Tag: wildlife
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Hedgehog cam
Every morning now I wake up, check the wildlife camera with great excitement and see hedgehogs. The first one is usually seen around 10pm. Then there’s often activity around midnight, 3am, and the last at around 6am. I have no idea how many there are as I only ever see one at a time so […]
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Henry, Humphrey and Hubert
We released three more hedgehogs into our backyard yesterday. We had four homes, all vacant, and Horace and Hortensia have integrated into the wider neighbourhood so we adopted Henry, Humphrey, and Hubert. These boys are a bit smaller and younger so they didn’t roam as much and hung round our backyard more than the original […]
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A garden pond
After spotting a toad swimming in the tiny water bowl I’d put in the backyard for wildlife I decided to give him something bigger and better to swim in: a pond. On Saturday Ben and I spent the afternoon pulling up grass and digging a hole. It was hard work. Victoria gave us a hand. […]
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Gardens as habitat for wildlife
There’s still no sign of the elusive hedgehogs. I have no idea whether they’re still in our garden or not. Hedgehogs can travel up to 2 miles in one night so probably they’re not but I hope they visit us from time-to-time. I continue to put food out for them along with the wildlife camera […]
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Meet Horace and Hortensia
We adopted two hedgehogs today from The North East Wildlife & Animal Rescue Centre. They put out a call recently on social media looking for homes for hedgehogs. They had 140 of them. To qualify for a hedgehog you have to provide them with a house in the backyard, food and water, live away from […]
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White pigeon
A white pigeon has started visiting the bird feeders in our backyard. I’ve never seen one before. I wonder if it’s an escaped pet? Or maybe one of many released white pigeons at someone’s wedding? These are not the best photos because I took them through glass and it seems I need to clean the […]
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Herring gull chick
The herring gull nesting in the chimney pots on our roof is now a parent as yesterday I spotted a chick. It’s hard to see in this photo so I’ve annotated around it with a red box. I don’t always see it as it’s behind the metal chimney but sometimes it peers out the side […]
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Fantastic Mr Fox
We were all very excited to see a fox in our backyard today. We sometimes see foxes in the neighbourhood but this is the first time we’ve seen one in our yard. He was eating the peanuts from a bird feeder that had fallen to the ground. At first I thought it was a dog […]
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Scottish wildcat
Today we think we saw a Scottish wildcat. This is another very elusive creature whose population has been decimated over the past couple of hundred years. It is critically endangered and although it once roamed all of the UK it is now found only in northern and eastern Scotland. If it is a Scottish wildcat […]
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Seal on the banks of the River Dee
On his walk yesterday Ben saw a seal on the banks of the River Dee and took these great photos and video. We sometimes see seals swimming in the Dee but this is the first time we’ve seen one sun-baking on the bank. This part of the river bank is quite busy with people walking […]
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Protecting birds from the cat
The cold-blooded killer brought a bird inside last week. I managed to rescue the bird and it flew away, seemingly unscathed, but it left behind a pile of feathers which it surely needed in the cold spell we had. I felt very guilty and bought some bird food which I put outside on a high […]
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Ecocamp Glenshee
We are back from our fabulous glamping weekend at Ecocamp Glenshee. It’s about 2.5 hours by car south of Aberdeen through the Cairngorms. The drive was wonderful and part of it is along the highest road in the UK. Ecocamp Glenshee is wonderful for families as it’s safe and they have animals – llamas, chickens, […]
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Wind turbines and birds
Yesterday I wrote about the nocebo effect in wind turbine syndrome and a comment was made in that post about how windfarms kill birds. It is true that wind farms kill birds when they collide with the spinning blades but it is also true that the total number of deaths associated with wind farms is […]