The last entry for 2011.

A very mild week  with a rainy end to the week, fortunately we finished the ground work including reseeding around the ponds and the new “badger skyway” while the soil was dry.

A badger in the image below was the first to scale the entrance to the “skyway” and did so with obvious ease, I will be posting more images as I move the camera around the “skyway” during the early part of 2012.

A jay was picked up on my camera during yesterday along with some chaffinches, (see images below) I often hear jay’s shriek but rarely see them in the woods.

I followed a sparrow hawk in my car this morning at a sedately 30 mph, I have seen them fly a lot fatser than 30 mph paticularly when they are making a kill!

As 2011 draws to a close it is interesting to me (and hopefully anyone who looks at our website)  to look back and see  how our conservation project started 20 years ago and how it has progressed  todate : 

Below are two photographs of our ponds and our artificial sett for comparison.(click on the images to full size  them)

The pond 20 years ago

The same pond on 23rd December 2011 (20 years on)

 Our artificial badger sett was construted about 20 years ago

The artificial sett 20 years ago

 The artificial badger sett today

The artificial badger sett as it is today

 A Big Big thank you to all of our hundreds of visitors over the past 20 years who have helped us in many ways to acheive our wildlife sanctuary as it is today.

 There was badger activity last night in front of our lower hide  with maize cobs and peanuts being taken from mice proof placements.

The mice quickly dispaear when there are  badgers  around I guess they fear for their lives.

NEW for 2012

We have extended the badger skyway by around 23 metres (see photograph and video below)

The new badger skyway to the ponds

Happy Christmas

 (Click on the image to full size it)

Do badgers hibernate? 

Not when there is maize or sweetcorn around.

The dance of the wood mice? 

Lastly

Lincoln’s digger dance?

I saw a kingfisher on one of our ponds that still has water in it today, the most fleeting of glances and the second time I have seen one this year an absolute delight to see it.

Badgers are generally out of their setts from around from 11pm until 3am the next morning but out on their own, until the night before last when my camera took the following images on its last remaining 10 seconds of battery power:

The image below is the partner to the Cock Pheasant in my previous post

The badger emergence is erratic at the moment to say the least,one evening 8.30pm the next evening 11pm.

I am seeing quite a few recent deer spoor of all sizes in the clay of our newly dug ponds, I do not however see the deer very often.

I had many small birds feeding out on my lawn and in the field next door this morning including linnets green finches and gold finches I spent 15 minutes watching them continually on the move, so much so that it was difficult to keep track of them.

 Dandelions are still flowering as is Keck (see below) I also have raspberries ready to pick and flowering tomato plants outside the greenhouse, winter what winter?

 I have never known a November so mild.

It has been so misty during the night over the past week that the badgers have looked like ghosts on my videos.

We did however get a very good looking colourful bird visit the badger feeding area (see below)

Always on the move and a very hardy water bird  but a damson eater??  I would have said NO

the video below says YES and enjoying it too oth Moorhems badgers and deer enjoy our soft fruit for 5 months of the year

The strongest and hardest working animal on our farm (below)

The badger emergence is now  late, (not unusual for November) around 11pm and sometimes  later with more badgers around the farm on their own, bed time for the badgers seems to be around 5am. I find it interesting that the badgers are stil eating damson plums which (due to lack of frost ) keep falling daiy from the trees I planted some years ago. The badgers(and other wldlife) now obtain cherries and plums from early July to November 5 months.

(above) A badger in good condition out on the rocks infront of our “running water” hide

 It is still mild here with little rain over the past two weeks so our two reconstructed “desilted ponds” are still empty.

Today I was really pleased to see a family of long tailed tits (six of them) skitting through our trees, a kestrel, 3 flying swans, countless Canada Geese and many other smaller species of birds just too far away for me to recognise.

The first badger emerged just before 8pm last evening, the badger activity at this time of the year seems to be  most of the night with badgers in “ones’ and two’s” with the last badger going to bed at 6am.

We have cleaned and deepened our two ponds just before it rained last night, it was a close run thing as any digging machine of any weight finds it impossible to extract itself from a wet clay lined pond!!

The photograph below shows Lincoln starting the “de silting” of the pond on Monday morning.

Click on the image to full size it

Lincoln starting the desilting of our largest pond

Two days later the pond is cleared and deepened

 To see Lincoln in action click on the three short videos below showing the start of the work to the finish of it

Many thanks to Lincoln for his effort over the past three days

Rain at last! it rained here all day yesterday it was our first descent rain fall  in months.

A young grey wagtail was feeding on our patio yesterday, a delight to see it as we normally only see the Pied wagtail which seems to stay here 12 months of the years. (Feeding mainly off bugs on our tiled roof)

Our badgers are going into winter in good condition (see below) many many thanks to Richard Steel who took the following exceptional photographs of badgers here last week, staying up until 2 am to do so!! (click on the image to full size it)

Just look at my thite teeth and we do not use tooth paste

It is 2 am ! you humans should be in bed

Yes I am in very good condition thanks to all the visitors feeding me

Many thanks to Richard Steel for sending me copies of his photograhs for our web site for everyone to see

Many thanks to Richard Steel for sending copies of his photograhs for everyone to see

  The badger emergence occured at dusk last evening, before the badgers emerged muntjac, roe deer and a large fallow deer stag with formidable antlers put in an appearance.

 The badgers seen sharing the man made badger sett with a fox in my previous post have now excluded the fox who seems to have left rather allot of fleas to torment the badgers. (see below)