Fox Cubs on my Doorstep

Five minutes walk from my house I have discovered an Fox Earth in a field. I watched 5 cubs outside the earth this week playing. The sheep in the field have taken an instant dislike to them and take great enjoyment in chasing their neighbours back into their hole.

Recent sightings

Its amazing how quickly time flies and one can get behind on maintaining a Blog. This was never going to be a daily affair, but I had hoped this would have been at lease monthly. 12 months on even that has failed. I dare not promise greater regularity in case I fail once again.

Nevertheless here we have a photo of a new mammal I have recorded down the Mill. Seen in late February this Weasel caught my eye. It was obviously out foraging and I startled it. It dived into a hole in a tree and then waited for me to leave, keeping a curious eye on me.

House Raid

Out of the bird boxes I erected only a handful have attracted occupants. None of the open fronted boxes have been used nor has the Marsh Tit box despite its sawdust interior being excavated. 1 box in the meadow and two in the wood however have been occupied by Blue Tits.



Over the weeks I have been watching the adults bob to and fro, now I can hear the cheeps of young inside as the adults bring in caterpillars. Today however I was met by a sight of devastation. A large hole had been eaten into one of the boxes and there were no signs of Blue Tits or chicks.

No doubt a Woodpecker located the nest and decided he fancied a snack. You can avoid this by using metal hole protectors however it is my aim that my efforts supplement nature not dictate it, therefore I decided not to lend extra support to any tit family's, such is life as a small bird. The dangers are many.

Exciting Day

Yesterday I actually took some time to enjoy the land. Rather than work tirelessly at clearing back nettles, putting up bird boxes or scattering seed I took down my hide and set it up so that I could photograph some of the species that visit the feeding station I have set up. Blue Tits, Great Tits and Long Tailed Tits all visited and whilst I waited even a Kingfisher appeared alongside the creek.

After sitting for awhile I went and took a water sample and set up my remote camera on the main gate post. I retrieved the camera this morning and rushed back to look at what it had caught. The camera had been activated 35 times and recorded Wrens, Blackbirds, Rabbits, Wood Mice and the piece de resistance a Badger!

I suspected Badgers frequented the site given a few smudged footprints. Bearing this in mind I baited the area in front of the camera with peanuts, a badgers favourite food.

Redpoll

As part of my sunday morning route I came across a small flock of Redpoll. They have thrown up an interesting exercise in identification as I struggle through the various subtleties of sub-species differences.

Whats in your garden?

Over Christmas I bought an infra red camera. Its a great little device that has an 8MP Camera that can take either still or short film clips. I have been trying it out so far in the garden before trialling out in the wild. So far I have discovered mice and hedgehogs.

Work continues

Exactly a month has passed since I seriously began to work on developing Saxon Mill Carr and things are really starting to take shape.

In the past 30 days a lot of the materials I had ordered arrived and so I have slowly been working on putting them in place.

Work today consisted of putting up a further two nest boxes and planting some trees



The first trees to be planted were a Sessile Oak and 3 Bird Cherries. Oaks are the countries most important species for supporting invertebrate life and Bird Cherry trees grow well on damp ground and produce berries in the autumn that are eaten by many species of bird.


For the last 3 weeks I have also been conducting a detailed tree survey. I have recorded the location of approximately 213 trees on the site. I used a GPS to plot their exact position and noted down their species. Below is a preliminary map of the results.