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| 2024 | 2025 |
| << November 2025 | December 2025 | January 2026 >> |
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1st: Rugs A selection of the rugs we have made from this summer and autumn - the first two are in their new homes!         |
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2nd: Stunning views today    |
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3rd: Poultry Pond |
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4th: Exciting We hear tawny owls every single year at this time, and have done since we moved here in 2016. We are rather delighted to have finally caught one on one of our trail cams that we have had running for the last year or so. It's not the best quality but it is a perfect view nonetheless |
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5th: Still finding new fungi These beauties are growing in a gap in the trunk of the ash tree by Yeti's gate - the left hand one as you face it from Swallow field. ID is not yet certain but it MAY be Bitter Oysterling. We will keep an eye to see if it grows a bit more and/or changes shape. There was also some Crystal Brain in the same gap growing just above it; a perfect example of a true micro climate. In other news, we spied what looked like a mating pair of Great Diving Beetles today in Poultry Pond - a little early!! Mating usually happens in the spring after a winter spent buried in wet soil!!! So, not altogether sure what was going on here. And the pictures aren't really good enough to work it out!!! 
 
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6th: The ponds are really starting to fill up after recent rains Fruit and Poultry   Stream into Chaser  Oak and Chaser   |
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7th: Wreath Working with Yvonne Markou
A fabulous wreath workshop this afternoon here at Cadbury Cottage, Chulmleigh, led by the wonderful Yvonne Markou. It was a relaxed, warm and friendly afternoon and everyone went home really chuffed with what they had made. Yvonne was a truly excellent teacher. What made the event even more special was how sustainable it was - much of the vegetation we used was from trees/ bushes that needed some trimming (in the absence of large herbivores), from wind damaged vegetation or from dead plants such as bracken. Thanks as ever, to everyone who came - we love hosting these nature-led events and have plenty more planned for 2026. (And thanks to the group for all these fab photos.)            |
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8th: Fox and Fungi Fabulous footage of one of our foxes checking under the Bird Feeding Station and pictures of today's fungi finds, all within a two-meter stretch of Swallow inner hedgerow. No new species but all new locations. Steely Bonnet and Variable Oysterling 
Netted Crust and Turkeytail 
Common Bonnet  |
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9th: Fox promenade Just love the light here. We are only see one of our foxes just now - the one with the white tip on its tail. It is mating time for foxes right now so it maybe the other has disappeared to find a mate and/or a new place to live. We are not sure. We would dearly love to think we may catch cubs on next year's trail cams. We had one short clip form this year that was really fuzzy due to wet on the lens but it did clearly show two older cubs with mum. Fingers crossed for more next year!! |
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10th: Water It's mesmerising!! (Fruit Pond) |
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11th: More fungi Two new species (we think) - Wrinkled Crust and Glistening Inkcap - will be watching the later to see if we spot it deliquescing. It is under the Ash tree on the right as you go from Oak to Swallow fields through Yeti's gate. The Wrinkled Crust was just in the hedgerow on the left as you go through - not sure what wood it is on!!   |
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12th: Yellow Dung Fly on Cow Parsnip It's December and we have Cow Parsnip in flower and a Yellow Dung Fly using it as a platform to soak up a bit of sun. The plant was behind Goat Pond so in a pretty sheltered spot. Yellow Dung Flies are one of the most common flies in the UK and as the name suggests, use dung to lay their eggs. Any dung will do, even dog poo!!! They are carnivorous but will also drink nectar, so the Cow Parsnip may be more than just a resting place. They are pretty ugly looking, even for a fly. Those mouth parts are especially unattractive it has to be said!!  |
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13th: Tadpoles in December So this is an interesting one - tadpoles in December. These were spotted this morning - just three of them. We posted on the NHM UK Biodiversity Facebook page and the debates continues.. Are they frog or toad? Are they over wintering after a summer of not getting enough food? Are they from this spring's spawn and just never going to turn into adults (which can happen)? Are they from early (very early) spawn? Why are they so small - they are maybe the size of 2-weeks old 'poles'? Why have they not been eaten? (the pond they are in is teeming with dragonfly and great diving beetle nymphs to name but two predators). We are not sure what our theory is, even after reading all the comments on the NHM site but we are fairly sure they are not over wintering from spring spawn as they are so small still. But to be recent, the spawn would have had to be laid about 4/5 weeks ago which doesn't make sense. When we pond dipped to transfer them to a white tray for a closer look, we also found lots of other goodies too. Who knew pond dipping could be so exciting in December. 
