JWB News - Black Panther In Staffordshire!

Today, I will be explaining something very exciting.  But first I want explain about todays, and many other's, post. Once a week (usually at the weekend) there will be a Joe's Wildlife Blog News (JWB News) story. There are lots of fantastic discoveries and stories to tell about British wildlife. But now, something not so British.

Black Panther in Staffordshire!

Recently, some documentary makers were making a documentary on big cat sightings in Britain. Whilst making it someone sent in a photo of a black panther (jaguar) in to them. It came with a note which said,

'This is the last photo of the Beast of Smallthorne.  This photo was taken on the 17th March at 12:36pm near the lake of Ford Green Nature Reserve, Stoke, Staffordshire. 

Many People have taken a photo and filmed the beast. 

Thank you and kind wishes' .

An expert says that it is the clearest photo ever taken of a  wild, big cat in Britain. 

 This alone is extremely exciting. But what makes it even more thrilling is the location.

Ford Green Nature Reserve is exactly where I filmed the footage for my last blog post! If you haven't seen it all ready I highly recommend checking it out. Click here to see my last post at Ford Green Nature Reserve.  

That is all for this week's news. Come back next week for more animal news and check out my other posts coming soon as well! (There's a big one on the way!) 

Thanks for reading!

The Heron and the Slugs

 In today's post, we will be showcasing a grey heron and a couple of slugs. But first, let's have a look at what else I have seen this week. 

Mallard Ducks

Here is a family of young ducks all huddled together.

Bottoms up

Mute Swan and Canada Geese

Next, we have an elegant swan in the middle of the lake. In the bottom left, you can see a couple of Canada geese. 

Coots

Here is a juvenile coot:

Gulls 

Black-Headed Gull:

Magpie and Pigeon

The next bird is a magpie. After that, we have a woodpigeon.

Slugs

As I mentioned earlier on, the next lot of photos will be of slugs.

Grey Heron

Finally, the grey heron. It was actually the first thing I saw when I arrived at the lake. 

Next, a video. 

That's all for now. Stay tuned to find out what we'll see next. Thanks for reading!

Pigeon Nesting in my Garden!

 I have only just found out that a pigeon is nesting in my garden! This isn't the first time it's happened - one nested here last year. Before that, we also had a robin nesting in a bird box I put out.  Unlike the last pigeon nest, you could just about see the chick. Here are the photos: 

I hope you enjoyed today's post. Thanks for reading!

Fox Cubs!

 Yes, there are fox cubs on this post. But before we take a look at them, let's see what else we have caught this week!

 Jays

This week we have captured more jays! Not as many as last time though.

Here are two jays poking their heads up. 

Here we have a jay on a perch.

More jay footage:

If you like the jays click here!

Squirrels

If you like squirrels, go to practically any post for squirrel action!

Blackbird

Here we have a female blackbird.

If you liked that female blackbird click here!

Badger

Here is a usual badger.

If you like badgers click here!

Foxes

Finally, here are the foxes!

I think this is an older fox than the previous one, but it is still showing cub behavior.  

I actually already knew that there were cubs in the woods from a different post because a female fox had teets. If you liked the foxes click here!

Thanks for reading and check out the other posts I put a link in for! 

Tawny Owl Tantrum

 This is a tawny owl feather.

I found it on a walk today - here is the whole story. 

While we were walking through a wood we heard a lot of screeching and and squawking. I looked up and saw some blackbirds and jays flying around. I stopped and waited as the squawking went on. Then a bigger shape with a round head flew from the tree. It was a tawny owl. I looked around but couldn’t see. Much further down the path I noticed a feather. It must have been from the tawny owl from earlier. Another way I could tell it was a tawny owl was by the tiny grooves running down the edge of the feather, allowing silent flight.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

We've had Three Deer Shots - Are They the Same Deer?

In this post I will be comparing the three different deer we have had ( not including the ones in the Forest of Dean ). However, all three of deers' coats were in a different stage, so this task could be tricky. First we will go back to 2022 when we got the first deer in the woods next to my house. This is the only time we got a group of deer. These ones were in their summer hides ( fur/skin ). Let's take a look at the footage.

As you can see one of the deer has antlers and the other does not. There have been cases of does ( female deer ) growing antlers and stags ( male deer ) not growing antlers,  however both cases are very rare so it is probably a doe and a stag here. But we all mainly concentrate on the stag today as in the next two videos both the deer have antlers. In February 2023 we got another deer. It is in its winter hide so it will look a bit different.

What I want to look at are the antlers. In the winter one they are covered in velvet. But it is the size I want to see. After taking a look the antlers are a different shape. But that doesn't mean it is a different deer as roe deer cast and regrow their antlers in winter when food is scarce. Then again can they grow their antlers back that quickly? But the other deer doe which was with a stag is not there. Perhaps some thing happened to it? Let's take a look at the last deer.

This deer seems to be moulting its winter coat. This roe deer's antlers are definitely different to the first and second deer's. It has a little Y shape at the top of its antlers and is a total different shape to the second one. So, are all the deer the same or are they all different? Well, the first and the second deer could be the same, or the first and the last. If it casted its antlers over winter without being recorded, the first and last could be the same. What do you think? Please say in the comments - I read them all.

Thanks for reading!

I Had No iDEER we Would Get This!

 This week we have had a few different animals. The battery was quite low so all the dates and times came out wrong. Nevertheless, enjoy this post! We start off with a few squirrels.

Here is a badger.

Finally, we got the best deer footage ever!

In the next post, I will go into more detail about the deer and compare it to past deer shots.

Thanks for reading!