Visitors

Hedgehogs are something one seldom see - though our dog Lottie seems to have a pretty good nose for them and has several times brought one back for our inspection - fortunately she has a soft mouth. So it was a nice surprise to see one in the torch beam when going round the sheep for a final inspection (we are lambing at present).

Badgers are what I normally expect to see at some point, as well as foxes. Both have been absent so far. But we have had a badger raiding the sheep food in the shed. All very worrying with the large increase in TB cattle cases this January compared to last with animal destroyed up by 25%.

So here is what my camera trap caught.

Green Woodpecker

A very smart Green Woodpecker was anting on the lawn. I managed to grab my camera, carefully push open a window a small amount and one handed caught him on video. The bird was a male because the centre of his moustacial streak (ie below the bill) was red. In the female its fully black.

I

Spring arrives

After a year of regular bad weather, and the feeling that spring would never get here, at last the weather has warmed and grass is growing.
Last weekend the swallows arrived - a single on Sunday and then on monday there were 4 flying around and excitedly chattering  overhead.
2 days ago the first house martin returned. I've just been donated some artificial nest boxes for these, so must get them up pretty quickly.
Yesterday in the meadows I heard sedge warbler, blackcap and even a willow warbler for the first time.
So many spring arrivals seem to have all been concentrated into just a week - there must have been huge numbers stacked up somewhere on the continent waiting for the wind to change.
Last night I also saw my first pipestrelle bat for the season.