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Rye Harbour Update apologies for the failure of the tern…

Rye Harbour Update: apologies for the failure of the tern and gull web cam, but I am still trying to determine the elusive fault. Anyway the weather has shown some improvement and some of the tern chicks have survived the attacks of the Kestrel and some of the failed terns and gulls have re-nested. So, if I can get the web cam up and running again there should be more close ups of these seabirds. Barry, Rye Harbour

We have spent a good amount of the day getting the Horses tidied for to get some photographs to put on Ownaleg.com website. I have decided to advertise four of the Race Horses in one of the racing newspapers on Saturday, for Syndication and Partnerships or for sale, to see what the response will be. I have managed to get the text for the web site finished. I will also need photographs of the Horses to show on the site. I have spent about four hours. Nearly until it was time to feed the Badgers, trying to get decent pictures with the right pose. I still haven’t got them and I will have to try again tomorrow. Trying to get any Horse to stand as you want for photographs is a challenge, but young stock is a nightmare. You don’t really want the Horses photographed on a lead rope, although I even tried that.

When we were first going to try to Syndicate some Horses I had an advertisement made. It was going to be shown on a Horse Racing television channel. When I negotiated the term the channel was freeview and had a large audience, with very little waning it went to a subscription channel. The audience sharply dropped, making the advertising not viable. I have a copy of the add on DVD and hope that it can be shown on the Ownaleg website.

The Swallows in the first nest that we have been showing looks like the nestling will fledge very soon. I saw five chicks in the nest yesterday. It is a bit crowded, but a least they look like they are going to make it. The nest at the top of the roof, in the barn had four chicks yesterday. I could be wrong, but I have only counted three this evening. One may be hiding itself behind another of the chicks. I got that wrong I have just seen five when I changed the camera over to IR mode. It is the first time that I have seen the five in the nest. They should be leaving the nest very soon, a little later than the other nest. It is still not to late for other Swallows to be nesting. I will look over the weekend. The way both of the camera are situated we should be able to see them in the barns when they return for a week or so after they have fledged.

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A couple of footnotes to previous Diary entries Last night…

A couple of footnotes to previous Diary entries. Last night when we were talking to the Fisherman, our relations went on in front and did not hear the stories, that he told about the landslides. I couldn’t resist telling them about what he had told us. No, no one of the relations told us, I wont sleep. I wonder if they did.

In the conversation with the Fisherman, he told us that a couple of weeks back he was going out Mackerel Fishing. They were sailing past Hurlestone Point near Porlock, which is at most two miles around the coast from Minehead, when one of his lads on board pointed out a Peregrine Falcon on a crag with three chicks. I have only seen one on the farm, that was about ten years back. Unfortunately it didn’t stay around or return. About forty years ago the Peregrine were in a steep decline because of pesticides being used on farms. The Birds that they caught in flight to eat, mainly Pigeons, had eaten from the fields that had been sprayed with the pesticide, the poisonous chemicals in the pesticides were causing their eggs shells to be very thin, and very few eggs were hatching. They are probably the most exciting Birds of Prey to watch when they are hunting, reaching speeds of of as much as 120 miles per hour.

The Magpie and it fledglings have been feeding in the Bird feeders recently. Including the Adults I have counted six. It is the first year that I have seen them on the feeders. When they are using the feeders at least they are not raiding other Birds nests of the eggs and nestlings. I reckon going by the Magpie verse, I should be in for some gold.

The Swallows do seem to have suddenly got big. With the weather as it is I am surprised that the five chicks are all still alive. The other nest has three chicks in it, they are also ding well. I will put a light in that barn tomorrow so that you are able to see the nest more clearer.

I hope some of you managed to see the Badgers playing last night. There were as many as seven at one time. They were really enjoying themselves, play fighting and running around jumping on and over each other. I will try to catch it on camera tonight.

