Tag: valley

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I spoke to one of the Lock of the Lowe…

I spoke to one of the Lock of the Lowe’s girls this afternoon, It seems that all of the Ospreys have now left the Lock and are on their migration. When I spoke to Peter the manager a couple of days ago, there was a male who was seemingly building a nest. He thought at first that it may have been another Male, on closer inspection with a telescope he found it to be resident Male. There was no suggestion that the nest was for this year, but it is not unheard of that one Male Osprey will have two nest going. Let see what happens when they return next year.

The Dove chicks do leave the nest when they are bigger. They tend to walk about on the ledges by the side and behind the nest. There where two, but one disappeared very shortly after they hatched. There are at least eight Dove nest going at the moment. I say eight but that count was without trying to look for them.

The Buzzard has been in the valley, but has not been landing as much as it has been. Part of the trouble is that the Ewe and its two Lambs that we have been unable to catch, have been in the valley eating the new grass that is coming up after we made the hay. We are trying to keep them out of the field, but the new grass is to tempting. We are going to try to catch them over the weekend, but what ever, the young Buzzard will get use to them.

Like Marie and Angela, I thought that the lake looked very beautiful last night, The best that I have seen it. A little eerie with the Bats flying about catching their dinner. There was a full moon last night that made it such a picture. All I hope, is that it was the Fishes eyes that we could see shining, and not any other creature that might want to eat the Fish. I believe that the Moon is full tonight. I will put the lake camera on again tonight, although the Moon will be later than last night, showing its self.

I did say that I would get the telescope working for this Moon Phase. I did try, only a few nights ago I set it all up, but when I tried to get it tracking the Moon it suddenly stopped. If it hadn’t been so heavy, big and bolted down I would have thrown it in the air. I the end I couldn’t work out what was up with it, I turned it off loosing all the setting that I had made. When I got back to the farm house I realised what had happened. The Telescope has a maximum of two or three turns clockwise, or east to west. Of course when it get to the end it stops. I sorted that problem out yesterday, meaning to reset the Telescope last night. To be honest by the time that I had finished, it was getting late, by the time I could align the telescope with the stars it would have been at least 9.30pm. Finishing would have taken another half an hour. I really did want to sit down with a glass of wine, so it got left. With the night drawing in I will be able to set it up earlier by the next Moon Phase. If I get a chance I will set it up earlier and use the Solar Telescope in the day.

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That was a bit of luck I went to see…

That was a bit of luck. I went to see if the Sheep were still in the new fenced off area. Two of those that we had not got back, were back with the other Sheep. The other one was as close as the others, but on the wrong side of the electric fence. I wasn’t that concerned that it would go off again, it would stay with the others, even separated by the fence. One of my Lads were coming in the afternoon, and there was three more ready to make an opening in the fence, to then push it around the lake to the opening. Four helpers to one Sheep I admit is a bit excessive, but no way was I taking a chance. In the end it turned out not to be necessary, for as soon as I went to move the Ewe on, she took a running jump and cleared the fence with ease. To make sure that they didn’t decide to jump the other way to make an escape we put another wire a bit higher. As long as you keep the battery topped up, one sting is usually enough to keep them contained within the electric fenced area.

We went for a walk down the valley this afternoon with Tass and Kye. Before the hay grass was cut it wasn’t a very comfortable walk. The grass was taller than the Dogs, with the wet they would come back soaking wet all over, so we haven’t walked the valley as often as we would normally do through the summer. One of the Buzzards flew low and for the whole length of the field by the wood on the right hand side of the valley, squawking all of the time. as we were walking, I am sure it was a protest that we had the cheek to be in its territory. They do catch a lot of Rabbits, with the noise they make the Rabbits must be a bit thick not to run for cover, when they here the Buzzard. Tass kept by our side for most of the walk. With the weather being as warm as it was this afternoon, she was in no mood to be running around the fields with Kye.

As we walked the valley I am always looking for the tracks that the wildlife leave. After the wet summer there are a lot more tracks to be seen than we would normally see through the Summer. There are two places in particular that lead into the wood on the left hand side of the valley, that we have seen tracks for the whole time that we have lived at Denbury. The wood on the left hand side is unfortunately very steep it is a a bit over seven acres. Because of it being so steep it is very rarely visited, other than by the wildlife. It is the area that we regularly see hear the Deer on our walks, without seeing them. When we looked at the two places that we normally see the tracks Badgers, Deer, Fox and a couple of unknown tracks were clearly visible. It does make seeing the wildlife on the cameras that little more interesting, when you know what routes that they have taken.

