Two consecutive video clips showing an encounter between two badgers at 5 o’clock in the morning.
Obviously two members of the same clan.
All posts by Pat
Protected: Alison and Richard’s Wedding
River Walk at the Wilderness
This evening, Bill entertained a group of friends for a walk in the River Alyn as it passed through the Wilderness.
A good time was had by all!
Great Spotted Woodpecker – Domestic Duties
Bill told me about his woodpecker’s nest at the start of May, and I got over there right away. The hole was high up in an old willow tree beside the river, visible from the landrover parked beside the track to The Wilderness.
I spent an interesting few hours watching as the pair took turns inside the nesthole, presumably incubating the eggs. The books say that this is mostly done by the female, but this one did not seem to be carrying her weight – in fact, at the last changeover, the male seemed quite annoyed at how long she had spent enjoying herself instead of relieving him, and literally chased her into the nest hole!
Female has just arrived –
and sidles around the back of the tree and into the nesthole!
And so to today, when the chicks have hatched and are being fed – but only by the male, He arrived with food 22 times in the two hours I watched, so averaging 5.4 minutes between visits. There was no sign of the female, so perhaps she has met with an accident. Or perhaps there is more complicated biology going on – for example, is she sitting on eggs in another nest?
I noticed that, like the dippers, at the instant that the food is handed over, both parent and chick have their eyes shut.
Coed Mostyn
From Hilbre Island, the winter sun reflects from the water or sand – depending on the state of the tide – of the Dee estuary, dazzling the eye and casting the line of Welsh hills along the far side into shadow.
One of the foothills rising from the shore of the estuary on the other side is topped by several fields surrounded by woodland. In the valley to the south of the hill, a small river runs down to the sea, past the ruins of a great house called the Downing, built in 1626, in which the writer and traveller, Thomas Pennant, was born and lived. The side of the hill which faced the mansion, cloaked in its ancient woodland, is creased by a couple of small valleys, one of which contains Coed Mostyn, ours since April 2013.
This is a part of the 1899 OS map, with our wood outlined in red. It remains surprisingly accurate, with only one additional track. 
Access is through a gate at the southwestern end of the track running the length of the wood, and at this point the track is at the bottom of a steep-sided valley. About half way up, the track levels out and enters a level glade on its left near the top.
Two problems were immediately evident. The first was the quantity of laurel covering the slopes at the western end – probably planted in Victorian times to line the paths leading up the slope to the northeastern corner where there is a fine view over the estuary. It is now completely covering the ground, and the mature broadleaf trees which
emerge through and above it have no chance of reproducing themselves in its dense shade. On taking over the wood, the first task was to clear several laurel trees which had been brought down by the weight of snow in March, and were sprawling over the paths. The laurel will have to go!
The second problem appeared when we got the keys and drove through the gate in the Landrover. A few yards up the steep track, and we came to a halt with the wheels turning ineffectually. The ruts in the track is the drainage path for the wooded valley, and they were filled with a soft damp mud which gave very little traction. The track will need a lot of work to make it driveable, and this is important because we need to get up to the level glade at the top of the valley.