Review of wildlife hide – Stealth Gear Two Man Photography Chair Hide

A few years ago, at Birdfair, I bought a wildlife hide to mainly use in my local woods.

The Stealth Gear Two Man Photography Chair Hide (around £130) has got a large front viewing window but also 2 smaller windows on each side and one in the back. This allows for a 360 degree view but also lets a good amount of light in. Each window has a mesh cover.

The two chairs are joined together allowing for plenty of room at the front for a tripod or two. Each chair has a cup holder, arm rest and a pocket for phone or notepad.

The camouflage pattern has been designed for the UK countryside and blends in well, particularly in the summer and autumn.

At around 9kg the hide can be heavy to carry long distances, but it does pack up in to a carrying bag with shoulder straps.

It was quite quiet out in the woods yesterday with only a few squirrels and the normal blue tits, wood pigeons and a couple of nuthatches to watch.

In the last 30 minutes a fox appeared, firstly stalking through the brambles but then trotting out in to the meadow.

If you are on Twitter and love nature books, it is worth joining in with #NatureBookClub on a Sunday evening around 7pm.

Each Sunday there a few questions to answer, such as, introduce yourself, favourite book, take a book shelfie, what are you currently reading, favourite nature illustrator and more.

It’s a great place to share and learn about nature and wildlife books.

Get Your Boots On available at Bookshops, Dived Up Publications and Amazon UK

 

Oxford’s first climate strike of 2020

2020’s first climate strike in Oxford with a hint of civil disobedience.

A smaller than usual turnout and not disheartened by the rain, the youth strikers of Oxford met at Bonn Square at 11am on Friday morning.

I’m always impressed with the originality and messages of the posters, puts mine to shame

 

After holding a minutes silent in solidarity  with the youth strikes in Australia, speakers spoke, chants were chanted and the crowd moved through the streets of Oxford.

 

Next, the group was given the opportunity to take part in occupying the entrance to the Westgate car park.

Those that didn’t want to join in were given a safe place to stand, and those that did, were looked after by safety stewards.

 

Short film from all of the clips taken today

 

Busy garden

It is always interesting to see what happens in the garden over night. However, last night seem to be a particularly busy night for wildlife and not so wildlife.

Glad to see my local vixen is still around as she hasn’t been visiting as regularly as normal. Also nice to see a quick visit from one of the Muntjac. Not as good to see, we had visits from 2 cats and one dog!

The Birdsy camera has been picking up around 150 clips a day including this brilliant one of 12 Long tailed tits

 

Last Thursday evening I visited Film Oxford for one of their Open Screen nights. This is where film makers from beginners to professionals can show short 10 minute films or clips from films or even parts of films in the making.

The idea is people can show their work for discussion, answer questions and get to meet other film makers and enthusiasts.

This was the first time I had been and I found everyone really welcoming. My favourite film of the evening was one called ‘Never’ by Mohammad Ali Husainy.

 

Slavonian grebe

At the beginning of December a Slavonian Grebe turned up at Farmoor reservoir. Due to other commitments and Christmas the first chance I got to visit was yesterday.

As often at Farmoor, the wind was wiping across the causeway, so we made the guess that the grebe would be in the top corner of F2 in the shelter from the wind. We were right!

Yesterday was grey and overcast so I wasn’t really happy with the photographs I got, so as Farmoor is only 5 minutes from my house, we popped back down today.

Fun Fact -Slavonian grebes regularly eat their own feathers to act as a plug in their stomach. This acts as a filter to hold the fish bones until they can be digested. (Source: National Geographic)

 

 

Bird watching, whether making a special visit or watching birds in your own garden can be a great way to relieve stress and help your mental health.

Joe Harkness, wrote an amazing book called Bird Therapy about the ‘therapeutic benefits of birdwatching for people experiencing difficulties with their mental health’. 

More recently Joe has produced a teaching resource for Key stage 3 and 4, as well as adults.

The resource is full of activities to do, both indoor and outdoor, that put into practice some of the issues dealt with in his book.

For more details, click on the link below.

