THE CO. DURHAM POLECAT

JAN EDWARDS WRITES: This is the location the polecat was found. It is close to Heights Quarry on the A 689 – the main road through Weardale. There is the river Wear, just 100 yards away to the south – near the tree-line across the road. The quarry is about a quart-mile up hill and to the north of the junction where the animal was found.

DATE FOUND: 28th Sept 2011 (been frozen since then apart from photos.)
TIME FOUND: Approx 8:40am, and the body was still warm to the touch, indicating that death had occurred recently.
WHERE FOUND: On the junction between the A689 and Heights Quarry , DL13 1PF, Side of the road nearest the river (IE south)

And this is the polecat. Blood and grime are leaching into the preservative, so we will wait for it to precipitate out before changing the medium...

(The chicken wire is to old it in place pro tem)






Many thanks to Jan Edwards for securing us this irreplaceable specimen, which is, as far as we are aware, the first wild polecat specimen from Co. Durham in many years, possibly since WW1....

JAN EDWARDS SENT THIS (As she points out, they are jackdaws not ravens)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-461265/Three-rare-white-ravens-rescued-deaths-clutch.html

JAN EDWARDS: When snails attack

What happened in New Zealand to make snails evolve to do THIS????
http://indiscriminatefacts.blogspot.com/2011/06/snail-attack.html

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.2

JAN EDWARDS: Foxy Lady

It seems that this week is baby fox week on the bloggo. Only a day or so after we featured Beth Tyler-King's latest fox rescue, Jan Edwards writes:

We had a call this morning about an orphaned fox cub in a garden 50 miles away. She was being attacked by crows. The people who found her took her in, and she ate a little dog food. They had phoned lots of rescue places nearby, but no one would take her on.

I have had some experience with fox cubs, and was travelling close to where the people lived, so we met at the Trade Warehouse where I buy my animal feed. She’s about 4 weeks old and in good health apart from a few ticks, which are being dealt with. She’s tucked into some cooked chicken, and seems to think that life is weird, but all right really…. She now has a cuddly toy that is bigger than she is and a dog crate to call her own.

Long term, it would be nice to rehab her back into the wild. Our private woodland will make a good soft-release area when she is older. We think she is delightful!

BABY KOALA DEVELOPMENT PART TWO

Jan Edwards sent this:

It is not common for a Koala to bear twins, and regrettably in this instance the Mum was struck and killed by a passing car. Fortunately, the driver stopped and took the mother to the local vet, not knowing she was dead, where it was discovered she had these twins in her pouch.

First photo: Tiny koala being fed with syringe ... Sooo tiny!!
Followed by a pictorial chronology of their growth .....

PART TWO

JAN EDWARDS SENT THIS...

It is not common for a Koala to bear twins, and regrettably in this instance the Mum was struck and killed by a passing car. Fortunately, the driver stopped and took the mother to the local vet, not knowing she was dead, where it was discovered she had these twins in her pouch.

First photo: Tiny koala being fed with syringe ... Sooo tiny!!
Followed by a pictorial chronology of their growth .....

Part Two tomorrow

JAN EDWARDS: Re. the Giant Fox story

Re. the giant fox story that you posted recently:

Its not a giant fox. In my humble opinion it’s a large adult dog fox pictured near a small vixen. The “giant” fox is also in front of the smaller one and the scary picture with the smiling child shows the fox with tail extended and the child standing a little behind the fox.

It's sensationalism at its finest. The fox was said to have killed the vet’s parent’s ancient cat. There is no actual proof that the fox killed the cat but the vet in question felt duty-bound to kill not just one fox, but two, just to make sure he got the right one (??)

I’m glad it's not MY vet! I’m also glad it’s not MY scary smiling child.

JAN EDWARDS SENT THIS...

The global bird asnd fish die-offs on Google Maps

Jan writes: I don’t know who did this, but I thought you’d find it interesting.

JAN EDWARDS: Farplace in the snow

It's a bit cold here.


Not the sort of cold they have been getting in Siberia or Moscow. Not even the sort of cold they have been getting in Scotland or Wales. More like a low of -6C and a high of about zero (32F).


And boy, do we have snow!


The main road through the dale (A689) was blocked last night. Up here on the hillside overlooking the valley, it’s currently a little over knee-deep and drifting to 7 foot.


Bonnie, one of the ponies, had a bad case of icicles on her tummy this morning. She jingled when she walked.


The water troughs are frozen over and need the ice breaking twice a day. But we have plenty of animal (and human) food in, and lots of bedding to keep them cosy. I am currently caring for well over 200 animals at the moment – and it’s not easy on my own. My staff can't get in for work, so I am having to do everyone else’s jobs as well as my own.


