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webcams

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number one. We don’t have a lot more photographs to put on the Photo Page.

Dear Mr Farmer, this was sent to me from my Auntie I don’t know whether there is any way of putting it on the photo page. Alex.

Good grief, what is that line made of?
You won’t believe this!
Thought you might enjoy this.
Ever worry about squirrels getting into your bird feeder? Well, look at this.

Dear Mr. Farmer, Just in case anyone had thought of a visit to the Isles of Scilly, but not actually gone…..here are a couple of photos! These were scanned in, so not brilliant quality!
Regards. Julia.

I was tempted to put Alex’s Bear photographs one a time over the next four day. But it could have spoilt the effect.

The Portland Ram Died today. He found it hard to get up this morning, and It was only me helping him that he got up at all. He was a good age and had lost most of his teeth that caused him not to be eating that well. Once we had got him up this morning I put him out on the grass behind the Sheep pen. He had a few nibbles of the grass and laid down. When I went to check on him an hour later he had died.

There were five Geese on the Lake this morning. Two pairs and a single. One of the pairs flew off. The other three stayed for most of the morning before flying off. I should think that they will return over the next couple of days, if not tomorrow. If they don’t come back in the morning I will get a ramp put up o the island. When the Gosling hatch they are unable to get back on the island as the banks go straight down. A ramp will make it possible to get back on the island of a night time if they want. I don’t really know if they will use it, but will be worth a try. I will have to get on with the remote controlled Duck. I haven’t managed to get time to finish it. I must try to find the time.

We relay the webcams live to our Holiday Cottages. Our Holiday Guest whilst watching the webcams saw a Kingfisher fly in front of the Bird Feeders that are normally on cam two. Has any one else seen them. if you do please let us know. We started putting in new wiring today, to be able to show the the Sheep on the webcams when we have Holiday guests. When the Sheep are out of the pen we will be able to put another webcam on the lake. One new camera that we have I will put on the Bird feeders. The PTZ camera I will try to program it so that it will patrol every ten to fifteen minutes on to the area where the Kingfisher goes.

The equipment for the Griffen Vulture nest webcam arrived in Spain yesterday. As long as Simon does not get any major problems he will start installing it over the next week. it is not in a very good location, needing Simon to do a bit of dangerous climbing.

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webcams

We do need a stable name for Lady s Filly…

We do need a stable name for Lady’s Filly Foal. As I have said before Thoroughbred Horses are not given names by the breeder, if it is the intention to sell it for racing, the racing owner should name it. We did consider the names that were suggested on the forum. Some we did not like and the ones that we did were more the sort of name that we may have chosen if we were going to race the Horse. We have thought of a few that we like, but we really cannot make up our mind what to name her, see what you think and let us know from these, unless you have any other suggestion for us. Pepper, Spice, Whisper, Whizz, Fizz, Ceder, Willow, Sky and Twist.

Talking about names, when I have written about the Deer on the farm, I have named the sex, as maybe Stags or Doe etc, But certain breeds of Deer do have different names that go back over the centuries. The Red Deer Male is a Stag, the females are Hind and the young are Calf. Roe and Muntjac Deer adults are both called Bucks for the Males, Does for the Females. The Roes young are Kids and the Muntjac is a Fawn. Fallow Deer that are not found in the West Country, are named the same as the Muntjac. Even though I know the names, I do at times get it wrong. Although you know what I mean if I do.

I don’t know if it is good or bad news. Coming back this evening from supper in Minehead, as we came along the drive, we saw one of the Geese on the island, the other one was swimming around it. I will start to put the bait down for the rats, I believe they are the main problem. In the area that the Geese use to lay out on, and graze, I will put in fencing posts about five feet out of the ground. I will then string in between them, so that if any Rooks or Carrion Crows come down they will touch the string, that will make them fly off. Also I can use the posts to electric fence the area to stop the Fox and Badger. I will also put a ramp from the water onto the island. After all that, I bet they don’t nest, and if they do the Otter or Mink will get the Goslings.