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The three Red Deer that we saw a lot of…

The three Red Deer that we saw a lot of last Winter, showed themselves this evening, one of them had a Calf. It is the first time that I have seen them for a while. I regularly hear them in the woods when we walk the valley. We heard them this afternoon when we went for a walk with Tass and Kye. With the grass now short we will see more wildlife on the valley webcam. Just after I had got the Deer on the webcam a Fox trotted into view. On our walk we also saw the Buzzards hunting.

The camera we have down the valley is a different type than most of the others that we use. It is a full pan tilt and zoom, but one than you can put larger lenses on, and IR lamps so that that turns with the camera. It is a lot slower and tends to bounce about a bit when you move it. We have a very large 300mm lens on the camera, when it is zoomed in every movement is exaggerated.

It is the first time that have walked the valley since we made the hay. The tractors tyres have made some large ruts and cut the ground up because of it being so wet. The ground is still very wet, this continuous bad weather is not helping it to dry, although the grass is growing very quickly.

Kye is getting quite big now, she is only a couple of inches smaller than Tass, it wont be long before she catches up and probably be even bigger than Tass. Tass is one of the biggest German Shepperd’s that I have seen, so Kye is going to be a big dog. Trouble is that she is on the go 24/7 and she expects Tass to keep up with her. Tass does try and mostly likes playing with Kye. This afternoon on our walk Kye didn’t stop nagging Tass to play with her, running around her, biting at her feet to try to make her run faster. What ever distance we walked, I reckon Kye must have doubled it. We haven’t heard lately, about any of the other pups from the same litter as Kye, if any of the owners see this let us know on the forum.

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The Bird on cam 1 this afternoon was a Buzzard…

The Bird on cam 1 this afternoon was a Buzzard, I must admit from a distance it did look slightly like an Osprey. Buzzards do come in various colours and sizes, so a lot a people do mistake them from other Birds of Prey. Now that we have made the hay we should be able to see the Buzzards more. We hear their screeching call a lot this time of year, as this time of year they will be teaching their young how to hunt, mostly catching Rabbits. I should think that is what it was eating this afternoon by the way it was ripping at the carcass. Quite often when we go down the valley we see the young Buzzard on a fence post eating what the parent birds have caught for it. It could well be that the close up shot that we saw, was the Chick calling for food. I am sure that the early distance shot was an adult.

Now that the grass has been cut in the valley I will leave the camera down there on more of a nighttime. With grass as long as it was there was very little chance of seeing much. With a bit of luck we should be able to see more of the wildlife in the valley, including the Deer.

I saw a Moorhen on the with a couple of Chicks on the lake yesterday, they were on the straw sacks. I haven’t seen them about today. We are still having a Rat problem around the lake, we saw one under the birds feeders and have had to put the poison down again. All I hope is that a Rat didn’t take the Moorhen Chicks. They normally last longer than the Goslings and Ducklings.

Touch wood the Sheep are staying where we want them, It took a good couple of days to fence the area around the lake to keep them in. There are so many places that they could of got out of, so we needed to make sure that it was all fenced. It is a good area to keep the sheep for they will keep the grass down, hopefully so that we do not need to mow it as often .We managed to catch all of the Lambs. The needed weaning off of the Ewes, and we have put them into one of the stables until we are able to take them to market to be sold. If the Lambs had stayed with the rest of the Sheep they would soon had been through the fence taking the rest of the Sheep with them.

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By the look of it a Swallow has started to…

By the look of it a Swallow has started to nest already on the nest at the top of the roof. I could be wrong, but it does look very much like it. There is no reason why they should not be. We will have to keep an eye on it. For anyone who has not seen the nest cameras scroll down on the Dog thumbnail, it is below the
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What a change to wake up to a sunny day. The weather report looked pretty grim for our area last night. With the amount of rain that we have been getting we decided to stable the Horses last night, to give them a break from constant rain in the night. As it happens I don’t think that it was as bad here as they forecast. Mind you what different about the forecasters getting it wrong. They reckon that we are in for a good week. Lets hope they are right. We are in desperate need to make some fodder for the Horses being it hay or haylage.

