Mars - Flying beautifully again!

Hi everyone! We hope you are all enjoying your summer holidays. We have been really busy here at Hill Top. Following the event the with fire engines, Mars was not a happy Harris Hawk and it has taken him quite a while to want to fly again. However, he is fully back to normal now and flying beautifully. He's such a beautiful bird and it's a real joy to watch Rossi flying him.
Back more tomorrow with more Hill Top Tails. Take care till then.

Unicycle Mad!

Hello, welcome back to Hill Top Tails. You will be pleased to know that Mars has settled down again after his episode on Saturday! Our Greg is just Unicycle mad. He rides his unicycle absolutely everywhere and has done so, since he had it as a Birthday present,almost two years ago. He was so determined to learn to ride it. He practised constantly until he got the hang of it and hasn't stopped unicycling since. He goes miles on it and is even talking about doing a unicycle ride for charity. Whatever he does and whatever he is doing he uses his unicycle to do it. This evening he was collecting the broom to go and sweep out the pgymy goat area and I caught him on the video! I thought you might like to see it.

More Hill Top Tails tomorrow. Thank you for reading our blog.

Large Elephant Hawk Moth

Hello! Firstly, thank you to Dan Holdsworth for giving us the following information about the moth Rossi found: -

"That's a Large Elephant Hawk Moth; there's nothing else in the UK that looks at all like that species. They're not at all uncommon; the larval food plant is rose bay willow herb, and the caterpillars have a curious trick for dissuading predatory birds from attacking them. What they do is stand up on their back prolegs, open up a pair of large eyespots on the front end and sway about, looking very like a particularly convincing snake-mimic that looks even more snake-ish than a real snake does Most of the time a bird is going to be so disconcerted by this display that it leaves the harmless caterpillar alone."

Ross has been busy looking after his new baby canaries. He has been breeding canaries for some time now.They really are very pretty - they are crested canaries and at least two of them seem to have a crest coming. We'll try and take some photos for you later in the week.

Thought you might like to see one of our regular squirrels - they really are very clever - they even hang from the bird table upside down if there is a bird on the nuts! Perhaps we should set up some kind of a squirrel assault course to get to the nuts!

More Hill Top Tails tomorrow. Thank you for joining us.

Fire Engines at Hill Top

Welcome back to Hill Top Tails!

Well this evening has certainly been unusual. For those of you who have been following our stories about Rossi training Mars, his Harris Hawk, then something very different happened this evening.

At about 6 pm, as usual, Rossi took his Hawk out to fly him. Mars is off the creance now and so he was flying freely up into the trees and returning to Ross, but he went up into a tree and could not fly down. We realised that he was caught up in the tree. His jesse had got caught on a piece of snapped branch and his foot was trapped. Mars was about 25 to 30ft up in the tree with very thin branches and we had absolutely no way of getting him down. After trying everything possible for about an hour and a half we rang the RSPCA and asked for their advice. They suggested we ring the Fire Brigade, which we did, as in a couple of hours it would be dark. They were fantastic!

First of all the Fire & Rescue Unit arrived from Bideford, but they couldn't put their ladder up to the tree, as the branches were too thin. They called for the Fire Engine from Barnstaple which had a ladder platform. Within about half an hour or so both teams were at Hill Top working out a plan of how to rescue Mars. Ross (who is scared of heights) was so brave and went up into the platform with a Fireman. By now, Mars was hanging by his leg and Ross managed to grab both legs and release him, so after about half and hour or so, Mars was rescued. We want to say a big thank you to all the Firemen/woman who helped - they were great.

Greg was thrilled with the fire engines and took many photographs, as you can imagine, so here are a few for you to share with us.

Rossi is the happiest boy to have his Harris Hawk back.

Thank you so much to everyone who helped.

Join us for more Hill Top Tails tomorrow. This story will be a hard one to follow!

Woodland Playground

Hello again. We thought you might like to see the completed woodland playground.

This is just where the moth trapping took place last week with Jon and Max from the CFZ.

Today the weather has been brighter and we are still really busy.

Today Ross and Greg have been moving Scratchy (the Russian Dwarf Hamster or Winter White as they are known) to a much bigger cage, so now Scratchy thinks he's living in a castle, with lots of rooms!!

Any one for Tennis!

Hello.

We have been really busy here at Hill Top over the last few days. We have had some wonderful guests from the UK and from Sweden and Austria.

Ross has been really busy in the Mini Zoo, it is looking lovely now, with the new fish tanks completed.

We thought you might like to meet Hattie.

