Tag: squirrel

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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.

A photo of the cliffs in West Bay, Dorset that was taken last august. Vicky, Derby

A cheeky squirrel in my garden its hangs like this ages at a time. Our resident robin when we were clearing the garden up a few weeks ago it was hopping around within a few feet of us. Lynne.

An article about the much talked about squirrel.
Sending you these from Australia, hope you can open them. Their Magpies look different to our but have the same colouring. Elsie.

When we first came to Denbury the grass area that you can see behind the Sheep pen was a concrete yard for cattle that were housed in the barn in the Winter. We had Cattle in the barn and yard for the first few years of coming here.

When we demolished the cow yard we found an old local stone foundation all along the side of the stream. We also found an areas of old walling partially demolished to the left of the barn, very close to the stream. Over the years I had forgot about them. They had been completely obscured with the over grown bramble. As we were clearing the bramble today, we came across another part of the walling and large pieces of the local stone that I had never seen before. It must be part of the the foundation that we previously found. We have yet to find the large piece of walling that I can remember. The bramble is so thick that it is going to take a day or so to clear it all. As you must be well aware, bramble especially years of over grown bramble wouldn’t be the kindest of vegetation to have to clear.

The reason that I have mentioned the walling is that the field that can also be seen behind the Sheep pen and the bank of the stream, was ploughed when we re-grassed it about six years ago. When the field was being ploughed a large piece of stone was hit by the plough. The Contractor who was doing the work was not a happy man. The stone damaged the plough. We dug what we thought was a stone up, revealing a Mill Stone. I left it in the field by the side of the Hedgerow and until today thought nothing more about it. Could it be that the old wall that we still have to reveal and the Mill Stone go together?

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Tonight Diary is Lynne s story of Squiggle the Squirrel…

Tonight Diary is Lynne’s story of Squiggle the Squirrel that she raised. The first four photographs on the Photo page are of Squiggle.

Squiggle as I called him was not the first squirrel I had raised. The first lot of 5 came out of my neighbour

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The are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

The are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number eleven.

(as promised) a black swallowtail butterfly that I raised. Karen, Florida (USA)

A couple more of the little squirrel. One when he was quite small and the other when he was all grown up ! Lynne.

Hi this is a photo of a cheeky Blue tit taken in my garden. Vicky, Derby.

I took this photo today 11/01/08.Rose W’canton

Vicky, Derby.’t now what happened to the rain we were promised today. Lots of rain and wind were forecast. It was very windy this morning, but very little rain. It started to rain a little when we walked down the valley this afternoon with Tass and Kye. It is still a little windy, but nothing much to worry about.

Kye is starting to try her luck with Tass. She thinks that she can be boss. If we allowed it she would soon take over. Tass is a quite Dog and wouldn’t do a lot to stop it. On our walk this afternoon Kye was being very rough with the playing, not so playing, more like fighting, with a lot of growling and holding Tass around her neck with her jaws. Kye needs to know the pecking order. German Shepherds are very clever Dogs and will quickly learn what is to their advantage.

There are a couple of rooms at the back of the Farm House that we very rarely use. They have been used to store furniture and other degraded household item. When we came to Denbury the entrance to the rooms had been blocked up, the only way into them was by an outside door, at the back of the house. We were told by the previous occupants that during the war the rooms had been used by American Service Men. On a number of occasion after the war they returned to the Farm to visit.

We decided over Christmas that we would get the rooms tidied up to be able to start using them again. Last week we started. As we started sorting through the items in the rooms, we came across mountains of hazel nuts shells and a couple of what must have been Squirrel Drays made of twigs and leaves. The room must have been used by the Squirrels for quite a while. They must have come in through gaps that are under the door and down the chimney.

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There are three new photographs on the Photo page scroll…

There are three new photographs on the Photo page, scroll down the photo page starting with the Squirrel from Julia. This is one of seven photographs that Julia has emailed to me, I will put more of them on tomorrow. The two other are from Elsie.