Before we can even think about making anything the ground has got to start drying. If a tractor went on the ground with it being so wet, it would just churn the ground up, any fodder that we made would have dried mud in it. That will go for everyone who tries to make it. Being in a valley, that is very fertile we tend to be able to make our fodder early in the year. We never have to put fertilizer on the land to make our hay for the Horses. The valley this year is going to cause us problems as the land will stay damp longer. The seeds on the grass will mostly had dropped by now, so the quality of any hay or haylage we make will not be as good as normal. The other problem we are liable to encounter is that as soon as the weather is suitable for mowing the grass, every other farm will want to do the same. Not having our own farm machinery to make our own hay and haylage we rely on contractor to make it for us, as soon as the weather breaks every one who uses contractors will need them. The weather we need to dry the land is hot and windy.

We took the Dogs for a walk up the valley this afternoon to see just how wet the ground is. It didn’t help when we had a heavy shower. I know that I am moaning again, but just how do they manage to get it wrong so often. The forecast for my area today was no rain. It take some believing that they can get it wrong so often. Without the shower the ground was very wet. The heavy rain and flood has caused a lot of the grass to have fallen over so that nearest to the root it is starting to get soggy. I’m not sure if to cut it and try to dry the grass by turning or leave it a few days before mowing, hoping that the sun will dry the bottom. I cant afford to get it wrong.

There are a number of Badger Setts on and around Denbury. When we first moved here I found eight. One has stopped being used, and another has little activity. A couple of hundred yards from the sett we show on the webcams, is a Sett in the our wood, with the ground being so wet we can see that there has been a lot of activity getting to it. It is always a good time after heavy rain to see what Wildlife has visited the Valley. There has been a lot of Deer activity going on. There was an entry on the forum a week or so from someone who had seen three Deer on the Badger webcam. I haven’t seen any for nearly two months

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It was this time of year some years back that…

It was this time of year, some years back that I first viewed Denbury as a potential buyer. Walking down the valley I was hit by a sea of white flowers in and along the side of the wood. I had never seen Wild Garlic until then, but the heavy aroma of garlic made it obvious what it was. Drifts of Bluebell were in between the Wild Garlic, with small clusters of Wild Primroses hear and there. It is a sight that you never tire of seeing. Magically it brings the valley to life, as it is now. When the flowers die back it is forgotten for another year. I cant say that it was a deciding factor in purchasing Denbury, but it is a yearly bonus.

It is strange but the Wild Garlic is only in the wood on the west side of the valley. The wood on the east side of the valley has not a trace of Wild Garlic, It is a beautiful Bluebell wood this time of year. At certain times of the year you can also find Wild Orchids in this wood.

I heard the Fox Cubs playing in the wood this afternoon, They are in the corner of the field where you can sometime see the Sheep, very close to the Tree House. I would have liked to have gone into the wood to have tried to seen them, unfortunately I did not get the time. I know that their lair must be in that area, so there would have been a good chance of me finding it. I should think that they will be playing in the field very soon. Hopefully I will be able to get them on camera.

I still have not managed to catch any more of the Sheep. I take a bag with a scoop of feed in it to the pen, every morning. The Sheep stay well back until I have walked a fair distance back. They do go and feed in the pen, but as soon as I start to walk towards the pen to close them in, they run off. They wont go back to feed until I am out of sight. It is becoming a concern that they are still on the grazing and hay fields. The Horses would not want to eat hay with Sheep droppings in it.

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There is a new posting on the Ghost cam page…

There is a new posting on the Ghost cam page.

Today you may have seen three of the Portland sheep on camera two fighting. Two of them are Ram lambs that were born last year, they are being a bit brave with the flock Ram, trying to take over, but he is a bit to cute and strong, even with two of them trying it on. They are bit to young at the moment. The older ram is getting a bit old now, he is what is known as broken mouthed, meaning that he is loosing a few teeth, as time goes on he will not be able to eat as well as he should, he will then start to loose a little condition, that is when the younger Rams will have their chance.

A new lamb was born last night, to one of the cross breed sheep. It was a bit of a surprise, as it was brown and the Ewe is white, the father, is the white Portland Ram, so the colour is a throw back from the Ewes cross breeding.

