February 2017 - Part 3

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz

 

I wonder where the winter is?

This has to be one of the best times of year with the Snowdrops, Crocuses and Daffodils coming into bloom.  We are fortunate enough to have an abundance of all of these scattered around the cottage and gardens.  The good work of previous occupants has paid off handsomely.

The air temperature is getting slightly warmer and it's time now for a wake up call for some of our hibernating species.

While we were at the allotment recently, in my rush to tidy up some debris I unearthed the rare sight of two juvenile grass snakes who had been sheltering up over the winter beneath some rotting wood.  Needless to say I covered them over again and let them continue their sleep. They were still there at the end of the cold snap, but now the weather is a little brighter they have moved on.  Hopefully we'll come across them again some time. (Note: Take a camera next time!)

Toad Patrol

Just about 2 miles from the cottage is the main pond, which sits just outside of Brabourne Lees, and every year about now it is a Mecca for breeding toads.  As this was something we never witnessed in London, we signed up  to assist the migratory toads in getting across the roads to the pond.  Now, the roads here are not particularly busy, however, the amount of toads and frogs trying to get across is quite extraordinary and invariably there are many casualties.  But, with the assistance of the good folk of the town in recent years the numbers have increased with the aid of the 'Toad Patrol'.

Toads usually return to their traditional breeding grounds, and tend to make the arduous journey in late February/early March when the temperature is above 5 degrees and preferably it's raining and the ground is wet.  There are several routes to the pond in Brabourne, and it requires some organization to get round to each crossing, and that's where the bikes come in handy.

Unfortunately, most motorists will have no idea of what's happening so it's really a question of just asking them to stop for while the road is cleared enough for them to continue.  You have to bear in mind that the Toads have other things on their minds while they are crossing these roads.

We will take a head count of all the males and females we encounter that make it successfully as well as those who don't.

Hedgehogs

We have not seen any evidence so far of any Hedgehogs, however, it may well be that they are still asleep.  We previously spoke to our neighbour Hester, who thinks there may be one or two asleep under her compost heap, so we have put a camera nearby for a week, to see if anybody stirs.  If they do, we'll put a footprint trap down.  

Watch this space. 

The Fight!

Last week was National Nest Box week, a time to put up the nest boxes and offer them for inspection from any interested parties.  We've had ours up for a few weeks already so that we can test the cameras and lighting inside, and all is going well.  This year I also positioned a camera on the entrance hole at the front so that it is covered from three aspects, inside top, inside side and outside entrance.

While we have had a few interested parties, two birds in particular came to blows over future ownership of this nest box.  This is what happened.  I have slowed some of the motion down so that you can see a bit more detail.

 

I'm pleased to say neither bird was hurt in this altercation, only a bit of wounded pride.

The Blue Tits have been visiting regularly and we hope that in the next three or four weeks when the weather gets a bit warmer, they will start constructing the nest.  The female will probably do most of the gathering of materials which will include, moss, feathers and dry grass and we've even saved some of the cat's fur from their brush which will make excellent bedding for the eggs, and the male will provide her with food.

Fledging is usually the last week in May dependant on the weather.  Once the building starts I'll turn all three cameras on and provide a link.

Badgers and Foxes

It has been relatively quiet from both the Badgers and Foxes lately.  The cameras reveal that they are all still active, but we are now in breeding season and so I wonder if that's what keeping them in a little more.  Hopefully we'll know soon enough. 

New arrivals

We're getting ready for the arrival on Tuesday 28th of Martha, Pixie, Bunty and Sally.  Now that the Avian Flu ban is lifted the hens will be ready for collection this week.

More about them next time... 

 

February 2017 - Part 2

The Owl and the Pussycats.

As I write this update the snow is coming down and settling all around in Brabourne.  The sight of the snow on the fields and trees is quite amazing to see, but it's not welcome in all quarters.  The birds are gathering in numbers on the feeders as the temperature drops and it's vital they get their source of energy to get through these cold days.  Water is also vital and this morning for only the second time I had to break a thin layer of ice on the pond and water dishes.

It's particularly hard for the Tawny owl when it's either raining or snowing, as the owls' feathers differ from other birds in that they do not repel water very efficiently. This does have benefits in that their flight approach is almost silent to their unsuspecting prey. 

If the owl cannot fly at night to gather its food source, then it will have to resort to hunting during the day at a time when most of its' prey are safely tucked away.

There is a good water source nearby located in our landlord and neighbour's garden which has a freshwater stream running through it.  Many animals drink from it including our two adopted cats.  There are also many animal tracks leading across the stream and last week I put one of the cameras down by the stream to see exactly who was using them.  

This is what I captured. 

At last, our first decent sighting of Hooty.  I've slowed the video down a bit so that we can see her taking to the air.  It looks as if she's popped down to the stream for a drink.  I have left the camera there for a further week to see if this is a regular spot for her.  Watch this space!
  

Cats

Motty and Mim are still visiting regularly and seem to enjoy the company.  So much so that Motty left us a present on the doorstep earlier this week in the shape of a dead mouse.  Now, this cat by all accounts is 16 or 17 years old, so for a cat of that age and limited mobility with her hips, she did well to catch it.  She did trot through the front garden making a sound which said how pleased she was with herself, and made sure we were all aware of her catch.  She also got the praise she deserved.

Motty - Mum

Mim - Motty's Daughter

We think Mim bears an uncanny resemblance to the cat with no pulse in the Specsavers Ad. 😀

Blackbirds

Being so close to nature in the country, death is inevitably going to raise it's ugly head now and then, and we were both unfortunate and fortunate in this respect this week.  

We have two male blackbirds frequenting the garden with their partners, and sadly early on Wednesday morning I found one of them had been taken by the fox.  He must have been foraging at first light when the fox was still about. 