But we have had it worse. So far we still have a working water supply. We have lots of fuel. And (hopefully) we don’t have to go out anywhere for a while. It will take quite a while to dig out the Farplace rescue car, even if the roads are passable.


Here’s a few pics from the Frozen North.

Jan Edwards, Head of Animal Care
Farplace Animal Rescue - the no-kill animal sanctuary
Farplace, Sidehead, Westgate, County Durham, DL13 1LE
www.farplace.org.uk
tel: 01388 517397 mobile 07860 523434
Registered Charity number 1126812
Registered Company number 4397258

JAN EDWARDS: Can you guess what this is?

I thought I would share this, received from CJ WildBird Foods Newsletter and used with their permission:

'Every so often we encounter a bird that stands out from the norm. This individual is melanistic, meaning that it has an increased amount of dark pigmentation, in this case primarily on the head. We've only shown you the affected bit in this shot to make it a worthy challenge. The bill shape should tell you that it's a finch and, as it looks quite long and thin for a finch bill, may even narrow things down further. The bird is a common British garden visitor in all but the north of Scotland.'

The photographer was Pete Deans. CJ Wildbird Foods are found at http://www.birdfood.co.uk/. Excellent value for money, and they sell nest boxes, native trees, hedgehog and badger food, and loads more fantastic stuff, as well as first class wild bird food.

JAN EDWARDS: More footprints

I was impressed by the people who succesfully identified the hare. Now, what are these?

JAN EDWARDS: You wondered what it was...

We first printed these a couple of days back, and there has been some off-beam speculation as to what they might be. Jan, who originally sent the pictures to us, writes:

Not a 3-legged anything. And not feline. Each set of 3 marks were about a metre apart. The snow was about 18inches deep here....
Keep on guessing, guys

MORE FOOTPRINTS FROM JAN EDWARDS

I will be the first to admit that I was spectacularly stupid when I posted the last trenche of Jan's mystery footprints. They were of course feral cat prints, but the efficacy of the compy was not helped by the fact that the name of the *.jpg proclaimed as much.

Today I have been fiendishly clever and changed the name of the images....

...AND THE ANSWER IS

Jon...

This type of print ONLY happens in deep snow. Made in this case by chickens, but I have seen almost identical marks made by pheasants and short-eared owls. It’s when the bird is too deep in the snow and uses its wings to balance it before flying off. You can see the blobby thing at the bottom right of the picture, which is the body; two or three perfectly formed bird footsteps above the blobby body mark, and the marks made by the wing feathers. Harder to see in the photo, but also part of the print, are tail-feather markings, which can help identify the type of bird.

Can you see it now?

Jan

JAN EDWARDS: What's this?

JAN: Strange markings in knee-deep snow. I know what did it.... you probably do too, Jon. But will anyone else know?

JON: I have to admit that I have no idea at all. Over to you guys....

JAN EDWARDS: More winterstuff at Farplace

We are blessed with a good 2-3 feet of snow, drifting to about 8 feet at the moment (and as you know, depth matters!) It is still snowing, fast and furious, but quite warm at minus 2C (it was minus 8 yesterday). I took advantage of a brief sunny spell to feed the sheep, goat and poultry – a jolly little adventure involving wading waist-deep in snow with buckets and hay nets, while frantic sheep were trying to knock me down.

Billy the goat was pleased to see me. He is a Siberian goat, and has a good thick cashmere coat on him, but even he is getting a bit tired of all this weather. He got an extra treat of carrots, apples and not-quite-fresh salad, along with his usual mix and his bale of hay.

The chickens have discovered a novel way to keep warm – they now use these high-tech fluffy sheep slippers. The sheep don’t seem to mind – perhaps it helps keep them warm too?

Jan Edwards, Head of Animal Care
Farplace Animal Rescue - the no-kill animal sanctuary
Farplace, Sidehead, Westgate, County Durham, DL13 1LE
http://www.farplace.org.uk/

tel: 01388 517397 mobile 07860 523434
Registered Charity number 1126812
Registered Company number 4397258

JAN EDWARDS: Ghostly going ons

Winter in the high north Pennines can be rough. We currently have about 18 inches of snow here, drifting to about 3-4 feet in places. Main roads are blocked between County Durham and Cumbria. Sheep are being dug out of drifts where they have sheltered by dry stone walls. Roe deer are being driven by hunger to raid the sheep and cattle feed. The river Wear is the only guaranteed source of water for many wild animals, as everything else is frozen solid.

