This week we did the November tour of the thirty dormouse boxes in our wood. This was the last tour of the year and wraps up my first full year of monitoring the dormice on my own, with Dave in support as scribe and helpful general assistant.

Looking back at my records, I see that last November there were no dormice left in the nest boxes, all presumably having gone down to ground level to hibernate. This November, however, we found eight juveniles. This may be an indication that the temperatures until now have been relatively mild and/or that the summer has been a really good one and the dormice have unusually had second broods. If so, it would probably be these second brood juveniles that are still around to finish fattening up before hibernation.

This week dormice were found in nests in seven of the boxes, but an additional seventeen boxes also contained empty dormouse nests. This means that, now at the end of the season, twenty-four of the thirty boxes had dormouse nests in them and a further two had yellow-necked mice nests. In contrast, by November last year, only ten of the boxes had dormouse nests and two had yellow-necked nests. I would say that this year has definitely been a good one for dormice

The starling murmuration is one of the UK’s most iconic winter wildlife spectacles. In the autumn starlings from Northern Europe arrive to overwinter here and greatly bolster the ranks of our own resident birds. During the day they spread out to feed but then, as dusk approaches, birds from a wide area will fly back to congregate at a safe roosting spot. Studies have shown that the birds can fly as far as thirty miles to get back to their roost before dark. This is often in reedbeds, where the surrounding water makes it more difficult for predators to reach them while they sleep. Some of the sixty-one piers dotted around the UK’s coastline can also provide a similar safe haven for them.

One of our sons has recently moved to Brighton and one evening this week he ventured out to capture the Brighton piers’ starling murmuration on his phone:

Sometimes the starlings arrive and disappointingly shoot straight in to roost. But other times, especially if the day is mild and calm, they will first put on an amazing aerial display, creating mesmerising patterns whilst flying in absolute synchrony.

Once they have finished their sky dancing, they settle down under the pier to roost up for the night:

We have wrapped up warm and tried to see starling murmurations several times over the years but have mostly been unsuccessful. We were once at Ham Wall RSPB reserve in Somerset when literally hundreds of thousands of starlings streamed past us but sadly went straight in to roost in the reeds without murmurating first. Ham Wall is a famously large starling roost where numbers vary but have apparently got up to a million birds at times.

My most successful attempt was at Otmoor RSPB reserve near Oxford in December 2019. I have no idea how many starlings were involved but it was a very magical wildlife experience:

We do have a small murmuration here in East Kent at Stodmarsh Nature Reserve near Canterbury where there is a sizeable reed bed. I would like to attempt to see that this year.

As we now approach winter, the trail cameras have started to fog up with condensation at times. Nevertheless they have managed to come up with some pretty good stuff this week. A sparrowhawk takes a bath in the wood:

And another sparrowhawk is appearing a lot in the meadows at the moment:

And I’ve been seeing and hearing tawny owls in the meadows too:

I would love to know where they nest.

Always a pleasure to see the kestrel that was ringed in the meadows in 2019:

Here she is out hunting nearly an hour before it got properly light:

It is a relief to see her right eye is now back to normal because, in early October, there was something very wrong with it indeed:

The magpies are still eating wasps:

And working through the remaining acorns on the holm oaks:

We don’t often see meadow pipits in the meadows but there have been a few around recently:

The badgers should be slowing down about now and going into their winter torpor. However, they are still prepared to expend some energy on play fighting:

There are four of them although it is quite unusual to see all of them together at the moment:

This is not the first time I’ve seen the foxes carrying Bonio-style dog biscuits. Presumably someone is feeding them these down in the village:

On one sunny, still morning I was amazed to spot a common darter at the wild pond. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one so late here before:

One evening this week there was apparently a chance to see the Northern Lights. We would absolutely love to see them and went out before bedtime to have a look. The skies were clear but sadly there was no sign of any colourful lights. We did get a bit distracted by a very bright Jupiter and four of her moons though. She actually has 95 moons but Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto are the largest:

I am going to wrap up this week by mentioning our visit to the Cavell Van which has been put on temporary display at Dover Marine Station – or Cruise Terminal 1 as it is now called:

After arriving at the Naval Pier at Dover in 1919, Edith’s coffin was put onto a horse-drawn hearse which, together with a military guard, processed along Dover sea front lined with throngs of people who had come to pay their respects:

She then spent the night in Van 132 at Dover Marine Station:

Van 132 subsequently went into mainline service until she was retired in 1967 and left to rot away in obscurity:

However, happily she was eventually rediscovered and, after fundraising and a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, was renovated in 2009.

It was no doubt an enormous endeavour to return the Cavell van to Dover from its normal resting place at Bodiam Station. The effort was certainly worthwhile though, as large numbers of people had come to see her at this time of Remembrance.