We had the insurance assessor look at the damage that the flood had caused to the farm and cottages. The assessor has had to come to the farm on a couple of occasions, very recently when a contractor who cuts the hedges, reversed into a bridge on the drive, causing a lot of damage, and leaving it in a dangerous state. The Contractors insurance will pay for that damage. I was rather annoyed as I only found out about the damage a couple of weeks after it happened. It wasn’t very noticeable when you drove down the drive and the Contractors labourer, somehow forgot to tell me about it. I came across the damage when I walked around the lake and decide to make my way back to the farm along the drive. The Assessor knowing the farm was surprised at what damage had been caused by the flood. He was very understanding and fair. Now we can get on with the work. But it is going to be costly for our Insurance Company.

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Rye Harbour update It is not good news about the…

Rye Harbour update –
It is not good news about the nesting seabirds. The continuing wet, cold and windy weather has taken a great toll on the small fluffy chicks of the terns and the gulls. Feeding has been difficult with stormy seas, so the chicks get hungry and weak and don’t hide when danger threatens. The adults spend more time away feeding, so cannot collectively repel threats, which come in the form of Herring Gulls and Kestrel. Today I was watching the last of 2 chicks close to the camera, next to the base of the wooden post… the adult flew up and the chick stayed in the open, then down came 2 bright yellow legs and took the tiny chick away.. almost certainly a tasty snack for a hungry Kestrel, probably with it’s own hungry chicks to feed.
We are all looking forward to some proper summer weather…
Barry. Rye Harbour.

Two of the Moorhens must of nested again, it doesn’t seem that a lot have survived, as I have only seen one chick with each adult. Only one survived out of the first clutch, it was following one of the new chicks, I should think that the Adult of the new Chick, was the larger ones parent. I was surprised that only one had survived, as the last time that I saw them, some weeks back there were six that were quite large. There were also ten or more Ducklings on the lake yesterday, they haven’t been about today, I reckon that they may be on the pond. They had survived since the day of the flood, so I cant imagine that none would have survived in the past twenty four hours. I am sure that we poison most of the Rats at the far end of the lake, but I had to move the cage to try to get rid of the ones near where I feed the Badgers. As I hadn’t seen any for a while I moved the cage back to the lake area, under the Bird feeders, where I see the Rats now and then.

I haven’t seen the Heron on the lake for a day or two. I am hoping it is because he cant see any fish with the lake being the colour it is. I don’t know how long the lake will stay the orange colour that it is. The colour can only have been caused by the soil that it a reddish colour mixing with the flood water. But I would have expected it to have settled by now. The state of the water does not seem to have hurt the fish, although the flood could well have washed away the fish eggs or fry. When I walked around the lake today I was unable to into the water to see if there were any fry.

I don’t know how long the rabbit who is running in and out of the area that the Badgers are feeding in, is going to survive. It must have a death wish with the chances that it is taking. Rabbits make a good meal for both Badgers and Foxes.

The Bird on the SWT cam 2 is a Grebe.

Happy Birthday Val, but I would want to be wringing Alex’s neck if I were you., broadcasting your age.

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Rye Harbour seabirds update the general survival of the chicks…

Rye Harbour seabirds update – the general survival of the chicks has been good, but the main Black-headed Gull on the webcam has lost a couple of chicks, but that means more for the survivor. The Gull feeds by regurgitating food (insects, worms or fish… and sometimes chips!) whereas the Terns bring in a single whole fish and it’s first come first served, so there is often much begging, even before the parent Tern lands. The Tern chicks have white bellies, but the Gull chicks are shades of brown all over. Barry, Rye Harbour.

Rye Harbour is making the News on the BBC website in Sussex. Congratulation to them all for all the hard work. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/6227956.stm

Letting Breeze run with the rest of the Horses today didn’t work. We left the Electric fenced off area, open so that she would find her own way out, hopefully in a calm way. At first it was, we initially believed that what had worked last year was going to happen this time. She had a little buck and calmly walked towards Woody who was laying down, When Woody got up Breeze decided that she was going to show who was the boss. Woody started to walk towards the other horses, that had congregated at the field gate, to get out of the way of Breeze. Breeze didn’t want her near them and put herself between Woody and the other Horses. As she got near Misty, she kicked her, luckily it on just caught her lightly, and no damage was done. By this time Woody had walked away to the far end of the field and laid down. Breeze went partly towards her and then galloped back to the gate area at full speed, having to dig her hind legs into the ground to stop herself from hitting the gate. Bliss was the nearest to her when she stopped and was lunged at and bitten on her side.

