Frisky badgers, Jays at the owls' nest

No one reads this blog and since this has become simply a record for my own entertainment, I've become rather lazy in keeping it up-to-date.  That doesn't mean there hasn't been plenty to upload if I've a mind to do so.  Internet problems and restrictions hasn't helped either.  So here's a pick of the best from recently, just because I can.

 

Owl taking small mammal to nest

Noisy Badger!

Not had much time for the blog, the weather has been stunning for February, warm and sunny so no time to be indoors on the computer!  But I have to post this as a record, from a few nights ago.  You need the sound turned up for this one and play to the end. Isn't this just the most adorable sound?  This badger was either cross at seeing the camera there, or calling for his mate!  Either way, I love it!

 

Also problems with the internet means I can't easily upload videos, takes about half an hour for a short clip.  So frustrating when I have lots of videos I would like to share on here.  The rest of the world has super-fast, here in Wales not much better than the old dial-up!

Nice video here of Great Tit and Nuthatch

JAYS! And badgers.

Spring is definitely in the air and today has been a warm, sunny day.  Who would have thought it's still only the middle of February.  It was beautiful walking down the hill to check the camera and a quick look on the screen showed what looked like a Jay coming down for the peanuts.  I had to look on the laptop to confirm and sure enough there were at least three, accompanied occasionally by a grey squirrel.  Lots of footage, but here are a couple of the best ones.

The inevitable badgers are still about, this one was very busy runnng around.

Jay was back again this morning, lots of frost on the field in the background.

Spring sunshine today

Trail Camera set up and ready to go.

Polecat!

Just a quick post today.  Have started putting out the trail cameras again and glad to see the usual badgers around, quite a busy spot I found on the edge of our land.  Then last night, to my surprise, the camera picked up this strange visitor.  I'm reliably informed this is a polecat, or polecat/mink hybrid.  Ignore the date on the video, I've forgotten to change the date since changing batteries so this is actually 7th Feb.

Badger tracks in the snow and a busy bird feeder.

Freezing weather with some snow, but not as bad as some parts of the UK.  I've abandoned the trail camera for quite some time apart from the odd night, but picking nothing interesting up apart from the occasional rabbit and a rat under the bird table.  Two nights ago there was enough snow to show tracks and I saw that a badger had come to the house.  I felt a little guilty that I haven't put food out for a long time, since I'd stopped picking the badger up on the camera.  No doubt the birds have dropped enough bits to attract him back so the next night I put out a few peanuts and set up the camera, but true to form, nothing but a rat and then lots of birds first thing in the morning to clean up the peanuts.  

I did attempt to retrace the tracks back up the lane with my daughter, but we got so far along the lane and then had to turn back as it was so cold, probably about minus 1 or 2 degrees.  We could have just carried on following back down the lane to goodness knows where, but too far, too cold!

Badger and cat tracks.  The cat will be ours!

Badger

Love these two Woodpeckers on the feeder

Starlings are such characters!  Cheeky Nuthatch makes a quick appearance too, although is always a regular on the feeders.

Marsh Tit, Blue Tit, Robin

Marsh Tit, Woodpecker in background, Nuthatch, Marsh Tit

Hendy Wind Farm - a scandal and blot on the landscape!

Anyone who knows me will know I am passionate about the environment and do everything I can to be eco-friendly.  This includes making eco-bricks (stuffing all the non-recyclable plastic wrappers into plastic bottles), re-wilding land, looking out for the wildlife around me, and so on and so on.  So you might wonder why I can possibly be against wind farms, supposedly the green energy we are encouraged to embrace.

There is no short, succinct answer to this, so bear with me while I try to explain as simply as I can.  Just to start, it is unreliable, very expensive electricity that’s not available when its needed.  It is not worth the tax payer subsidies used to build wind turbines, when there are less expensive, more reliable sources of electricity available.  The amount of energy actually produced is so small as to be negligible.  Offset this against wasted energy in the rest of the world and it is literally like pissing in the wind. Wind farms are paid huge subsidies just NOT to work and the wind farm at Llangurig hasn’t worked at all in over a year.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-46826710
And yet they want to build more???  


As this blog is regarding the Welsh countryside, let's take a look at the view as you enter Wales from England via the A44.

After you pass the Fforest Inn, you descend via a series of bends down the steep hillside.  The view opens out and you look towards Llandegley Rocks, and below this is Llandegley Rhos Common.  Views don't get much better than this, it is unspoilt Wales at it's best, a haven for wildlife and a draw for tourists wanting to get away from the towns and cities.  But not for much longer.  As I write, work is already in progress to construct huge wind turbines in this landscape, where starlings roost and their murmuration is a sight to behold.  It is simply breathtaking and I well remember the first sight I had of this view and thinking how wonderful it must be to live in such a landscape.  That was many years ago, well before I could have imagined that one day this would become a reality.

However, there are those that would argue that our need for "green" power far exceeds the need for a nice view, and if this was genuinely the case I would have to agree.  We do need to save the planet after all.  But if the cost far outweighs the benefits, then is it worth it? Here are some statistics, you decide how "green" this energy source is.  This taken from https://www.masterresource.org/droz-john-awed/25-industrial-wind-energy-deceptions/

"One part of a turbine, the generator, uses considerable rare earth elements (2000± pounds per MW).The mining and processing of these metals has horrific environmental consequences that are unacknowledged and ignored by the wind industry and its environmental surrogates. For instance, just the rare earths of a typical 100 MW wind project would generate approximately:

• 20,000 square meters of destroyed vegetation,
• 2 million pounds of CO2,
• 6 million cubic meters of toxic air pollution,
• 29 million gallons of poisoned water,
• 600 million pounds of highly contaminated tailing sands, and
• 280,000 pounds of radioactive waste."

