Some of my favourite photos

Saturday 21 March 2015

Close up badgers

 As there was no school this morning, my mum, sister and I went to see the badgers last night.
It was quite cold with no wind and the badgers were out when we arrived.
To start with the badgers were having a few squabbles and there was lots of churring and chittering but they soon settled down, with some leaving to go out into the field and some staying around the sett.
The badgers were happy to eat around our feet, particularly 3 adults.
At one stage two Roe deer walked past the sett and made lots of noise by stamping and all the badgers ran down their holes. This also frightened a Tawny owl that flew out above my head.
One badger walked straight up the path within touching distance I thought it was going to stop and eat from my bag of peanuts I had next to me.














Solar eclipse 

Sunday 15 March 2015

Visit to Whalefest, Brighton

Yesterday I travelled down to Brighton to WhaleFest. 
WhaleFest is a festival promoting everything to do with Whales, Marine Life and Oceans. It aims to be the worlds premiere marine eco-festival.
There were lots of people doing talks such as Steve Backshall, Monty Halls and Will Travers.
It hosted lots of stalls and exhibitors as well as a Shark Zone full of life sizes models, a chill out zone and a large Sea Shepherd stand.
The speakers talked about their experiences with Whales and other marine wildlife.

 Will Travers, the President of the Born Free Foundation, talked about freeing captive whales, conservation and animal rights.


Will Travers
 Steve Backshall talked about his adventures in the water and kayaking with different types of whales, he had some fantastic short clips of Sperm Whales sleeping and Humpback whales feeding.


Steve Backshall
 While I was there I met up with Ben and Matt, the BBC Wildlife Magazine team. 
Matt from BBC Wildlife magazine
Monty Halls is an adventurer, marine biologist and diver. I have enjoyed watching some of his diving programs with Andy Torbet. Last summer we visited his shop 'Great Escapes' in Dartmouth.

Me and Monty Halls
 These two Whales on the beach were made out of crosses to show all the deaths of Whales and dolphins that had died in captivity.
It's called "The Whale Graveyard - Setting captive spirits free".
I found it quite emotional to see the numbers written on some of the crosses





Tuesday 10 March 2015

Bumble bee mites

I just found a Bumble bee in the garden. It was on the soil, in the shade, not looking very healthy.
We bought it into the warm and gave it some water and sugar which it drank.
I noticed that the bee kept scratching itself and there were a couple of mites on its back.
After a few minutes the bee flew away.





Monday 9 March 2015

Hares are back

On a bright sunny day the hares came out into the field yesterday afternoon. I have only seen them a few times over the winter mainly in the wood or along the hedgerow.

At first there were two of them eating together, although every once in a while the one on the left would go up on it's hind legs and bat the other one in the face until it moved away. Then they would go back to eating.
A third one ran across the back of the field.

Last year there was a one eyed hare around which I blogged about. I am hoping it survived the winter and will be around again this year.

http://appletonwildlifediary.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/one-eyed-hare-again.html





I also took a couple of photos of birds on the walk back

Coal tit

Stonechat which was flicking it's wings 







Thursday 5 March 2015

Spring badgers

Early yesterday evening we went down to see the badgers because my Dad had told me they were very active the evening before when he went out with the dogs.
We got to the sett just after 7pm and they were already out.
There were 5 badgers out over the time we were there, they were quite easy to see because the moon was full.
As long as we sit still they take no notice of us.
I can't wait for next month when the cubs might start coming out.
Last year I got some great footage of the cubs playing and I'm hoping to do the same this year.













The Goldcrest was still in the hedge again today, I got a slightly better photo.


Wednesday 4 March 2015

Spring is coming

This little bird spends its time inbetween the hedges and conifer trees opposite my bedroom window. It's about the size of a wren maybe smaller.
Today I finally managed to get a photo. (Not a great photo)
I think its a goldcrest.
 



This week the weather has been windy but quite sunny meaning the flowers are begining to come out in the wood like the Primroses.



Jay


My mum took this photo of me creeping up on a Kestrel to take a photo of it.

This crow waits for mum to feed it everyday

These four photos show that our local birds of prey are eating well.
The first two photos is of a dead pigeon that had been eaten on this fallen branch with blood all the way up it.
H3 and it's mate are spending more and more time in the woods rather than out in the field or in the hedges along the road. I think I may have found where they are building a nest.

Remains of a pigeon



Pigeon feathers


Female pheasant

One evening last week as we were walking the dogs, about 30 Lapwings landed in the field.
The next morning there were two piles of feather.




Monday 2 March 2015

Roe deer in the woods

I came across these 4 Roe deer in the back of the wood. When I came across them two were feeding while two were laying down. 
This area was out of the wind and away from the main path. 
There were 3 females and one male in this group, they were quite happy to carry on feeding, occassionally looking up to see if I was still there.
Roe deer spend quite a bit of their time resting and I can tell that they come to this area quite often because there are lots of round patches scratched into the ground which they rest or sleep on.