Spot the Squirrel!

Hello again.

Did anyone know the name of the flower we found yesterday?

Today the weather has been really hot and the canaries have been enjoying their new indoor/outdoor cage.

We've had several squirrels on the front lawn. One of them is a really small baby squirrel, but it was much too fast to photograph. Can you spot the squirrel in this picture?

Still no sign of owlets. We keep listening, but as soon as we hear or see anything we will let you know.

More stories tomorrow.

Cool Canaries

Welcome back. Today started very early for us. At 3.10 a.m. Rossi woke up to notice that the fish tank in his bedroom had about an inch left of water in it. His bedroom floor was flooded and so was the small lounge below his bedroom. The tank, for some unknown reason, produced a large crack in the bottom. It was a rush to rescue the fish and put them in another tank and then clear up all the water.

It's been a really busy day, with the usual cleaning out of the animals, but today we opened up the new small aviary for the canaries. They can stay inside now, or go outside, the choice is theirs. They were certainly cool today. They all decided to explore and come out, so it was really nice to see them enjoying the fresh air and singing with a neighbouring Robin.

We have been busy planting the teacups and then we discovered a small purple flower, with a yellow centre. Does anyone know the name of this flower? We would like to know.

Much more news tomorrow. Thank you for reading our Blog.

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.

Inky and Patch

Welcome back to a wet and windy day at Hill Top. It's been really damp and miserable today. Dave's away helping some friends with some painting in their new Pub. Ross and Greg were up early checking on the animals and Ross gave the two guinea pigs, Inky and Patch, their early morning cuddle (see photo) Inky is the black one - guess which one is Patch!!

We have seven baby canaries, four are seven week's old and three just five and a half week's old. They are really pretty and vary in colour - yellow, white, black and brown. At the moment three have little crests on the top of their head (a bit like a mushroom hair cut!) and they are really cute, but some of the others may still get a crest. Some of these will probably be moved into the big aviary with the other five canaries in a week or two.

Work continued on the Woodland Playground again tonight and things are starting to take shape. We're all hoping for some better weather tomorrow.

Update on Millie - today we have heard our hoglet squeaking, so things are looking good.

Further updates tomorrow.