Blakehill and Lower Moor Farm 28th Dec 2017

Welcome to my Wildlife blog, I thought it would be a good idea to record some of my walks and visits to wild places.

I am going to start with a visit to Blakehill Farm and Lower Moor farm - both Wiltshire Wildlife Trust sites that I visited yesterday (Thursday 28th December 2017).

It was an icy start to the day with a frozen windscreen to contend with before my day could even begin, the plan was to arrive at Blakehill at around sunrise in the hope of catching sight of the Short eared owls that have been visiting daily. However, despite my early arrival the SEO's didnt come out to play!

With the sun low on the horizon, the expanse of the war time airfield took on a lovely golden hue, the ice on the road reflecting the morning sunlight.

The field to the left of the entrance was busy with activity, a large flock of mixed winter thrushes and starlings were busy feeding in the grass.

Although too far away for a clear photo, this Fieldfare alighted on the fence line to offer a festive scene against the icy backdrop.

I moved on down the road to the main site and started to follow the perimeter path, with my eyes constantly on the horizon looking forlornly for a sign of a quartering owl, what I did see in the distance was a small herd of grazing Roe deer, four together and a further two amongst a small thicket of vegetation.

Although lacking owl sightings there was bird of prey action in the form of a hunting Kestrel and a Buzzard sat in one of the distant trees. Sadly neither ventured close enough for a photo.

With the sun rising higher in the sky and a lack of bird activity - apart from a lone female Bullfinch calling frequently from her vocal point towards the farm and a Wren that posed quickly for a photo before telling me off for being there in a series of loud clicks, I decided to make my way back to the car park to continue on to Lower Moor Farm.

The ten minute journey took longer as a few of the roads were flooded and on arrival at Lower Moor farm the entrance road was also deep under water in places. It was still very cold and only about 10am. My previous visit to the reserve a few weeks earlier had allowed a close encounter with a Green Woodpecker that was sat in a tree when I left the toilets in the on-site education centre, taking no chances I took my camera with me as I walked towards the building only to find the Woodpecker in exactly the same spot! Despite the view being obscured by the panelled fence I was able to take a photo through one of the holes to get a few images of this stunning bird.

I made my way to the cottage lake hide and gained a warm welcome from a gentleman who had his camera trained on dead rat that was on the ground close to the feeding platform - he had been watching for an hour and a half in the hope that a Weasel that he had seen a few glimpses of in the undergrowth would come out to take the dead body of the unfortunate rat. He had no luck and over the course of the next couple of hours spent in the hide - neither did I! It would have been a great photo and as I have never had a clear view of a Weasel in the wild before, it would have been a first for me, maybe next time.

The feeding platform attracted a consistent stream of visitors including Dunnock, Blue and Great tits, Robin, Blackbird, Chaffinch, Reed Bunting and always a highlight for me, Bullfinches. At one time three males arrived together and made claim to the table, chasing any other visitors into touch. 

At one point a Sparrowhawk made a fast low approach over the table before rounding the side of the hide and disappearing into the scrub, all the birds took cover and the hunt was unsuccessful this time. 

Mid-morning a Muntjac deer caught my eye on the opposite bank of the lake, soon followed a second, they made their way through the vegetation before stopping abruptly near an area of reeds. The female appeared to be unhappy about something in the reeds, making threatening gestures and stamping her foreleg on the ground....

A few moments later I was witness to the object of her attentions as a Fox crept slowly out of the reeds looking quite sheepish and trying to avoid further harassment.

Only to meet with the male Muntjac that was following, a brief stand-off occurred before the fox slipped away.

At about this point I decided to take a walk to the second hide around the other side of the lake. On the boardwalk I noticed a pair of Jay's moving along the trees at the far side of the lake, but once again they were too far away for a photo. The main fishing lake to the right was very quiet with only a lone Cormorant drying out its wings towards the central island. In the distance I could hear Canada geese calling. 

The hide was occupied by a couple of gentleman that reported that there had been very little activity of any sorts all morning, that is the one lovely thing about spending time in the hides, everyone you meet is friendly and usually has a tale to tell. I shared my story of my visit to Blakehill to try to see SEO's and was told of a local site near Cirencester where four are being seen daily - one for another day! After a short stay, in which I saw only a Blue tit and a Wren I decided that the cold was really beginning to bite and that perhaps it was time to head home. 

There was time for one more quick look in the Cottage Lake hide, this was a mistake as once again I got myself talking to some of the occupants only to have a gentlemen burst in to ask if we had seen the Otter making its way towards the island! No was the short and disappointing answer, I had been busy chasing a Goldcrest around in the vegetation through my lens and hadn't been looking at the lake. Over the course of the next hour the otter remained elusive, although at one point it came hunting just in front of the hide, causing streams of bubbles to appear on the surface of the water and I caught a quick glimpse of its head disappearing out of sight. Twenty minutes later it was seen moving from the island towards the reeds, but once again, only for seconds before it returned under the water, it was an exciting but frustrating time.

Eventually it was nearing 3 oclock and as there had been no further sightings in about thirty minutes I decided it was time to leave. I made my way back to the car park to hear the Green Woodpecker cackling away as it flew from one tree to a telephone pole. I waited for a few minutes to see if it would come into view but, like the otter, it was now being elusive with only its beak and a small portion of its body showing from behind the pole. Time to call it a day, but what a fabulous (but cold) day it had been!