We have several rabbit holes under and through the compost heap. Often, they get taken over by foxes and badgers. Here is a video of one rabbit digging some earth out of its burrow. Instead of digging and scattering the dirt into a mound behind itself, this rabbit also pushes the soil forwards using its front paws, spreading it out into a low flat low layer. Very neat. It worked alone over a couple of days. Starting just before sunset on January 28th, and then over a period of 40 minutes on the morning of the 29th. It was amazingly neat. Finally in the last minutes of digging, a Redwing bird comes and helps out.
Category Archives: wildlife
Garden Nature – Grey Heron
2nd February 2023
Rosemary spotted a Grey Heron near the field pond. I rushed out to take a photograph. I was far from it, and it was standing down the slope to the pond, so little of the Heron was in sight. I grabbed a few frames from about100 meters away, and then walked towards it. Of course, it flew off.
I looked at the frames I took, not technically good, but you could see it was eating a frog or toad. So worth keeping them. I think it was a Toad, and so does Rosemary.
Our very Own Otter
2nd January 2023
The wildlife camera threw up an interesting find. In between the rabbits, muntjac deer and the foxes, was an Otter. We have seen it only once. Maybe it was exploring the pond. There are several ponds in the immediate vicinity, many with fish. Our pond dries out in the Summer so not suitable for fish. Anyway, nice to see it, a change from Rabbits and Foxes.
Garden Nature – Sparrowhawk
1st January 2023
The New Year brought with it the Sparrowhawk. It spent an exceptionally long time perched in the tree by the bird feeders. Most of the time was spent preening. Needless to say, there were no songbirds in the vicinity. I took several (hundreds) of photographs, which I have trimmed down to this lucky sequence of it emptying out our songbirds in one avian excretion.
Fox Cubs
Back in the late spring, early summer of 2022, we had a skulk of foxes in the field bringing up four fox cubs. We believe it was two vixens, with a couple of cubs each. Normally we would see two cubs at a time, but on occasion another two cubs would come from the other side of the mound and join in with the play. One set of cubs disappeared during the summer. We assume (hope) they moved on somewhere else. The cubs are now fully grown, and we have seen them since this video was put together.
You can watch the short edition, a little over 5 minutes, or the long two and a quarter hour video. The longer video also stars Badger, Muntjac deer, Squirrels, rabbits, Great spotted woodpecker and various other birds.
The Highlights
Five minutes and 52 seconds showing the highlights of the cubs.
The Full Monty of a Video
Two hours and 19 minutes. The full monty.
Still Four Fox Cubs
I missed several days of fox cubs, they run the battery down on the camera in only a few days. One night the fox cubs spent the whole of darkness playing! The Infrared light soon depleted the battery! The batteries changed and, on the 4th and 5th of May the Fox cubs are still around. A little bigger, now steady on their feet and much more active.
Four Cute Fox Cubs
I knew there was still the odd fox around our garden. The compost heap was regularly being visited, and any leftover food was soon carried away overnight. I put up a webcam on the 23rd of April, near some holes by our field pond, which are often used by rabbits. Last year foxes used these holes to store their larder and raise their young cubs. Sure, enough the Vixen(s) were back and there were four fox cubs in residence. They played during the night, early evening, and early morning. The vixen could be seen during the night. We are not sure if there were two families in the same area. Mostly we would see two or three cubs, but on occasion there was a fourth.
Kilimanjaro Trek – Day 9
Today the tour group split up, some flying home, others having a beach holiday in Zanzibar. Paul Tom and I were going on Safari. Breakfast at 7.00 and then we were picked up by our driver, Elvis, and driven to Tarangire National Park for a game drive. This was a four-hour drive on an excellent road. Some sections were a little slow, getting stuck behind a heavy lorry creeping up a hill. Our driver kept to the speed limits of 50kph in villages and town, otherwise he drove as fast as the Landcruiser would drive. The scary bit was the distance behind the vehicle in front, (or lack of distance). Sometimes approaching a vehicle in front at high speed, and then swinging out onto the other side of the road at the last second dodging the oncoming traffic. Tuk Tuks, the main transport, other than tourists in Landcruisers, were no problem. They kept very much to the side of the road, and you could then have four lanes of traffic.
