This week we needed to visit the Wildwood Trust, near Canterbury, to deliver a very large chinchilla cage that we were donating to them. Pebbles, our old chinchilla, sadly died earlier this year and Wildwood were delighted to accept the cage to keep their rats in.

Wildwood Trust is a native species conservation charity which aims to protect, conserve and rewild British wildlife. Locally in recent years, it has worked with others to reintroduce bison into Blean woods near Canterbury and release red-billed choughs onto the cliffs near Dover, as well as so much more across the country as shown on this information board:

As well as all this fantastic work going on behind the scenes, Wildwood also runs a zoo to showcase British wildlife. Since we were at Wildwood anyway, we took the opportunity to wander round the zoo to see some of our British animals up close. The enclosures at Wildwood are mostly very well vegetated and sometimes the occupant cannot be seen – we like that animal welfare comes first, of course, but it can be disappointing. However, here are some of the animals we did see this time:

We enjoyed ourselves at Wildwood but will need to return again to have another attempt to see some of the animals.

Swifts are another species that need protecting and conserving. Swift Awareness Week at the beginning of July each year sees events being held across the country to celebrate these enigmatic and special birds. I went along to an open day being held at a house in our local town of Deal that, in just a few short years, has become a home to a thriving local colony. As I approached the house, screaming parties of many swifts circled low over my head – guaranteed to bring a smile to my face. I find it very uplifting to see what can be achieved if you care enough.

There are twenty-seven swift boxes up around the three sides of the house and I believe fourteen or more of them are occupied this year. Many of the boxes have good quality cameras in them so that the nests are monitored in detail and much has been learnt about the problems faced by these birds as they bring up their families.

We now have six swift boxes up on our own house and garage, although, for now, there are swifts nesting in just one of them. But for the first time we are able to observe what is going on in that box. As the two chicks are now starting to grow their feathers, they are increasingly being left unattended while both parents go out to collect food for them:

As I watched, a parent entered the box with its white throat noticeably bulging with insects caught on the wing. Bedlam breaks out in the box as the chicks go wild:

The parent puts its beak down a chicks throat and releases the food:

The young swifts really look most extraordinary at the moment. Their little tail feathers are still in their protective sheaths:

I am so enjoying being able to observe the progress of this nest and am learning a lot.

It is estimated that 70% of a badgers diet is made up of earthworms. But in the summer, when the ground is dry and hard, the worms go down deep and are difficult for a badger to get at. So, in order to survive, a badger has to diversify at this time of year and one of the things they can do is to rob wasp and bee nests of their larvae and food stores. They particularly like the nest of the buff-tailed bumblebee, Bombus terrestris, because they have large broods of tasty larvae. I read that a badger’s sense of smell is so acute that it can detect exactly the right night to raid the nest to score the greatest amount of food.

This week a buff-tailed bumblebee nest was dug out by a badger:

The diggings were covered with dead and dying bees. They will have stung the badger but this isn’t enough to deter it:

A nearby camera showed that the nest was dug out by the female badger, with her two cubs in close attendance. She was no doubt teaching them what they have to do to survive a summer when you are a badger. The next night I put a camera to point at the diggings and a cub returned to the scene of the crime:

I am pleased that the cubs are also being brought to the nightly peanuts that we put out for them:

When the sun comes out, it is the marbled white and meadow brown butterflies that are dancing over the meadows now that it is early July:

The trail cameras around the meadows often give insights into what the birds are eating. This crow has raided a nest – perhaps this is a woodpigeon egg?

The magpie has a large cockchafer:

I am getting a lot of photos of song thrush carrying snails in their beaks:

Over in the wood, the newly fledged green woodpeckers are yet to appear on any of the cameras. But I am seeing great spotted woodpecker chicks that have fledged as well:

Every year bullfinch breed in the wood, although I am yet to see their young this year:

This was a treat – a little weasel pops its head up at a pond:

We woke up this morning to find that the country has a new Labour Government and, here in Dover and Deal, we now have a Labour MP. Let us hope that, once the realities of being at the helm begin to bite, the new government sticks to its promises to protect and conserve our wildlife as well as to take the huge problem of the climate emergency very seriously indeed.