VEGAN RECIPES AND WILDLIFE UPDATE!

This summer my plan is to experiment with different vegetarian and vegan recipes! 

I will add them to my recipe notepad along with illustrations. Hopefully it will make vegan/vegetarian cooking easier in the future! The first thing I made was a vegan burger when we were having a BBQ in the garden. It was easy to prepare and cook and was undoubtedly as good as meat! I would recommend it to others.

Also, as the badger culling become more serious I made some posters and pinned them up all around my village advising them to contact there local MP and sign the anti-cull epetition! Education is vital to make a difference so I added some facts and statistics about why culling badgers is not the solution.

I took this photo while sitting under our apple tree. This little bluetit chick was looking down at me not quite knowing what to do! I thought that it was a interesting angle so I popped out my camera and took a few shots!

My wildlife garden is gradually getting better! I've finally got a working pump in (which is solar powered!) and the pond plants really improve the atmosphere! Also, I have noticed frogs visiting the pond and using my wildlife ladder already which I am really happy about!

I am going to plant some shrubs around the border of the pond which will hopefully cover the black pond liner, making the area look more natural.

I've got plants running along the path and a few solar powered lights which give it a great feeling at night.

At the side of my wildlife garden I've planted some different coloured heather too!

The sweet peas are looking great!

I picked my blackcurrant and I've have made a cordial which is very refreshing in the heat! 

The grapes on my grape vine are growing but I'm not quite sure if they will be ready to pick this year.

Fingers crossed!

Bats in Derby!

I stayed at my grandparents house over the weekend

 and was lucky enough to watch (and film!) the bats that roost in their house.They were extremely quick so they were a challenge to film but they were brilliant to watch out of my grandparents window! 

I also filmed a short interview with my Grandad which I placed along side with the footage I got. 

I think that they were long-eared bats but I not entirely sure! 

I hope to stay at their house over the holidays so I can gather some more footage. Here is the link to the youtube video I made:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUKrACRP7-w

Chicken Health Checks!

Every so often I like to do a general check of the chickens to keep them happy and healthy! I weigh them, measure them, and do lots more checks to ensure that they are the best that they can be.

 I keep profiles of them which have ALL their information in, such as their date/time of hatch and their characters. We have three chickens now but below is a record of the chickens we have had in the past.

• First we had Polly (Female Light Sussex), Flossy (Female Light Sussex) and Sid (Male Light Sussex)
• Sid was too noisy so we gave him to a friend and bought Sandy (Female Gold top).
• Sadly, Polly died.

• We Incubated 12 bantam eggs, and kept 3 female chicks.
• So, we had Flossy, Sandy and the three new hens: Octavia (Female Silkie), Gin and Tonic (Female Light Sussex)
• Flossy and Sandy attacked the three new hens continuously for months so we gave them to a family friend.
• And now we just have Octavia, Gin and Tonic!

Flossy and Sandy are very healthy and happy and I think Sid is well too!

Here are Octavia, Gin and Tonic!

 Gin (Above)

Ocatavia (Above)

Tonic (Below)

All well so far so lets hope it stays like that!

OSPREYS AND RED KITES!

My school arranged a school trip to Rutland waters to visit the osprey nest they have set up! They have been running a project called 'the osprey project' to encourage them to nest and raise their young at rutland waters. 

We had a talk by one if the volunteers and we were shown the live feed on one of the osprey nests! We were also taken down to a hide where I got some great shots of the ospreys, as well as warblers, gulls, cormorants and a reed bunting!  And to finish of the guide, we also got a view of a red kite! It was a great evening and I got some lovely pictures, especially because the setting sun gave a great light! 

Here is the a picture of the live feed at rutland waters!

I love this shot! The yellow maze is produced by a unfocused buttercup in the foreground.

It may be hard to spot by in the middle of this reed bed there is a warbler! I think it is a sedge warbler.

There was a great view of 5 cormorants in a nearby tree from the hide!

AND HERE ARE THE OSPREY! IT MIGHT NOT BE A CLOSE SHOT BUT YOU CAN SEE FROM HERE JUST HOW LARGE THESE BIRDS ARE!

And here is a gull! There were lots of these at rutland water.

This common hogweed looks so much nicer in a photo!

In the middle of this reed bed their is a .......... reed bunting!

On the way back from the hide we also saw a red kite! I had never seen one before so it was amazing to see them so close.

Just before we left I took this photo. The sun was going down, swifts were gliding above are heads and the singing of birds echoed from every direction! It was a great evening...

A new webcam!

As the peak of the breeding season has ended, I wanted a new webcam to watch and monitor the birds in our garden. 

As I can never get very close to the birds on the bird feeder without disturbing them I thought it would be a good idea to get a webcam up on there! I used a clear tub and some clear film to make a housing for the camera and then I connected it to the monitor and got the camera set up! The quality is a lot better than I thought it would be and I hope to get some close up views of the birds!

This camera view may be temporary, but I want to experiment to get the best footage.

Also, as the chicks had gone and the parents left, I nipped up to the bird box to take a few photos of the nest. I couldn't believe how much material they took into the nest. It took up at least half of the bird box!

Here is the nest!

Keep an eye on my blog for some footage using my nest BIRD FEEDER CAM! 

A NEW CAM AND A NEW NEST!

I have noticed buzzards, kestrels, house martins and swallows all gliding over our house and I really wanted to try and film them unclose. I thought of many ways of doing this but my final idea was to attach a ladder and tripod to the top of my old tree house! I added a cane for the birds to perch on and I also added a block of suet to try and encourage them to land on the cane!

Here is the view from the camera, I am going to call this camera SKY CAM!

You will have to turn your head for this photo, but you can see the camera mounted at the top of the ladder! I hope it gets some good footage because it took a while to put up.

I am going to collect the camera at the end of the week and then I will show you the footage I captured!

Today, I also added a seed catcher (plate) to the bottom of my fat ball feeder to catch any excess seed. I mounted the feeder on a bamboo cane and attached it to the tree. I hope that this will attract some different birds and it will give me a better view of the feeder!

I have also found out that there is a buzzard nest in a woodland very close to our house! I will be finding out more!

THE HEDGEHOG AND THE CAT

The rescued hedgehog is still returning to my feedeing stations/hedgehog box every night! I can tell this because I have placed my ProStalk trail camera filming the box and I have got some great footage of the hedgehog and also a cat!

I used different angles whilst filming the hedgehog to create a more interesting video and I also experimented with food and bedding material. I have been using spikes hedgehog food which I am sure has been working a treat! If you would like to buy some here is the link to their website: http://www.spikesworld.co.uk/wildthings_duck_badger_food.html

I made a video with some music showing the interesting life of the hedgehog. I hope you like it!

Here is the youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxD48RGO-NU

You can also see my homemade hedgehog box in one of my earlier posts! I made it from a dimention sheet I got of the internet.

Keep watching my blog for some more news!