Thursday 30^th December, temp +4c, foggy and damp

The badger emergence started once the temperature rose last Monday (27^th December) with the badgers taking treats from all areas of their Arial climbing frame despite it being covered in snow.

While the badgers stayed pretty much underground from 18^th-24^th December the roe and fallow deer managed to eat about 300-400 lbs of barley that I had left out for them. (While looking around the snow capped landscape it did not take me many seconds to realise that the deer would have NO other form of sustenance) Fieldfares have just about demolished the apples that remained on our trees while all members of the tit family enjoyed the contents of the bird feeders with various other avian types like robins and dunock’s that do not normally  use the feeders joining in.

While most of our wildlife has lived through the start to this year’s winter we still have January and February 2011 to get through, lets us hope that the really cold weather has come and gone.

Monday 20th December a night to remember!  A temperature l-18c  was recorded here last night.

When I walked my dogs at 7 am the temperature had risen to -14c  

There was no badger emergence last night.

Tuesday 21^st -8c during the day and warming up to -6c at night

While walking my dogs at 7am I saw 9 fallow deer ,the herd contained two stags(with impressive antlers) and a near albino doe which is obviously the three year old offspring of one of the two old albinos that have been in this are for the past 8 years. I also saw three roe deer around our mobile home feeding on the fallen apples and barley that I put out for them.

The raptors are starting to hunt in the dark; I saw a kestrel and a buzzard this morning out hunting in the gloom that precedes dawn.

There was no badger emergence last night.

Wednesday 22^nd December intermittent snow showers -4c  200 mm of lying snow.

There was a badger emergence last night it looked to be only for a drink and a body cleanse.

I am seeing roe deer every day at all times of the day; I guess the attraction is the barley I am leaving out for them. I am also refilling our wild bird feeders every 48 hours.

We still have apples attached to our trees one of which seems to have stolen a ”Father Christmas” hat. (see below)

Thursday December 24^th -2c overcast, no wind, intermittent snow showers with snow  and ice now everywhere.

There was a badger emergence last night with a badger or two wandering a little further afield, lots of badger, fox, deer and rabbit spoor in the lying snow. The fox was being very brave and walking across our frozen ponds possibly looking for the moorhens which left us for the safety of a nearby brook and the food in the running water last week. I spotted 4 fallow deer in our plantation of trees on this morning’s walk at a distance of 15 metres .

We have had 6 inches of snow today and it is still snowing hard, on my early morning dog walk the snow was just starting  giving a whitish background which enabled me to see a red fox (in super condition) that was hunting for a vole and was oblivious to my presence until Poppy the puppy announced that we were around. I also spotted a roe deer in our orchard. I normally leave rewards for the badgers early evening but for some reason or other I left them this morning, they are currently under the snow in the photograph below. I do not expect a badger emergence tonight but if there is it will be very interesting to see if they managed to find their rewards.

-4c with a hard frost and light covering of snow over the evening of 16th December .

The College Barn Farm badgers emerged last night and found the treats that I had hidden for them( as they have over the past 2 weeks ) turning over rocks and large logs, scaling the badger climbing frame trees in their efforts to find the elusive peanuts. ( I do NOT make it easy for them to get a meal)

As I walked my two Springer Spaniels in the early part of this morning’s dawn Poppy the puppy espied her first fallow deer,there were four of them in amongst the tree plantation surrounding the badger’s setts. They were all about the same size and black in colour, so they stood out very well against a white background. The deer seemed quite calm and gently moved around us keeping around 30 meters away from the dogs, but staying within the confines of the trees. I thought that seeing the deer an excellent result for a gloomy morning walk until I approached our orchard where I spotted a kestrel hovering over prey just as the first field fares were coming into the apple trees for an early morning feed. When I arrived at our orchard I found three roe deer feeding on fallen apples, they soon exited the area as did we in the hope that they would have the rest of the day in peace to eat the enormous amount of apples still laying under our apple trees.

A Happy Christmas to all or vistors and supporters from all of us at College Barn Farm

6^th December -4.5c Freezing fog

For the past two weeks a thin covering of snow has made keeping warm and travelling for most people difficult. For wildlife that difficulty can be multiplied by probably 20 times. The ground is frozen solid as are all water supplies apart from rivers and brooks. So apart from staying warm the wildlife has still to find food and water, so all those who live in houses and  run business premises please spend 10 minutes per day filling your bird feeders and changing a fresh water supply for the uk bird life. Even a broken up left over sandwich will help. My feeders are being emptied every day  instead of every four days which should give an indication of how hungry the recipients of the feeders are, The birds also have a conatant supply of running water as do the badgers and deer.

The  last visitors to our badger-watch ( who were about to return to sunny & wet Australia)   left me with a contribution that will feed most of our wild birds and badgers until late January 2011, I am sure that apart from me our wildlife would like to thank the Duffield family for their contribution.

The badger are still emerging late (after midnight) even though they must be finding it increasingly difficult to find food in the countryside which I would have thought would have brought fporward their emergence.

