Today  was warm and mild for the 9th January, rather unusual to see a Jay today along with a woodpecker,I also heard the woodpecker drumming  its beak on a tree on several occasions which is normally a spring pursuit for the wodpecker. With the continuing mild weather I am pleased now that I took the oportunity of the dry mild weathr and reseeded the banks of two of our ponds as the existing grass is making a rapid recovery and the planted grass seed will be chitting. Reseeding is normally carried out March or April in the Spring or August or  September in the autumn so there are advantages with unusually mild weather.

 We have two hazel nut trees that have not yet lost their leaves and now also have catkins on them. (click on image to full size) I have never known this happen before.

The badger activity is not consistent time wise, sometimes I have them on camera at 8-9pm but more often than not it is around 3am The badger in the video below is one of our regular vistors to the buried peanut container

A very suspicious muntjac came to see us last evening but did not think too much of the camera (see video clip) at least we get t see the “pretty end” of the animal

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.