About an hour later there was a crash against the conservatory window and I couldn't believe our bad luck, but the other male had flown into the window and was laying dazed on the lawn outside.  I managed to get to him first, and he appeared to be moving his head so I figured his neck was in tact and took him in to the garage, covered him with some clean cloths and put him in Mim's cat box high up out of reach of anything.  When I went back about an hour later he was sitting on the handlebars of my bike looking towards the garage doors.  I opened them both and he flew straight under the car where he stayed for another half an hour.  He was OK.  We have now put some bird decals on the windows to deter them flying into it.

Later that afternoon he was seen tucking into some meal worms on the lawn.  So, he lives to fight another day and hopefully many more.  Since then he's been feeding regularly outside the kitchen window and no damage appears to have been done.

Visitors

At last we have had some visits from Starlings.  For some reason there are plenty of them down the lane by the church but have never quite made it to the feeders at our place.  Yesterday was the first time we saw them, so I will put the Starling nest box up where hopefully they will make use of it.

We have also seen a Nuthatch around the garden and he's been very busy taking the sunflower hearts. I'm rather hoping he's got one eye on one of the open fronted nest boxes we have secreted away in the hedges.

More next time.... including the battle for the nestbox....

February 2017

Well! Where did January go?

It's been a cold, frosty and foggy time down here in Kent, with the fog rolling off the fields next door early in the morning, being replaced mostly by rain.  The early part of January gave us some snow and kept the birds huddled around the feeding stations, not to mention our two house guests, Mim and Motty, who secured a bed for pretty well most nights.  I suppose it's not surprising seeing as both of them are into their old age and taking any scrap of comfort where they can find it.

Foxes

We have been successful in identifying who's who in the adult fox world.  I won't go into detail but by a bit of detective work on the videos we have now established for sure which one is Jenny and which one is Johnny.  

If you look closely at Johnny's tail you will see that's it's a lot shorter than Jenny's.  Whether he's had some sort of accident or not we're not sure, but it's considerably shorter than Jenny's which has a white tip at the end of it.  Identifying them both and their movements will be easier.

Both are in excellent condition at the moment which serves them well as we're now into breeding season.  We've witnessed lots of barking from Jenny while she has been in the paddock during the day, which is a sign that she's calling for attention from other dog foxes.  Johnny will have to make sure he's in peak condition if other males are around. 

New Arrivals.

The hen house is secured and in place in the field next door.  Pauline, our neighbor has let us use part of her poultry field. As you can see from the picture we've gone to great lengths to secure the house, making sure that nobody can dig underneath the house, or jump on top of it.  We've used welded mesh around the perimeter of the house, as the fox or badger will always dig as close as it can to get in.  We also added an extra run at the end to give the hens more room to move about.

The hens are due to arrive on February 28th when the current ban on poultry movement is lifted, so we're hoping that there are no more outbreaks of Avian flu to push that date back.   The hens are Bovans Neras, a docile breed which lay dark brown eggs.

Hedgehogs.   

We haven't seen any Hedgehogs in the vicinity which is probably due to the Badgers and Foxes being in residence, however, one of our neighbors, Hester, has seen them in her fields and we think there are some hibernating in an old pile of leaves she has near her compost heap.

It's that time of year now when the Hedgehogs might just be waking up to top up their fat reserves, and so we've put a 'footprint trap' near to where they are nesting, in the hope that we can capture them either on camera, or their footprints when they feed.

This is a standard footprint trap for small mammals which we'll be using. It's made out of corrugated plastic, with two sheets of A4 paper at either end, some food in the middle as bait, and some inked masking tape which the animals walk through.  The ink is eco friendly, a mixture of charcoal powder and vegetable oil and will not harm the animals.  We'll be borrowing some of Mim and Motty's chicken flavoured cat food for the bait, as apparently the Hedgehogs are partial to that.

The plan is, the animals will walk through the tunnel, across the inked tape and take the food. Which ever way they leave, we should get some prints. We'll put this down in an appropriate place and leave a camera at one end and see who visits.  Watch this space.

Owls.

Some of you may have seen the video on Facebook of the Tawny Owl near the nest box.  It wasn't a good quality video so I won't load it here, but suffice to say Hooty was in the vicinity of the nest box early one morning this week, and hopefully she's spotted it with a view to using it.  I'll keep the camera on it for a few more weeks.

The Pond.

The pond is now complete with some oxygenating plants, and hessian around the sides to assist anything that falls in unexpectedly, to climb out.  There is also a ramp and a bird bath in the middle.  The roofing tiles to the left allow the frogs and toads to crawl underneath for shelter.  There has been no activity so far around the pond and it's only slightly frozen over once so far.

Badgers.

Bella and her family are still very active and keeping their sett(s) clean and tidy. 

I've done some research on the structure of the Badgers' setts and it could well be that the underground tunnel system is spread over the whole of the paddock which is little under an acre in size.  Here's a picture of the area and who is sleeping where, but for obvious reasons I won't say exactly where it is.

1 and 2 are the Foxes dens, while 3,4 and 5 are the Badgers' setts.  It appears that there is a maze of connecting tunnels between all five entrance sites as we've seen both species using the same entrances at different times. Entrance 1 seems to be the central point.  It doesn't look that 4 and 5 are linked, but there is a link between  1 and 4, and 2 and 3.  It's mainly here at entrances 2 and 3 where the Badgers and Foxes bump into each other.

So far there is no evidence of any squabbling, as it seems to be the badgers who are getting their own way especially when it comes to housing. There are probably enough resources to go round for both sets of families, but spring should be interesting if we see more cubs arriving.

More later with hopefully an update on the Hedgehogs......