Good afternoon, Mr.Farmer, I’ve been working at my computer today which is next to the patio doors – unfortunately I do tend to get distracted by looking out at the garden!!
This morning I was watching Blue Tits, Great Tits a Blackbird and a Robin taking it in turns to eat around the tree and the feeders.
A few minutes ago, just as I was about to eat my lunch, I looked out and saw what I think was a Fieldfare so I ran upstairs to try to get a few photos. With the sun setting the garden was beginning to fall into shadow, so I think the pictures look better taken from above. Picture number 51 is slightly seasonal – you can just make out the Mistletoe which is growing in the Crabapple Tree!
The squirrel posed for me a few weeks ago! Julia.

How about some flora for a change. Gardening is my hobby even though I can’t do it as well as I used to. Iam sure some of the ladies would like to see this photo.Elsie
Just had to let you see my wonderful dog Max. I love him to bits.Elsie

On Sunday and tonight I thought that I would be able to put the telescope webcams on. Even in the light, on both afternoons in the cloudless sky I could see the quarter Moon. As soon as it got dark the sky clouded over. This part of the Moons cycle is about the best time to see the Moons Craters. I will keep looking to see if the sky clears, if it does before 8.30pm I will get it going. I thought that I would have been able to focus on Mars by now. Our Wood tree line stop us seeing Mars until nearly 10.pm. I am definitely not in the mood to turn the telescope on at that time of night. In the New Year we should be able to see it a lot earlier.

We have nearly finished the stable area for Willow and Gypsy. We have only got to finish putting the gates on, and put the straw down, it will then be ready for them to use. As soon as I am sure Gypsy’s eyes are alright, we will wean Willow. Not a job we are looking forward to be doing, but it has got to be done.

That was Magic and I hope that you were as lucky as I was to see the two Stags in the valley. I first noticed them ten minute before I fed the Badgers. I wasn’t sure if I should feed them, as I have to walk towards the valley on my way. Fortunately the wind was blowing from the North so my scent would not be blown towards the Stags. It must have been the quietest that I had ever been, so as the Stags would not hear me. When I got back from feeding the Badgers I was pleased to see the Stags were still here, and even more so when they started to play fight. When the Rut finishes the Stags will go off on their own or in groups. I don’t know when they shed their Antlers, but I would like a set. We have a number of Hunt Shows in the area, where you can very often buy Antlers, some with the Stags scull, but I would only buy if I knew that they were a fallen set. The infra-red lamps didn’t do us any favours. The brightness caused the camera to go into colour mode, eliminating the infra-red lamps. Seeing the Stags tonight was the most special night that I have had on the webcams. And I remembered to press the record button.

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After seeing Jan s entry on the forum yesterday I…

After seeing Jan’s entry on the forum yesterday, I spoke to Peter, the Manager of the Lock of the Lowe’s about the Grey Squirrel that she saw. He told me that they do get the odd Grey Squirrel from time to time. They are not there for very long. The theory being is that the Pine Martin may kill them. The Grey Squirrel is not as fast or maybe agile as the Red Squirrel and are easier prey for the Pine Martin. I also mentioned that the webcams or the IR lamps were not working at night. Peter has been on Holiday for over a week and had not known. As long as there are no major problems they will on on of a night soon.

Continuing on from Sheep castration on last night Diary. It is common practice for Dairy and Beef Farmers that do not have Sheep, to let their grass in the Winter months for Sheep keep. Cattle are normally housed in the Winter months as they will poach soft Winter ground, It is also easier to manage them in the Winter when housed. Sheep being a lot lighter will do very little damage to the land, and will eat the grass that the cattle don’t eat, and of course their droppings fertilize the land. Sheep are very good for land management. They wont be allowed on the land any later than the end of March, very soon after that the grass start growing, the new grass being wanted for the cattle.

Three years ago we advertised our land for Sheep keep, as we do not have very good fencing for Sheep we offered it free of charge, it would then allow for any electric fencing that needed doing. The going rate would be about 30p per Sheep per week. After speaking to a number of Farmers, we decided to let the grass to a Farmer with a hundred Ewes, not in Lamb from about ten miles away. Our conditions were that I wanted him to visit to check on the Sheep daily, that would be normal anyway. The experience started wrong from the first day. The first lot of nine Sheep arrived tightly packed into the back of a pickup truck, without the Farmer having put any electric fencing up. They have never broken out and wont stray he tried to assure me. Of course I didn’t believe him, The Sheep were a mixture of cross breeds that looked in poor condition and had obviously not been on decent grass for a fair while. I shouldn’t have thought that his Sheep would have wanted to stray far from the decent grass that we had at Denbury for a day or so, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt as long as he did it.

