Tag: gander

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The new webcam is of a Robins nest with five…

The new webcam is of a Robins nest with five eggs in it. The Robin started to sit the eggs today. The nest has been built in a new kitchen cabinet carcass that has been in the building for three years. We have never got round to finish converting to a cottage, so I reckon the Robin thought that there was a good chance that she would not be disturbed. The is not the best image we have shown but unfortunately the Robin decided to nest in between two shelves that are not six inches apart and the space is quite dark, so I have needed to use a very small spy type camera. We have shown a Robin nest before, about two years ago. The Bird had nested deep into a stack of hay bales but some how near to hatching a Magpie raided the nest. You can never be sure but this nest seems a lot safer in the place it has been built.

The Swans and Canadian Gander are just about putting up with each other. One day the Gander will be intimidating the three Swans, the next day it is the other way round. You would think with the difference in sizes and that there are three Swans that the Swans would have the upper hand but the Gander wont let them take liberties. I should think that when the Goslings hatch there could well be some fireworks. I am a little concerned about the times the Goose leaves the nest. I cant remember the eggs being left for so long in previous years and it is still quite cold.

We still only have two Emu Chicks. There are still 40 to 50 eggs in the incubator so we may be lucky and get some more. We did let people have about a 100 eggs from us and there has been up to a 75% hatch rate so there is nothing wrong with the egg fertility. It doesn’t look to promising with the Emu who are sitting eggs in the Emu Field, I think most have gone well over their time. Our Rhea are now laying regularly so we will start to incubate some of their eggs once we have enough to incubate.

The Sheep that we were unable to catch a the end of last year have been causing themselves a nuisance with our neighbours so we had to get Alex our Sheep Shearer with his Dog Meg to get them in for us. Trouble was they had to go into the Field that Edwin now lives. Meg was very wary to go into the Field, and Alex having never seen an Emu before wasn’t even with my assurance as to his safety to keen. Well I have not laughed so much in a long time for Edwin decided that at full speed and Emu really can motor along he was going to chase Meg. Alex must have thought I have not told the truth about his safety for he was continually looking over his shoulder in concern. They were both well pleased to be out of the Field. The Sheep with Ewys help were not to easy to round up and we only managed to get five of the nine into the Barn, Ewy taking herself and three other Ewes in a different direction. Alex was meant to return but we haven’t seen him. It could well be that he is concerned for his safety. The way Edwin played up I cant blame him. I hope Alex didn’t hear me laugh.

You have probably notice that the Rats at the Badger feeding places have gone. Cant say that I miss them. Those on the main Badger feeding area must have died through the cold in the Winter. I managed to get rid of those in the lower area.

In about another two weeks time the 1st of May the Horses go out for the Summer. It has been a hard Winter at Denbury. A lot colder and wetter than I can remember before. Having the Emu, Rhea and Swans increased our workload that made it difficult to do a regular Diary. Once the Horses go out there will be less work to do and I will do a Diary more often.

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Starting from number one there are five new photographs on…

Starting from number one there are five new photographs on the Photo Page.

Need more photographs and please keep watching the adds.

Black squirrel with strange orange/pinky colouring. A black squirrel is part of the grey squirrel family. – Rosie’s Mum in Toronto
Rosalee resting – Rosie’s Mum

The ravine at the side of our apartment building. You can just see part of the building on the skyline in the middle of the photo. Sometimes it doesn’t seem like we live in a large city but then you go to the front of the building and you realize you are in a large multicultural city. Rosie’s Mum

Flowers in the gardens – Rosie’s Mum

Another chipmunk. – Rosie’s Mum

We never saw them leave but we heard the honking of the Geese fade in the distance as they left the Lake this afternoon. They may return before it gets dark, but it is the first time for a long while that the Geese have honked.

It has been a lot of worry making sure that the Geese were safe from the day the Goslings hatched. But I must admit going to the Lake and the Geese not being there is going to be strange. The electric fence worked and kept the predators away. We were never sure what had taken the Geese in previous year but it was very sad seeing them disappear day by day. Twice when the Ganders were taken it was very sad. It would have been easy for them to fly away when his family were threatened, but they stand there ground when the only outcome was them dying. There was no way that I was going to let it happen this year. Without exception every night around midnight I went to the Lake to check that the electric fencer was working.

I was never sure what had taken the Geese in previous years, but I am sure the splash I heard the other night was an Otter jumping into the Stream when I disturbed it. I know that the Gander that was taken last year was a Fox by from where it had attacked and taken the dead Gander.

I am told that the Geese that hatched on the Lake should return. We will never know but it is a nice thought.

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A beautiful little white duck which someone had dumped in…

A beautiful little white duck which someone had dumped in the ford at Rufford Country park.The other ducks used to bully her so she just stayed in the ford. How can people do that??

This is heather, from a distance I thought it was an Azalea. You can just see the back end of Max sniffing around. Elsie.

Fuschias. Lindsay.

A Racoon came out at dusk this week- I had left some ‘Weetabix’ on the fence and it loved it- scooped it up with its ‘hands’ Anjela, Connecticut.

Photo I took at the airport last week. The field in the foreground had dozens of rabbits leaping around – as though they were welcoming the day!! I tried to photograph them but they could only be seen in highly pixelated magnifications! Julia.

The Gander was missing this morning. Some thing happened in the night at about 3.25am. I had the cameras recording during the night to try to find out what may have taken the Gosling the night before. For some reason the Geese did not return to the Island last night as they had since the Goslings had hatched. It could have been that what did take the Gosling, had taken it from the Island. It is only a guess but something had stopped them returning to the island.