Hattie belongs to my sister Lorraine - who lives just around the corner - and she is a twenty-one month old Sprocker (a cross between a Springer and a Cocker Spaniel). She has a really loving, gentle nature about her and she is very friendly. She loves to catch the tennis ball and when she

ran off with Greg's racket, we just had to catch her on camera!

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.

Bracken & Dreamer

Welcome back to Hill Top Tails.

Today (Bank Holiday Monday) has been busy at Hill Top. Caravans have been returning for storage, after their weekend trips out.

Guests leaving and some staying for an extra day, and whilst the weather has been dull and damp, it hasn't stopped work at Walland Farm!

Today work has started on the woodland playground. Dave, Ross & Greg helped their dad Roy finish clearing the site, and carry timber poles down into the small woodland area, in readiness. More to follow on this story as things progress.

Millie and her new hoglet have been quiet all day, but this is a good sign, and we don't expect to see Millie's new offspring for a few weeks, but we will certainly keep you posted.

Today we thought we would introduce you to Bracken and Dreamer, our two Barn Owls.

Last August we received a call from Beth at the Hartland Wildlife Rescue, who desperately needed a home for a baby barn owl. He had been ejected from the nest at only a few days old and Beth had hand reared him. Because he was unable to be returned to the wild Beth needed to find a home for her young Barn Owl.

Well, this is where a great chapter at Hill Top began, as it was all hands on deck and a cage was built within a couple of weeks. Roy, along with Dave, Ross and Greg worked hard to make a home for the young Barn Owl, who I named Bracken.

Bracken lived in a cage in our conservatory whilst the outdoor cage was being built and he was absolutely adorable. As you talked to him he would listen intently and if you turned your head to the right he would do the same and similary if you turned your head to the left, he would follow you. He is absolutely charming and is loved by us all. At the end of last year Beth asked us if Bracken would like a companion as she would like a bigger cage for her own Barn Owl, and so Dreamer came to live with Bracken.

The pictures show Roy and Greg starting on the cage and then Beth, Ross and Greg looking at the finished project, with Bracken in the top right hand corner.

As you can see from the picture Bracken and Dreamer are now best mates and spend all their time together. But the story didn't end there. We'll tell you more tomorrow.

Hoglet at Hill Top

Hi everyone and welcome to Hill Top Holidays. Roy and I (Kaye) and our three sons, Dave 17, Ross 14 and Greg 10 (pictured with a rescued hedgehog), purchased Walland Farm, in North Devon in June, 2007 and we are all working hard together to make Hill Top Holidays a really pleasant and peaceful place to come and stay. We are so lucky to enjoy an absolutely fantastic view around the Bideford Bay and the beautiful countryside around us.

Ross and Greg love animals (probably due to their Uncle Jon at the CFZ encouraging them to help with his own animals over the years) and we have set up our own mini zoo here as a small attraction for our visitors. We work with Beth of the Hartland Wildlife Rescue and last summer Ross and Greg hand fed and reared four rescue hedghogs. Runty, Harvey, Millie and Mrs.Tiggywinkle. These hedgehogs were too low weight to hibernate for the winter and so Ross and Greg looked after them all winter in the zoo. In April when the weather was warmer the hedgehogs moved into their new home, which was in the aviary with the Barn Owls.

Yesterday (Saturday) in the morning, Millie was seen out of the hedgehog's bed, wondering around the aviary, collecting bedding. Ross and Greg kept an eye on her and we realised that she was making a nest. The boys were so excited and rang Beth at the Hartalnd Wildlife Rescue who recommended that Millie be moved into a cage on her own to protect herself and any new babies from the other hedgehogs, who may well eat any baby hoglets.

Ross and Greg moved Millie and all day long she came in and out of her bed collecting straw etc. and making a nest, she was very busy. Last night there was great concern for Millie as she was lying in the doorway of her house and looked tired and helpless, but the boys left Millie to let nature take its course.

This morning Ross and Greg were up and out early, but to their great disappointment there was a dead hoglet in the cage. All day the boys kept listening out to see if they could hear any squeaks, but there has been nothing. Ross rang Beth late this afternoon, as he was so worried that Millie might have died and Beth called round. We opened the lid on the house and there was great joy to see that Millie was alive and bright-eyed, but that there were three other dead hoglets in with Millie. Beth removed these and then much to everyone's surprise we discovered that there was one live hoglet. Millie was carefully left with her baby hoglet and now we will have to wait and see if the hoglet shows it's face to the world in four or five week's time.

Everyone here at Walland Farm is highly delighted and Ross and Greg are already thinking of names!

Over the next couple of weeks we will introduce you to the animals.