Bel's Wood

It's been a busy summer at the beck. With water being short I have picked up some great wildlife shots and here are a selection of my favourites.  This tawny owl has hunted in the beck and on the videos below you can hear the alarm calls from the blackbirds who will have had young chicks at this point. Tawny owl hunting In this shot the owl is being chased - by it slowing down I can see that the chaser is a Jay. The screeching is urgent and I have included the longer version below where the second shriek is heard off camera. I have seen a male and female fox pretty consistently over the year. This looks like a juvenile so they must have had a successful year. I like the way the moth photobombs the video at the end. There are many squirrels so it would be wrong not to include them! No red squirrels sadly. I have picked up these Sparrowhawks in the beck - sometimes bathing. I think the one that peeps is the juvenile although the same size as the parent here. This ...

Having missed the slow unfold of Spring this year due to my fractured ankle, I have spent lots of time at Bel's Wood enjoying summer emerging. It has been windy but the storms have passed and there has been a good mix of rain and sunshine so that the beck has plenty of water. Flowers are out in abundance     Heath bedstraw Thistle with a white tailed bumblebee                                             The fox gloves are grand this year      Water forget-me-knot growing in a boggy area Buttercup       Dog rose.                           Water mint growing in the boggy areas          An abundance of honeysuckle with two different varieties Broom It's bracken time of year again and not having been up there as much as last...

In March 2021 I picked up a tantalising piece of footage of a mustelid. Opinion was split as to whether this was an otter, American mink or a polecat.  Mink and otter have been seen on the River Gilpin which my beck flows into. I did find some spraint which wasn't fresh enough to smell. Mink spraint smells unpleasant while otter spraint smells of jasmine or violets!    Basically the video footage was too short to tell so I set about capturing more footage although I reluctantly concluded it was probably a mink. I say reluctantly as these animals have escaped from fur farms and are not native to the UK. They cause harm to the ecosystem. While otters are native and rare. They are a protected species and seeing one is always a delight. I set up 3 cameras on the beck with two on loan from a fellow woodlander Andy. I captured lots of interesting footage. Badger crossing and drinking from the beck Red deer and fox crossing the beck As well as roe d...