We're both passionate about our wild neighbours, as you can probably tell from the outfits we always seem to wear. Our Secret World Wildlife Rescue uniforms, where we used to volunteer (and briefly work) before moving to Ireland are still the best clothes we have for outdoor shenanigans. As a charity they could do with any and all support so please do click on the link to their website and donate or spread the word about them.
While I'm preparing the promised greenhouse video, I thought I could share a little gem we caught on our trail camera last year. It's one of two resident herons who seem to have claimed the eel trap as their hunting ground - check it out at the bottom of this post.
They would not be unchallenged however. The picture below shows a large otter that has come to explore the "fishery" (eel trap). We originally set up the trail camera to see if there are any otters using the stream. Needless to say, we never captured an otter on the trail cam. We captured a bunch of kitties, foxes, mallards, random little birds and about two and a half million shots of herons. But never an otter. Then one day, we received an obscure image, without a comment or intro, from our neighbour (and former owner of the mill). I instantly knew what this meant, as he has been sharing our enthusiasm for wildlife spotting since the beginning; there was an animal in the shot somewhere. I didn't know what or where, but it didn't take a long time to find. Can you spot it?
We eventually got the full story - our neighbour was working in the ford, with his tractor, engine roaring, nearby. When suddenly he spotted this little visitor exploring the fishery. When I say little, I'm only being endearing. He said it was the size of a whippet. The neighbour froze and the otter did not seem to notice, maybe his senses were affected by the tractor engine. It otter dived under some watercress and poked his head out no more than a meter from our neighbour, who, standing ankle deep in water promptly splashed him in the face (because there's no guidance on what one does in a face-off with an otter). L'otter, undoubtedly in a surprised state went "oh crap" and turned around to flee, but not before our neighbour snapped the above picture of him.
We’re hoping that our site will provide a great mosaic of habitats for wildlife and have decided to pursue environmentally and ecologically positive activity throughout the project, for example by installing an Integrated Constructed Wetland (ICW) as a solution to wastewater. They are a more biodiversity friendly version of a treatment plant / percolation area. We are hoping to be energy self-sufficient as well, by installing a micro or pico-hydropower generator and potentially harness other energy sources but again we are mindful that the system we implement is wildlife friendly.
So far the wildlife we’ve encountered on site is as follows: otter, fox, pine marten, heron, buzzard, 6 species of bats, elephant hawk moth (caterpillar) and white ermine moth, peacock and tortoiseshell butterfly, dipper, swallows, grey wagtail, pied wagtail, robin, wren, and a bunch of other garden birds. We've also "excavated" a baby jackdaw skeleton and a dead / mummified rat (during the clearance of the cottage), and discovered indications of other wildlife such as an, as yet unidentified, garlic and bean eating thief-critter that has ruined the 2023 garden by digging out everything we planted in autumn, so that’s a good start!
We are yet to complete a proper habitat survey which Chris is hoping to do in future, to identify the existing botanical and invertebrate species around site. This should help to inform and improve our "permaculture" plans but more on that in a different post perhaps.
Now enjoy the video that we were able to record right next to raging floodwater, thanks to the new microphone from our friends! I still have a ways to go to install it on myself properly.
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