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!
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! 
July 17th – this evening I took a walk around the edge of part of the crop. I wanted to see what other plants were growing. I hadn’t gone too far from the house when Billy decided to join me, I always hear a meow before I see him! 
Considering the height of the crop I was lucky to spot 3 Roe Deer running through the field on June 1st, I noticed them at the far back corner as they came out of the copse and managed to watch them for a short while until they ran out of sight. I walked down the track to the side of the field – there were some Rabbits feeding. 
The middle of April I decided to take a closer look in one of the hedgerows, it didn’t go to plan. I had company on my walk that isn’t the type of company that goes with looking for birds – a cat! My friend lives in one of the houses adjacent to my patch and has a cat that lives outdoors. She’s very friendly and decided that coming for a walk with me was the way she would spend her evening. I didn’t expect her to walk all the way down the track and into a copse with me, then walk all the way back! If I stopped to look at something she stopped and waited for me! All I saw was a Robin at the top of a tree and a Rabbit who was quite a distance away thankfully! 