Breeze had to be got out of the field before she hurt one of the other Horses. That was not as easy as it sounds. Breeze had no intention of being caught, it was decided to let Arnie , Lady and Willow out as if it was feeding time. Breeze fell for that and followed them in. I really cant make it out why she is acting as she is. It is her herd, but there is not any threat to her. It could be that she see Woody as a threat because she is so close to Lady. We will see what happens when Woody is not in the field. Breeze is now back behind the Electric fence off area, and will have to stay there until the hay has been made and Woody, Bliss and Willow can be in a field on their own.

At feeding time Woody was at the far end of the field laying down. Normally she would be at the gate waiting to come in, or if she was laying down, calling her would get her up and to the gate. Tonight I had to go a fetch her, when I got up to her she was flat out, it needed a great effort for her to get up. When it was time to put the Horses back in the field, she was again flat out in the stable and had not eaten her feed. We have given her pain killers and she will be stabled overnight.

I have been checking for the Rats. Touch wood I have not seen ay feeding on the ground tonight. I had not watched the Bird feeders so I am unsure if any are feeding on them. I have seen the Voles darting about. I dont really want to kill them so I may move the cage with the poison in tomorrow,

The SWT webcams are down tonight. I know that they would not want the web cams to be off and I would think that it the cause is something out of their control.

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At Rye Harbour last night we had a big thunderstorm…

At Rye Harbour last night we had a big thunderstorm and lots of rain… and power cuts, so that explains why our webcams went black for a while. I was concerned that the Common Tern chicks might have suffered, but they all look OK this morning. There are 3 types of food being brought in, long silver sand eels, other shorter silver fish and brown shrimps, but the sand eels are the best food for growing chicks. The older chicks are now moving around quite a bit, but they quickly recognise their parents bringing back food and beg to get noticed! Barry. Rye Harbour.

I have moved the camera from the Swallows nest that the fledgling have just left. The fledglings are returning to the barn of a night. The three of them a doing well, unfortunately they are not going into the nest. It would have been nice to have seen them, but the camera would be better used on another nest. The camera is now looking at the first nest that I tried to show, that was built onto the electrical junction box. There are five eggs in the nest. Two of them have been there for some time and I should think that they are not fertile. Three other eggs have been laid recently, but I am not over confident that they are fertile either. The adults are returning to the nest and sitting on the eggs, so there must be a chance that they will hatch. I will leave the camera in the place it is for a week, whilst the adults are returning, unless I find another nest, then I will change it over.

The Jay is a colourful Bird, we do get them on the farm on the feeders, about this time of the year for maybe a couple of months, but rarely other than that. They are from the same family as the Magpie. As the Magpie they raid other Birds nests for both the nestlings and eggs. Where the Magpie rarely feeds from the Bird feeders, the Jays always do. As colourful as they are I would prefer that they went else where.

Willow does look good on camera, but she is loosing her baby coat, and looks very moth eaten. If you saw her you would think that she had been bitten, or that she was not being looked after. When we put her into the field after being in for her feed, Bliss and Misty wait most time for her at the gate, all three walking off together, Willow not concerned that Lady is not with her. We have started to put two bowls of feed in the stable, as yesterday I noticed that Lady was pushing Willow away a little.

We are going to try to let Breeze run with the rest of the Horses tomorrow. She has been penned off on her own for nearly two weeks. We don’t like doing it to her. Being the leader of the Herd, she tries to boss Lady about. When we first let Lady and Willow in with Breeze, when they came back from the stud, we had a bit of a kicking session and it could have become dangerous for Willow. Hopefully with them all of them being in the same field together, with Breeze on her own in an electric fenced off area she will get use to them. She did last year. After a bit of galloping about they settled and there was no more problems.