Going by the recording at 3.25pm a Fox stopped by the spot on the bank near to the camera. He had a drink and went out of view of the camera. The Geese had been resting at the spot until about half an hour before the Fox arrived. The other lake camera I had left so that the whole of the Lake was in view, but very little of either side of the banks of the Lake. A little while after the Fox had gone from view of the other camera, the Goose returned to the Lake from the stream side of the Lake. The Gander was not seen on the recording from then on.

I walked around the Lake at about 7.30pm, other than a couple of feathers near where the Fox had drank there was no sign of the Gander. The couple of feathers would have not been caused by a Fox attack, and there was no other evidence that a Foxed had taken the Gander. I thought, I think that I probably hoped that the Gander had flown off and would return later in the day.

Later I got one of my Lads to walk around the Lake in case I had missed anything. Unfortunately I had, for in the bushes in an area that the Geese would not have gone, he found the remains of the Gander. With the Goose with her Goslings going onto the Lake on the right hand side at the time that the Gander would have been taken, I cant imagine why he would have been on the opposite bank in the bushes that he was found in. I can only imagine that Gander had faced up to the Fox instead of getting back into the Lake, and that the Fox had chased him to where he was killed. The way that the Gander would guard the Goose and Goslings, he seemed a bit cleverer that previous Ganders

I was going to try to get the Geese to return to the island before I went to bed, but if they had made up their mind to stay on the bank they would only had returned when I left. I don’t hold out a lot of hope that the three gosling will survive more than a day or so, the Goose may also be taken. I will put up an electric fence from the direction that the Fox came from, and try to get the Goose with the Goslings to return to the island, but I am sure that I will be wasting my time.

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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. Getting low on photographs again.

Another picture of my new visitor to my garden. Bec.

Wild Mute Swans over wintering near Glastonbury. Lindsay.

Fred about to chase the Sparrows from my bird feeders up the garden. Karen.

THE OLDER TWO FELL DOWN OUT OF A NEST ONTO SOMEONES GARAGE ROOF THEY WERE VERY COLD AND SKINNY SO I THINK THEY WERE PROBABLY TRYING TO FIND MUM WHO WAS MISSING.THEY ARE JUST ABOUT EATING ON THEIR OWN BUT ARE STILL NEEDING MILK. Lynne.

The Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth, well worth a visit. CH.

Some of you managed to see the camera going on Donald the remote controlled Duck. The picture was not as good as we had got in the Farm House, when we tried it before putting it on the Lake, then it was very good. We had to get a very small wireless camera so that it could be fitted into the Ducks head. The only place where we could get one was from China. I will try later in the week to get the picture better. It could well be with messing about with it we could get it a lot better. It will then be worth showing it on the web site. When we were trying it one of the Dogs decided she would have a swim. The Gander wasn’t best pleased, it was only by making sure that she came out of the water, that she was not attacked buy the Gander. The Gander was then watching every thing, including Donald. I ordered a decoy Goose in the week to make that remote controlled. Being a lot bigger we, or Jack and his friend, I should say will be able to use better equipment to make it.

With it being cold for the past few weeks the grass is well behind growing to what it is in other years. We always try to let the Horses out in to the main Horse field by the 1st of May. The way it is looking we wont be doing that this year. Fortunately we have ample hay to feed them, but it does mean that we will have to mucking out the stables for longer. This afternoon it did get quite warm. We have got to hope it carries on so that the ground warms up, then the grass will grow.

We are very lucky at Denbury. We don’t need to use fertiliser to get a good crop of hay. Mind you the price of fertiliser has rocketed up in price. As fertilizer is used on many crops it will mean food will be even more expensive than it has been getting over the past few months. I don’t no where they get these inflation figures from. Our Horse feed has gone up over 15% with price rises that there have been in cereals. You must have noticed it in the price that your bread has gone up. The cheep bread that we use for the Badgers has gone up 30%.

Thornton went down well with our friends over the past couple of days. No one who sees him can believe how tame he is. Our Holiday Guests last week loved seeing him. He is acting more like a Dog each day. Earlier today he was seen playing with a ball with his front feet, and he seems to be getting a little more playful with Tass and Kye. When we call him most of the time he come straight back to us as do Tass and Kye.

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We don t get a lot of time for holidays…

We don’t get a lot of time for holidays, in fact we have not had one for so many years, I cant truly remember the last one. We did manage to be away from the farm for twenty four hours last summer, when we went to the East End of London. If it had not been a very special friends retirement bash, we would not have had that time off. The lady is a very special person who has forgotten more about horses than I know. When ever I needed advice or help, she was the one I went to. She got an MBE for her work for RDA. She is responsible for the Docklands Equestrian Centre, that she worked tirelessly to achieve. It is a magnificent centre, probably the best in the country.

Today we had another two hours away from the farm. We went to the seaside, that is only a twenty minute drive away, and we had fish and chips on the beach. In the summer we try to do it once a week. We call it our holiday and believe me it is a break. With Lady due to foal we cant stay away from the farm for long. Two hours for really to long.

I have been making the new Badger Hide, the last one blew away in the gales last year. We made a temporary one for our holiday guest over Easter. If we had another gale that would have flown away to. This one is a bit more substantial and will be anchored into the ground. I am a little concerned if the Badgers will take to it, with the Cubs due out soon. We have guest due in a weeks time. The Badgers need to be use to the new hide by then. I will get the frame up tomorrow and see what they think of it.

Coming back from feeding the badgers for the past two evenings, I have seen one of the Geese flying back to the lake, I could hear him calling as he flew along the valley towards the lake. I take it, it was the Gander. I hope that he is not playing away, as the Goose has been incubating her eggs on the island. I have not heard the other pair of Geese for a couple of days, I should think they are looking for another nesting site. That is why the Gander feels safe to be away. I would guess that the eggs will hatch in about twenty six days. I will have to think of a way to stop the Gosling from being taken by their predators, but I don’t hold out much hope for them.