All of a sudden, the weather has changed and the fog has lifted. Spring flowers are starting to show, and I am particularly pleased with these miniature narcissi, that are flowering in the Fergus Memorial Flowerbed. I would buy pots with sprouting bulbs from the market at la Flèche a couple of years ago, as pressies for my mother when she was in her nursing home. The heat of her room brought them on quickly, so she enjoyed watching them develop and bloom, and once the flowers started to fade, I would swap them out for something else and plant the pot of bulbs somewhere in the gardens. Today I found a clump of hyacinth leaves, but they won't be out for a while yet.
The sunshine inspires us to activity - today I ache, having been taunted by brambles into doing some strimming yesterday. We got another trailer of compost on Friday and have started to move that down to the potato bed, ready for John to do some rotavating soon. I have potted up freesia bulbs and small strawberry plants for treats later in the year, and have started to tackle the pile of things I put to one side to wash when the weather meant they could be dried outside. Our solitary crocus also chose this week to bloom and fade away again.
An evening job is to close up the chicken run. We don't lock them in a coop, they prefer to roost on a high perch and it is probably safer and certainly more hygienic that they do so, avoiding too much red mite infestation. Bridie the Freeloading Bantam spends her days with the flock but at night prefers her own company on the roof of the chicken run, even when it rains. As she is pretty feral, we can't insist on putting her in the run. When we close up at night, we give them a ration of corn (not maize) to peck at so they sleep with a full crop and have something to mull over during the long evenings (no TV for them!). Bridie takes her ration on the chicken run roof, so one walks back to the house with a percussive accompaniment as she taps at the grains.
Which brings me nicely to the main topic this week. Last week I brought in the trail camera that sits at the crossroads of two animal tracks. I love this location, as the camera is high enough to get a good view and avoid eye contact with the animals. there is next to no human traffic, so it is all about the wildlife, and as time goes by, the activity is more and more natural. As it is by water, there is also a good variety. Ignoring the small birds (blackbirds, thrushes, great tits) and rodents (mice and rats), as well as cats, there are 9 reels that follow, each with a different species captured over the past 2 months.
In December, there was this nice footage of a badger - not a species I had noted there before.
There were also pheasants knocking around, having escaped the seasonal dinner table I guess. This was a male that hadn't been tagged - some have plastic neck collars, indicating they have been released I believe.
In January, the fox was knocking around, presumably looking for a nice, tasty mouse or rat to nibble on.
The coypu was also out and about - I've not seen him taking much interest in plants before, although they are vegetarian I gather.
Of course there is a chance that the coypu was checking out markings left by other species. You can see here that the same twig got marked by the pine marten that lives around there.
The deer wander through here but can't get out at the far end as they are too tall and not strong enough to force their way through the undergrowth either. When it is dry I think they pop down into the pond, but not at the moment as it is pretty full.
I was delighted to pick up images of the hare - I had been afraid that the poacher who brazenly mooches through our land had picked them off, so this film was delightful.
Then there are the boar! This is rare to see, as it is a video in daylight, but count them and know that one or possibly two went through before the video started and there are still two or three to come at the end of the footage! I find the piglets delightful, with their striped coats, but there really are too many and with up to three litters of up to 10 piglets per year, they could yet take over Western France!
And finally, video sets from this point would not be complete without the mallards. This seemingly bonded couple have appeared in the last fortnight, and I imagine there will be ducklings in due course, once the male has gone off again!
The forecast for the coming week is excellent, so I expect to be doing a lot of gardening, and then moaning about how much I ache. I have a trail camera focussed on another crossroads by ponds which needs to come in for checking and then repositioned, as the point where it is gets far too much human traffic. I can't promise that for next week I'm afraid.
Have a good week!
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