Beautiful Moths

Following my blog last Tuesday, and the Moth Trapping evening with Jon and Max from the CFZ, we would like to share a few of the photographs with you. It was a fantastic evening, and we plan to repeat it again, very soon.

I supplied everyone with jacket potatoes at about 11.30 pm, and then it was a busy evening, which wound up at just after 3 am. A great time was had by all.
Everyone was hoping the Beast of Bucks would raise its head, but only the sheep in neighbouring fields were heard.

Rossi's Whiskered Bat

Hello everyone.

We thought you might just like to see how Rossi's rescued Bat is getting on. Janice, who is looking after the Bat sent this picture. She says, "It is dinner time and she is covered in mealworm juice. She spent the next few hours licking it all off and grooming."

It's lovely to see that she is doing well.

Back tomorrow with more stories.

Bracken & Dreamer's Surprise!

Welcome back again!

Yesterday when Rossi went into the aviary to feed the Barn Owls he discovered a cracked egg on the floor. Now we are wondering if there is an owlet or even eggs in the nest. It is cleaning day for the owls today, so maybe we will have more news tonight!

Today we are moving Millie back with the other hedgehogs and it's cleaning day in the Mini Zoo.

It's beautiful weather here at Hill Top Holidays - Roy is putting the last piece of equipment into the playground. Dave has been busy at Rosemoor Gardens doing the lighting for a charity performance by Elkie Brooks, which was said to be a fantastic performance last night.

Back again later.

Meet Scratchy

Hello and welcome back to Hill Top Tails. Again it has been a great day weatherwise - the view here at Walland Farm is quite breath-taking.

Beth from the Hartland Wildlife Rescue called in today. She had four baby hedgehogs, which were rescued and she is now hand rearing them - all less than a week old, and she also had an injured baby housemartin. It's spring, all the young are arriving, and this is the time of year when she gets really busy.

Introducing you to Scratchy - another member of the Mini Zoo. Scratchy is Greg's Russian Dwarf Hamster or Winter-White - he/she is grey in colour with a dorsal stripe during the summer and turns almost entirely white in the winter.

Dwarf Winter White Russian Hamsters are approximately 8-10cm in length when full grown with males being larger than females. They have expandable cheek pouches. Russian Hamsters have furry feet and are sometimes referred to as the Furry or Hairy Footed Hamster.

Scratchy is fascinating to watch, especially as he changes colour - we all thought that perhaps he was getting old and that was why he turned white, but this spring he turned back to his grey!

Scratchy will take food from you and likes to climb upside down on the bars of his cage.

Work on the woodland playground is still continuing and hopefully it will be finished at the weekend.

Does anyone know what the spider is that was on our blog of Sunday the 31st of May?

Thanks for joining us, we'll be back with more stories tomorrow.

Harold of Hill Top Holidays!

Hello everyone, and what fantastic weather we have had today.

Update on Millie - she is doing well, coming out for her food and we have heard noises, so we are pretty certain that everything is going well with the baby hoglet.

John at the CFZ was really miffed, as yesterday Greg had caught on camera a Devon Painted Lady butterfly - he's been trying to capture one on camera this last week and Greg (Jon's Godson) beat him to it!

Now, to introduce you to Harold. Harold was born on the 25th of July, 1962. Harold was a necessity and we purchased him on the 27th of June, 2007 and the following day he was christened Harold of Hill Top Holidays!
Yes, you've guessed, Harold is our 1962 Fordson Super Dexta Tractor. Harold has been great fun, we couldn't manage without him. We had him taxed and number plated up last year and he has been delivering logs in the winter, he tows the caravans in and out and Harold is used for cutting the fields. Harold is pictured here with Dave driving him and cutting the grass yesterday. As you can see, Dave is dressed for the occasion! Rossi was also cutting the grass yesterday - probably chasing Dave and Harold - Ross coming up the rear on Mervyn the ride-on-mower!

There really never is a dull day here at Hill Top.

Back with more updates tomorrow. Thank you for reading our Blog.

Butterfly Mania!

Welcome back to Hill Top. We have had a couple of days off, so apologies for not updating our blog, but we are back!

The weather has been so warm this weekend that we have had lots of butterflies here at Hill Top. Greg decided that he wanted to catch some of the butterflies, identify them and then release them. He filled a pop up cage with various greenery and some stones and then set out with his butterly net and book. He had great fun and caught two different species.

Later Greg discovered a green spider - if anyone knows what kind of spider this is please let us know.

Work continued on the woodland playground and tomorrow we will introduce you to Harold.

Millie Is Eating Again!

Welcome back. Today has been a nice day weatherwise. The boys are all home on half-term and first thing this morning Ross and Greg were out checking to see if Millie the hedgehog had been out during the night, to eat some food, as she had eaten nothing the previous night.

The best news this morning was that yes, Millie had been out and eaten during the night, so things are looking good on the hedgehog front! (See picture of Millie and Mrs.Tiggywinkle last summer - hand reared by Ross and Greg). No sign of the baby hoglet yet, but it is very early days. We'll keep you posted.

The boys went down in the fields collecting trimmed trees for logging and then Ross and Greg spent some time cleaning out a new fish tank and getting it ready for the Mini Zoo.

Dave went on an errand for Uncle Jon (at the CFZ) to collect a bath for housing some turtles. Matt (also a member of the CFZ) accompanied Dave, as he's learning to drive, and took his van (named Boris), to get some extra lessons in!

Going back to Bracken and Dreamer (our two barn owls) - after spending the winter in their cage, which was attached to the house, we thought it would be nicer for them to be more in their natural surroundings. So, in April, Roy and the boys spent a whole week dismantling Bracken and Dreamer's old cage and building a new, bigger cage, at the entrance to the woodland walk, which is surrounded by trees, birds, squirrels etc. This larger cage also houses the hedgehogs and gives them plenty of room to run around, with plenty of grass as well, and the hedgehogs get on fine with the Barn Owls.

Once Roy was home from work this evening, it was all hands on deck for work on the woodland playground. Work halted on a few occasions, as a visitor kept appearing to see what was going on - a cute little shrew! We'll show some pictures of the playground's progress tomorrow. The bluebells are still out and they look so lovely in the woods.