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The 5th of November!

It's Guy Fawkes Night tonight.  We're not going anywhere.  Henry's on call and I've got work to do.  I'm also diving in the morning and want to get to bed early.

North Country Cheviot neighbours

Today was a deligtful day.  It was dry and sunny.  Tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same for us.  This makes me happy!

Fly Agaric that has been nibbled

I took my camera with me when I walked the dog this afternoon.  It was nice not to worry about the camera getting wet.

Blackberry blooms in November

Walking on our lane is nice and quiet on the weekends.  I spotted some brambles still in bloom.  The weather was so wet and cold this year, the poor plants don't know if they're coming or going.

Moss on fencepost

Moss just needs a surface.  Any surface will do.

Whitelees and a typical view of my dog

I'm thankful for today's dry weather and my lovely dog, Polly.

Feeling Better - Let's Walk the Dog

We are turning the corner with the flu bug.  I'm working at about 78% capacity and thought the long suffering hound could really do with a nice long walk.

I bundled up and took her up the road to our favourite walk.  It snowed about an inch last night and I could see we were the first and only visitors to the pond today.  Well, the only domestic visitors . . .

There were some deer tracks.

By this little hill, I could see where some pheasants had been dragging their sleds around in the snow.

Then there was evidence of a fox.

 I got this shot of the fox's path through the snow before Polly could go and bounce all over the tracks and spoil it.

The fox had zig zagged all up and down the snowy lane looking for something, anything to eat.

This tree looked lacey with the snow still clinging to its branches.

I don't know if you can tell from this photo how quiet it was . . . . but I could only hear my footsteps and own breath.

Here's our pond.  It looks different all silent and frozen.  In a few months - this bit of water will be heaving with the activity of spring but for now, it is still.

This surprised me - the moles - blast their furry hides - are still active.  This mole hill at the side of the road was made fresh this morning.

Tracking the Wildlife

Now that days are getting a little bit longer, it is no longer too dark to walk the dog after work. Both Polly and I really need the exercise and I was pleased to get up the road this evening and to our favourite walk by the duck ponds. Snowdrops are poking through last year's fallen leaves and one can almost feel the sap rising. I know there is always the threat of late snow at this time of year and we will certainly have more frost, but it feels that the teeth have been knocked out of winter.
The light on the hills behind the house was particularly lovely.

There is a lot of sticky red mud this time of year and the old pink wellies get called into service.

I saw loads of signs of British mammals on this walk. First there is this well used path. I can't tell if this path belongs to badgers or a foxes. Both these animals like to follow the same path when going about their daily business. This particular path comes out of the trees, across the grass, under the fence, across the road and into the next field.

After the path, the first mammal tracks I saw were the deer tracks. There look to be about four does and one big buck. I have taken photos of both doe and buck tracks so you can see for yourself how easy it is to distinguish between the doe and buck tracks. doe tracks
doe tracksa buck hoof print

I took the photos of hoof and paw prints next to my hand so that you could get a sense of scale. You can see that the hoof print of a buck is much deeper in the soft mud and has the two distinct heel marks behind the hoof.
I found badger tracks tonight. I've not seen badger tracks up there before. This is a poor specimen of a badger track, but you can see the claw marks plainly.
This is a fox print in the mud. Very similar to a dog but smaller and more delicate and quite different to the badger.
Compare it with Polly's big muddy paw print
Then there are my welly tracks.

I saw our barn owl again just as I was almost home. Even though I had the camera, I still wasn't fast enough to get footage. It's such a beautiful bird,

It was a lovely walk and I look forward to many more of them this spring.