And this, the astounding amount of concrete going into the environment to support these monstrosities.   https://windfarmaction.wordpress.com/2011/11/12/concrete-turbine-base/

Now, Hendy in particular.  Here we have the dismantling of Democracy in Wales.  Planning permission was refused by Powys County Council in April 2017 which was upheld by a Planning Inspector in May of 2018.  Lesley Griffiths, Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs Secretary over-ruled these democratic decisions, taking upon herself alone to decide that Hendy should go ahead and without having visited the site herself.  Much more to be read here, putting this in much more detail than I ever could.  https://jacothenorth.net/blog/corruption-in-the-wind/

So, we have destruction of the environment, no regard for the local wildlife, no regard for the views of the local community, no regard for the democratic process, one person in power being able to over-rule all these processes, planning laws disregarded and torn up, and now the developers are literally bull-dozing their project through, despite not having the required planning consents.  Powys County Council seem to be quite happy with this state of affairs, doing little or nothing to stop this illegal development.  It is complicated and I won't even try to tackle the ins-and-outs here.  To find out more please follow these links:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK-YHpPklJI&fbclid=IwAR1xS3tf9YhWZHUB8ubgw0rdnV95QB2QgWkw4ix4R80ly0E3RWiCrpWQ0EY

 http://www.brecon-and-radnor-cprw.wales/?p=1303

Another eye-opening read here, not specific to Hendy

 https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/05/wind-turbines-are-neither-clean-nor-green-and-they-provide-zero-global-energy/

And so, the local residents have had to take it upon themselves to try to police this fiasco, peacefully demonstrating and exercising their rights to walk the old drovers track in order to slow down the cement lorries.  There is an almighty rush by the developers to complete the installation of the first wind turbine by the end of January 2019 so that they can claim subsidies!  Money clearly talks and they aren't allowing a little thing like planning laws to get in their way.  They are holding one big finger up to Powys Council, local residents and Wales in general by literally bull-dozing this project through.  The whole thing stinks of corruption and god knows what else.

The following photos are my own, from Tuesday, 8th January 2019

Intimidation and bully-boy tactics, stopping protestors from walking the track and slowing down the lorries.  Pedestrians have the right of way over the lorries!

 

 

Blot on the landscape

From a previous day . . .  shocking images of a cement lorry almost running over a lady who had fallen (pushed) in the track.  Her quick wits were the only thing that saved her from being run over.  Police did nothing.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZuUKDBpUWU

This is the landscape that is being desicrated in the name of "green energy"

Llandegley Rock from Llandegley Rhos Common

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oH-fOiRLJI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUn0f1P8C2g

 

More to follow . . . . . . .

Illegal Hunting

I haven't updated this for a long time for one reason and another, went on holiday, family issues, bad weather stopping me from putting out trail cameras, Christmas, etc. etc.  All excuses really but life does have a habit of taking over and priorities change.

But eventually I got out into the countryside, and ended up in the Elan Valley.  So far, I've considered this blog as being my own personal diary of nature around me, and wanted to keep a feel-good factor and not concentrate on any negativity.  But this is about the Welsh Countryside in general, and when you live here you can't really ignore the illegal hunting that goes on.  It's quite blatant, and nothing is done to stop it.

I came across this group of hounds in the Elan and took a few photos before they disappeared up over the tops of the crags.  I couldn't see the huntsmen and I didn't hear the hounds go into cry, so was rather hoping they hadn't come across a fox. 

In case you don't know, hunting with a pack of hounds has been illegal since 2004 in England and Wales, although you'd be forgiven for thinking that nothing has in fact changed.  It is legal to flush a fox to guns, but with only two dogs, and those dogs cannot kill the fox.  It should be shot, not torn apart by a pack of hounds. So if you see a pack of hounds anywhere in the country (not only Wales) it is likely the hunt is illegal.  Yes, if questioned they will insist they are "trail hunting" which was invented to allow hunts to continue their activity undisturbed.  It is a cover for actual hunting and makes the most of loop-holes in the law and friends in high places.  There are legal "drag" or "clean boot" hunts around, who follow a genuine trail, but it seems these are few and far between.  The rest of the hunts who "accidentally" kill foxes on a regular basis, seem to be above the laws of the land that apply to the rest of us.  Clearly if they were trail hunting the trail wouldn't be laid across railway lines (where hounds have been killed) or main roads (where hounds have been killed) across private gardens (where pets have been killed) and so on.  I could go on, but if you are sufficiently interested and want to find out more then a quick google search will tell you all you need to know.

 So back to the pack in the Elan Valley.  This was on Saturday, 22nd December 2018.  Clearly more than two dogs and no excuse for "trail hunting" with horses on those crags.  These are the Welsh gun packs which I've had experience of first hand.  Pretty much the lowest of the low.

 

One dog appears to have a bloodied tail.  I know from first hand that the hunts don't care for their dogs, so no surprise there if a hound is injured.  But I digress.  Dated from the same Saturday I read from a local bird blog this, and I quote "Up the Elan, a Peregrine near the quarry (Caban Coch), 50+ Bramblings at Sawmill and sadly a lovely fox not 10 feet from the car, exhausted, tongue hanging out and 2 mins later several mud bespattered hounds followed by ladies and gents armed with guns-also salivating."

This is also, very sadly, part of the Welsh Countryside!