Animal Collection and Nature Reserve
August 2020 Newsletter
Lockdown is easing slightly but who knows for how long. But, what a start to August for us. As Cherry and I sat in bed having our early morning drink and breakfast, having already fed and let out the dogs for their constitutional, a kingfisher alighted on the telephone line right outside our bedroom windows. It seemed to have been drawn to our bird feed hangers where a long tailed tit family and several house sparrows were feeding on our nuts and sunflower seeds. The young kingfisher came up our stream from the major Tamar River looking for territories that are suitable – our stream, the Lowley Brook, has many small trout, bullhead (Millers Thumb) and our large pond is full of roach of all sizes.
On the 2nd, our friends Gary and Rhianna brought up two beautiful ravens to add to our collection. These stunning birds are still persecuted by gamekeepers and farmers. These two, both females, were born in captivity on 1st April 2019 and we hope to swap one for a male.
On the 4th, we were given two captive bred mature little owls. They look so fierce but live mainly on worms and insects, although they will take rodents and birds up to blackbird size.
On the same day we received pair of very young African genets. They are small carnivores with a spotted cat like coat but are much slimmer with a pointed muzzle and a long slim tails. In view of their size we are keeping them in a large reptile vivarium, which keeps them warm. They have voracious appetites and already eat eight or nine day old chicks daily. As they grow we will give them a much large enclosure.
Unusually, a black headed gull flew over Trediviett Mill on its own on the 8th. It might have had something to do with the thundery oppressive weather. Last night the peacocks started to call in the pitch black of night at about 4a.m. My first thought was a predator. Perhaps they had spotted a fox. However, about ten minutes after they had woken Cherry and me we heard the first indistinct rumble of thunder and then heavy rain. The peafowl had heard or sensed it long before we did, miles away.
In the middle of the month we met a gentleman in our favourite local hostelry at Bratton Clovelly. I was talking about needing a completely wild unbroken pony to be moved to one of our volunteers. Etta had fallen in love with this particular Bodmin Moor Hill pony. She had originally been purchased to befriend our remaining miniature Shetland pony after his thirty-year-old companion had died some eleven years previously. Our remaining Shetland pony Jed, died last month and we were very anxious to move her to Etta, where she would receive more attention and thus not need a companion. We are going to re fence the field she was in and prepare it for a small herd of Red and Fallow deer. But, that is in the future. She was moved the following Sunday by Jim who we’d met. He said he wished he had never met us! The pony was very difficult but is now totally relaxed in her new home.
On the 21st we enjoyed one of Britain’s most beautiful birds on our balcony; a jay, very handsome indeed.
On the 24th we transferred our young male otter, bred here, to a fellow conservationist – a man seriously in the process of rewilding his farm, Derek Gow, famous for water vole conservation and beaver release among a multitude of other accomplishments. He has a young female arriving from the British Wildlife Centre, next month.
On the 26th, Andy and Tracey Johnson visited us from Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire. They have a collection of crocodiles from around the world and they are broadening their collection with two pumas we bred here last year. There is a short essay about the puma cubs along with this report.
On the 28th, a grey wagtail visited our bedroom bird feeders.
All through this month young buzzards flying over were mewling and mewing pitifully as they are now on their own, their parents having stopped feeding them, their mewing is a combination of begging if they see an adult bird, and crying their misfortune. They will learn soon enough.
We have noticed the swallows are already flying low and gathering for their migration although many don’t now go ‘til October or November and some (at our local abattoir) stay all year.
Good wishes to all of our readers.
Stay safe.
Sightings in August 2020
Below are our sightings so far this year.