Over the following week the rest of the Sheep arrived tightly packed in the pickup truck. Up to then none had disappeared even with out the fencing. These Sheep must have been waiting for all of their mates to arrive, for as soon as they had, the very next morning they were all gone. I tried his land line and mobile phones, both were not answered, so I left a message. As the Farmer had not contacted me or come to find his Sheep I had no alternative but to look my self. It didn’t take long to find them, they were in the wood, after a lot of running about I got them back into the field. Next morning they were gone again. The Farmer had not been to Denbury or had he phoned me. I wasn’t going to be running after Sheep again. That afternoon the Farmer arrived at the farm house door. I have got electric fencing he assured me and help to find the Sheep. The help was his aged fragile Mother, who was hardly able to walk, let alone chase after Sheep, the fencing was hardly enough to fence to fence in twelve Sheep let alone a hundred.

Next morning even after fencing, I had a call from a neighbour, the Sheep were on his farm. I made sure that afternoon that he got the fencing up and working. As the fencing posts had not been secured, Deer had knocked the fencing down the next day. I cant imagine where he learnt Sheep keeping from. Eventually the fencing was sorted out, but the agreement that he would come and check his Sheep every day, never happened.

One day when on looking in the Sheep field I saw a black object. On closer inspection it turned out to be a dead Lamb. The Ewes were not meant to be in Lamb. The Farmer assured me that the Ewes had not been running with any Rams. Over the coming days more of the Ewes Lambed. The Farmer had left his Ram Lambs that had not been castrated with their Mothers for to long. What possessed me to have my own Sheep again after that experience, I will never know.

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Not showing the Bird feeder and Squirrel nest as mentioned…

Not showing the Bird feeder and Squirrel nest as mentioned on the forum is down to me being a bit lazy. In between the camera and the feeders there are a large amount of bramble, that grows into the view of the camera. I do try to knock it back, but unfortunately they are very large bushes and it is difficult to knock the middle down as it is so far in. The easy option would be to put weed killer on them, but the Badgers have made their runs in them. We will be cutting the hedges shortly and they will be cut back them. The squirrel haven’t been using the feeder very much, in the past month or so. Where I would normally need to fill the feeder every two days, it has stayed nearly full for weeks. This time of year the Squirrels will be getting ready for the Winter, eating and stashing away the Hazel and Sweet Chestnut, of which this year there are more on the trees than I have ever seen at Denbury. I will get my Lads to knock the bramble back over next few days.

As we walked down the valley this afternoon with Tass and Kye the Sky was full with Swallows flying, strengthening themselves for their migration. I have never noticed it before, like it was today. They must have been bred on the farm, so there must have been a lot of nests that we missed, when we where looking for nest for the webcams. How they don’t crash into each other when they are darting in between each other I really don’t know.

I was telling you what webcams we are hoping to be doing soon. One that I tried on the farm last year, was with the Bats that we have in the farm house loft. You have no doubt seen that we do have a lot of Bats on the farm. On the cameras around the lake and valley there are always many to be seen. When I go to feed the Badgers of a night there are also many flying about. This time of year from our lounge window we can see them coming and going from our roof space, but when I go into the loft to look for them I can never find any, although some years ago when ever I had to go into the loft, there were many flying about up there. There are also a lot of the Bat dropping up there. I set a camera up in the loft thinking that I would see them flying around, that was a complete waste of time. I don’t know what type of Bats that we have at Denbury, by the different sizes of the Bats that I have seen on the camera when on the lake, there must be more than one type here.

There is a lot of baking of fruit pies this time of year, on the farm. We do get quite an assortment of fruits here. Plumbs, Damsons, Gooseberries, a variety of Apples from the Orchard and Blackberries. I am surprised that there are so many Blackberries after we had a lot of flowers and no fruit during the summer. This year there is a lot more fruit than normal.

Alex asked about the Horses, for those who may of missed their names when I told you a while back, the big Dark Bay is Arnie a 17.3hh Dutch Warmblood, the Palomino is Breeze our 14.2hh three quarter Arab, Lady with her Foal Willow are Thoroughbreds, the Bay is Bliss a yearling, as is the smaller Dark Bay Misty, both of which are also Thoroughbreds.

