August 1st – The buzzard was back on the bale of straw tonight, it looks like it could be a juvenile to me.
August 2nd – This evening there were 3 mint moths on the mint, so I’m really glad that it has been left to go to seed. They were also joined by a mother-of-pearl month.
August 8th – the great spotted woodpecker is still feeding on the nuts! He’s the main bird I see at the moment as he seems to be slightly braver than the other birds and will still feed if I’m in the garden as long as I’m not moving about too much.
August 9th – I haven’t seen the rabbits in the field since March when I saw them running about in the snow. This morning they were running about near their burrows. This afternoon I also found a 22-spot ladybird, I’ve never found one before!
August 13th – One of the hedges has been cut! There isn’t a lot I can do about it as a local farmer is contracted to trim them but really! don’t they know they shouldn’t be doing that until at least September 🙁 There were fledgling goldfinches in the garden tonight, they were making one hell of a racket. I think the parents were trying to get them to feed for themselves. I wonder if they had been displaced from the hedgerows? I also found a buff-tip moth caterpillar, it took me by surprise as it was on the edge of the arm of one of the chairs.
August 15th – I thought I saw a frog in the garden the other day but wasn’t convinced as it was small and mud coloured, it hopped but I only saw it out of the corner of my eye and it could have been a cricket. Today I saw it again, it was about an inch long, it saw me and leapt under the fence and into the field.
August 22nd – This afternoon I found a badger in the ditch, I seems it was hit over the weekend and someone had moved it. We moved her round into the field so any other creature wanting to feed on her wouldn’t be hit too. The entrance to the field is where there are regular animal crossings. It’s on a slight bend and people just don’t slow down at all, they also seem to drive in the middle of the road so if another car is coming they have to swerve! You would think if you were a regular driver of the road you would have more sense, but I guess not!
August 23rd – tonight I took a walk down to the river, there wasn’t much activity. There was litter floating downstream, sadly this is a regular occurrence each time I visit but the water is too deep for me to do anything about it. The rabbits are still digging their burrows in the walkways around the field so I walked back along the track as I knew I wouldn’t be able to see them walking back across the field. I can generally only see them when I walk into the field, in the other direction they are more camouflaged! I spotted some of the culprits on my way back!
August 24th – One of the cats left a dead rat in the front garden of the house today! At least we know the rats are still about… there is a barn a little further down the road and we think they catch them there, or next door have chickens so its a possibility they are in their garden too. I do however think if they catch them they should eat them, not just leave them on the floor!
August 31st – tonight I found lots of caterpillars on the rose bush, after a little investigation I have discovered they are large rose sawfly. All the gardening websites tell you how to get rid of them but these are happily munching away in the garden!
February 24th – the trailcam was put out over night in the field, the plan was to try and find out what was using the holes in the field as home (I assume rabbits). Nothing came out of them, there were however a few visitors that passed by – fox, roe deer and possibly 2 badgers… or one that walked the same route a couple of times! 
February 25th – I decided seeing it was a sunny afternoon to head out in the field to look around. Now I don’t normally see any other humans at all, however it being a Sunday afternoon I saw three!! Which might explain why I saw less than the normal amount of wildlife! Note to self – only go on the weekend if its really early! Along the north hedge I saw more than normal (no other humans there!) 5 starlings, 2 house sparrow and a blue tit, there were other small birds flitting around but they were hard to see darting into the hedge so I can only assume they are more of the same. I know that there are tree sparrows in the area but I am yet to see any here. 
Walking along the river I saw 2 of the humans, 2 mute swans and I heard both a moorhen and robin. I still haven’t been able to have help to go and collect the litter, good news is its still there and hasn’t washed away! I’m still unsure if the ‘land’ its on is actually stable to stand on! 
Although the recent snowfall was only a couple of weeks ago, to be honest it feels like a lifetime ago! I headed out on the Saturday morning to look for snow tracks. I have a good idea what visits the field in the day and a fair idea of what wanders around after dark, but normally finding tracks other than roe deer is not easy. The snow however made it much easier 🙂 
Along the top edge of the field along with the cat! I found fox prints, it had been quite active during the night by the looks of it but I guess seeing I now know there are rabbits living along the hedgerow I can see why. It had been looking into the rabbit hole and it did look as though there had been a chase or at least a rabbit running in an arch. The rabbits had clearly marked their burrow entrances with urine! At least I now know for sure who the holes belong to! The only other tracks I found were pheasant, which seem to be spending time in this part of the field.
Instead of heading around the field I headed out into the next field along, I knew the mute swans were there and wanted to check on them. I also found roe deer, rabbit, brown hare, fox and badger prints 🙂 All the four legged mammals that I have seen in my patch. Its good to know that they were all okay out in the snowy conditions; well at least they were on the move 🙂 The snow began to thaw in the afternoon and I am sure they were all as glad about that as the rest of us! 
September 18th – I never like seeing shapes of animals on the road but when its next to my patch I dislike it even more. It was a badger. This isn’t the first badger I have found in this spot, there was another in February. I called the field owner to help me move her, we moved her from the road into the field to allow nature to take its course rather than her getting smashed to pieces by more cars. Next year I want to try and get to know the badgers that roam around the area. Thankfully there hasn’t been a cull here so they have been safe this year. I do worry that if I get to know them and a cull happens next year I would loose new friends. Of course I would try to protect them but unfortunately the land around the field has a different owner so there is little control. 
Day 26 – As it was 
Day 29 – I finally managed to photograph one of the Swifts flying over home tonight 🙂
