June 2017

New Life

Foxes

There is at least one fox cub we have seen in the paddock, hunting with mum. You can see them below in the undergrowth, Tigger we've named her/him, has a small white tip on its' tail.

Mum and Tigger

And this is Tigger hunting alone in the paddock. Tigger looks to be about 10/12 weeks old.

Tigger

This picture came from a video where we caught her stalking a vole.  For some reason she only played with it and it eventually escaped. 

Birds

Summer has arrived and since the last blog update we have witnessed an abundance of new life in and around the garden.  Blues Tits, Flycatchers and Robins mainly.

Gina and Gino produced eight eggs originally, and we're pleased to see that three of these eventually fledged the nest and are now doing fine in and around the garden.  Satchmo is still rather noisy and getting the lion's share of everything at the feeders.  Hopefully he will be back next season.

Added to this, we had several other boxes in and around the area and least three of these housed families of Blue Tits which eventually fledged.  We don't know the numbers as we did not have cameras in these boxes.

This is the aftermath of a successful Blue Tits' nest box.  This was the camera box where unfortunately two chicks were left behind.  We did give them a proper burial.

Blue Tits nest (1)

 

Blue Tits nest (2)

You can see from the nesting material, there is fur, feathers, hair and lots of moss and dry grass intricately weaved to make it soft and comfortable for the chicks.  This won't be used again, and so we clear the boxes out and give them a good scrubbing ready for next year.  There were three other boxes all with the same nest design. 

On the East side of the cottage we put a slightly different nest box up hoping to encourage Wrens or Sparrows. (Below)

Fly Catchers box and nest

 

In fact, we were luckier than that and managed to attract a pair of Fly Catchers who weave a very intricate structure seen here below.  This nest is mainly dry grass and straw with a cocoon of feathers deep inside.  There doesn't appear to be any hair or cat's fur.

Fly Catcher's nest

We have seen at least one juvenile Fly Catcher in the garden recently being fed his parents, so we assume it was successful. 

In addition to all this, there were clearly some other Blue and Great Tit nests nearby as we are seeing so much activity on the feeding stations that we are having to replenish them twice a day.  With the on set of new insects and caterpillar larvae we have cut back on the meal worms in order to encourage the new fledglings to cater for themselves. 

Woody the Wood Pigeon

We've had a late arrival on the nesting scene with a Wood Pigeon.  She has built a very precarious nest on the top step of an outbuilding just down the drive from the cottage.

She's has been sitting on two eggs for over a week now and these should be hatching soon. 

Woody

Woody's eggs

 

I will keep an eye on her and try and get a camera in position if it doesn't disturb her.

Badgers

The Badgers have been very quiet for the last few weeks, although the night camera has caught one of the adults right outside the front door of the cottage.  She doesn't seem to be bothering the hens at night, and on one occasion has turned Motty's food bowl over hoping for some left overs.  No luck there! 

The onset of summer means that the paddock where they live is overgrown with the grass about 5' tall in places which is providing a lot of cover for the animals in there.  This means that each visit requires a long trousers and good pair of boots, as we're not sure what exactly is lurking down there. 

We have managed to cut a path through the middle which the animals are grateful for and are using to get in and out.

Hens

Since we moved our hens into their new run they have been positively thriving.  For the past couple of weeks they have all been laying EVERY day.  Three eggs a day is good going, which indicates they are happy with their new surroundings.  They are getting half a sweet corn each day, shredded cabbage leaves (this keeps the yolks nice and yellow) as well as their favourite layers mash and lots of water.  

The new run has a layer of dried bark about 3 inches in depth, which means they can scratch away as much as they like looking for small insects, and creating dust baths to wallow in while it's sunny.

Pixie appears to be top of the pecking order at the moment, and is seemingly broody as every morning she takes to sitting on the other hens' eggs until we take them away. 

  

Allotment

We have harvested our first produce from the allotment, strawberries.  They are absolutely delicious.  We only planted three plants this year to see how they would fair.  Next year we intend to increase the strawberry plot to three times the size and produce a lot more.

We have some flower beds there also, which are producing some really fragrant Sweet Peas which are currently decorating the cottage.  The Sunflowers are also taking off and should have some heads on them soon.  We also have a big trough of Runner Beans which are shaping up nicely, and should be ready in August.

The work on the allotment has not been as back breaking as we anticipated, and taking it just a few hours a week seems to be paying off.  One of our neighbours at the allotments has installed a Bee hive, so pollenation is not a problem. 

Cats

Mim and Motty are well settled into the cottage now and rarely go far.  To be fair they don't really have to with the environment they are living in.  Motty captured another mouse while were we having a barbecue a few weeks back, perhaps that was her contribution, who knows.

The mini heatwave has affected them and they have spent most of their time hiding in the undergrowth keeping cool.  Mim has a very thick and long coat and finds it difficult to keep cool despite constant brushing.  If she didn't have the habit of trying to remove your fingers while brushing her fur, she might just be a bit cooler!

Motty

 

 

Mim

Cricket

No village setting would be complete without the cricket club, and just around the corner about 40 minutes walk across the fields is Stowing CC.  Founded in 1895, it has a quintessential setting,  amongst the rolling fields of Kent, surrounded by Ponies and Sheep.

Our introduction to watching them nearly came at a price a few weeks back, when we arrived at the ground,the ball suddenly came flying through the hedgerow missing us by a few feet and landing in the field occupied by a none too friendly Pony.  The owner was summoned and she retrieved the ball.  A six was given, so the two batsmen did not have to keep running while the ball was retrieved.  Not a problem you often see at The Oval or Edgbaston.

We had a great afternoon, and Stowting rolled out as victors in the game.  We also had a splendid tea at the ground.  Visitors are encouraged to participate for a small donation which we willingly paid.  We look forward to some more visits to Dawes Field.

Well, it's time to go and reserve a lounger in the sun.

More later....