The farm next to ours have their Ewes and lambs out in the fields, it is good size flock that would need a lot of work throughout the year. It looks like most of the Ewes have twin lambs. As the lambs get older they tend to to get into little groups, playing and chasing around the field, good to watch.

A couple of days ago an entry from the US, on the forum said that that one of the Badger was still limping. As I am writing this entry I am changing between camera one and two, there are ten Badgers feeding, six on camera one and four on two, but I have not seen the one who is limping, they all seem fine.

When we went on our walk down the valley today, with Tass and Ky, we went further than the cameras view, disturbing the three deer that have been feeding on the valley camera of a nighttime. Looking at their hoof prints, there is a lot of activity. Because of the distance we would need to run the electricity wire, it would be very difficult to get a camera set up, but it would be an interesting site, I will look into it tomorrow.

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We try at least four times a week to walk…

We try at least four times a week to walk around the whole farm. Although the farm is only sixty acres, it is in a long strip, and it is more like walking a hundred acres, with each field having different aspects.

The farm is in a very beautiful secluded valley. On entering before getting to the farmhouse and buildings, there is a three hundred metres driveway, with the lakes to one side, that opens up at the end to open fields, like entering Shangri-La. On both sides there are woods that line the sides of the valley, that really does make it haven for wildlife.

It does not matter how many times we walk the valley, we never tire of it, we are always looking for new tracks and foot prints of the wildlife, little bits of badger or fox hair that may get snagged on the barbed wire as they have gone under. We have taken out most of the barbed wire, but a little has been missed. With the different season smells and plants, there always seems to be something to talk about on the walks.

In the woods you often hear the breaking of twigs and catch a glimpse of the deer that trod on them. This time of year you can hear the Buzzard menacing the Rooks, and see the Rooks mobbing the Buzzard in retaliation, determined to chase it away. As big as the Buzzard is the Rooks nearly always win the confrontations, out numbering the Buzzard by many.

It looks very much like we have missed the snow, when we do get it, you can see animal and bird tracks in places that you have never seen before. The Badgers have well worn tracks that they have followed, some say for hundreds of years. The tracks in the snow show just how many Deer, Fox and Badgers have visited the valley, that you would not have known about if it had not snowed.

A question on an entry yesterday, asked the what Deer have been on the cameras over the past few days. The three are Roe deer they are smaller than the Red, now that you have seen the Roe you will know immediately when you see a Red.

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Today we managed to renew the wire to the valley…

Today we managed to renew the wire to the valley camera, it was broken in the high wind a few weeks back. I was surprised how far it is away from the Farm House, the piece of wire needing replacing was a 100m long, The camera is a good quarter of a mile away. I should think there would be a good five miles of cables around the farm making the cameras work. The camera has not been used as much as I would like because most of the interesting events are a little to far away for the IR lamps. With a bit of luck and the weather stays kind we will get a new lamp going tomorrow, that will light up the far end of the valley. I say light up, in fact with any of the lamps going, the area covered is always as dark as the night, the only indication of a lamp is when you look at it with your eyes there is a red tint on the surface.

I sometimes pan the camera around when I get a minute, now and then I show it. You tend to see a lot more Deer, if you catch them when they have just arrived you may see them grazing for up to a couple of hours, they quite often rest down the valley after grazing very close to the sheep if they are in the same field, I hope to see them with their Fawns this year, they should be showing their faces very soon. We have three types of Deer a Denbury, Red Deer that we have seen in herds of up to sixteen, believe me they go through a lot of grass in one night, you would not want that many visiting you to often, especially if it is in your hay grass. We also have Roe Deer, they are a smaller deer, I have seen small herd of six on the Farm but very often they are on their own, just recently there have been three about, twice I have seen them on the main Badger camera. The other Deer we have is the tiny Muntjac, I believe it was originally imported from China, it is no bigger than a large dog, although we do not see them that often, it is usually in the summer with a fawn.

We also see Badgers from another sett running around the field, looking for food, digging for worms and generally playing. The sheep take not notice of them at all, you can very often see them walking in between the flock. You can also see the Tawney Owl and in the summer months Bats.

We have seen the twin lambs suckling on and off all day, the Ewe is a bit more perky, so hopefully she is over the worse of her illness.