 Caddisfly larva 
 Caddisfly larva and a Water Slater (louse) 
 Backswimmer and Freshwater Shrimp 
 Mayfly larva (possibly Pond Olive mayfly) 
 Damselfly larva and Daphnia 
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14th: Robin It is not possible to have too many pictures of robins. This is the same chap(ess) in Goat field this morning. Gloriously handsome and close!!     |
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15th: Full, if not overflowing ponds This is the fullest any of our ponds have ever been Fruit Pond, overflowing 
Swallow, the fullest it has been - will it stay though?? 
Yeti Pond, ditto... 
Chaser, overflowing on the far bank 
Small Chaser, backfilling into Yeti's stream and then overflowing the other side into Chaser Pond 
Chaser again, being fed by both Firefly's Stream and the overflow stream from Small Chaser 
The Clay pit - we have never not seen the bottom before 
Oak Pond, getting very close to the top 
Firefly's stream feeding Chaser and Yeti's feeding Small Chaser. 
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16th: Deliquescing These Glistening Inkcap fungi are well on their way to showing exactly why they are called Inkcaps. Top Three: first photo is 11th, second 14th and the third today (same specimens).    These two are just two days apart: 14th and today, and again, are the same specimens.   |
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17th: Soaking away Our clay pit was never meant to be a pond per se. It was simply a hole made when Nick and Nick needed more clay to top up the bank of what since became Chaser Pond. Nonetheless, we have always hoped it might fill. On 15th we showed it with a good few inches in the bottom for the first time ever, yesterday it had drained a little and today there was virtually nothing left. In an effort to help, we grabbed some extra clay and did a bit of puddling at the bottom where we could see what were obvious cracks. We are due heavy rain tonight and tomorrow so we shall now be keeping our fingers well and truly crossed.   In contrast we now have news of 'excess'. We bought some trays to fit under our bird feeders a few days ago, as the waste underneath has been pretty awful this last month, Sadly, the blame lies with the starlings, as compared to last winter when we only had a handful visiting, this year they are descending in much greater numbers and the mess on the ground has been pretty excessive. And now we have proof in the trays at just how bad it is: the first photo was after a day, and the second, 24 hours later. On both occasions, the feeders were filled up for the day! Some birds are feeding from the trays themselves but as the seed gets wetter here and also, in the case of the mixed seed, it is the least favoured that is filling the tray, we are not hopeful it will all go before we have to discard it in case of mould. We did swap our suppliers recently but have now returned to the original ones as it 'may' be that the slightly better quality will result in a little less wastage. There is of course the issue that there will be less seed on the ground for the ground feeders - we are not sure what we think about this as of course, not all the ground feeders are of the 2-legged, feathered kind!!!!! Watch this space.... 
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18th: Variety There are lots of days when we wander round the land and we focus on just one thing: fungi or spiders or flowering plants for example; and then there are other days when we just try to keep our eyes open and look high, low and all things in between. Today was wet and so we only had the phone camera with us and today was definitely a day for just taking it all in amidst the gloom and the rain and the grey. And so we found colour and texture and movement and, in the case of Roxy: dedicated and very happy focus!!! 🤣 Netted Crust fungi  Chaser Pond and Flowering Blackthorn (the later just a tad early)!!! 
 Roxy!! 
