Deer barking tend to sound like a dog with a sore throat. Foxes screaming at each other like babies being strangled.
We lost our fight with the planning dept.
I would have felt better if the old codgers on the committee could 1. keep awake, 2, stop playing with phones, 3 look me in the eye. Eight of us had 5 mins to speak. One of them (on the committee)said we had no right to the wildlife, if we wanted to protect them we would have to buy the land. I think that is actually against the planning framework. Another said the wildlife will find somewhere else to live. They decided the Environment act that came in in January doesn't apply because they haven't been given instructions yet on how to apply it. One motioned to pass it, it got seconded, show of hands, the only ones against it were the independents. (2 out of 12) No debate whatsoever. One of our neighbours got up and stormed out with a "waste of bloody time" comment in a very loud voice.
The deer they denied was there until I posted the video to everyone on the planning committee and the planners, I saw three times last week. Meanwhile we will carry on doing surveys. Another moth survey soon. I am getting loads of moths in the early evening, with bats flying through gathering them.
Deer barking tend to sound like a dog with a sore throat. Foxes screaming at each other like babies being strangled.
We lost our fight with the planning dept.
I would have felt better if the old codgers on the committee could 1. keep awake, 2, stop playing with phones, 3 look me in the eye. Eight of us had 5 mins to speak. One of them (on the committee)said we had no right to the wildlife, if we wanted to protect them we would have to buy the land. I think that is actually against the planning framework. Another said the wildlife will find somewhere else to live. They decided the Environment act that came in in January doesn't apply because they haven't been given instructions yet on how to apply it. One motioned to pass it, it got seconded, show of hands, the only ones against it were the independents. (2 out of 12) No debate whatsoever. One of our neighbours got up and stormed out with a "waste of bloody time" comment in a very loud voice.
The deer they denied was there until I posted the video to everyone on the planning committee and the planners, I saw three times last week. Meanwhile we will carry on doing surveys. Another moth survey soon. I am getting loads of moths in the early evening, with bats flying through gathering them.
We have three cubs out exploring now. I am putting the camera out most nights, we are hoping to see fawns.
Thanks Fidget, The deer idea was an afterthought. It did sound like a strangulated cough/bark so that is probably what it was. I have heard foxes screaming at each other, the first time I heard it I lived in suburbia and thought it was a woman being attacked as it came from the next door pub car park! We have deer around, like in my garden, they seem attracted to my car which they stand around.
I just did not like the idea of an injured animal lying dying slowly, although I know that is often nature's way.
Lovely sighting of a newborn roe deer last evening on the way to the pub. It was the smallest fawn I have ever seen just standing at the side of the road with mum, couldn't have been more than a few hours old.
We seem to have acquired a baby rabbit! My daughter has nearly finished building a retaining wall at the back of our big pond, to prevent any more subsidence. She went out to scavenge some more stone from the remains of a derelict wall and inadvertantly disturbed a mother rabbit and baby. Mum took off, back towards the warren, baby stayed huddled in the tussocky grass behind neighbour's still extant wall.
She went back a couple of times to check if it was still there, with the last check being at past 9pm, over 6 hours after mum had left it. It had barely moved, but by this time was wet and a bit muddy, still motherless and easy prey for fox or weasel, so she picked it up and brought it in. The cat box was called for once again (it's good for chicks and ducklings as well as cats ). We mustered hay and newspaper and suitable vegetation, as well as lamb's milk in case it wasn't fully weaned, but like our lambs, just partway there.
What was surprising was that it wasn't at all scared. It snuggled into hands, looked around, liked being stroked. When put on the floor it hopped about happily and came back to proffered food and hands. Four days later it comes readily when called, hops all over the place with little 'pings' into the air as it goes, like the lambs do, has put on weight and gained a name. We weren't expecting a wild rabbit to be this confident. D had several rabbits as a child, and says this one is definitely the best and most trusting. She wants to keep it as a house rabbit. It takes careful management though to keep it safe from our dogs and cats.
Ambrose, who hasn't caught anything for absolutely ages, gave me a scare yesterday by fetching in a dead baby rabbit. 'Ours' though has a white spot on its head so I soon knew it was a different one. Puzzled where he caught it though, as he doesn't go that far afield.
When I went to shut up the two hand-reared lambs last night there was yet another baby rabbit, peeking into the sheep shed through the sheep pop-hole. Mystery solved there, but my veg garden might be a waste of effort this year!
Hi everyone...for the last few weeks I have noticed that the bird bath has been full of some strange white slop that I couldn't quite work out what it was , so each time I would clean it out and refill the bath within a day or so the slop would be back, then today I found the culprit.
I can only imagine the Crow is using the water to soften the bread to make it easier for a chick to eat, because its crop looks pretty full and it would fly away before eating the bread.
Clever crow. I saw the same thing on Springwatch last year - crows dunking to make food soft.
I found a large, white, foamy pock marked ball in the garden last week and, couldn't for the life of me, work out what it was. It was like a large, spongey, polystyrene mushroom sponge. I concluded in the end that it was a large loaf of bread that foxes had tiefed out of a food waste bin. They had nibbled all round until it made a ball that then got wet in the rain. All a bit blrrggh.
It was good to see how many types of pollinators were enjoying the flat heads of the cow parsley this morning - all sorts of flies, hoverflies, honeybees, bumbles.. All the little florets offer good forage and the are so easy to land on and chill.
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The deer idea was an afterthought. It did sound like a strangulated cough/bark so that is probably what it was.
I have heard foxes screaming at each other, the first time I heard it I lived in suburbia and thought it was a woman being attacked as it came from the next door pub car park!
We have deer around, like in my garden, they seem attracted to my car which they stand around.
I just did not like the idea of an injured animal lying dying slowly, although I know that is often nature's way.
I can only imagine the Crow is using the water to soften the bread to make it easier for a chick to eat, because its crop looks pretty full and it would fly away before eating the bread.
Love your photo too @wild edges
https://youtube.com/shorts/lx6laVBHpbQ?feature=share