Hobbies and Crafts

I haven't seen any squirrels. And these holes are about 3 or 4 feet long; whereas squirrles normally dig quite small holes to bury acorns in. :-S

Crikey Graham they sound big ...Badgers maybe?.Is it night time digging?

Graham maybe a stoat, weasel or mink.

If the ground is VERY dry and hard it could be a mole.

If the soil is wet it could also be a vole.

Lesley x

There are quite a few stoats and water voles around here. We used to have a few mink; but they seem to have vanished (there was reports of mink being killid off by otters). Voles have a habit of digging tunnels into the banks of the canal.
I don't think there are any badgers near here. I haven't seen any of them or their setts.

We get a Heron that flies past our bedroom window nearly every morning, he squeezes in between the house and the apple tree and usually lands in the garden of a house a few doors down, I have no Idea why, they don't have a pond.

Now,.......... When I Was at Buckingham Palace earlier in the week..........

There was a Heron in a Willow tree in one of the ponds in the gardens of the Palace. There were lots of people taking his photo, I don't know if they get them in America or Japan but he was certainly causing a stir.

Yesterday, when we were driving to Taunton, a small creature, I think it was a Stoat or a Weasle, whichever is the smallest, ran across the road in front of us.

Still not much in the way of birds about apart from the usual pesky Magpies and Jackdaws.

M. :-)

Stoats and weasels are about the same size; but stoats have black tails ;-)

Graham, some friends visited the Shapwick nature reserve last week and saw a Great White Egret, not too many of them about, only a dozen or so, I understand. They also saw Marsh Harriers at Ham Wall.

M.

I think great white egrets are native to North America. So they would be quite rare over here. There's a nature reserve near me called Greylake and there's lots of little egrets there.

Shapwick is on the Levels, near Meare. It is the first time they have nested in Britain.

M.

Yeah, I know where Shapwick is. There's another nature reserve near there called Westhay.

I see the BBC have made a report about those great white egrets:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/18280491

Love Egrets as well.

MaryAnna, name dropping :-D Tea with the 'family' was it? Maybe the Heron was by royal Appointment :-D

I meant to say how nice it is to see Graham adding to this thread, it has been the same few of us for ages. :-)

Erm! Not that I don't enjoy the same few of course! :-D :-D :-D

Well, Ann ......... I don't like to say too much, but.......

We had tickets to go and see the latest exhibition at home, sorry, I mean at The Palace.

Yes we did have tea but Her Majesty must have been somehow detained so we had to eat without her. It was a shame as she seemed to invited quite a few other people to tea as well.

I realised I was the first member of the family to go inside since my Gt.. Gt Uncle went to see the King, I think around 1920, as he was at that time, the oldest VC recipient alive.

I was out in the garden earlier, I had to water the tubs and baskets as they were all dying. A huge flock of Geese flew over. Oh dear, that usually means Winter is on its way. Those that don't stay on the nearby ponds during the Summer start to fly in around now.

I just hope we don't get another Winter like the last one. For everyone's sake.

M. :-)

MaryAnna :-D :-D :-D :-D
Which county did you see the geese? I always have to check where you are.

Sunny Somerset, Ann.

M. :-)

Curtsy to Ma'am :-D.Sounds like a wonderful time at the Palace Maryanna.
My Nephew was there at a Garden Party a few weeks ago .He is only 22 and was invited because of the work he does with the Red Cross.That will be an extra thing to go on his CV :-D :-D
I haven't seen any Geese for a long time flying over here.When my old next door neighbour still lived here and he looked after the little 'lake ' in the Garden we would get the Canada Geese .We would hear them early in the mornings coming in to land and they would spend many hours there before departing later in the day.But sadly now the people next door have totally neglected the lake and it is choked with whatever plants and nothing seems to visit there.Not even ducks any more.It is such a pity they haven't bothered with the place .I wonder why they ever bought somewhere with so much land if they weren't interested..I actually think they were hoping to sell off some of the garden to builders ,but that seems to have died a death at the moment (thank heavens).

It is so airless and stuffy here today .I find it a bit draining :-S

Luke is a real cutie Ann, he will keep your family amused and busy I think.

Lesley, Luke could be a little playmate for Millie.

Hello to Graham, your very welcome here. Thanks for the link.

Maryanna, all very interesting sharing news of your friends in high places.

Quite cool here in Yorkshire Jane, but dry and pleasant just as I like it.

I was in the kitchen this afternoon and saw a robin on the garden wall... it was a tiny one but a definite red breast. Made a nice change. Hope it comes back again.

So far today we have had two collared doves taking a rest between flights by perching on the top of the feeding station, and one starling who pecked at a couple of suet pellets before flying off. It's not exactly birdland round here at the moment.

Not sure if anything was around yesterday. In the morning we had four mad visiting dogs hurtling round our tiny patch keeping all the birds out. We spent the afternoon at the hospital as OH had managed to throw a newly made pot of tea all over his arm. I think it was a ploy to get out his promise to clean the windows this week. Men!!

EDIT. Nice to see a new name on the thread. Have you found out what is digging your holes yet Graham?

Ann, Luke is a real little charmer. He'll break a few hearts when he gets older :-D

ooh ouch Vera that must have hurt OH.I hope his arm isn't too badly burnt.Quite a drastic thing to do to get out of window cleaning LOL

We have had a very big female Pheasant in the garden this afternoon.She was just wandering around on the back lawn ,but then came right up by the patio doors.
I tried to sneak up to the window with the camera ,but scared her and she took off over the hedge :-S
6.30 and I still have the doors and windows open ,but have closed them up a bit just incase any Crane flies or other insects fancy coming in.
I was woken in the early hours with a Crane fly buzzing around one of my ears !!!.I knew that there was one in the bedroom when I went to bed but just couldn't catch it.

We are having a day out tomorrow and going to visit Cannons Ashby near Daventry :-D

Jane, OH's scalded arm was very painful to start with and is blistering in places but it could have been a lot worse. Apparently we did the right things to minimise the effects of the scald. Lots and lots of cold running water before wrapping his arm in cling film and getting him to the hospital. We did put a pack of frozen peas on it for a while to try to cool it quickly and were later told we should have stuck to running water.

Arm has been dressed a couple of times at our local surgery and he has to go back on Thursday. OH is quite chipper but I am a frazzled wreck!! Not only am I now the chauffeur cum nurse but I have had to spring clean my fairly large kitchen. Not only was the floor a mess but tea seems to have got in every drawer and cupboard :-|

I am pleased to say the starlings and a couple of sparrows have rediscovered our garden so I am hoping the blue tits, robin etc will soon do the same :-D