More Wildlife Memories

Well here I am, back again.  It's been a while but have had one of those rotten head colds that seem to hang on forever and been quite busy with my crafting also.
I was watching a repeat of Wildlife SOS on Animal Planet this morning.  The episode included the previous rescue of a Tawny Owl chick from a golf course and its subsequent release after it had grown into a magnificent bird.

This picture reminds me of an owl I used to see when at secondary school
Watching the owl in the episode reminded me of one that I, and my friends, used to see every morning on our way to school.  I was living in Blackheath at the time and to get to school we had to walk through Greenwich Park.  On the way we passed this very large tree in which sat this beautiful tawny owl.  It was there every morning and watched us walk by and gave us an occasional call.  The owl never moved its body but followed us with its head which we found fascinating.  It was very rare that it was not there to see us on our way to school and we were quite disappointed if it missed a day.
In one Wildlife SOS episode Simon Cowell once said that he had never seen an owl sitting in a tree so I was really pleased to have had that experience.
Hopefully be back soon with more memories of wildlife seen in Greenwich Park. 

More Animal Memories

We moved to South-East London in early 1948 when my mother took another position as cook/housekeeper.  We lived in a large house with a fairly large unkempt garden that backed onto a small area of woodland.

There was one large straggly bush that became one of my playgrounds and that is where I had my first encounter with a hedgehog.  We sort of came face to face and I got a quick look at his cute little snout before he curled up in a ball.  I knew what it was but not much about them and my mother explained that it had curled up to protect itself and about them hibernating during the winter.  Over time I saw this hedgehog behind the bush which seemed to be his/her favourite place and in other areas of the garden and watched it from a distance so it would not curl up.  

Another visitor to the garden was a beautiful bird, a jay.  His plummage really fascinated me and he would sit in a tree in the garden for quite a long time if not disturbed.  It was to be a long, long time before I saw another jay and that was in Capstone Park in Chatham while doing a walk for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

More another time.

Dormice

This is just a quick post about the recent press reports regarding the council in Wales that built a bridge that incorporated the facility for dormice to cross the new bypass.
Dormice have been around since the Eocene period (some 56 to 34 million years ago) which is far longer than mankind but are now endangered and thus protected.
For people to complain that they should not have been considered when the bridge was built because of the financial situation now is SO WRONG.
It is man's greed that has created the current financial situation and our wildlife should not have to suffer because we are incapable of being fiscally prudent.
Wildlife Aid and probably many other wildlife charities who seek to protect our native wildlife from mankind's brutality, thoughtlessness, carelessness and incursions into their habitat, are struggling financially so I would ask anyone who reads this to contact their local wildlife (or other animal charity if preferred) to see what they can do to help.
If we do not support these charities in their work then (I know it's an old cliche) future generations will not have the pleasure of the presence in our world of such wildlife.

This is the native British dormouse known as the Hazel Dormouse because hazel is it's main pre-hibernation food.

Wildlife Memories

Today I received three early birthday cards (it's actually on Saturday and I'll be 68) and that started me thinking about early memories of wildlife.  I've also realised that what they say about memory as you get older is true.  I can remember with great clarity events of my youth yet can't always remember what I had to eat yesterday.
One the of problems with memories of childhood is deciding whether it is an actual memory or one you have created from stories told later in life.  What I think is one of my earliest memories may be just that or I could have created it from a story of my mother's combined with events or pictures I've seen later.  Anyway it is a real event that happened when I lived in Devon in a big house where my mother was a cook/housekeeper.  There was a long drive with pillars at the entrance and these pillars were used by an owl to watch for likely prey.  The owl would fly from one to the other until it spotted a meal when it would swoop and fly up into a nearby tree.  Later it would return to the pillars and continue it's patrol.
My saddest memory of my time at this house was when some house martins and their nests were removed from the gutterings and just discarded.  I was so upset and tried to rescue some of them but the fall they had been subjected to was too great.  The only good thing was that it was after their young had fledged.
The most disturbing memory was turning to go up a staircase in the house and being confronted by a large (well I was small so it probably looked larger) bat.  I screamed and my mother naturally came running.  She removed the bat on a shovel and took it into a field nearby where she left it close to a tree and when she checked later it had gone.  However, the unfortunate after effect of this is that I have had a phobia about bats since then.  I cannot look at them on TV or in pictures and to see one in real life leaves me with jelly for legs and a gibbering idiot.  Strangely enough moths have the same effect but do not know why though my mother always said their wing movements were similar.  I have no problem with butterflies which I love to watch.


Well I think that's probably too much for one blog.  I may come back later with more reminiscences.

Snooze time

Another Monday morning but as I'm retired it just doesn't have the same meaning anymore.


First thing I do every morning is switch the PC on and bring up the Wildlife Aid webcams.  I am lucky to have two screens and using Google Chrome can open multiple tabs. I split the two webcam tabs and put them on the second screen, where they probably remain all day, and then I can work on the other screen.


Badgers are really fascinating creatures and are a joy to watch at any time of the day.  When they sleep they do so in a mound and as I said in my last post when one moves the whole mound heaves and they change position.  Sometimes there are mostly heads with some tummies and paws and at other times there's not a head in sight which looks most odd.


To watch them play in the evening sometimes leaves me shaking with laughter and until I watched the webcams I didn't realise how fast they can move on those little legs - not that you can really see their legs as their fur grows down and it looks as though they have a skirt on.  I think their favourite games are  'Destroy the Hosepipe'  and 'How many badger cubs can you get in the pool'.  They also seem to love getting in the way when the volunteers clean their areas out and I think try to get to the entrance first and sneak out.


I really love watching the badger cubs but I do also miss the fox cubs, which I also love, that were there earlier in the year.  


Goodness only knows what I'm going to watch when the badger cubs are returned to the wild later in the year.  

Love those Badgers

I've been watching the Wildlife Aid badger cubs on and off today - as I do most days.


The webcam in their indoor area is great and I get to see some lovely close-ups of their faces.  Because they sleep in a mound and there are about 13 (I think) of them it only takes one to need a scratch or to change position for the whole mound to heave and settle down again in quite different positions.


The badger cubs are such a delight to watch.

Playful Badger Cubs

I've been watching the badger cubs at Wildlife Aid Rescue Centre playing in their indoor and outdoor areas.
They are so playful and love to play chase.  Sometimes it's only two or three of them running around in a line but at others it seems as though all 14 (I think that's how many they are) of them are running around the area in a long line.  They also have a pool which they love to use to enjoy and it helps them to keep clean.
They have three long tubes which they love to run through and it's funny if you don't see them go in one end to see them suddenly come running out or to see a head peep out and slowly check around before exiting.
When they are inside their sleeping chambers they tend to sleep in one mound with a combination of heads, backs, tummies and feet visible.  As you watch you are likely to see the whole mound move and change position just because one of them needs a scratch or turn over.
They are very inquisitive animals and this makes them a joy to watch.