To celebrate, I bought a birthday cake (technically a Strawberry Charlotte) from the patisserie in town:
When I started this blog 12 months ago, the focus was on the nearby water vole coloney. But it soon became an incentive to get out and explore the locality more, eventually finding evidence of badgers and otters less than a quarter of mile from where I live. I've also taken an interest in what I've found in my own garden, becoming fascinated by the ever expanding range of microscopic creatures that live in the garden.
Hopefully in the next 12 months I may explore further upstream - I would like to find the source of the ock in the wessex downs and maybe take look at some of it's tributaries including sandford and letcombe brooks as well as some of the other water ways in Abingdon - the river stert for example.
I also now feel part of the sizeable and diverse Abingdon blogs and have a small role in the multitude of wildlife blogs out there and I'd like to thank everyone who has read and commented on my blog.
Good for you! The more blogs charting wildlife, the better.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday!
ReplyDeleteYour blog has been excellent and has certainly encouraged me to investigate the area with a keener eye. My house backs on to the Ock Meadow so I've no excuse!
Keep up the great work Richard.
Wow, what a brilliant blog...and it's all happening just down the road!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant.
Where did you see the otters?
We have seen the odd vole as well....and something tiny...possibly a shrew? But the best was a monk jack deer on the walk along the Ock parallel to Ock street!
Anyway...keep up the good work.
Thanks
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your kind words.
ReplyDeleteI haven't actually seen the otter, but I have found a spraint where the Ock flows under the A34
http://viewsoftheock.blogspot.com/2010/02/in-search-of-otters.html
And possible otter slides, but these will require more investigation.
Well done on spotting the deer and water shrew - they can both be very hard to see and I've never seen an water shrew in the Ock - so I'm going out to have a look.
Thanks
Richard.
Martin & Kate.
ReplyDeleteThank you both for your comments, your respective blogs have been the incentive for this one. Without yours I doubt if this one would exist.