A new day

For the first morning this week I have awoken not expecting to find a dead duck. Betty and Belle had indeed survived another night. I survived administering another shot of antibiotic (Baylix) and there in the house was Betty's first egg! Not as big as the IR's but an egg it is! Mind you, if I'd have had to witness what she has this week I'd have probably laid an egg too!


Despite the rain (again but hey we are close to drought here so thankful of it really) it was a pleasant walk to the land. The Buzzards (we have a very unusual family of 7 living in the woods opposite) were doing their usual fighting with the carrion - go Buzzards! Our baby woodpigeons had flown their nest from our straw storage in the barn. The huge family of blue and great tits were very active in the nesting box on one of our trees and the wrens seemed to have survived a nighttime attack by magpies! The walk this morning also saw a very brief sighting of a Kingfisher on our neighbours pond. Goldfinch have recently moved to the area also and the (dreaded but welcome) Cuckoo has been making her presence heard also! I was hoping some swallows would nest in the barn but they don't seem to have settled there - I'm not surprised, it's hardly the Goring Park. How the woodpigeons have survived I don't know but we get rats, stoats, squirrels and rabbits galore (serious cull of the latter needed urgently) in there. Oh and of course the bats! Brown bats, short eared and pipistrels! Yes, you can imagine my reaction when I first discovered bats (and I first discovered them when they started using the loft space above our bedroom window for a maternity lodge) But though I would sooner wear a bright yellow branded logoed tracksuit and fake Louis V bag than touch one I have learned to embrace them. Yes the noise in the dead of night from them and the barn owls can be verging on anti social (I reckon you wouldn't fare too well trying to asbo an owl) but these bats eat 1500 midgies and mozzies each every night! Now that is a fortune saved on repellent and bite cream! I could bore you senseless with the wildlife living here but Springwatch ain't got nothing on life here in Isfield! And very lucky we are too!


Not that lucky with old crops however - but that's a weekend updating story! Thank you to everyone who's following this! Means a lot and happy to have support!
Mx

Weather: Showers again! 18 degrees so not too cold, less breezy too.