Although I’ve had trail cameras pointing at all sorts of different ponds for nearly a decade, I’d never seen a badger take a bath. I’d seen them drink but never had they got themselves wet, even on the hottest of nights. So I was very surprised to see one do so in the wood this week:

The heat this week has also brought some great birds down to the woodland ponds:

Occasionally polecats (or they might be polecat-ferret hybrids) are seen at the wood. Our visitor shown below appeared on several of the cameras this week although never very clearly. But I can see no hint of a facial mask this time and guess this to be a feral ferret rather than a polecat:

The marjoram is now out in flower in a large woodland glade in one section of the wood. It was very sunny when I was there but only a very few butterflies were visiting. This is a marked contrast to previous years – where have all the butterflies gone?

I did, however, see this dingy white plume moth, Merrifieldia baliodactylus, amongst the marjoram, which is fitting since marjoram is its larval food plant:

Over in the meadows, there are two sweet badger cubs:

I am really pleased to see that the cubs are still going around with their mother to be shown the ropes. In the drought summer of 2022, all three of our badger cubs perished and I still feel wobbly about a cub’s ability to get through their first summer. It is a very dry part of the country and difficult for them to dig for worms when the ground is hard.

Foxes would also like to have some of the peanuts but the badgers are the top dogs and the foxes have to wait their turn:

A female tawny owl has been hooting around the house in the evenings. This could be her appearing on the cameras:

And I’m pleased to say that a barn owl has also been seen:

The ringed female kestrel is hunting in the meadows every day at the moment:

She does particularly like the perch in the middle of the second meadow, but this one is also popular with the crows and magpies, so she needs to defend her position:

The corvids do always give way to her:

I have linked photos from two cameras here. The kestrel flies from the perch in the hedgerow….

…down to the small pond nearby for a drink and a bath….

… and returns wet and dishevelled to the perch:

Both a male sparrowhawk and this large, aggressive-looking female are also being seen on the perches and gates around the meadows:

Nice to briefly see a juvenile green woodpecker:

But definitely not nice to see this many magpies:

Over the years we have seen a wide range of things dangling from the beak of a magpie. I think this is a newt here unfortunately:

The magpie on the left has a grasshopper or cricket in its beak:

And this crow has raided a woodpigeon nest:

This blackbird is sticking to blackberries, but she’s taking a lot of them. I have many photos exactly like these:

A variety of birds have been making the most of the weather by sunbathing on a patch of bare earth. This will be significantly warmer than the grassland around it:

And it is also a favourite basking spot for a wall butterfly:

I had been concerned that the drought of 2022 had wiped out the population of narrow-bordered five spot burnet moths that we used to have in the meadows. I hadn’t seen any at all last year but I am delighted to report that some have finally been spotted:

And it has been a good year for southern hawker dragonflies down by the ponds and several have been seen laying eggs:

I came across this photo taken in early August 2016, which was the only year that a local farmer came to cut and bale the meadows for us:

It was a bit of a surprise to see the meadows looking so neat and ordered like this and it was only the beginning of August. I remember that both meadows were cut in their entirety that year, although many of the invertebrates would not have finished their lifecycles by then and it must have been devastating for them. These days we don’t start cutting until September and leave a third uncut on a rotational basis with invertebrates in mind.

I have tried to reproduce this 2016 photo with how the meadows look now, eight years on:

The majestic agapanthus at the entrance to the meadows is having an amazing summer this year:

Last year there were far fewer flowers:

But I can’t talk about the agapanthus without once more mentioning the drought summer of 2022 and showing this shocking photo:

August is far from my favourite month – I worry about the water levels in the ponds, how the badgers are feeding themselves and if it is time yet again to water all the pots. My thoughts are automatically turning to September, when it is time to start cutting the meadows and the bird migration will begin in earnest. The cuckoos and swifts have already mostly gone and I hear that willow warblers have started moving as well. Whilst I don’t want to wish time away, I am definitely looking forward now to September.