnessed. Fortunately she had her camera with her and although the dogs were with her they stayed very quiet, quiet enough not to disturb the Deer and allow for some photographs to be taken. 
We farm Denbury Farm to be wildlife friendly, most farmers would say it is over run, (scruffy) but it does encourage  and being we are mainly surrounded by Ancient Woodland, our way of farming encourages great wildlife opportunities.
Mrs Farmer was allowed to watch the rut, courtship and mating  for a good three quarters of an hour. With the Buzzards calling above her whilst hunting, she had a great wildlife experience She returned home as the dogs were getting bored rather than the Deer leaving the valley.
Roe Deer mate July August time, but although the gestation period is nine months the eggs don’t implant and start growing until January time, with the Fawns being born five months later in the Spring so the Doe has the rich spring grass to produce good milk for the fawns.

Our Life at Denbury Farm Blog 2nd August 2017
http://denburyfarm.co.uk/category/blog2/

Watching the memorials to those who lost their lives at the Battle of Passchendaele made me remember a Great Uncle who died in the 1st world war, a Charles Smith.
Some years ago a tattered old case was passed down to me. When I first glanced the contents of the case I found it contained many items, letters, photographs, old insurance documents, invoices, birth and death certificates and other interesting items collected by another Great Uncle Walter. The most important being a letter from the Red Cross dated the 23rd of February 1918 to my Great Grandmother on the death of her son Charles Smith in a battle in Northern France. Many mothers would have received a letter of this type on the death of there sons. What a terribly sad day it would have been for them. With the letter about Charlie there was a letter about the action. The Passchendaele memorial made me realise that no one in our family had ever visited Charlie’s Grave and he had died a 100 year ago this year. I started a search on the internet and will continue but as of yet I have not found any grave that I could visit and can only think that he is buried in an unknown grave.
The letter from the Enquiry Department of The British Red Cross reads.
Dear Madam, We much regret to say that not withstanding constant and careful enquiries we have not been able to hear anything of your Son except a sad report from a Sgt. Wright, now a prisoner in Germany that he saw him instantly killed on April the 14th 1917 and have had to come to the conclusion that he must have lost his life at the time when he went missing. We have questioned all the men of his unit whom we have been able to see, both in English Hospitals and bases abroad and none have been able to throw any light on his casualty. We have however been able to collect some details of the action, and we enclose a copy of there fearing that in spite of all our efforts we shall not be able to help any further in this matter, we do indeed watch all the prison lists that come in from Germany but we cannot hope to find there any names of missing so long ago. We offer our sincere sympathy to the family and friends. Signed on behalf of the Earl of Lucan.
Action report. 1st Essex April 13th 14th 1917
Our report shows that in the middle of April 1917 the 1st Essex where in action near Arras, one sold in B company says we were attacking the village of Monchy-le-Preux S.E of Arras in the early morning of April the 14th. Some of us were told to hold the front German line , while the rest of the Battalion advance, there was not much fighting and the Germans cut off the rest of the Battalion. We had to retire owing to our being outnumbered and held the line 200 yards in the rear.
We are told that the time of the start was 5. am and that the attack was made on the hill that was reached. Other accounts carry on the story. The fighting got severe and we reach our objective under heavy fire. The Battalion retired about noon and it was quite impossible for the wounded to be brought in. The ground was lost in the German counter attack. Casualties seem to have occurred in our front line trench even before the Battalion went over the top, and in the course of the engagement our losses were heavy.

Its lovely to have these documents but also so sad when you see the conditions they were in and how young the soldiers were. Seeing it all on the telly earlier this week made me pick up the copy I have of my grandfathers diary and as I read some of the pages, I saw he was in Ypres in the trenches at that time, he didn’t mention Passchendale but he did mention the deep mud and the fact his best friend took a bullet in the head and died next to him, I admit it brought a tear to my eyes, I spoke to my mum about it the next day and she said she did the same thing, we were lucky he came home injured, but he never talked about it to anyone.

