I have had an interesting month. There seems to be a lot of wild life around here at the moment. There’s all the bird life which seems to increase every year I heard the cuckoo earlier in the month which I haven’t heard for quite a while, but I suppose that’s bad news for another unsuspecting bird! I haven’t seen the Kingfishers for a while so I expect they’re nesting.

One thing I have seen is Otters that have turned up at the ponds 3 times in the past few weeks. The second time I saw them was at about 10:30pm. One came up from out of the stream that runs next to the lakes, so I went down to see where they had come from only to find a large eel that they were in the process of eating. The eel was over two feet long. I picked it up to put it on the bank and had quite a shock as it started wriggling.

They are amazing creatures but I think they are the Otters favourite meal. So I left it there and an hour later it had gone. At least if they are catching eels they might leave the carp and other fish alone. The next time I saw them was at about 10:30am, I followed it up stream for quite some distance, it didn’t seem too bothered about me!

Also recently I have seen quite a lot of roe deer around the farm. At this time of year they have changed their coats to a light sandy brown, very different to the winter coat which is much darker. I managed to get a distant photo of a lovely buck with large antlers!

The South Devon cows have nearly l calved now with 6 heifer calves and 12 bull calves, ideally I would like more heifers for breeding stock. They are all growing very quickly as there is plenty of grass due to the warm wet weather. The Aberdeen Angus bull has been put in with the South Devon heifers that are 2 years old. These will calve in January or February 2013. They run with the Aberdeen Angus the first year as this makes for easier initial calving.

The polled Dorset ewe lambs are now running with the ram and should lamb in October or November.

On the camping front everything is up and running, the new toilet and shower block is now in place and both bell tents, the shepherds hut and the yurt are looking great. All we need is some hot dry camping weather that lasts all summer. Fingers crossed!