Carew Castle Wildlife Blog

Otter up-date

carewcastle — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 17:51:48 +0000

Confirmation yesterday of otters using the steps down to the old Mill wheel. There were two large otters yesterday swimming around the wheel at high water and then relaxing on the steps! They weren’t too timid, quite happy to sit and look back up at us. Sadly it was a bit dark and this is the best picture I could get before my batteries died. Hopefully you can just make out the two of them on the steps. Fantastic to see them

Second clutch for swallow cam nest

carewcastle — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 15:30:06 +0000

The parents of swallow cam nest have spent the past week relining the nest with feathers and we now have 3 new eggs! This will be the 2nd brood of the season for the pair.

Herb Garden

carewcastle — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:04:12 +0000

We thought we would share a few photos of our herb garden as it’s looking so good at the moment and being enjoyed by lots of busy bees and sun basking butterflies. Here you can see the medicinal, aromatic and culinary beds.

Swallow Update

carewcastle — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:11:31 +0000

The chicks in the down river doorway are progressing well, its amazing how much they change from day to day. The parents of swallow cam nest seem to be thinking about a 2nd brood already as they have been seen sprucing the nest up again.

Cormorants catching eels

carewcastle — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:53:02 +0000

Recently we have seen cormorants successfully catching eels in the mill pond. It makes for quite an amusing sight to see a cormorant struggling to keep hold of a large wriggling eel….

before eventually managing to get it down its throat!

Blackbird nest

carewcastle — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:32:05 +0000

A few weeks ago some eagle-eyed visitors spotted this blackbird nest. It is situated in a dark stairway with no public access, so they did very well to spot it through a gate. You can just see a few brown heads inside.

Swallow update

carewcastle — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:10:39 +0000

The four chicks from swallow cam nest have now left . They spent a good part of last week going in and out of the nest hole and hanging around nearby still being fed by the parents. They seemed to be roosting in there at night up until the weekend but now they have well and truly fledged and gone.

The new nest by the down river doors now has newly hatched chicks in and visitors to the mill are really enjoying getting a fantastic view of them and the parents as they bring in food. Here they are…

Swallow Cam chicks almost fledged

carewcastle — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 14:08:35 +0000

Two chicks from the swallow cam nest ventured out into the world today! They spent a little time this morning sitting on a ledge below the nest. One of them obviously decided it wasnt quite ready yet and promptly flew back up in to the nest after just a few minutes. The other was a bit more adventurous and flew about above the water wheel for a while. Unfortunately it got a little bit too close to the other nests in the area and the parent birds from these nests gave it a hard time. Whilst being chased away it got a bit confused and flew into the window a couple of times (just lightly) before making a hasty retreat back into the safety of the nest hole. Maybe they will try again tomorrow!

Here is a piture of one of them sitting on the ledge below the nest. You can see it still has its pale yellow gape around the beak.

Swallow Cam Update

carewcastle — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:43:24 +0000

The swallows in the camera nest are getting pretty big now. They have started doing a lot of wing stretching and flapping, so it probably wont be long until they fledge now. There is also a new swallow nest in the corner of the doorway that looks downriver from inside the mill. Visitors can get a great view of this nest, in fact you can stand right next to it!

The new nest

Sunny morning

carewcastle — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 12:03:16 +0000

It’s a been a beautiful sunny morning down at Carew Mill. Two swans where seen sleeping on the mud flats down river. Groups of swallows and housemartins have been putting on an amusing show flying around over the millpond doing occasional belly flops onto the surface of the water. There has also been a small group of swifts screaming around nearby.