Categories
webcams

Starting from number eleven there are five new photographs on…

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

2 photos of a sunset in the Summer. They were unbelievable. Possibly made so colourful by the moor fires we had had all day. All you could smell and see was the smoke. Merrilyn.

Next doors cat ‘Pusscat’. Merrilyn.

Some sort of bee ? on a daisy. Merrilyn.

This is from my friend in Marseille – it has never snowed this much in her lifetime – I think it’s a record fall for the South of France!!
Janie (Leeds)

It may be wishful thinking, but I am sure that the shape of the Reindeer is changing. All three have got fatter where I would expect them to if they were in Calf. As I say it could be wishful thinking for although I had seen Padfoot cover all of the Female Reindeer I don’t know if he was fertile with the illness that he eventually died of. I also did not see any of the Females return to Padfoot after he had covered them the first time. I put the dates that I had seen Padfoot mate with the Females on a calender in the Kitchen and without think I threw the calender away when I changed it for a 2009 calender. I believe that I mentioned two of the matings in the Diary some time in October, I will try to find time to go back and check.

The rat trap was set off when I checked it as I went to put the Badger feed down. It was empty, I never have caught any in a trap. I don’t think that I have any alternative but to try to poison the rats now. There are to many for me not to. I spoke to both the rat poison suppliers and a Veterinary to make sure that there was no chance of killing the Badgers if they eat any poisoned rats. The Badger would need to eat at least 10% of their body weight of the poison granules before it would have any effect on them, meaning that they would need to eat an awful lot of the poisoned rats to cause them to die. With the Badgers they may well dig them up if they smell the dead rats. I have only ever seen to two poisoned rats, most of them die where they live and all of those on the webcams live under ground, so the chances of any Owls taking a poisoned rat is unlikely. Our other concerns about putting poison down id for the Birds. We have an old wire Magpie trap to which we put a box in with the ends cut out. We also cover the box with grass. This stops any birds from getting to the poison.

Categories
webcams

Starting from number six there are five new photographs on…

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

For the first time for over six week we have started to get low on photographs.

Silver birch trees.

Looking at the sky through the branches.

Exmoor ponies grazing.

A newly dug bog with bullrushes.

Birch bracket fungi on tree stump. Jill xx

Karen the Geese have not been back since the pair returned. I am sue that a pair will nest. As soon as any show any signs I will increase the height of the electric fence.

The rats around the Badgers feeding areas are now becoming a major problem. Part of the problem is that the Badgers are not feeding all together at the same time as they do for most of the year, causing the feed that I put out to be available all through the night. It has given the rats the opportunity to have plenty of food through the colds spell where without the food and extreme cold many would have died.

I cant put poison down as I have seen both the Tawny and Little Owls take a rat. And of course if they catch a rat that has been poisoned they will also die.

We have tried trapping the rats with very little success. We have considered using an air rifle to shoot them, but on trying that around the Lake when we had a problem the rats were so fast it was difficult to hit them. We were able to poison the rats in that area and we got most of them with only a few days of baiting the area with the poison. Also the lighting at the feeding area is infra-red so it is pitch black. It is a problem that we really need to find an answer for.

Categories
webcams

The Tawney Owl that has been perching on the pole…

The Tawney Owl that has been perching on the pole down the valley, was hunting in the Badger field last night. It was hunting vermin and voles that we are encouraging when we feed the Badgers. It does give me a bit of a problem with the amount of rats that are in the area. I need to try to poison the rats or at least get the numbers down. But if an Owl catches a poisoned rat, the poison that the rat has eaten will kill the Owl. We have tried different ways to trap the rats rather that poison them, but we haven’t managed to catch one as of yet. It doesn’t look as if the Badgers are leaving any of the feed that I put down, but I suppose the rats must be getting something, or they would not stay. The other problem that we have is that the Badger Sett is very close to the Farm House, so the rats are as well.

Bliss and Misty are getting better being led every day, and their coats are starting to look good with the daily grooming that they are getting. The trouble is that this extra contact with the two Fillies, starts to make you think twice about selling them at all. I even started to make enquiries in to the training fees today. It is an expensive hobby, the price that I was quoted ranged from

Categories
webcams

When the Horses came in this morning for their feed…

When the Horses came in this morning for their feed, Bliss was very lame. She came in limping and feeling very sorry for herself. It is the same leg as she had the infection in her hoof two weeks ago. Then the poison in the hoof made its own way out. In most cases it does happens like that, by far it is the best way for an infection to cure itself, as normally it does not inflame again. Having the infected area opened or poulticed will very often leave some of the poison in the infected area, and it will need further poulticing or treatment. On inspecting the underneath of her hoof it seems what happened was that where the poison released itself, a large pebble got stuck in to the release area and stopped all of the poison from draining out. We removed the pebble from the hole hoping that the remainder of the poison would come out over the day, whilst Bliss was in the field walking around grazing. Unfortunately it didn’t and we decided that we would poultice the infected area.