Bird Therapy – Teaching Resources

 

2019 Round up and HNY

I’ll start with the highlight of 2019.

The publishing of Get Your Boots On. An idea that had been in my head since 2016 and after years of writing, and then months of editing by the amazing Dived Up Publishing finally in July Get Your Boots On was out for the public to buy. Both very exciting and nerve-racking at the same time.

Back to the round up of 2019.

January started with a Rose-coloured Starling, a badger rescue and, as always, The Big Garden Bird watch.

February saw days of snow and my first Climate Strike

In March following in the footsteps of friends Sophie and Kyra at Hedgehog Friendly Town I helped highlight the netting of hedgerows by developers and came face to face with a young muntjac deer.

April was a busy month with small mammal surveys, meetings about restoring the wild flowers in my local churchyard, the swallows arriving back and the first sightings of 2019’s badger cubs.

‘Say No to Mow in May‘ saw us leave our front garden and stop cutting the grass. Within a few weeks the grass turned in to a wild flower patch full of insects, bees, small mammals and the local foxes.

While I took part in 30 Days Wild in June, I didn’t blog very much as I had my GCSE’s. Towards the end of June I started going into schools to talk about wildlife and Get Your Boots On

July was hectic. A huge thank you to everyone who made the book launch special, especially Hugh Warwick who hosted the evening and entertained everyone.

July also included a visit to an RSPCA centre as part of #GenerationKind and a visit to a Badger exhibition in Somerset.

As always August means Birdfair and a great chance to meet up with friends and make new ones.

During September I started college, but before the beginning of term we spent some time in Devon and the A Focus on Nature conference took place in London.

October was busy again, with a visit to Bristol, a Hedgehog day, fallow deer on my local patch, watching some inspiring films, walking in Wytham woods and talking to a Cub scout group.

During November I saw harvest mice for the first time and started trialling a Birdsy camera in my garden.

December seemed to be full of starling murmurations but also joining in with #Foxingday and the #ReThinkHS2 walk.

A huge thank you to everyone who takes time to read this blog and follows me on social media. I realised looking back on 2019’s posts that I seem to put a lot more on Twitter than I do on this blog. If you have Twitter you can find me @Appletonwild

A special thank you to those who have bought my book Get Your Boots On, I really appreciate all the great feedback and support. A special mention to Ben Garrod, who as ever has been amazing.

Wishing you all a wild 2020 and let’s see how much we can protect the wildlife around us.

Starling murmurations Brighton pier

Brighton is one of the more commonly known places to go to watch Starling murmurations.

Of course, the murmurations vary each day and it is luck as to whether you catch a large murmuration or not. It can depend on the weather, in particular the wind.

The background also plays a part. Having a gorgeous orange sunset really shows up the black twists and turns of the murmuration.

This was the first time I’ve witnessed a murmuration over the sea and having the waves crashing in the background certainly made it feel different.

It isn’t the same as Otmoor or Ham Wall where the huge numbers of starlings sound like an aeroplane passing overhead, and I’m not sure how the numbers compare but at Brighton there seemed to be 3 or 4 separate murmurations going on simultaneously rather than one massive one.

The first couple of photos were taken from standing on the groyne between the two piers

 

 

 

 

After half of the starlings had roosted, a smaller number continued to murmurate. The next couple of photos were taken from under the pier itself.

 

This is where the starlings finally roost, up under the pier.

HS2 – Stand for the trees

Today saw well over 1500 people walking around Colne Valley and Denham with Chris Packham and campaign organisers of STOP HS2.

Colne Valley and Denham are two of many areas that are being affected by the construction of HS2, the planned high speed railway between the city centres of London, Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds. This 345 miles of track will cut through irreplaceable ancient woodlands and destroy many wildlife sites including 10 Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

Many species such as badgers, water vole, otters, bats, hedgehogs, freshwater crayfish, stag beetle, smooth newt, great crested newt, common frog, slow-worm, common lizard, rare butterflies and breeding birds will be affected. As well as thousands upon thousands of mature trees.

For more information go to http://stophs2.org/

https://standforthetrees.org/