This week we did the final tour of the year around the thirty hazel dormouse boxes in our wood. In October, six dormice had been found in the boxes, but now in November we didn’t find a single one. They have all built winter nests down at ground level, where the temperature is less volatile, in which they will hibernate until spring.

Abandoned summer nests remain in ten of the thirty boxes and these will cleaned out over the winter.

Box 12 has excelled itself this year, I think:

Not only does it have that dormouse nest in it now, but on the May tour it had a brood of marsh tits:

We might not have found any dormice as we went round the boxes this week, but we certainly found a lot of slugs and millipedes. In box 28 we also found a pupal case and egg mass of the gypsy moth.

There was a British native gypsy moth, whose caterpillars ate just two species of plant and was generally very well behaved, but these went extinct in the early 20th century. Unfortunately, the European form then became established in London in the 1990s and has spread widely from there. These caterpillars are a problem because they eat a wide range of plants and can extensively defoliate trees and shrubs.

Even though she has a full set of wings, a female gypsy moth is flightless but emits a strong pheromone to bring a mate in to her. Because she is sedentary, she will then lay her eggs close to where she emerged from her pupa, as has happened in box 28. We will get some gloves on and scrape these eggs off before they hatch out in the spring.

As we walked round the wood this week, it was depressing to see how much squirrel damage there has been this year. So many trees have been ring-barked and killed – mostly the beautiful beech and hornbeam, but other tree species as well.

And practically every dormouse box shows that they have also been under attack from them:

Much work is being done to address the grey squirrel problem in the British Isles, but progress is slow and I can’t see there being a satisfactory resolution for the south of England in my lifetime. An up-to-date map has just been produced by UK Squirrel Accord showing red and grey squirrel distribution 2017-22:

I had always assumed that red squirrels had disappeared from most of England ages ago and was very surprised to see this comparison between 1945 and 2016 which shows that there were still some red squirrels in East Kent in 1945:

Back in the wood, movement at this badger latrine caught my attention when two or three flies flew away as I approached:

It was the flies that interested me because they were sizeable and red and I was fairly sure I hadn’t seen them before. I waited for one to return:

Unfortunately I didn’t have my macro camera with me to get a clear photo of something this size so I returned with it a couple of days later. I had to lie on my stomach and get my face much closer to the latrine than I would have wanted, but was rewarded with a photo that has enabled the fly to be identified as Dryomyza anilis:

Dryomyza anilis, the hooded Dryomyza, is a common and widespread fly, but just not in the places that you might usually look. The males are very territorial and stake out territories at woodland badger latrines and carrion where they hope to find a female and mate, laying their eggs into the decaying organic matter.

In my last post there were photos of woodcock, fieldfare and redpoll, all newly arrived at the wood for the winter. This time I have some more winter visitors. Firecrests, along with their more plentiful cousins the goldcrests, arrive in the UK in the autumn from their breeding grounds in Scandinavia:

Large numbers of blackbirds also arrive in November from the colder parts of Europe and over-winter here:

Last week we cleared out the large raptor boxes in the wood but unfortunately disturbed a tawny owl that was roosting in one of the boxes. We hoped that we hadn’t scared it away for good, and so it was reassuring to see a tawny back in the vicinity of the box again:

It was also nice to see the weasel still in the meadows after its recent encounter with the dog:

It was a bumper year for rabbits in the meadows last year but this year they seem to be back to their normally low numbers:

I remember this rabbit with that distinctive torn left ear from last year:

The ringed female kestrel is still in action in the meadows but we are definitely seeing less of the birds of prey here as autumn recedes and the weather worsens:

In my last post, a heron had started visiting the hide pond and demonstrated what a devastatingly effective hunter it is by catching several hibernating frogs:

Our scarecrow, Mackenzie, was rapidly brought out of the shed and put up by the pond:

And I’m pleased to report that no heron has been seen at the hide pond since he has gone up. However, we now see that the heron has simply moved down to the other pond:

Frogs are nocturnal and, if the moon is fullish and the sky clear, there is enough light for herons to hunt at night when the frogs are most likely to be moving around. Here is a heron down at the wild pond at 2.30 in the morning but, since it was minus three degrees, I hope that the water was frozen and that it had no success:

We do have some protective corrugated squares at the sides of this wild pond for the amphibians to hide under. These are very popular indeed in the summer but I am not sure if the frogs will be hibernating under them at this time of year – I suspect not:

Once we realised that the heron had moved to the other pond instead, we swiftly made a second scarecrow using some of Dave’s old clothes that he was prepared to donate to a good cause:

Storm Bert howled his way across the meadows last weekend. In the nick of time I moved pots of tender plants into the potting shed where they can now remain until the spring:

I like to think of them all safe and protected in there seeing out the winter, just as the onion, garlic and tulip bulbs are now planted into the allotment under a cosy blanket of compost:

We have probably finished most of the jobs we wanted to accomplish in the meadows before the start of winter. But, now that all the dormice are hibernating, it is time to turn our attention the wood where there is more clearing and coppicing to be done than we can ever hope to achieve. Although it’s hard work, being outside in the wood in the cold, short days of winter is actually really lovely and something we look forward to – especially when it also involves boiling water for tea over an open fire and sitting down with a reviving slice of Christmas cake.

There has been a diminutive but exciting visitor to the meadows recently – a weasel, a pocket-sized predator, which has now been seen several times crossing this gate. It is a small mammal specialist, cashing in on the abundance of mice and voles that have been around this autumn.

We last saw a weasel on the gate in the autumn of 2022, when the weather was less drab and grey than it has been recently and the image is therefore sharper:

Weasels don’t make their own den but use a nest of their prey, often lining it with dry vegetation and rodent fur. We know where our weasel’s den was because the dog had a non-contact confrontation with it there before it shot back down underground. I was pleased to be nearby because it was very special to hear the extraordinary calls of a weasel for the first time.

I rushed to get two cameras trained onto the den, knowing the weasel was down there:

I didn’t know that rats also preyed on rodents smaller than themselves but here one is with a vole:

But it is not just weasels and rats eating the voles. They have also been taking a hammering from the birds of prey that have been hunting here this autumn. Each of the photos in this gallery below is a different rodent being eaten by the ringed kestrel over this last fortnight:

A barn owl has been successfully catching them in the dark….

..and a tawny owl is also out hunting for rodents at night:

This buzzard is after them too, although it would also be prepared to go for something larger such as a rat or a rabbit:

It has been wonderful to see so many predators arriving to cash in on the small mammal population here this autumn. The vole population is naturally cyclical and this seems to have been a very good year for them.

The sparrowhawk is the only bird of prey around here that isn’t interested in the voles:

The barn owl has been visiting the meadows every night recently. But what I was really excited to notice was that there is no sign of a ring on the right leg of this bird:

This is interesting because we have recently seen a ringed barn owl as well, so we now know that there are two different animals. The ringed bird is on the left and the non-ringed one on the right below:

Another photo of the ringed bird eating a vole:

They are certainly magnificent animals:

And nice to see it using the haypile to look for rodents:

Of course I haven’t been able to resist ordering a barn owl nest box now that they are regularly using the meadows. It will probably arrive too late for next year’s breeding season but we are forever optimistic.

Jays are very busy collecting and burying acorns from the holm oaks in the autumn:

Jays can carry one acorn in their beak and about five more in their crop. This jay below is certainly carrying acorns in its distended crop as well as in its beak:

This can be be seen more clearly in this photo from 2021 of another jay with a crop full of acorns:

The badgers are continuing to drag more bedding into their sett in preparation for the winter to come. Badgers do not hibernate but instead slow down into a winter torpor:

Reptiles and amphibians, however, do hibernate and we found this pit of hibernating lizards tucked away under a sampling square:

Unfortunately this most unwelcome visitor is able to pull hibernating frogs out from the bottom of the pond:

We’ve seen it take three or four frogs from this pond in the last two days:

We are going to have to get our scarecrow, MacKenzie, out from the shed and put him on duty by the pond. We didn’t need him at all last winter, so goodness knows what state he will be in and he may need some refurbishment first.

