As you may know I have moved to the beautiful countryside in Kent, the garden of England.
Over the next year I plan to keep this chronicle of the wildlife and nature I discover in my new surroundings, and share the activities of the wildlife as the seasons change.
The house we are in is deep in the woodlands, surrounded by a variety of evergreens and deciduous trees, and wildlife habitats. There is a Badgers Sett about 75 yards from our back garden in the area known as the Paddock, and they share the area with a den of Foxes.
I have been using a Trail Cam overnight near the Badgers' Sett with some success as you can see from the picture above.
The garden is an oasis for bird life, and species seen so far include Great, Blue and Long-Tailed tits, a pair of Robins, a Wren, a Magpie and a Blackbird. Feeding time can be quite noisy. Other flying creatures at night include several species of Bat, and one Tawny Owl and one Barn Owl.
Oh, and I mustn't forget Neville. Neville is our resident cock Pheasant who spends most of his time clearing up the seed from below the bird feeders, and then sleeping it off behind our Hydrangea Bush.
This is Neville. Apparently, most of the wildlife here have their own names. The male fox is Johnny, but we're not sure about the Badger.
We've also had visits from some Toads who manage to get themselves stuck in the water bucket, but eventually get out, and there is a small Shrew living in the garage.
The onset of Autumn is showing some real changes to the environment here, the trees are all turning beautiful shades of brown and orange and the wildlife is getting prepared for the colder weather. If anybody would like some Crane flies, we have plenty.
More later.....
Tuesday 27th September 2016
As I wandered down through the Paddock on Saturday evening to check the cameras, two items emerged from the large Horse Chestnut Tree which sits about halfway down on the right. You can see it on the right of this picture, it's the one changing colour.
The first item was the large, lazy movement of a Buzzard, who had obviously been sitting in the tree enjoying the late afternoon sunshine. He took to the sky in his lumbering way, demonstrating his ample wingspan and I don't know who surprised who, but he was on the wing before I could get a good glimpse of him. The paddock does have one or two rabbits, and a host of mice, rats and shrews, so it's obviously a good hunting ground for him. He made his way off to the west towards St. Mary's church, hopefully to be seen again soon.
I've seen double yoked eggs in the countryside on many occasion, but never a triple conker case. A schoolboy's delight if ever there was one.
Next Year's Nestboxes.
I am in process of setting up next season's nest boxes and I will be taking full advantage of the trees in the paddock, and plan to set up at least six boxes. Even though they won't be used until late March, it's never too early to get them in situ so that the birds can get used to them. I intend to try a little experiment this year, nothing too scientific, but I will placing them facing in all different directions. Two are already in place, one facing directly North and the other facing South. I'll put four in the paddock, two facing East and two facing West. There's always some conjecture about the best way to face the boxes, so let's see what happens.
I have restricted the entrance holes on them using aluminium plates, so that the Woodpeckers can't get to the eggs or chicks. Three of the boxes will have 25mm holes, for the Blue Tits, two will have 28mm holes for the Great Tits, and one will have a 32mm hole and we'll just have to see if anybody takes that.
There will also be an open fronted Robin box in the garden to try and coax the two resident Robins we have, and a further two Wren boxes secreted away in the Ivy.
I have also constructed a nest box with two cameras and discreet lighting inside which hopefully will attract either Blue or Great Tits. Here's a picture.
The nest area itself is in the bottom right hand corner with the entrance hole far right. There are four LED's in the roof of the nest area which won't have any effect on the birds, and two CCD's cameras situated horizontally and vertically. Fingers crossed!
I will put this somewhere on the side of the cottage in January as I will have to run the cables into the house.
Bird Update
This week, we have seen a Treecreeper, a family of Long Tailed Tits and a Willow Warbler in the back garden of the cottage, along with the Buzzard in the paddock.
We have also had some success with the cameras at the Badger Setts, here's a picture of Johnny the Fox having a nose around outside the sett.
Here's a little video clip of Bella the Badger having a good scratch, and wandering around the woods. Enjoy!
We have also had some success with the cameras at the Badger Setts, here's a picture of Johnny the Fox having a nose around outside the sett.
Here's a little video clip of Bella the Badger having a good scratch, and wandering around the woods. Enjoy!