Denbury Farm added 4 new photos.
Published by Colin Meadows · 1 min ·
Our Life at Denbury Farm Blog 30th July 2017
http://denburyfarm.co.uk/category/blog2/
Watching the memorials to those who lost their lives at the Battle of Passchendaele made me remember a Great Uncle who died in the 1st world war, a Charles Smith.
Some years ago a tattered old case was passed down to me. When I first glanced the contents of the case I found it contained many items, letters, photographs, old insurance documents, invoices, birth and death certificates and other interesting items collected by another Great Uncle Walter. The most important being a letter from the Red Cross dated the 23rd of February 1918 to my Great Grandmother on the death of her son Charles Smith in a battle in Northern France. Many mothers would have received a letter of this type on the death of there sons. What a terribly sad day it would have been for them. With the letter about Charlie there was a letter about the action. The Passchendaele memorial made me realise that no one in our family had ever visited Charlie’s Grave and he had died a 100 year ago this year. I started a search on the internet and will continue but as of yet I have not found any grave that I could visit and can only think that he is buried in an unknown grave.
The letter from the Enquiry Department of The British Red Cross reads.
Dear Madam, We much regret to say that not withstanding constant and careful enquiries we have not been able to hear anything of your Son except a sad report from a Sgt. Wright, now a prisoner in Germany that he saw him instantly killed on April the 14th 1917 and have had to come to the conclusion that he must have lost his life at the time when he went missing. We have questioned all the men of his unit whom we have been able to see, both in English Hospitals and bases abroad and none have been able to throw any light on his casualty. We have however been able to collect some details of the action, and we enclose a copy of there fearing that in spite of all our efforts we shall not be able to help any further in this matter, we do indeed watch all the prison lists that come in from Germany but we cannot hope to find there any names of missing so long ago. We offer our sincere sympathy to the family and friends. Signed on behalf of the Earl of Lucan.
Action report. 1st Essex April 13th 14th 1917
Our report shows that in the middle of April 1917 the 1st Essex where in action near Arras, one sold in B company says we were attacking the village of Monchy-le-Preux S.E of Arras in the early morning of April the 14th. Some of us were told to hold the front German line , while the rest of the Battalion advance, there was not much fighting and the Germans cut off the rest of the Battalion. We had to retire owing to our being outnumbered and held the line 200 yards in the rear.
We are told that the time of the start was 5. am and that the attack was made on the hill that was reached. Other accounts carry on the story. The fighting got severe and we reach our objective under heavy fire. The Battalion retired about noon and it was quite impossible for the wounded to be brought in. The ground was lost in the German counter attack. Casualties seem to have occurred in our front line trench even before the Battalion went over the top, and in the course of the engagement our losses were heavy.

Our Life at Denbury Farm Blog 30th July 2017
http://denburyfarm.co.uk/category/blog2/
After a night of heavy rain we woke to find a flock of fifteen Canadian Geese on the hill in the horse field. It could have been that they rested overnight in the field because of the heavy rain. When I first noticed them they were grazing but they didn’t stay long after we had seen them and flew off to the southwest.

Our Life at Denbury Farm Blog 29th July 2017
http://denburyfarm.co.uk/category/blog2/

We have three type of deer visit Denbury Farm. The Red and Roe Deer regularly come, in fact most days we see them in the valley and very often also at the Badger feeding area. Most nights this week I have seen a Red Deer hind eating the corn we put down. The Badgers take little notice of them, but the fox doesn’t usually stay around to long. Since the Red have been feeding we haven’t seen much of the Roe, only once this week.
This year we have seen more Red than we have for a few years. There are many herds on the Quantock Hills and Exmoor that are very close to the farm. Some of those who have been watching the webcams for many years may have remembered seeing a large herd rutting in the valley many Autumns ago.
The other deer we have visit is a Muntjac Deer. A  week ago I saw one in the valley, it would have been the first I had seen for many years. Before I realised it was a Muntjac I started to look for a Roe Deer hind believing it to be a fawn as it was so small, it was a fair way away from where I was working but I soon realised it was a Muntjac by it being a more reddish colour than a Roe. It hadn’t noticed me working on the webcam and stayed around grazing for a good ten minutes. We are very lucky having the wildlife we have at Denbury Farm.

Our life at Denbury Farm Blog 27th July 2017
http://denburyfarm.co.uk/category/blog2/

At our Granddaughter Lexi’s school every year at about March time they have a competition for the children to get the longest carrot and the heaviest potato. The two years ago she participated and Lexi had the heaviest potato. Unfortunately as usual for me I only glanced the letter from the school and instead of the carrot being the biggest it needed to be the longest. Lexi had the biggest but not the longest. This March gone her potato wasn’t very heavy and although we had a very long carrot, by the time that it was due to be taken into school it had gone rotten, and Lexi wouldn’t take it in. She didn’t do well and it was no help to hear Lexi’s teacher say that the parents at the school were very competitive. That was a challenge I couldn’t ignore.