Over in the wood, a toad is once more hibernating under a large sheet of corrugated tin where it will at least be safe from herons. We had specifically gone to look for it because it was there last winter as well and that was the first time we had seen a toad in the wood:

The strange, contorted white saddle fungus has come up both in the wood and in the meadows:

A beautiful nuthatch has been coming down to this woodland pond a lot recently. We don’t see nuthatches in the meadows so its always special to see them in the wood:

Several winter visitors are now being spotted by the cameras in the wood. The first woodcock was seen on the 8th November. These birds have travelled from Russia and Finland to escape the harsh weather there and spend the winter in the gentler temperatures of our wood where the ground is not frozen hard for months:

Fieldfares, too, have now arrived:

As have some lesser redpoll with that lovely claret red patch on their heads:

We have gone round the large raptor boxes in the wood to empty them of nesting material. Every one of them showed signs that squirrels had nested this year.

There is a camera on a pole trained on this tawny owl box below and I had already looked at its SD card and seen that it showed no activity. So we were therefore very shocked indeed when Dave knocked on the box before opening it, just to be on the safe side, and a tawny owl flew out. I hope it comes back again soon – we would like it to nest in there next year instead of the squirrels.

We met a forester in the wood this week to discuss some hazel coppicing that he is going to do for us over the winter. On our way to show him the hazel, we passed the lovely stand of silver birch in the centre of the wood which has now reached maturity:

He advised us that, if nothing is done with these trees, they will soon start to fall over, at which point they would look awful and can no longer regenerate from their base. We would eventually need to clear them all away and replant.

But if these trees are harvested now, the stumps will regrow to form coppices and the cycle naturally continues. This silver birch wood is commercially viable as fast-burning firewood and he would buy it off us to help finance the coppicing work.

This all seems very sensible and we are now considering commissioning a woodland management plan from an expert which would set out a plan of works going forward over the years. We would then need to apply to the forestry commission for a felling licence to take these silver birch down next winter. This would be a very bold step to take and I love those trees and will be so sad to see them felled. But it does sound like it might be the right thing to do for the long term health of the wood.

One day this week we returned to Hawkshill Freedown, an area of 13.5 acres close to home that is now being managed for nature by the community. Back in early September we had walked up to see how the flower meadow there was getting on, and found it looking rather lovely:

But the Hawkshill meadow has now been cut and the arisings needed to be moved off the land. A heart-warming number of local people had turned up to assist:

It was actually great fun to help out. A large hay pile was created off to the side which will provide a habitat for invertebrates and reptiles:

A great sense of satisfaction to have got the job done.

Dave saw a house martin swooping over the meadows on Monday as it made its way south. What has stopped it leaving until now? I do hope it hasn’t left it too late, all on its own, battling its way down the length of Europe as winter starts to take its grip. The swifts left nearly four months ago at the end of July and I like to think of them now, swanning around in the heat of Central Africa as I zip up my coat and put on my gloves to go out into the meadows. In just over a month it will be the shortest day and then I will allow myself to anticipate them returning to the meadows once more next year.

The Scottish Highlands are magnificent at this time of year, swathed in their rich autumnal colours. We have just returned from a week’s photography holiday there and were amazed by how beautiful it is.