It’s bad.... but it HAS been worse in living memory.

I was talking to Michael, one of the local farmers, the other day. He was born and raised in this area, and has always worked on the land. He was laughing at the news that London and the South were struggling under 10 inches of snow. He pointed to a telegraph pole down the road, which must be 30ft high. He told me it had a mark on it, made by his penknife, with his initials next to it. He cut this line in the wood to mark the snow line “some years ago”, and he told me it is around 18 inches from the top of the pole.... That means the snow was a good 28 foot deep. He drove off on his Quad to feed his sheep and his ponies saying “they don’t know they’re born lass....!”

In times past it really WAS bad here. Perhaps not TOO bad when Michael was a lad, because the presence of telegraph poles indicates some degree of civilisation, but if you delve into the history of the area, you will encounter tales of real hardship.

There was no electricity, no mains water, no gas, no transport other than horse and cart, no work other than mining, walling and farming. It would seem however, that there was more sense of community. The little hamlet called Sidehead, where the sanctuary is situated, once boasted of a team of 21 cricket players. There are only 8 houses.

John Wesley knew this area well – he preached at some of the churches around here – and every family would walk to church on a Sunday, whatever the weather.

Measles, Scarlet Fever and TB were rife. Many died. They couldn’t bury their dead when the snow was 20 feet plus deep, so they would store them in the barn, covered in salt, until they could physically dig a deep enough hole. And they would carry on working, when their kids, wife, granddad, lay there in the byre waiting for springtime..... It must have been so hard.

There must have been fun times too however. For the children at least.

There is a limestone quarry close to my house. A few years ago, my daughter and I walked past it, late one night. We were walking the 2 miles downhill to where we parked the cars, to retrieve a couple of bags of shopping, which would be needed the next day. It was snowing heavily, and drifts of 6 foot deep. A winter wonderland, complete with full moon, making the hillside look even more magical.

As we past the quarry, we heard the sound of kids playing, laughing, shouting.... the thrump of snowballs being thrown in jest..... There was a great game going on in there. But there were no footprints in the snow. Well actually there were footprints – but only rabbit ones – and it certainly wasn’t a rabbit snowball fight. And we were sure that if we had ventured, (or should that be “waded”) into the pristine snowscape that was the quarry, we would have risked getting hit by one of their icy missiles. Kids – even ghost kids – love to play in the snow.

That same winter, a neighbour heard the voices of ghostly miners going to work, past their front door – chatting about the weather, and the bonus they would get for Christmas.

Ghosts.... but nice ones. Like the one who would plait our pony’s mane every night (perhaps he was getting her ready for the annual show?) That old pony has long since died, and the ghost hasn’t bothered with other ponies we have had here. Perhaps that palomino Arab cross was.... special. He still occasionally pops by..... He makes himself known by the smell of his pipe tobacco. Very distinctive – in a house of non-smokers. We call him Old Jack.

Then there is the old cook/cleaner / farmer’s wife, we sometimes see in the kitchen..... the little boy ghost who plays on the stairs, and the tall dark man who’s a tad more mysterious and only comes indoors in bad weather... but their stories are for another day.

JAN EDWARDS: A Day in the life

In Weardale there are only two seasons: Winter and August. At least, that’s what we were told when we moved here 14 years ago. It’s sort-of true. Winter always comes in on the tail-end of the agricultural shows in early September, and by October we usually have zero temperatures and ice. We almost always have a white Christmas, and often it snows right through till May.

One year, not long ago, the snow plough got stuck in the snow banks. That year the drifts were 10-15-foot deep, so we were not surprised.

The sanctuary (and my home) is situated high in the hills of the high north Pennines, and when we get snow, we get Serious Snow. The household water supply is straight from the ground (not mains), and sometimes freezes below ground. When this happens, we have to light fires on the ground above the water pipes in the top field, and keep them burning for several hours. This warms the ground deep enough to thaw the ice in the pipes.

The only access to our home is via a very steep tractor-wide road, which doesn’t get gritted very often. The council provide piles of grit/salt for us to use on the road.

There are about a dozen piles of grit on the 2-mile stretch of road between here and the A689.

It took me almost 3 hours the other night, at minus 3C, to grit just the mile-long hillside where our home is. Someone else (some neighbour from 5 houses/ half a mile away), was gritting the other mile. It’s hard work, in the dark of a winter’s night, but you don’t feel the cold because you are sweating.

BUT...It is very dark. You get a good view of the night sky. The nearest street lights are 2 miles away on the main road, and dwellings are few and far between. Sounds travel a long way and echo and distort, so you are never sure what direction you heard it from.