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webcams

The Barn Owl Trust camera will not be working for…

The Barn Owl Trust camera will not be working for two day, whilst alterations are being made to the barn.

You may have seen Woody on camera today, you would never have guessed that two days ago she looked at deaths door. There was no point in having the Veterinary look at her as she was today, he would not have found anything wrong with her.

I have been trying to get the ducklings on camera today, there are still ten swimming about. The excitement on the lake today has been with the Canada Geese. There are still two pair trying to gain the territory and the island. One pair had taken residence on the island, the other pair will not accept it, and have been trying to chase them off. The Goose who is trying to take over, challenges the other Goose by swimming close to the island and even chasing it off across the island. and is seen off. Neither will give up trying. I should think that is why the duckling are not about, they must be keeping out of harms way. I hope you have seen it on camera. Every now and then when it is warm, you can see the fish in the lake. there are some weighing 12lb and maybe more.

We have seen a Pied Wagtail and one of the Tit family, start nesting, both in awkward places around the holiday cottages. The Pied Wagtail has chosen the cooker hood extractor fan hole to nest, the fan will not be able to be used until the fledglings have fully fledged, or they will find it a little drafty. The Tit is nesting in a hole in a timber lintel, that a few years back we found a wasp nest in. I will try to show them on camera.

When we converted a barn some years back, we had a Swallows nesting in the kitchen ceiling timbers, before we had plaster boarded and plastered it. Holiday guests were due, it did not look as though the fledglings were going to leave the nest before they arrived. There was no way they would have accepted sharing the cottage with the Swallows, especially as the cottage door would have to be left open. Luckily they fledged the day before, we quickly finished the cottage by boarding the ceiling and painting the board, we did not have time for the plastering. The guests never noticed, or at least didn’t say they had.

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webcams

There are new details about the Ghosts on the Ghost…

There are new details about the Ghosts, on the Ghost Cam page.

We finally got the straw into the lake today, as some of you may have seen, but what a performance. The netting bags had been left in the water by the bank since last week when we were doing it, being soaked through, they should have sunk, with the weight of the wet straw and the attached concrete block. No such luck, we pulled the bags to the middle of the lake and they still floated. My lad was clowning about, not knowing he was on camera, he had not bothered to turn the boat over, to get rid of the water in the bottom. To stop his feet getting wet he decided to paddle the boat, standing on the seat. How he managed not to have fallen in the lake, I just don’t know, the boat was rocking from side to side and looking very unsafe, at one time he reckoned he was going for a swim. Eventually I told him that he was on camera, he wasn’t best pleased.

We had to pull the bags back to the bank, attach another block and try again. With so much weight, my lad was unable to paddle the boat and pull the sack and weight at the same time, all that was happening, was that he was pulling himself back to the bank, from where he had started from. Because of the weight he could not hold the sacks, weight and paddle at the same time, we thought about putting the whole lot in the boat, and tipping it out, when we got to the spot where we wanted it, chances were that as he tipped it over, he would have gone in with it, if the boat had not sank with the weight in the first place. In the end we attached a long length of baler twine to the bags and weight, and paddled the boat across the lake and pulled the twine to drag the bags and weight across the bottom of the lake, to the spot we wanted it. It was a performance, but no real hardship, as it made a change to be working on the lake.

It was a good day to do it, the sun was shining and it was very warm. You may have seen the Geese fly in as we were working, a few fish were at the top of the water, and there were plenty of waterfowl about.

I should think that the Geese who did land today, will be those who will nest on the lake. The Goose was on the island inspecting it, with the Gander watching, as he swam about. I don’t hold out a lot of hope of them raising a family. I tried one year to chase them off of the lake, but they just kept coming back. I don’t suppose it will do any good, but I will put a small wooden slope from the water to the island bank, they may then take the goslings back on the island of a night, that will stop the fox at least.