Sunrise 08.25 Sunset 20.47 BST

A lovely morning which lasted until lunch time when we had a few heavy showers. Still a little chilly but quite pleasant.

A different start to the day for me this morning a friend had asked me to go to a local farm where she knew the farm manager. We were going to try and get some pictures of the wildlife on the farm. Well I have to admit I didn’t have much luck with the photos, but we saw lots of wildlife so the morning wasn’t wasted. We set out at around 6am to the farm which was about ten minutes away by car. My friend had a map of the farm on which were marked the places where we would find different wildlife.

We wanted to see Hares and we did but they soon disappeared and all I got was a blurry image! We then walked to a lake at the end of the farm and spent sometime watching nesting Swans, Cootes, Tufted duck and Little Grebes. There was also a Cuckoo in the trees, we heard him but didn’t see him. We spotted a Roe deer in the young trees but again it was difficult to take photos. There were several Swifts, the first I have seen this year and Skylarks and a Buzzard in the distance. We walked back to the farm and I tried to take Swallows zooming into feed their young in the farm buildings.

The farm has  around 300 head of dairy cattle and we enjoyed watching them coming from milking and walking back to their field, they made quite a din when we passed, we were strangers to them. We were also shown some of the cows having a pedicure! Once a year the cows have their hooves trimmed and cleaned, they are fixed in a cradle and tipped on their side so the hooves are easy to work on and causes least stress to the cow. They are certainly well looked after.

I really enjoyed my day and hope I get a chance to go again and perhaps be more lucky with the photos.