After speaking to the Butterfly Farm the camera started going. They are waiting for a new Queen for the Leaf Cutter Ants, so you may only see the odd one on the rope until it arrives.

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I really don t know what has happened to the…

I really don’t know what has happened to the Swallow chicks. There were three alive last night. This morning I thought that there were three, but had not seen three feed. I went and checked the nest, some of you saw my hand. There were three, but one had died. I later checked again and there was only one beak opening for food. I changed the camera over, and felt into the nest, and found another had died. Rats would not be able to get to the chicks where the nest is. It maybe that the adults have fed the chicks with some thing that killed them. I really don’t know. It could also be that they have not been getting all the feed that they needed, and after the whole day and night that they went without last Sunday caught up with them. We will never know.

It is a full Moon tonight, as last night. I had intended to put the Telescope cameras on and to track it. I did not bother to see what time it would have been visible. It actually showed above the horizon at just past 11.pm. To late for me to have left it running, as I had not tested the Telescope to make sure that it would have tracked the Moon without wandering. It is cloudy here at the moment, so unfortunately I will not be able to do anything with it tonight.

I know some of you saw the Foxes this morning feeding by the Bird feeders. When I fill the feeders in the morning, I always throw a couple of hand fulls of sunflower hearts onto the path, so that you can see the Pheasants and other wildlife, in the background of the Bird feeders. Just recently the foxes have been eating the feed. It has annoyed the Magpies, for they are pecking the Foxes brush. It wasn’t pleasing the Foxes to much either, as in between feeding they were turning to chase the Magpies away. The Magpies don’t seem to have any fear of the Foxes or Badgers.

When I go to feed the Badgers of a night, there are always a lot of Rabbit feeding along the path on the way. The older ones amble back to there burrow, the younger ones just carry on feeding as if I were not there. I have never tried it, but I am sure that could pick one up. When we walk with the dogs along the path the younger rabbit dont run off, they just move over as if letting the dogs pass. That probally why the Buzzard find it a good spot to hunt. Although it hasnt been about this week.

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The Lock of the Lowe s Osprey Diary reported that…

The Lock of the Lowe’s Osprey Diary reported that the last born chick had died last night. For a few days, a number of those using our Forum, could see that it was struggling to get the food that it needed. The Manager of the Centre told me that nearly every year, all the chicks have fledged. Yesterday was a very wet and cold day at the Lock, the female had a choice of feeding the chick or letting it get cold and wet. What ever she chose the Chick was likely to die.

When I checked on the Locks camera two this morning, there was a view of the Lock. I thought that the new cameras had been installed. The camera that was looking at at the tree, that the Osprey nest is in, had been moved to show the lock. The camera has quite a wide angle, so you can see how close the Lock is to the centres building. The camera when showing the Lock, is showing the place where the Osprey has been seen to fish. When the new PTZ camera does get working there should be some spectacular viewing.

One of the baby Swallows was not in the nest when I turned the camera on this morning. They seemed very restless last night. It seems that the nest was to small to hold the five chicks, and one must have fell out in the night. I did spend some time looking around the barn to find it. The other nest I have a camera looking at, is a bit of a mystery. When I found that the nest was being used, I thought that I had counted two eggs. On checking it again today, there were two eggs. I have seen the Swallows visiting the nest from time to time, and even one sitting on the nest, but for not a long, as maybe they should. Alex’s Chloe, reckons that the chicks look funny. They remind me of the American Boxing Promoter Don King. Any other people that they or any of the other animals remind you of? Be careful I wont put up any thing to derogatory.

Quite a number of Bats were flying around the lake last night. When I put the new IR lamp up, I had not expected to see such a display of Bats, as I did last night. You can see them flying around the fields on the valley camera, but not to the extent, and as close as last night on the lake. We have Bats in our loft and in the barns that have not been converted, although when I look for them in our loft, I can never find them. We know we have them, as the fly out from different places of the roof space. When it gets dark, if we look into the roof space with a torch, there are always Bats flying about.