There are tales of ghosts – I can tell a few tales myself of strange otherworldly happenings up here in the Northern hills - and there are other, not so weird, happenings. Big cats roam the countryside. I have personally witnessed 2, and other family and friends have seen others. And a few years ago stoats were hunting in packs. In the darkness of a midwinter’s night you just want to be home. But it is not all doom and gloom.... There are some good things about Weardale in winter, especially for the naturalist.

It’s easier to track animals for a start, and birds become tamer due to hunger. We had a pheasant eating nuts from a feeder yesterday, for example.

Having the woodland has presented a fantastic opportunity to watch wildlife. We put a hay-net up for the deer to try to take their minds off bark chewing. Time will tell if it’s going to work. In addition, we are filling the 12 woodland bird and squirrel feeders 2-3 times a week, to keep them well fed during these lean times. The wood looks like a scene from Narnia at the moment.

And the sanctuary animals? Well, they are coping all right. The hedgehogs are living it up in the parlour, on a diet of cat food and meal worms. The quail, pigeon and peacock are thriving. Ducks and chickens are thriving. Sheep, goats, cats, dogs and rabbits are full and satisfied. Everyone is happy, warm, healthy.

You learn to keep good supplies in for the bad weather. Including candles and matches, gas heaters, and bottled water in case of power cuts. You learn that the nearest petrol station is 10 miles away, and only open 9am-6pm Mon-Sat. The nearest supermarket is a full hour’s drive away. You learn to deal with stuff like recycling, and water supplies and sewage. You learn to plan. You learn to live.

We often have to drive when you can’t actually see the road for snow. You can usually see the 6-foot-tall snow-poles marking the sides of the road, and you know that to each side of these poles there is a wide, deep drainage ditch, so you have a good idea of where to drive.

This morning we had an emergency vet run. Our veterinary surgery lies 15 miles away across the border into Cumbria. I needed to get a cat (called Jade) to surgery for life-saving treatment. 6 miles from home we couldn’t see the road – total white-out. We COULD see the emergency ambulance that had stopped on the brow of a hill, and the driver running about in the snow taking photos of his vehicle and his buddy. No problem – just a photo opportunity. The world has gone mad, I tell you.

We managed to avoid skidding into the ambulance (it would have been MOST embarrassing, because they would have taken photos....) and got Jade to the vet. She was still alive, and we are hoping for good news.

Dropped the car off at the local garage for a service, and walked the 2 miles back home, snow crunching underfoot in the brilliant winter sunshine. 2 and a half hours later the animals here were all cleaned out, fed and watered. They complained a little, but it couldn’t be helped. Everyone is OK, and that’s what matters.

The postman got to us in his landrover at about 2pm. We have forgotten what morning deliveries are like....

Chickens, sheep, goat, pigeons, peacock, chucks and ducks were all dealt with by 3:00pm, and by 4pm it was dark. The dogs, cats, mice, rabbits etc are all indoors, so easier to deal with after dark.

Dealt with several emails and updated the website and the forum – and it’s still not quite 6pm. Just one more animal feed to go – for the cats with kittens and the animals who need medicines, then we do it all again tomorrow. Life is just one round of fun. But I wouldn’t live anywhere else, or do any other job. Being able to make a difference to the countless lives that come our way every week is fantastic!

http://www.farplace.co.uk/

JAN EDWARDS: Deer rescue

We have been in contact with Jan for ages, and it is with great pleasure that we welcome her aboard, not only as a guest blogger, but as a Co. Durham representative for the CFZ. With Davy Curtis already at the helm in the county, the two of them will make a dream team par excellence....

Just rescued this beautiful adult male roe deer. He’d fallen down a steep bank and ended up in a river. He’s called 'O. Deer' short for Ofer, which means fawn (naturally!!)

He’s no broken bones and no wounds. Slight concussion, vet thinks. Overnight rest and hopefully released tomorrow.

JAN EDWARDS: Mystery Sheep Attack

We have been in contact with Jan for ages, and it is with great pleasure that we welcome her aboard, not only as a guest blogger, but as a Co. Durham representative for the CFZ. With Davy Curtis already at the helm in the county, the two of them will make a dream team par excellence....

A dog (we think) has attacked one of our sheep.

From the injuries, it looks like a very big dog. We have a rottie and my friends have an Irish Wolfhound. The marks on this sheep show a foot bigger than either of them. Sheep Abigail will hopefully be ok.

We have no real idea what did it, but it isn’t big cat. The claws that did this are blunt.