Quick update

Thank you so much for arriving at this blog.

I'll give you a quick update.

I moved my blog to

www.appletonwildlifediary.wordpress.com

in October 2015.

Since then I have posted about Badgers, Barn owls, Sparrowhawks, a day at the Wildlife Crime Conference, the Big garden Bird watch, hares and lots of trail camera clips.
Please visit my new blog

Thank you

Alex

Taken by Oxford Mail

Back to school blues

Today is the last day of my summer holidays, it's back to school tomorrow.

This holiday has been full of exciting experiences.

Starting right at the first couple of days with going down to Bristol to take part in filming for National Badger Day (Don't forget 6th October), next a visit to BBC Wildlife magazine office.

The next few weeks included a Narrow boat trip and a couple of weeks in Devon and Cornwall.

Straight after that Birdfair, which was amazing, especially the chance to catch up with people and meeting Charlie Hamilton James.

Unfortunately the saddest news over the summer was the extension of the Badger cull in to Dorset.

Back on my local patch the Badgers have been quite active and out and about more in the fields so difficult to watch - although getting more predictable over the last few days.

More and more Hares seem to be appearing in the field and last night there was at least 10 hares.

Over the weekend I have spent sometime experimenting with all the different settings on my camera, just on the birds in the garden.

I put the trail camera down in part of the wood and got a nice film of a Roe deer and the Badger with a damaged eye. It has been suggested that this might be a cataract.
It was nice to see this Badger again as I haven't seen her since the Spring.

Last night Noah, another blogger who lives nearby came over and we went off to take photos of the Hares. I didn't get any really good photos as it was quite overcast and it got dark quickly.
There was also 4 Fallow deer and a couple of Roe deer in the field.

When it got too dark we headed back home passing the Badgers sett. There was 3 Badgers out, we watch one for 10 minutes before going home.
I am quite sure the Badger we watched was Cookie because he had a chunk missing from his ear and he was not bothered that I had someone new with me.

 This morning the Buzzards were using the thermals to climb higher and higher. I counted 10 altogether. They were higher than a passing plane.
While we were watching the Buzzards a Raven flew over, shouting at the Buzzards before flying off towards the river

 This is H3's mate. I was still mucking about with the settings on my camera but I quite like this photo.

Bird Survey

My local wood group does quite a few surveys of the wood throughout the year.

They can be surveys on moths, bats, birds, fungi, butterflies and small mammals. 

I have been on quite a few of them and they are always really interesting to walk around the woods with an expert who can show you much more than you would ever see on your own.

This morning we went out on a bird survey with Simon and Ray.

The bird surveys are done a few times a year and they stop in several set places in the wood and record the birds in that area and then compare them to how it changes throughout the year.

During the survey we spotted

Blue tits

Great tits

Wrens 

Blackbird

Marsh Tits

Long tailed tits

Coal tits

Greater spotted Woodpecker

Green Woodpecker

Red Kite

Jays

Magpies

Stoke Doves

Wood Pigeons

Nuthatches

Tree creepers

Kestrel

Lots of Goldcrests

Robin

Swallows

Chiffchaff

Also heard a Buzzard but didn't see one.

As well as lots of grey squirrels

Simon and Ray were brilliant at identifying not only the calls of different types of birds but the different types of calls, such as a contact call, and could tell which bird was around before I could even see a bird.

Green Woodpecker

Lacewing

 On the way out of the woods, I spotted a particular Roe deer that I haven't seen before with marking on its face.

Kestrel