The Telescope is nearly ready to start again, I didn’t try to finish getting it completely ready, as the forecast was against clear skies tonight. Wrong again Mr.Met Man. To be able to set the Telescope up, I need a align it to two stars, when that is done it will follow what ever it is being tracked, more accurately. There is a piece of equipment called a SkyScout. I need one. It is very clever. All that you need to do is to point it to a Star and it tells you the name of that Star. The stockist in the UK, have not had them delivered as yet. They are manufactured in the USA. There suppliers are not allowed by the manufacturer to send them outside of the Country, or they will lose their franchise. However they are able to be paid for outside the USA, as long as they are posted to a USA address. They can then be sent to the UK. Is there anyone in the USA able to help. I have found a supplier who will take payment with my credit card and I will of course send the postage. If so please email me at info@denburyfarm.co.uk.

What a lovely surprise we had in the post today, addressed to Mr & Mrs. Farmer. A very pretty Thank you Card. I hope you don’t mind me mentioning your name, but it was very kind of you Alex. The card was what you would call a pop-up card, depicting a Blue Tits nest with chicks and a Blue Tit with springy wing flying to the nest. Very appropriate. And again thank you.

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If the rain had not stopped in the night the…

If the rain had not stopped in the night, the outcome of the Swallow Chicks could well have been a little different. The adults Swallows have been working hard feeding the chicks all day. Late this afternoon we started to get some quite heavy showers. I can still see that the chicks are being fed even through the showers, Whilst I was fitting the new IR lamp by the lake I could see the Swallows skimming the lake to catch the flies. The showers have stopped me from finishing installing the new lamp. If the sky clears I will try to finish it tonight, but as I am writing it is getting blacker all the time, with again heavy showers. The weatherman has got it wrong again. I do not think that the Swallows will be out looking for food if it carries on as it is. I will have to remember to turn the light off in the barn where the nest is. With the light out, the chicks very quickly settled down.

I must admit I was also a little concerned about the little Badger Cub last night. It was getting very wet, it was also quite cold last night. Just the reciepe for hypothermia in a young animal. There must have been three Badger Sows that had Cubs this year. The cub out last nighr was to small to have been out of the same litter as the others. It will be interesting to see if it has a sibling.

It is no good me complaining about the rain, I was praying for it a few weeks back. I didn’t think that prayed that hard though. But it has made the grass grow. If we get a five or six day period of hot sunshine, I will take a flyer and try to make the hay early, as we have so much grass. We don’t usually make the hay until the end of June, when the seed is about to drop. You people who get hay fever will know the time. There is more feed value when you make the hay with the seed still on the grass.

Web cams for sure really do bring home the reality of the hard times that wildlife has to endure, to keep their off springs alive. They give us the opportunity to experience every minute of wildlife’s ups and downs in real-time as it happens. Until I installed the web cams, I would never have had thought twice about what would have happened to the Swallow or Blue Tit nests. I would never have known what a close knit family the Badgers were, or even how the Osprey Chicks could have been harmed by the Eel that their parent had took to the nest for their feed.

Soon we will get broadband speeds that they do in many other countries. It will allow us to broadcast so much better, that when you use the full screen or use your computer through your television, the quality of the pictures will be as good as what you get on your television. It wont be to long.

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The Veterinary did not get together today to discuss Woody…

The Veterinary did not get together today to discuss Woody. They have assured me that they will tomorrow. My understanding from the veterinary was that melanomas can also be inside Horses, that is why it would be a problem for Woody if she does have them.

I was fortunate to catch on the Moorhen with her chicks on camera this afternoon. They were feeding under the Bird feeders, by the lake. It must have been a couple of weeks ago that I first saw them, I had disturbed them as I was walking around the lake, they were swimming in between the reeds and broke cover as they tried to get as far away as they could, from me, after I had disturbed them. On my first sighting of the Moorhen with her chicks, there were six babies, and she has managed to keep all six alive, going by what I saw today.

The Moorhens and Coots are more successful than the Ducks and Geese in keeping their chicks from danger. Most years there are at least some of the chicks alive. The Moorhen and Coots seem to be able to lose themselves on the lake and race with their feet hardly touching the water to hide themselves in the reeds if they believe they are in danger.