All those of you who were watching the webcams when Bliss was born at Denbury, about eighteen months ago will know what a star she has been from the first day of her being born. She has been the most friendly and easy Horse that we have ever had, I would even say that we have known. Even with easy Horses like Bliss, when they have pain and you need to treat them they can be very wary of what is going on, especially when they have never hardly had their feet lifted up.

To poultice the infected hoof you need first to clean the area with a hoof pick, and wash it out thoroughly. the hoof pick would have given Bliss a bit of discomfort. A hot poultice is then put over the wound, using an old sock to keep it in place, held with vet rap, a type of sticky bandage. As Bliss was being turned out tonight we needed to make sure that the poultice stayed on. We use a large corner of a thick plastic feed bag, held with gaffer tape. To a young filly like Bliss it is an awful lot of messing about. She was absolutely brilliant, allowing us to do every thing that was needed without a sign of protest. Hopefully by the morning the poulticing would have done the job an Bliss will be back to normal without any pain.

Chris Speering from the Hawk and Owl Trust visited this morning, I will tell you about the meeting in tomorrows diary. We walked the whole farm with him, and as if on cue the Buzzard youngster flew over head squawking as loud as it could. We asked Chris about it disappearing for the week that it has. By all accounts the Adult parents hide from the youngster to help it leave their territory, The youngster looks in for the parent in different areas. We may be lucky to catch it on the webcam again before it leaves for good.

Categories
webcams

We managed to get one of the two new cameras…

We managed to get one of the two new cameras up and working today. It is a fixed camera that is positioned to look at where the Badgers come out to feed. As you see the Badgers come into view the sett entrance is just a matter of inches away. It has taken a couple of days to run the wires and fit the camera and other parts needed to get it working. The wires have to run in the trees and all along the Badger runs, that they use to get to one sett entrance to another. It has to be got into the roof space of the farm house, then about forty feet in the loft before being run to the ground floor of the house, out of site. Not a job I particularly like. To make matters worse the runs of sett are through bramble. I finish up being scratch from head to toe. The picture will probably need adjusting once I see how it looks tonight. I will be showing it on different cameras, including the Swallow camera. It should be a good position as often the Badgers use the spot it is positioned on, to play and socialise, the trees hide that area from the main camera. Let me know what you think.

As long as the piece of equipment I have works, I will try tomorrow to fit another camera to the rear of the entrance. The piece of equipment hopefully will allow me to put two signals over one wire, so two cameras should work. The manufacturers reckon it will, let hope they are right as the equipment is a few hundred pounds. I will be jumping about if it doesn’t. If it does work we should be able to see more of the Badgers. I am also going to put molasses onto the jump. I should think that they will like the taste, if they do it will keep them out longer.

I have been watching the new camera as I am writing the Diary, and can see what needs doing to make it better. For the next few days you may see that I have been trying different angles and height,

Anjela asked about the Rats around the lake. The Rats ate a lot of the poison, and as they had not eaten any for a couple of days, I moved the cage to the area of camera one. As much as I did not want to put the poison down in that area, I really had little option. I tried various other ways of getting rid of them, that were a waste of time. There were to many large Rats to allow them to keep breeding, without me doing any thing about it. They started to take the poison today. It will take a good while to clear the area. I will have to start checking two or three times a day to make sure no animals or birds eat any of them. I wanted to put the cage by the Bird feeders around the lake, that will have to wait until I can get my hands on a new cage, or the one I have got is able to be put there. To make sure that the Birds do not eat the poison I manage to get an old Magpie cage trap. Inside of that I put a petrol can with holes at each end. The Rats need to go into the cage and then into the can to get the poison. I have also covered the cage up with a piece of plastic with room at the bottom for the Rats to go under.

There are a few breaks in the clouds tonight, not enough t put the telescope on, but I maybe able to try the piece of equipment that was sent to me from the US.

Elsie, didn’t get the photos.

Categories
webcams

The Buzzard knows that it has a good chance of…

The Buzzard knows that it has a good chance of a meal by the Bird feeders. The Birds when feeding on the feeders always drop some of the seeds onto the ground. There always seems to be a Pheasant in the area and they mop up some of the seed. But it is also a good food source for the Rats. That is why I have a problem about using Rat poison to get rid of them. There is always the chance that a poisoned Rat, that the poison has not worked fully on, will be eaten by an Owl or a Buzzard.

