Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Visitors to Lantallack

                  
Just thought you all might like to see a typical day at Lantallack and with feathered visitors and what not!

Rooks at 5am in the Hay Meadow - what's the saying?? 'See crows, them's rooks.  See a rook - tha's a crow'...in other words, rooks are generally in a 'parliament' and crows on their own!
Getaway from it all at Lantallack

















The view across the valley at midday

This chap is cheeky and pinches all the peanuts from outside the kitchen window - we've nicknamed him 'Cyril'

This too is a greedy chappy...but we love him - see how he doesn't just eat the nuts, he has just about demolished the feeder!

Okay, this is just one of the several swarms of bees that we have had to deal with this year...it is amazing to watch them march into a newly prepared hive...

We took about 60 lbs of honey this year...we'll be putting them to bed in a few weeks, making sure that they have enough stores to last them through the winter...watch out for my bee blog!

Can you spy this visitor in the middle of the water lillies?  He's very fond of looking at himself in car mirrors....guess?

Can someone tell me what this is...I think it may be a Hawkmoth, but not sure??  I found it in the tunnel amongst the tomatoes a few weeks ago.

And at the end of the day the sun goes down....

and down.....

and finally sinks behind Padderbury Hill - the iron age hill fort on the opposite side of the valley.

And then we all go to bed....this was a harvest moon in early September

          ....happy days at Lantallack.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

FOX CLUB EXAMINES OWL PELLETS AT LANTALLACK


  FOX CLUB EXAMINES OWL PELLETS AT LANTALLACK


Jenny, Rowena and I hosted an owl pellet inspection day on 31st August.  Jenny explained all about the different owls that were present at Lantallack - tawny owls, barn owls and the little owl (which sadly hasn't been seen for a couple of years) and exactly what an owl pellet was.  


Owls, like many other birds, eat their food whole. Since birds do not have teeth, they can't chew their food, so they use their strong, sharp beaks to rip their prey apart (very often voles, small rabbits, moles etc) and then swallow large chunks whole. The owl slowly digests its meal by separating the softer materials (such as meat) from the harder material (such as bones). It then regurgitates the harder material      along with indigestible items such as feathers and fur in the form of a pellet. 



Jenny brought her stuffed Barn owl which is so beautiful... and weightless.... with stunning feathers.



We have had a Barn owl in our big bank barn for quite a while and over the last year I have been collecting his pellets and putting them in my studio.

Jenny and Rowena soaked the owl pellets for an hour or two to make them easier for everyone to dissect.  When the children (and adults - who couldn't resist joining in!) began to break them up to search for the bones of the tiny animals the owl had eaten, they just fell apart and what they found was so exciting!






Lots of vole skulls, thigh bones, hip bones, jaws teeth etc. etc.....here is a vole's skeleton. 



Obviously there are plenty of voles around here - especially in the orchard where it doesn't get heavily grazed and large tufts of grass become 'des res' (desirable residence) for voles.  They particularly love burrowing down at the roots of the apple trees, where they can munch their way through (amongst other things) the fallen apples.  Like many rodents, they are scavengers and eat what they can. Their diet can vary because they eat what is available. Diets can include grasses, plants, bulbs, seeds, roots, flowers, leaves, bark and insects. 

So after they had finished pulling their pellets apart, everyone was exhausted, so we decided to go down into the orchard and look for voles habitat.



All in all, it was a very enjoyable day!!!!