A Fairy Ring

 

I photographed this "fairy ring" on the stud this morning. Note how it is centred on an oak tree.

Hares in Abundance

 

Sadly we are now past the longest day. However, these long warm Summer evenings have their own magic and seem to have bought out our resident hares population. James swears they are bigger than ever this year!

If any one is interested in joining James to see the hares on an evening stroll around the farm please contact him on 01440-783789

Hares

 

These two pictures were taken of hares in the fields at the back of the house. I actually photographed them from an open bedroom window.

Deer at Kings Wood

 

We were at Kings Wood, between Bury St. Edmunds and Thetford on Sunday and this roe deer stood on the walk and just stared at us and the two basset hounds.


Note the couple with the dog in the distance.

I've enlarged the deer here and you can see the white patch on the rump.


For more information on the six types of deer you can see in the UK, visit the British Deer Society.

Who Is The Mother?

 

She still keeps them under a tight rein, even if they are as big as she is.


I'm only guessing, but it looks like she's got three drakes and a duck.

Vague Shot and the Ducks

 

This picture was taken by Steven Keane, who works on the stud.


It shows our four ducklings attempting to raid Vague Shot's morning feed, whilst their mother looks on.

Duck Inspection

 

The ducklings are now almost as big as their mother.


Here, she is inspecting them in the pond full of green slime.

Incidentally, I've noticed that they eat the slime, so perhaps that is why they stay there.

Pied Wagtail

 

We have quite a few of these around the house and farmyard.

Ragwort

 

Ragwort poisons horses and cattle, but not sheep.


It is everywhere this year and I took this photograph on Newmarket Heath this morning.

Councils are supposed to control it. Do they?

Urban Foxes Go to the Country

 

This is a sad tale.

Locally, someone dumped several foxes that they had caught in a town on a farmer's field near here. They thought they were helping the animals.

But they weren't.

Urban foxes raid litter and rubbish bins and generally don't know how to hunt. They are just scavengers.

Here in the country, there is very little litter and all of our rubbish is securely stored in wheelie-bins. Even if we wait two weeks for it to be collected, there is no smell and certainly nothing for the foxes to scavenge.

So these poor urban foxes were reduced to begging as the farmer worked his fields and were grateful, if he threw part of his lunch from the tractor.

In the end they starved to death.

Still Four Ducklings

 

She's still got four ducklings. But why she has to go into the green slimy pond I don't know.


It's funny but I was on Hampstead Heath yesterday and the ducklings didn't stay close to their mother, like these do.

Perhaps, the country is a more dangerous place for ducklings than the town.

Hares in a Field

 

We have lots of hares on the stud.

I've taken a rather crude video of some hares.


This was only taken on a Canon Powershot and I couldn't get any closer.

Hares are really the most majestic of creatures.

Dragonfly

 

This picture of a dragonfly over one of our ponds was taken today.

Starlings

 

Normally we don't get many starlings. But today, there was about a hundred on our front lawn.

Seagulls

 

We often get seagulls in the fields, despite being nearly a hundred kilometres from the sea. But not often in the summer.


It just shows how wretched the summer has been.

And Then There Were Four

 

There are now only four ducklings, but they are getting a bit bigger.

And then There were Seven

 

She's lost one, but in this picture you'll see that she only has six.


The other one had got left behind and she was calling in a very agitated way for it.

Finally, she found it in the other pond and despite a lot of calling and rushing between the two ponds, she was unable to get the lost duckling to join the others.

So she took the six back to join it.

Later in the evening I found her, still with the seven ducklings, wandering around the yard and into and out of an empty stable. She then took them all into a pond that is full of moorhens.

I suspect that there may well be a few less ducklings in the morning.

Finally Ducklings

 

Finally, some ducklings have arrived. Eight of them.


They are waddling all over the front lawn.

Hares

 

The hare is the most majestic and also the most unknown of the animals of the British countryside.


The picture shows two taken whilst we were walking the bassets this morning.

I always carry a simple digital camera and will endeavour to get some better pictures in the future. Often on the mower you can get within a few feet, by adopting the circling tactics that predators use to capture hares.

The Stud Ducks

 

We've always had a few mallards that waddle around the stud. This year there seems a few more, but we have not seen any ducklings. On the other hand the moorhens have raised young successfully.

The Sparrows are Back

 

When we moved here there were quite a few house sparrows around the house and in the yard. But within five years they had gone, just like they have in many parts of the UK.

But on Friday, there were a pair of sparrows on the drive and another in the barn.

Perhaps, they're on their way back.

Are the Sparrows Back?

 

When we moved to Newmarket about fifteen years ago, the stud had quite a few sparrows.

But over the years they have disappeared.

However, this morning when I returned from getting the papers, there was a pair on the drive.

So perhaps they're coming back.

The Fly Patrol

 

The swallows have now returned and are patrolling the skies looking for flies. Here's one sitting in the roof of the new foaling unit.


Note there is a twenty-four hour war on the flies and midges, with the bats taking over the assault at night.

As an aside to this if you go to Sani Resort in Greece, you will find that they encourage swallows into the resort to reduce the level of flies.

It works.

Sparrowhawks and Trucks

 

Over the last few weeks, I've done a few trips round the lanes in our truck to take mares to be covered. You tend to trundle along narrow lanes at perhaps thirty kilometres per hour, as you don't want to brake too heavily if something comes the other way.

Twice now, birds of prey, have flown in formation with the truck a couple of metres above the ground. One was directly in front of the cab and moved from one side of the road to the other, whilst the other followed alongside me on the other side of the hedge. They both flew like that for perhaps three or four hundred metres.

Obviously, the birds were hoping that the vibrations of the trucks would frighten a mouse or some other prey to reveal themselves. In both cases they were unlucky, but would they do it if it didn't work?

I mentioned this to Michael, the stud groom and he said it was common practice of sparrowhawks.

I'll take the camera next time and see if I can get a shot.