The Buzzard although protected, is still liable to be shot by people who rear Pheasants for game shooting. They believe that the Buzzard will kill Pheasants. They may rarely kill the odd one. The main food source for the Buzzard are Mice, Rats and Rabbits. I wish they would work a little harder on the Rats.

The Rats problem has got to be sorted out on the lower Badger feeding area, and around the lake where the Goslings were taken. I am not to worried that any other animals or birds will be poisoned by eating a poisoned Rats around the lake area. I have already started to make sure that the Rats will eat what I put out. I put out a cage last night with bread in it. This morning all the bread had gone. The cage will stop the birds from getting to the poison, but I need to know that it was Rats that ate the bread last night, and what I have put out tonight. Tomorrow I am going to put up a powerful IR lamp, it will allow me to see what is eating the bread. If it is Rats as I suspect, I can then put the poison in a container that the Rats can get to, so as they do not spill the poison where the Birds will eat it.

I purchased some years back a couple of Rat traps, but they were not to successful. I found one of them today. I will try that in the Badger area, for I know that I will kill the field mice and voles that also use the area, if I poison to kill the Rats. The Badger sett is quite close to the farm house. If I am not careful we could get Rats in the house.

Elsie asked what I pondering about around the lake this morning. I was seeing if the bread had been eaten, that I had left in the cage to poison the Rats, when I saw the Fish chasing to fertilize the eggs. I was watching them.

Angela I have not seen the person who is to shear the sheep. He was to phone me in the week. The sheep have been in the Horse field for the past two days. I bet they disappear when he comes.

I have never seen a Barn Owl on the farm.

The Stud told me that Lady is coming into season, She may have gone to the Stallion today. If she did, I would think that she will be back on the farm by the middle of next week.

Categories
webcams

More news on The Scottish Wildlife Trust On speaking to…

More news on The Scottish Wildlife Trust. On speaking to the Lock of the Lowe’s Centre Manager today, he has told me that they have regulars visits from Pine Martin. One of the camera that we will supply will be put in a place, where hopefully they will be seen on the web cams.

The Scottish Wildlife Trusts Computer expert will be going to the centre on Wednesday and Thursday of next week, If every thing goes to plan we may be showing the Osprey on this site, in real time later in the week. There could be minor problems that may delay the broadcasting. Keep your fingers crossed. Initially we will be using their existing cameras. The camera that we are supplying to the Trust will be sent to them on Monday. They have a volunteer that is a trained CCTV installer, that they will have to arrange with him for the installation. Our agreement has happened so quickly that there may be a little delay in the installation, but it will be well worth the wait.

Most days I need to fill the Bird feeders and Peanut feeders. This morning as I made my way to fill them I heard a Rabbit squealing, obviously in distress. I could see the bramble moving about ten feet in front of me. I could just about see the head of a young Rabbit in the bramble, it may well have been caught up by the way it was trying to move. By this time I was a little closer, I could hardly believe my eyes, for holding onto the rabbits back leg was a Rat. I think some of you already know what I think of them. I shouted in the direction of the two of them, hoping that the Rat would let go, causing both me and the Rabbit to have no more problems with the Rat. I think it was so busy thinking about the breakfast it had his teeth into, that it did not hear me. I couldn’t really let it happen, but I don’t even like looking at them, so with my eye partially closed I made a lunging motion towards them. I felt my foot catch a large stone and I tumbled over, finishing spread eagle on the ground, with my face only inches from from that horrible thing. My screams made it run, leaving the Rabbit able to hobble to safety, or so I thought, for as I returned from filling the feeders the Rabbit started to squeal again, the Rat was hanging onto it again. I picked up what I thought was a slender stick to throw at it, that turned out to be the remains of a last year nettle, that drooped down as I lifted it to throw. In the end my shouting at the Rat made it let go again. I did see the Rabbit go down a burrow. I do hope it was a Rabbits.

Unfortunately where it happened is where I feed the Badgers on cam 1. Most nights you can see the Rats, stealing a bit of feed on the web cam. I don’t really like to poison the Rats in that area, as the Badgers may catch them full of poison, or an Owl may take one. The Badger would only get a belly ache, but the poison would kill an Owl. I have got to think of something.

No Pat (Herts)we have not heard the Cuckoo yet. Not sure, but I think it is just about now that we normally hear them. The weather may be making us think that it is later in the year, than it really is.

Yes Elsie the Magpie doesnt miss a meal. As the forum is being used from all over, what superstition from different areas do you all have about the Magpie, and what do you do or say when you see them?