The badger emergence is around 8.10pm at the moment.

On my evening dog walk last evening at 5.35pm I saw what I thought to be a buzzard take off a local field very slowly, on a closer inspection it turned out to be  a red kite that had caught a large rabbit. I left the rabbit where it was found and hoped that the red kites would return to the kill.

I looked out of my office window at 6.45 am this morning and once again saw the rabbit, nearly a mile closer than yesterday ! and with a different host see the videos below.

I have been advised by Bob a trusted naturalist that contrary to my email, the fox in the video above is accompanied by two Ravens not Carrion Crows.

His comment was “Carrion Crows do not come up a fox that far” I do tend to agree with him as I know that we have Ravens in this area.

A warm week with uprecedented badger and other wildlife activity.

below is what appears to be a fairly normal  grooming session between two badgers……. however my camera has been watching this sett for a week or more 

From the behaviour of these two badgers in the video below I have concluded that this sett probably contains badger cubs.

 My reasons for the assumption are:

 Badgers are constantly going back and forth into the sett (22 images on the camera between 7.15PM and 5.18 am last night and previous nights at about the same rate)

 Copious amounts of bedding being taken into the sett over the last 3 evenings. (it must be full now)

 There is a badger always in the entrance to the sett, which every now and then takes a peep above ground level particularly when the fox came and stole the food I put out for the badgers.

The fox in the two video’s below is throwing caution to the wind in its efforts to obtain a supper for its cubs.

 Last night was the quickest badger bed change in history? (6 seconds)

The short video below is NOT speeded up.

Last Saturday were delighted to see  two Red Kites fly over here accompanied by a kestrel, I also espied two Buzzards shortly afterwards

The following photograps were taken by Tamara & Samir Sipraga on the 15th & 16th March 2012

 (click on the images to full size)

Hey! I am not cross eyed I am awaiting a peanut

It is a looong way down (8 feet to be precise)

Greater spotted wood pecker puts the Great Tit to flight

 Many thanks to Samir & Tamara for sending me the photograhs that they took here ast week ( I have only shown a few of them here)

The weather is calm and warm (for the time of year) but foggy for most of the day.

A typical badger emergence in the short video below is followed by a video of a badger bed changing

Our visitors last weekend had close up sightings of the College Barn Farm badgers, three badgers at one time on one occasion which is quite unusual as the badgers tend to be very busy and are mostly on their own during what I can only describe as a disruptive time for badgers with badger sows having young and coming into season etc. 

A Peregrine falcon was seen on Saturday  disrupting the local bird life with the rooks making the most noise. 

I have seen quite a few yellow hammers recently together with many other small bird varieties all being very busy. Yesterday I was more than pleased to find images on my stealth camera of 7 fallow deer led by an albino doe with a buck bringing up the rear of the party.

The three litlte rabbits in the video below are a sure sign that spring is here again.

Can you spot the fourth rabbit?

  The badger emergence was at 6.35 pm last night, the first badger was out just as 5 deer (three adults and two fawns) wandered through the badger sett area.

 Our visitors Matt and Nicky had a good view of them as the deer followed a trail of peanuts up to the hide.

 Shorty after the appearance of the deer there were two badgers out in front of the lower hide within arm’s reach of our visitors they were however extremely cautious and reacted to the slightest sound.

The weather is still mild but cloudy, the song thrush was singing again this morning.

Brock the badger makes a speedy sure footed trip along a pine tree  (watch the right hand log on the video below) and I am not sure why!!

I am now not so sure as this badger (below) a night later seems a little wary and unstable!!

For the past two days I have heard a thrush singing in the same tree on my early morning dog walk at about 7 am, a sure sign that spring is not far away. There are many other signs, our snowdrops are in full bloom, daffodils are nearly in bloom and one of our early plums trees is just about to produce leaves, there are a pair of collar doves cooing together in one of our old buildings , a green woodpecker has also been very vocal today.

Today was a lovely sunny day which enabled me to catch up with outside jobs, one of which was the fitting of some new guttering to my tractor shed, while looking up at the finished job I spotted a fast moving dot many thousands of feet up in the sky,soon after I spotted another larger dot which I identified as a  buzzard. I am not sure how long they had been flying in the thermal but when an aircraft passed underneath them both I realised how high they must have been. The highest I have ever seen a buzzard fly.

On my afternoon dog walk this afternoon Poppy our springer spaniel suddenly acted strangely and picked something up out of a grassy open ditch, what ever it was  Molly our older springer spaniel took it off her. I told Molly to drop whatever it was and fortunately she obeyed.

Hardly a handful the smallest leveret I have ever seen

I put the Leveret back where Poppy picked it up and have to hope it survives.

A “Cocky” cock pheasant visited the badger  playground looking for food. 

 Below are three short recent videos of the Collge Barn Farm badgers taken with my stealth camera set as low as possible.

 Which badger if any badger would you say was suckling cubs?