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There were two good sightings on the cameras in the…

There were two good sightings on the cameras in the past twenty four hours, with a bit of luck some of you saw them.

At about 9.pm last night I turned the valley camera on and there was a Muntjac Deer. I have never seen one on the camera at night before. I have only ever seen them in the day, and more than not with a Fawn. I always seem to startle them, the Hind going one way and the Fawn the other. I always feel guilty and worry that they may lose each other. Of course the next time I see them they are together again. The Muntjac is not a native breed, although I have not looked it up, I was told that they originated from China, and imported by a wealthy land owner, some of them escaped and colonised in this country.

The other sighting was on the normally SWT Blue Tit nest camera page. The centre Manager told me that when they looked at the nest box, that was put up for the Woodpeckers, there was a Red Squirrel in the box, he immediately put it on so that we could all see it. Unfortunately it was a black and white camera. It was very still when I saw it, looking like a ball of fluff, I thought at first that it was some sort of Mouse, until it moved. It slept in the box for a good while before moving onto the feeder, by the side of the nest box. The Red Squirrel did not return to the box, but there is a chance that it may return and breed. I have sent a colour camera to the SWT centre, to install in the box. If it does return we will be able to see it in colour. The Red Squirrel by all accounts breeds in the latter part of May. It could well be that it is looking for a nesting site.

When the new cameras are installed at the Lock of the Lowe’s centre there will be other wildlife to see. I understand that it could be this weekend.

I managed to install the Swallow camera today, it tuned out to take longer that I thought it would, because of the type of camera it is, it needs a piece of equipment to make it work on my system. This camera is controlled from one of my computers, on the computer it is the correct way up, on your computers the wrong way. It should have been installed in only one position and I forgot. I hope not to many of you saw the picture upside down. I will have to change it around first thing in the morning, then you will be able to see the nest. The Swallow is sitting on the eggs, but I will try to count how many there are.

I lost all track of time whilst installing the Swallow camera, by the time I had finished I realised that I had not phoned the Veterinary about Woody. She has been up on her legs all day and looks a lot better than she did yesterday and the day before. I will contact them tomorrow.

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webcams

Sorry about the Denbury Farm web cams going down last…

Sorry about the Denbury Farm web cams going down last night, I did not realise until I got up this morning, and I don’t know how long they were off for. We had an automatic update on our security, that restarted our computers and turned the web cams off.

The Squirrels are back in force, using the squirrel peanut box feeder, and also the sunflower heart bird feeders, that are not put out for them.. I think that the Squirrel are eating the the sunflower hearts more than the peanuts. The bird feeder by the squirrel box feeder has a Squirrel guard on it to stop them climbing the pole, that it sits on, but it is to close to the brambles, and they are climbing the brambles to get above the guard, to get to the food. It does not take them long to learn how to get to any food, in any feeders once they know where it is. That is why I want to get a Squirrel obstacle course up and running. CJ Birdfood give us our sunflower hearts, peanuts and Badger food free, It save us a lot of money that we can then put into the web cams.

I want the Squirrels to use the peanut feeder that can be seen from the main Badger camera, there is more room to put up a biggish obstacle course in that area, unfortunately they have not found the peanut feeder there yet, the reason being, is that they first go to where the birds are feeding, then they find the peanut feeder. Well I hope that is the case, as I have placed a bird feeder close to the Squirrel feeder. We will find out in a day or two. that area is a good wildlife area. There must be more Rabbits there than Water-ship Down.

I was asked on the forum today, if we have any Pigs, Goats or Cattle on the farm. Since we came to live at Denbury, we have had a good selection of different animals, but now we only have Horses and Sheep. We have had Charolais and Limousine Cattle and Wild Boar, that you would say are pigs. We nearly got a small herd of Angora Goats, but fortunately a friend talked us out of them. I think we were only getting them as they looked so cute. As you have properly experienced at Children’s Zoos, they will eat anything. We have also had six Llamas, Ostriches and a Zebra. I must admit other than the Cattle I regretted all the others going. They all went for good reasons, none were not just an off the moment, good idea at the time decisions, to have them. We had a lot of good and bad experiences with them all. I will tell you about them every now and them.