Latish May we started to take up the challenge and purchased a few large growing seed potato’s called Kondor and a small packet of giant carrot seeds. We purchased a good few bags of the best bagged soil, various potato and carrot fertilisers and other items that I was told would help in our quest to grow some monster. LOL

Lexi helped to plant a few carrot seeds and after they had started to shoot we planted them in the containers as in the photo. To get longest giant carrots they need to be grown in a high tub in the hope they will grow long. The potato’s are easier to grow in a containers as you need to take reduce the amount that are growing under the soil to one potato per plant, then all of the goodness the potato’s are getting go into a single potato. Mrs Farmer did that yesterday. The photo is of just a third of what she harvested. We ate the rest last night, they were very tasty. The four potatoes plants were planted at the end of May from just four plants, so we go a lot of potatoes. She left a few of the largest to grow we hope into winners. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

Our Life at Denbury Farm Blog 26th July 2017
http://denburyfarm.co.uk/category/blog2/

I don’t reckon it will be long before the Fox Cubs will be leaving their parents and start looking for their own territory. Not many make it on their own, especially dog fox. Many will not survive to their first birthday and will die one way or the other before they are a year old. The Vixen fair a bit better, but many of those wont survive either. Many will be shot. A lot will be hunted and ripped apart by hunting dogs and a lot will just not manage on their own.
Obviously we see fox on the farm and around where we live, but other than at their breeding times in the spring and part of the summer, very often we won’t see a fox for weeks and we actively encourage and look for them. There are also no organised hunts in our area that are keeping the fox numbers down. I well believe there are more urban fox than those in the countryside.
We do at times loose a chicken or two, and have seen a fox take one. Last year a holiday guest saw out of their cottage window a fox kill a chicken. They ran outside to frighten it away, but were to late. The fox left the chicken. 
When those who support hunting preach that fox hunting controls vermin and keeps their number down to manageable numbers, they are preaching rubbish. Nature will control their numbers.  Some hunt employees have been caught keeping cubs and young fox to release just before a days hunting. Other have been caught digging fox out of their dens or send terriers down badger holes where a fox has gone into hide. They wouldn’t need to if there were that many around.

Denbury Farm Blog 23rd July 2017
http://denburyfarm.co.uk/category/blog2/

Another surprise this morning with the arrival of an other baby Llama (Cria). Really wasn’t expecting any more for another couple of months. We now have 10 Llama, a lot more that I wanted. It was good for our holiday guests as it had been born within an hour of them seeing it with its mother still cleaning it.

Denbury Farm Blog 22nd July 2017
http://denburyfarm.co.uk/category/blog2/

Just a quick update. We have taken Kez twice to be mated. Although Benson her boyfriend has been very keen, no mating had taken place, it was a bit too early. We sent blood away last Wednesday for progesterone test to see what part of her cycle she is in. The readings were low but we still took her to see Benson as Tass was riding her and we didn’t want to take a chance that we would miss any chance of a mating and getting Kez pregnant. Another blood test was taken yesterday (Friday) and the results were phoned to us today at 1.30.pm.It was good news, Kez is ready for mating today and tomorrow. Mad dash to finish cleaning the holiday cottages for our new guests that arrive a 4.pm so that we could get over to Benson as soon as possible. To Mrs Farmers surprise the roads were clear and being that the journey of about 10 miles is mostly on holiday routes it was a fast journey.
Initially Kez and Benson were pleased to see each other. Benson knew straight away his luck was in and straight away he tried to mount Kez. I don’t know what Kez was expecting, but for sure it was not what Benson was going to do and she wasn’t having none of it, pulling away and wanting to get back into the car as quick as possible. A big disappointment for Benson as it meant that Kez would have to artificial inseminated. The Ai was done and Kez will go back on Monday to be done again. Now it is a case of keeping our fingers crossed. Photos is Benson and Kez

Just had a lovely trip out on the milk float with Mr Farmer up to give emus their morning feed. Always thought emus were aggressive but although the give you the evil eye they were really well behaved. More interested in their breakfast. Learning for the day: emus have two feathers to one quill. Well I never knew that.