I hope some of you saw Tass, Ky and Jade on their walk today. When it rains we try to keep the dogs in more than out, or the kitchen floor becomes dirty every time they go out. When that happens they always go for a walk down the valley or around the lake. Walking on the grass in these places stops them bringing mud in doors.

Ky is such a happy dog and is always playing with Tass, she also loves water. On a walk around the lake last week she walked into the lake, as it got deeper she suddenly realised that she could swim, and swam for quite a long time. When she came out she was looking very pleased with herself, and suddenly she turned around, took off, plunging herself back into the lake, with a belly flop. Now every time she has a walk around the lake, Ky goes for a swim. The good thing about the walks and swimming is that after her evening feed she crashes out for the night. The owner of Darcy, the white dog in Tass’s litter, phoned last night, with an update on him. Darcy also likes water and does the same as Ky. Darcy’s owner is the only person who had the puppies, who has kept in touch. If any other of you read this, let us know on the forum, how they are getting on.

I did not get the wire to set up the Swallow camera until late this afternoon, so it will not be going today, as long as nothing get in the way I will set it up tomorrow.

Whilst looking for an wild Owl site today, that may breed this year, I made contact with a very well known organisation, who are very keen to work with us, as I can assure you, I would be with them. A wildlife person from the organisation is going to come to the farm to discuss different sites for web cams, that they have. When I let you know who they are, you will be as surprised as I was. You shall have to be patient, but I will keep you up to date.

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First the bad news The Blackbird chicks got out of…

First the bad news. The Blackbird chicks got out of the box that their nest was in, earlier today, we managed to find one of them, no sooner than we put it back into the nest it got out. This time we were unable to find it. The chicks were to young to have fledged, and we can only assume the worse. Up date. On looking around the barn with the camera we found one of the chicks. The adults are feeding it, it just flew off. Looking out of our window that overlooks the Farm Yard I can see it sitting on a gate post. So maybe not to young to fledged.

At last Lady has Foaled. Our alarm cock went off at about 2.15pm, I could see that she was in a little discomfort and went straight to Lady’s stable. It was obvious that she was about to foal. Feeling inside her I could initially only feel one leg. After more feeling about, I found the other leg, a little bit back, but it was easy to bring forward. It did not take very long for the legs and head to show. I am all for natural births, but I am not prepared not to help. Most times when I see the head and front legs of the foal I will put a rope on both feet, when the Mare pushes we will pull. We did last night with Lady, she gave birth with our help within ten minutes of us helping her. At one time I did think that we would need help to pull the foal off. I could tell by the size of the foals head and legs that it was going to be a big foal, and expected a Colt foal.

At 2.35am Lady gave birth to a Filly foal. As you can see the Filly is big, those extra three weeks in the womb didn’t do any harm. Lady was quickly to her feet and encouraging the Foal to get up on its legs. We could see that the Foal would not take long to be on her legs and taking her first feed of colostrum. Very often we will stay with the Mare and Foal until the Foal is suckling. It was not going to be necessary at this birth. We returned to bed, checking Lady and the Foal on the Monitor in our bedroom every hour.

If the weather is good tomorrow we shall let Lady and the Filly out into the field. There is nothing better than spring grass to produce milk in nursing Horses, helping the Foal to grow strong.

I did check Lady a couple of hours before she foaled. There where no signs that she would have had the Foal in two hours time. By reading the forum it seems that only the Ladies in the USA saw the birth. I am sorry that all you very patient people, watching for the past weeks missed the birth. But after seeing the Filly I am sure that you are not to disappointed, and thank you all for you good wished that you have put on the forum.

We shall now be thinking about a stable name for the Filly. There are a few obvious ones, I am sure that you have some that you can suggest. We wont promise to use any of the suggestions, but it will be good fun.

Breeze and Arnie were a let down when we tuned them out this afternoon. It didn’t happen as it normally does, but I promise it will be better when we turn Bliss and Misty out with Breeze and Arnie. I was asked do we leave them out for the summer. If the weather is good we try to, bringing them in if it is too hot or prolonged rain.