The photograph below shows that badgers still change their bedding when snow is lying on the ground, the straw was dragged from a covered area down into their sett.

click on image to fullsize

While walking my dogs I have had close up sightings of many different varieties of birds inclusing green finches linnets and yellow hamer,the green woodpeckers seem to be finding something in our fallen apples along with fieldfares,waxwings and the odd thrush. Close up sightings of  Roe and Fallow deer  are a daily occurence. With the first covering of snow I was once again amazed to see the amount of animal traffic that had left footprints around our farm during the first night of the snow, by the end of the day following many wild birds had added to the foot print patternation in the snow.

Recently a cheeky  red fox was  also seen attempting to make a meal of Nanouk the cat. (fortunately  for Nanouk the fox was unsuccessful)

The weather is over cast with a cool wind blowing in from the east. 

While walking my two dogs early this morning (7am) I saw the albino fallow deer with around 6 of her herd, neither of my two dogs either smelt of saw them. The deer  moved from one side of our plantation to the other very skill fully keeping us at about a 50 metre range as we walked along our perimeter path. 

As we passed our rear farm gate that leads to Traitors Ford and all other parts west of us, I noticed that something had disturbed the dew on the grass path that leads back to our mobile home. I was just wondering what it could have been when I spotted two roe deer watching me with ears pricked from about 10 metres away. They blended in with trees so well that only a movement by them made it obvious that they were there. I really wished that I had taken my camera with me this morning as they seemed completely unconcerned at my presence (unlike when I saw them in our orchard last Friday afternoon when they both jumped a 5 foot hedge). 

I also saw a kestrel and a  sparrow hawk (briefly)  a pair of buzzards kept me amused for sometime as they are ungainly on the ground and make quite an exhibition of themselves while feeding on bugs and worms in the small field in front of our mobile home.

The badger emergence is now late 11.55pm with three badgers out together but not the same three all of the time, as they come and go at will during the early morning before returning to their sett at 5.30am.

While talking to one of our visitors last weekend he pointed out to me a peregrine falcon flying over our farm, he also said that the peregrine falcon was the fourth bird of prey he had seen that morning and it was only 8am when we saw it.

A barn owl set out from its owl box around 7.30 pm while a tawny owl visited the area below our hides and was seen by our visitors at close range, The owl was obviously using the flood light to help it find its prey. It stayed perched in the arena for some time in close proximity to the hides but was not seen to catch anything.

Our 2010 Badger Watch has now  completed, all of our visitors managed to see the  elusive badgers and also many other species of wildlife.

I would like to say a big thank you to all of the visitors that have visited College Barn Farm during 2010 and before, I would also like to say a big thank you to those of you who have sent me  copies of photographs that they have taken here during your stay here. I have put some of them on our web site for the benefit of all.

We are now we preparing for the 2011 Badger Watch and have some additions to make to our badger playground plusgeneral maintenance to trees etc. as well as repairs to one of our ponds  before February 2010 when our next vistors arrive. (weather permitting)

Below are some photographs sent to me by Teresa Cullen who visited College Barn Farm during August of this year:-

4 badgers all looking for Teresa

Photo by Teresa Cullen Aug 2010

Photo by Teresa Cullen Aug 2010

Photo by Teresa Cullen Aug 2010

Hanging on!! by Teresa Cullen Aug 2010

Many thanks to Teresa for sharing her photographs (click on the image to full size)

A beautifull sunny day today 6c + in the sun but a chilly 2c  forecast for tonight .

As we near the end of our badger-watch for 2010  I thought that for those that have been here this year and for those who are coming next year I would put an autumn view of our tree planattion looking ftowards “Traitors Ford” and another Autumn view down the valley towards Broadway Tower (which can be clearly seen by eye today)

Our visitors last evening were up watching the badgers until 3.30am this morning and reported seeing 11 badgers, several deer and a barn owl.

The badger emergence seems to be later as the year progresses, during  December the badger emergence will be intermittent and January probably equally unpredictable.

The autumn view toward "Traitors Ford"

A view down the valley toward Broadway

 Click on the image to full size it

Are badgers frightened of heights or deep water?

Sky high badger

Definitely not, as you can see from the above photograph by Charlotte Tree (taken from our running water hide about 10 days ago) The badger is about 12 feet over the middle of one of our ponds and ended up climbing up into a sycamore tree before returning back down.(many thanks to Charlotte for the photograph, the first taken of a badger on this particular log that I am aware of this year)

The badgers and barn owls were out in profusion last night with the barn owls seemingly playing with each other in flight. I am hopeful that they will produce owlets next year as they seem to be getting on very well with each other. The badgers changed bedding with a bale of straw that I provided, with all of it being taken under ground between 1.30 am and 5am.

In between times a considerable amount of turf was removed by the badgers looking for leather jackets.

I have today planted about an acre of grass that hopefully will be suitable for our barn owls to find their prey in a year or so, it only requires topping once every 5 years.

Rather than plant the grass in one big plot, I have planted it it in strips close to trees and our wood so that the barn owls can fly directly over it in their search for a supper

The garss sown :

10% Barchampsia Tufted hairgrass

30% Ptainal Cocksfoot

25%  Rasant Timothy 

10% Highland common bentgrass

15% Greystone tail fescue

10% Cosmolit meadow fescue