Denbury Farm Blog 17th July 2017 http://denburyfarm.co.uk/category/blog2/

We have just got back from the vets after taking Kez our German Shepherd for blood to be taken for a progesterone test to check the levels to see what part of her mating cycle she is in and when she is liable to ovulate, so we can have her mated. We tried to mate her in March but it was a bit hit and miss without a test, so this season we are not taking a chances. On saying that it could be we have missed it. If we haven’t the test will give us a good idea of when she ovulates and if we need to test again. The test are very accurate and the results we will know tomorrow. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

Tass our other bitch was from Pup another dog we had bred but she did not get pregnant. We subsequently found out that the dog we were using was not fertile. It was a shame for up to Tass she was the fourth generation, all have been great dogs, being very kind and loyal. Tass is now getting on for twelve, as she didn’t have puppies we had to purchase Kez. Kez is also a very kind and a loyal dog. Everyone who knows oue dogs believe she is related to Tass. She has taken our two new miniature Dachshunds puppies as her own as has Tass and the pair of them mothered the two puppies from them first being introduced.

The dog we hope to mate Kez with is Benson a white long haired German Shepherd. He has the same temperament as our German Shepherds. Very kind, loyal and no malice. If she has puppies we will keep one to carry on to after Kez. I will let you know the results of the test.

Denbury Farm Blog 17th July 2017 http://denburyfarm.co.uk/category/blog2/

Over the many years we have lived at Denbury Farm we have always had Buzzard nesting. Although we have looked high and low we have never found a nest. They build 2 or 3 nests and will use them in alternative years. Last year they were nesting very close to the farm house in the wood. We saw both the parents and their young hunting the valley. The fledgling very often on a post waiting for their feed. This year they are at the other end of the valley nesting deep in the woods at the top of a high tree. the parents can be seen using the thermals to soar high in the sky and hovering above seeking rabbits and vermin to feed themselves and their chicks.

Over he weekend friends visited to check out our wildlife. They often come and give us interesting sightings. On searching the wood they came across this years nesting site. The parents gave the location away for instead of trying to distract them in the wrong direction as they were very noisy trying to get the chicks to leave the nest. Yesterday afternoon we spent an hour to find the nest searching the area they had seen them. This time the adults were flying above calling out to distract us. It worked, after an hour we gave up and waited in the adjacent field in the hope they would go back to the nest. It didn’t happen. This evening we heard the chicks calling. Chances are they have not fledged.

The Badger feeding web cam has been very busy over the past few months. A Vixen with 3 cubs has been feeding there. They wait to pounce on the food as soon as it has been put down. The Badgers have been coming out to feed very late so to make sure they get some of the feed we have to put it out a lot later. We have only seen 6 Badgers this year although over the past few weeks its been only been 4.
Unfortunately there has been no cubs this year, it does happen some years and it could be with the visiting fox family they are living in a satellite sett to keep the cubs out of any danger of the fox family. Also visiting the feeding area is a big dog fox who tries to chase away every other animal feeding. The badgers usually manage to keep him under control. We have also had a lot of deer visiting the feed area this year, it has been since we started to put corn feed down. It has mostly been Red Deer, but now and then the Roe Deer come where it was always the Roe.

Our Second Blog http://denburyfarm.co.uk/category/blog2/
I am going to do an update for those people who have been watching the web cams for many year and remembers the Diary. Thornton as you can see by the photo is still going strong. He must now be getting on for ten years old as is his sister Truffle. All the sheep are partial to ginger nut biscuits that some of our holiday guests spoil them with. We still have Mr Turkey (Christmas that Mrs Farmer doesn’t like me calling him) Gilbert the Quinea Fowl Mr Turkey best friend. Mr Cochinton their friend died of old age last year and a very colourful cross breed cockerel Toddy now make up the gang of three inseparable bachelor boys. Our pair of Llama are now nine and we still have four horse Breeze, Sprite, Bliss and Suzzie. We have several exotic animals other than the Meerkats that now number 20 that over the weeks I will tell you about. So as you can see Denbury Farm hasn’t changed much other than an increase in numbers.

Some years ago we use to do a Denbury Farm Diary that we know gave a lot of enjoyment to a large  audience. We have decided that we are going to start a new Diary / Blog again on life on Denbury Farm, our farm animals and our other interesting animals we keep. Unlike most Blogs and Diaries you will be able to interact on the comment page that a lot of you have previously used that can be accessed below the live webcam for suggestions and your experiences to make it a great wildlife experience. Mrs Farmer has started an interest in photography and has been getting some excellent results as you may have seen on Facebook and Google Plus.  As previously you are welcome to send any of your photographs of wildlife or interesting photographs. Help to make it a great experience by letting others know of our blog

Awww that is great news Mr Farmer and Thornton is 10 wow remember him being born and you naming that Easter, whatever happened to Ewey now that was one wild sheep 🙂

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