squirrel – Donich Website

Red in Tooth and Claw

donich_admin — Tue, 05 Jul 2016 19:48:17 +0000

An interesting but (sort of) quite sad thing happened this afternoon. I was working at my desk looking out at Beinn Bheula this afternoon when I heard a scratching noise like claws on concrete outside. I shot to the french windows just in time to see a rather thin looking fox disappearing under the fence with a squirrel dangling from its claws.

I was quite sad because I love our squirrels, but then I got thinking about the scrawny fox and the cubs she is probably trying to keep fed. So all nature’s way I suppose. Actually the presence of the fox (which I have only seen on the webcam at night during the winter) explains why the cats have been a bit jumpy over the last few days.

I didn’t get a picture of fox and squirrel, so the one above was taken by V when she was staying recently..

Spring is springing

donich_admin — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 21:13:12 +0000

The weather here today was truly awful as only Highland weather can be. Grey with driving rain and a persistent wind. R and I had hoped to get a really good hill walk in, but instead, we had to content ourselves with our usual walk along the lochside. Nonetheless, spring is on its way.

There are a few catkins on the trees, the first spring flowers are out, and today R and I heard the first woodpecker. If last year is anything to go by, within a week or so they will be drumming throughout the woodland here. They’re not often seen (though very occasionally we get one at the bird table), but they are certainly noisy.

On the subject of noisy, our jays are also starting to squawk at each other, trying to get a dominant position to hold on to this territory – which must be a very sought after one considering how many nuts we put out. The first year we were here there was one pair which must have had a lot of surviving offspring, because at the moment there are no less than six. I do like them but I hope we don’t end up with 12 this year because they will eat us out of house and home. We also counted six red squirrels at one time in the feeding area yesterday.

The picture is of a rather nice hellebore which is now out in our garden.

Garden Raiders

donich_admin — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 20:12:19 +0000

I’ve been doing some brambling in the evenings this week, trying to get a decent amount together to make enough jelly to last a few months.

We have quite a lot of brambles along the edges of the garden, and I worked my way up the whole left side of the front garden and gathered a big bag of them. I thought I’d get a load more at the back, but strange to say, the bushes are all trampled around, and there’s scare a single berry to be seen. I could almost have thought that we had been raided by boy scouts, except that there were some distinctive piles of poo which makes me think that our friends the deer have struck again.

So while I was in foraging mode, I went down right to the bottom of our wood where we have a little stand of hazel trees, and I was hoping to get some nuts to bag up for Christmas. But again, not a whole nut to be seen – and on the ground, some evidence of the culprits. A hazel nut shell opened as though with a chisel is apparently a sure sign of red squirrels have eaten them – and there is an example I found in the picture.

So no apples, no brambles and no nuts – but to be honest I would rather have the wildlife.