There was a bit of time to fill as we approached Aviemore, our home for the week. So we called in at Ruthven Barracks which were built to accommodate Redcoats, tasked with maintaining law and order in the Highlands after the failed Jacobite uprising of 1715:

On the afternoon of the third day, we met our Naturetrek guide and four fellow group members at our hotel on Loch Alvie and the busy week of photography got underway:

We were generally quite lucky with the weather because it hardly rained all week, although it was often overcast and windy. However, when the sun did come out, the place looked completely amazing:

I was helped by Oliver, our guide, both with the composition and the subsequent tweaking of this next photo and I have to say that I’m especially pleased with it:

We spent one morning in a red squirrel hide, set amongst the heather and beautiful Scots pines of the Caledonian forest:

Nuts and seeds are regularly put out around the hide to keep the squirrels coming by to have their pictures taken:

The squirrels themselves are adorable even though they don’t have their tufty ears at this time of year:

There were some picturesque logs around for them to pose on:

We tried to get decent shots of them jumping:

There were probably four squirrels visiting:

We enjoyed our time in the red squirrel hide so much that we would like to try some more hides now. One of our fellow group members recommended a kingfisher hide in Lincolnshire – also a long way away from East Kent but perhaps we can build a visit to it into a nice weekend away.

Dave spotted a squirrel having a rest a bit further away and took a photo through his birding scope and onto his phone:

We saw some birds as well whilst we were in the hide and I particularly like this photo of a wren. I’m often surprised at how long their beaks are:

On another morning we went to an area of the forest where there are feeders up to bring crested tits in. Beautiful lichen-covered perches were also available to place near the feeders to encourage the birds to perch:

This was a not totally successful attempt at a back-lit shot:

The ground was very boggy and wet but still with a soft pink covering of heather:

I think this is my favourite crested tit photo of the morning:

One day we had an early supper at the hotel and then got ourselves back into the minibus to visit another hide to watch wildlife after dark. Once we had arrived and settled in, peanuts and spreads of peanut butter were put out to bring the animals in close to the hide:

Almost immediately a pine marten arrived. This was one of this years cubs:

There are apparently eight badgers in a sett nearby and six of them turned up on the evening:

It turns out that badgers love peanut butter:

This gave me an opportunity to photograph their amazing claws:

And their very mobile noses:

A wood mouse also ventured out to see if the badgers had left it any peanuts:

At the end of the session, we got back into the minibus and had just set off when we saw a dead pine marten in the road:

Another iconic Highland species is the mountain hare and we spent a day in search of them, high in the Findhorn Valley:

This was a very remote area. The farm buildings that can just be seen above were in ruins

Mountain hares are bigger than rabbits but smaller than brown hares and with shorter ears. They also turn white in the winter, unlike their brown hare cousins.

After much searching amongst the heather, we managed to find two hares, both of which were still brown at this time of year:

Our guide had just got a new thermal imaging camera that talks to his phone, and this showed the hare up really clearly – but only once we’d already found it:

Another species we couldn’t go home without seeing was the red grouse. This female looked like she had white spectacles on:

And the male had only a hint of red on his eyelid at this time of year:

A photographic challenge we were set was to blur the water cascading down under the bridge at Carrbridge. I did manage to achieve this with a really slow shutter speed and large aperture. A polarising filter would also have helped but I’d left that back in the minibus:

We spent two windy days by the sea – one going round the Black Isle and the other along the Moray Coast.

Not only did the harbour at Burghead have a large fleet of fishing vessels in port, it also had a small group of eider ducks. Our guide nearly always got down as low as possible to take his photographs:

Although I remained standing to take this male eider:

There was also an inquisitive grey seal in the water:

I think the photo of this curlew at Cromarty is much improved by giving it the context of the just-harvested field:

There were lots of birds to watch at RSPB Udale Bay on the Black Isle. Unfortunately they were all just a bit too far away for my camera:

The views from the reserve stretched out to the oil rigs languishing in the Cromarty Firth:

A flight of mute swans low over the mudflats:

By the end of the photography week I was feeling pretty tired – we were usually leaving the hotel by 8am each morning and didn’t return until after dark. So we enjoyed taking life at a much slower pace when we stayed two nights in a seriously comfortable hotel near Peebles in the Borders on the way home:

But eventually we had to turn the car southwards and make the long journey back down through England. We had had a fantastic time but, as always, it was lovely to be home again and reunited with the dog. We both feel that we learnt a lot about photography over the course of the week, but now need to keep pushing on with putting it all into practice so that we don’t forget.