When we left Weru Weru River Lodge, we picked up a packed lunch from the hotel. At all the hotels, the packed lunches were similar and always packed in a square cardboard box. Mine was gluten free, it basically had all the bread items removed, no replacement items. We stopped at a tourist shop selling carvings and had a loo break. Later on, we stopped and picked up some bottled water.
The land on the roadside was grazed by the nomadic Masai goat herders. We took a short detour through a goat auction, goats were being brought in by the Masai and being auctioned.
We arrived at the Tarangire National Park entrance, which was terribly busy with more than twenty Landcruiser waiting entry. Elvis paid the entry and we were soon on our way. Inside the park the grass was very lush and green. The rains had recently started. The park appeared far greener than the lands outside the park, presumably because there are too many goats grazing the land outside.
We soon found a herd of Elephants who were on their way to a water hole. We watched them for a long time as they played in the water. There were some young elephants being introduced to the water. It was a riveting watch. I make no excuse for the substantial number of Elephant photographs I have placed in the blog. Bored of elephants, you could divert your attention to the birds on the water.
Over the radio there was a report of a Leopard sighting, so we headed off to see it. It was visible along with dinner hanging in a tree. Not the best view of a Leopard I have had, but still worthwhile.
On the way back from the Leopard sighting, we came across a herd of Baboons. There were many youngsters riding on their mothers. We also saw Impala, Ostriches, Buffalo, Giraffe, and a dear little Mongoose living in a termite mound. We headed towards the cliff which overhangs the river. This was the lunch spot where you could get out, sit at tables, eat lunch and visit the loo. Eating lunch, you had to be careful of the monkeys who would sneak up and grab the food off the table. They failed with us.
After we finished, we headed off towards the Ngorongoro crater to stay in the Bougainvillea Safari Lodge in Karatu. This entailed a drive around Lake Manyara and then up the Western escarpment of the Rift Valley. We arrived at the hotel, each of us had our own chalet, with large bed and shower. Supper was good, with six courses, pork, chicken and salads. (Yes, my appetite had returned.) Beer at the bar, where I tried to order a Negroni, but ended up with a Campari Spritzer. I shall try again tomorrow,
Todays Route
The Secret Life of the Compost Heap XX
A video of our Red-legged Partridges. When we first saw the partridges there were 7 chicks. Every day we checked and counted the chicks, she managed to hang on to seven for several days. We were concerned the Crows, Magpies and Kestrels would feed on the chicks. The partridges were in our garden every day, though for only part of the day. They would be missing for long periods and then suddenly show up.
After a few days, the number of chicks started to decrease, first to 4 chicks. Then a few days later there were only 2 and finally, a couple of days later, all the chicks were missing. We thought maybe they had been predated by the Crows or Magpies. Interestingly our neighbour across the road also had a Red-legged partridge which also lost its chicks over the same days. It does seem this dim bird was taking the chicks across the A41 where the traffic is high with large numbers of trucks feeding the building spree going on in Aylesbury Vale. I am sure Darwin would have some comments about the survival of Ref-legged Partridges
A video of the partridges in better times as they walked about our garden.
The Secret Life of the Compost Heap XIIII
We had a pair of Moorhens nesting on the pond, and then a brood of cute black Moorhenlings (Moorhen chicks). The pond was unusually full for the time of year, so the Moorhenlings were there for quite a while. One of the very few benefits of the incessant rain this year. Before the arrival of the Moorhenlings, the Moorhens actually coexisted with three Mallard ducks for several weeks. The Mallards could be spotted on the pond day and night. They appeared never to sleep, steaming around the pond at any time of the day or night, unlike the Moorhens. The Moorhens disappear back to their nest during the night. For many days we had only one Moorhen, presumably the other was hatching the eggs. At this time the ducks vanished, I presume forced off by the Moothens. We now had a set of baby Moorhen chicks (Moorhenlings).
The Moorhens chicks soon increased in size. You can see them searching the margins of the pond for food, and being offered morsels by their parents. A Heron paid a brief visit. Did any of the Moorhenligs fall prey to its avaricious appetite?
The Moorhen chicks also spent a considerable amount of energy hiking across the fields in search of food. Sometimes we would see them in the garden. Recently I was surprised to find the adults and chicks investigating the badger sett in our Compost Heap. This is a considerable distance from the pond with long grass in between. (We are limiting the grass mowing this year, with a no-mow Summer.)