The Glistening INkcap, not so 'glistening' any more and a new unknown fungi that has just appeared in Swallow Field shelter. It may the Field Mushroom, Agaricus campestris, but we await confirmation.   |
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19th: Bubble As the first raindrops fell this morning, they caused huge bubbles on the surface of one of our ponds. They were gone in seconds, but I managed to capture an incredible reflection before this bubble vanished. Nature has this amazing capacity to make us see life in totally new ways.  |
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20th: Seedlings The wildflower seeds we sowed back on 12th November in three different locations (all banks in Fruit or Swallow fields) are all starting to grow. For some species this is normal to pop up shoots now - we just hope that these are 'those' species. Others, such as Yellow Rattle, need a frost to help them start (cold stratification). We are due much colder and drier weather this week, so we will be keeping an eye.   And this is just a lovely view!!  |
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21st: New fungi We had a lovely walk along the hedgerows today finding new fungi and a beautiful fallen branch (possibly beech) that left the most amazing hole in the trunk of the tree. Those layers of wood are beautiful! Porcelain Fungus Mucidula mucida, was seen growing on a fallen beech branch in the outer hedgerow of Goat field, and then further along into Oak field, we spied this lovely Leafy Brain - Tremella foliacea which apparently feeds on Netted Crust fungus (of which we have lots). We hope to get in to the hedgerow here (which will be fun) to get better photos.    |
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22nd: Otter and Kite - best buddies |
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23rd: Mallards and Starlings A delightful clip of a female mallard sitting on a grassy island in Chaser pond last night, whilst her mate has a leisurely swim behind her. These may or may not be the same pair who visited Poultry pond a few times back in March - who knows? This is the second time we have caught them in camera, the first being back on 15th. Meanwhile, this morning we were treated to the sight and sound of hundreds of Starlings in Cadbury Wood - this is a 'very' zoomed in shot but gives an impression of the numbers. Magical.  |
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24th: Chaser Love the wind on Chaser Pond  |
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25th: Christmas Day Bliss!         |
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26th: Birds and Fungi The new seed trays under the bird feeders are doing their job and even better, the birds are feeding from them more than they were, so far less seed is being wasted. (The weather has been drier so this will be making a difference). We have the trail cam focused on the ground today and tonight to see if it is making a different to the ground feeding activity. Dunnocks always feed from the ground. Sparrows, finches, blackbirds, tits and the robin feed from trays and the ground, so it will be interesting to see what they all do now there is slightly less falling to the ground. Meanwhile, we keep finding what we think is Dewdrop Mottlegill - new ones seem to be springing up everywhere, especially in Fruit and Swallow fields. And yet more weirdness in plants that are flowering - here we have Bramble and Red Campion - we have the New Year Plant Hunt coming up soon - it will be interesting what we find compared to last year 
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27th: Blue and Green - and some atmospheric grey You get a lot of sky for your money living here - we are now day three or four of pretty cold, frosty weather. The winds are from the north-east which is unusual but getting more common. The ponds have dried up a lot in this last week or so and we are not seeing much life at all in them - we suspect everything has descended to the bottom and the sides to escape the severe cold. It is lovely to walk round and see and hear the bird life - plenty of gulls and thrushes flying over and some fab views of buzzards recently. Song birds are around but not quite as animated as they were back when it was warmer in the middle of the month. Buds on bushes and trees though are huge and looking very ready to burst forth when the colder weather has gone. The thought of spring is very exciting. 
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28th: Water Even without any wildlife in them, these video clips are just beautiful - we often just stand and watch the ponds as we walk round the land: wafting vegetation, rippling waves and stunning reflections are all mesmerising!! Fruit |
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29th: Heron We were delighted to catch this footage of our heron who, it appears, is happy to make repeat visits to our land - the last time was 1st November - and it would be nice to think there have been visits before that weren't caught on the trailcams. We are not sure if it had caught some food at the start of the video but it certainly was having a good drink. A majestic bird - there is nothing hurried about the heron, until that is when prey is spied. Apparently, special joints in their spine allow their necks to coil and uncoil rapidly, giving them the ability to strike in the blink of an eye. Herons are the UK's tallest bird and whilst they hunt alone, when it comes to nesting, they can be highly sociable with great numbers (up to 100) all building their nests in the same group of trees. Fingers crossed for more visits. |
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30th: Buzzard Lovely footage of a buzzard at ten to eight this morning by Chaser Pond: very calm and settled. We have seen buzzards ever since we moved here, nine years ago. They are a common sight and we just adore that plaintive mewing sound as they rise upwards on the thermals. BUT, only since we have build all our ponds and planted trees and allowed scrub to start developing, have they (and other birds) started to actually land 'on' the ground and in the now bushier vegetation. We are creating safer places, more corridors, more places to find food and shelter... As a result, the bio-diversity will be increasing and the food webs becoming more complex PLUS our soil will be getting far healthier. It really is all starting to work.... |
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31st: Deliciously frosty day
  
  
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