Wildlife we encounter around our dexters

[Saffy]

Hello Rob...had several tries, can't seem to do it.

Stephanie

[Hillside Ben]

Saffy Right click with the mouse over the picture, then select open in a new tab, it'll widen the photo and you'll see it all.

Beautiful picture Rob

[Rob R]

Saffy Right click with the mouse over the picture, then select open in a new tab, it'll widen the photo and you'll see it all.

Beautiful picture Rob

Thank you, and sorry for not being clearer about the instructions.

I'd love to see some other parts of the country posted...

[Louisa Gidney]

Well, I tried that but only got the options to copy or save. So, what else is hiding there?

[Saffy]

Hello Rob....I don't get that option but thanks for trying.

Stephanie

[Rob R]

We'll try this link and see if it works?

[Saffy]

and then there were two!!!

Stephanie

[Saffy]

That's the first time I've managed to take a picture of an owl on the wing - in the past they have always come out as a white blur at best. I tried to get a picture of the youngsters but they darted back into the nest quicker than I could press the button! Quite often they will hunt right next to me while I move the cows and then disappear into the middle distance when I get the camera out. Perseverance paid off in the end, though.

Do you think they find you and the cows "useful" to them when they are hunting? By either confusing their prey or making the prey move so they can see it? The swallows and house martins like to swoop amongst the Dexters.

Years ago someone lost a Harris Hawk and it pitched up outside my farmhouse, I failed to catch it but it stayed in the area and when I rode my horse at a fast trot along a one and a half mile stretch of or quiet country lane it would often join me and hunt alongside. Maybe the clatter of hooves covered its approach, scared things out for it or maybe it just liked to show off to someone?

Stephanie

[Rob R]

That's the first time I've managed to take a picture of an owl on the wing - in the past they have always come out as a white blur at best. I tried to get a picture of the youngsters but they darted back into the nest quicker than I could press the button! Quite often they will hunt right next to me while I move the cows and then disappear into the middle distance when I get the camera out. Perseverance paid off in the end, though.

Do you think they find you and the cows "useful" to them when they are hunting? By either confusing their prey or making the prey move so they can see it? The swallows and house martins like to swoop amongst the Dexters.

Years ago someone lost a Harris Hawk and it pitched up outside my farmhouse, I failed to catch it but it stayed in the area and when I rode my horse at a fast trot along a one and a half mile stretch of or quiet country lane it would often join me and hunt alongside. Maybe the clatter of hooves covered its approach, scared things out for it or maybe it just liked to show off to someone?

Stephanie

I'm not so sure, as barn owls locate their prey mainly by sound I would have thought the grazing would disrupt them, although dispersal is an interesting theory. It's very wet at the moment though and I saw two frogs last night in the cow's paddock so I think the owls will be getting a change from vole. It does make me wonder how the voles survive these kinds of conditions, and particularly winter flooding, but I suppose many do not and the lucky ones manage to move towards the edges.

Last night I took the camera with me but it started raining so I put it under an empty lick bucket. Unfortunately I was still setting out fences when I saw both frogs and also missed that moment when the meadows look nice before they start to look soggy. However, as I walked back to the car the owl came out and started hunting! We're getting closer to the nest now so I think it had probably been watching, and waiting until I'd gone.

The one photo that I did manage to get yesterday was this one found under a pile of stones near the yard - the camouflage was so good that I was struggling to get the camera autofocus to work on it!

[ann]

Its certainly been a good year for owls, we have had 3 little owls hatched of and several barn owls. Yesterday I had a cow having difficulties calving so brought her into one of my barns and discovered that we had a barn owl watching us from the rafters. Not sure when he decided to leave as i was to busy giving the cow a hand with a very large bull calf, fortunately both mum and calf are doing fine, I think the owl has decided that his quiet sleeping arrangements have been disturbed as it has not return so far.

[Rob R]

Here in the Lower Derwent Valley they have ringed a total of 157 this year - up on just 4 for 2013! We've also had some little owls fledged - no photos but I have just been listening to two youngsters in the trees surrounding the farm.

[Duncan MacIntyre]

In the space of 5 minutes and within 200yards of one another I saw a roe deer, a fox, a brown hare and a rabbit this morning. Very difficult to spot the Dexters, 12 in the same field all hiding in the whins.

Duncan

[Rob R]

I've not seen much recently as I've been going to check them around dusk, so just a few barn owls, but at one point last month there was a Marsh Harrier & a Roe Deer in the same day, and a few days later I managed to photograph my first Kingfisher, but it didn't turn out too clearly.

The cows are now in the last paddock of the lowest, wettest bit, so I'll have to start going in daylight & taking the camera with me again.

[Louisa Gidney]

The swallows have gone. I'm missing the twittering in the barn and the babies learning to fly. My favourite was the one who didn't even try and fly back into the nest but crawled back in.
Skeins of geese are regularly passing overhead now.

[Saffy]

I miss the swallows as well, there was one this year...as there usually is that was a bit over hopeful, out it would go....and splat, only got a couple of feet the first time, I would pick it up and carefully place it on the water pipe next to the nest, did it countless times. I found it outside once and put it back, I hope it made it after that!!!

Stephanie