The Badger with the bad leg has still got the problem. I can only imagine that it happened when we saw the Badger fight a while back. There is a chance that it had been bitten when fighting and that the bite is now infected. It could be broken, but going by the size of the dead Badger that we found the next morning after the fight, I should not have thought that it would have been able to inflict a serious break or wound as the injured Badger has. Unfortunately there is nothing that I can do for it, without causing a lot of stress for the injured Badger and the others in the sett, especially as the Badger cubs will be due to show themselves soon. That is of course if there are any cubs.

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The Veterinary came today to check out the broodmares I…

The Veterinary came today to check out the broodmares. I had changed the camera over so that it could be seen, unfortunately the sun was shining into the stable and the picture whited out.

Very often mares get badly torn vulva’s and around that area, on their first foaling. Many studs have their mares vulva’s cut to stop any serious tearing, and stitched after the foaling, the restitching of the vulva makes it necessary to have the vulva’s re cut just before any future foaling. I always try not to have them restitched, after foaling we check the vulva area, if it is not torn and clean we let it heal naturally, it saves the mares any stress when they have their new foal at foot.

At last years foaling neither Lady or Woody needed restitching, but I have them checked out before this years foaling to make sure that the vulva did not need re cutting. Lady was fine and she was not re cut. Woody had closed up and had to have a small incision, after having a local anesthetic. Woody has no problem with the Veterinary, and takes any treatment by them without flinching. Lady is completely different, on any new Veterinarians first visit, even without any indication it is a Veterinary, she knows. I normally let Lady and Woody walk themselves into the stable, Lady will never let Woody leave her, and follows her without fail, not today, she saw the Veterinary and legged it in the opposite direction to Woody and the Veterinary, she didn’t need a lot of chasing, but for sure she knew. Now we just have the foaling to look forward to, and having to wake ourselves all through the night, until Lady and Woody foal.

We managed to put a new Squirrel feeder in place today, near where the Badgers feed on camera two, I saw a squirrel there yesterday. with a bit of luck it will find it soon. I may need to put a bird feeder close to it, for they seem to find the bird feeders first, although I should imagine that the Squirrels have been feeding on any left over Badger food from the night before.

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Over the past two weeks there has been two Squirrels…

Over the past two weeks there has been two Squirrels feeding on the birds sunflower hearts. At the end of last summer the Squirrels disappeared and stopped using the Squirrel feeders. They had used the feeders for nearly two years up to then. We did not even see them about, maybe they had got a disease and died, we could not imagine what had happened to them. Although we had a very dry summer the hazel nuts were very large, maybe they had plenty of feed stored, and did not need to feed on the peanuts in the feeders.

At about the time they disappeared I had obtained various items to make a squirrel obstacle course, I had been planning it for a few months but never got it up and running. If they stay for a few weeks now, I will start it up. I have seen one Squirrel near the Badger sett at camera two location, that looks to be an ideal site.

I don’t know why I encourage Squirrels, they are very destructive to trees, especially saplings and the younger trees, they eat the bark, this kills the trees. They also raid bird nest for their eggs, all in all they are a menace, but a lot of people do get enjoyment watching them at the feeder, lifting the lid of the feeder to get the nuts out. They also remind me of rats, they are one animal that I hate, I cant even bear to look at them, if I see one I run as fast as I can in the opposite direction.

When our Springer Spaniel, Jade was younger she was a very good ratter and would dispose of them within a few seconds. On one occasion someone had left an animal feed bin open all night, I went to feed the animals and there was a rat in the bin, I screeched, nearly had a heart attack and ran. As normal Jade had heard me and knew instantly it was a rat, she jumped into the bin, by this time the rat had buried itself in the corn. Jade was nosing about in the corn trying to find the rat, who in turn bit her on the nose, did Jade yelp, she was having none of that, she got the rat and where normally she would dispose of it instantly she played with it in revenge for the bite. She is to old and slow to catch them now. Fortunately now we don’t see many rats. Just as well, for Tass is not a very good ratter.

It looks like Lady will have the Foal any time in the next week. The Veterinary is coming tomorrow to check her and Woody out, I will let you know tomorrow what his thought are.