An Exciting Post

 Recently I have been hinting that something very exciting is coming to the blog. Unlike most posts where I save the best until last, this time we will start with the best.

Can you guess from these pictures what the animal is?

Lots of trees being taken down must be the work of one of the busiest mammals. The beaver. Beavers have been introduced to Trentham Gardens recently. So I had to go down and see if I could spy one of these elusive creatures. We walked all around the lake and found it hard to see them. But some mysterious bubbles and a big splash gave away their hiding place by the river bank. There were several of them under the water there - you could tell from the amount of bubbles they were making.

Every now and then they would stick a tiny bit of their tail out of the water.

Then, they suddenly stuck a huge amount of their tail out, nearly the whole thing!

It may look like a shark fin, but I can assure you this is a beaver tail. At one point it stuck it's tail out for around 30 seconds!

Unfortunately, that was all we got to see of them. It was still very exciting though. 

There you have it; one of Britain's rarest mammals.

But that is not the end of the post. Trentham Gardens has lots more great wildlife to offer. 

Such as another grey heron (the last post had loads of herons and egrets - check it out if you haven't already). 

Waterfowl such as the Australian black swan (also new to the blog) are abundant here. 

Mute swan family:

Even goosanders (also featured in a recent post) showed up.

That is all for today. I haven't done a camera trap post recently - don't worry, the next one will be out on Saturday 30th of September at 10 a.m! Don't forget to leave a comment on your thoughts about this post. Thanks for reading! 

More Wildlife from Italy

  I'm back in England now and I can share even more Italian creatures with you. We have some fantastic heron and egret footage coming later in the post. Here is a wonderful picture to put you on before the rest.

 Little egrets are a great new addition to the blog! More on them later.

First, we have some collared dove photos to show.

Next, some starlings.

Finally, we have the herons and egrets.

Some great shots of several little egrets coming up.

Then the egret flew to the ground.

After a few minutes, it started to fish. However, when some more egrets came down things got a bit chaotic. 

Over the other side of the river was a huge heronry, with both egrets and grey herons. 

To get an idea of what the area was like, here is a zoomed-out shot. 

Here are the close-ups.

 

Little egrets and grey herons are both fantastic birds. However, if you look in the top left of this next photo (next to a heron with its wings spread out) you will see what looks like an egret with an orange beak. This bird is much bigger than the little egrets; it is the same size as a grey heron. This bird is a much rarer, great egret. 

That is all for this post. Recently, I have been dropping hints about something very exciting. That post will be released next Wednesday, at 5 p.m. UK time. Thanks for reading!

Goosander at Garda & JWB News

 Goosander at Garda

Recently, I have been on holiday at Lake Garda, Italy. As well as killer bears and tiny lizards there are also some nice birds here. Most of them we have in the uk but some species are more common here. 

Some birds I didn’t catch on camera are little egrets and grey herons. I did get some good collard dove and starling pictures but they are my main camera (I can’t upload them without the computer). So here are some photos I got on my phone. 

Sparrows

Here are some nice sparrow pictures. Unlike the ones in the uk these sparrows would let you get quite close to them. 

Great Crested Grebes

Juvenile and adult grebes.

Common Gulls

Mallard Ducks

Here is a black and white variation.

Goosanders

This is the first goosander ever on the blog, however, I did plan to make a post earlier on which would include one I saw back in the uk. That post will come out soon, and it includes another very exciting first for the blog. Anyway, here is another goosander which I saw at the lake. 

JWB News - 4000 Views!

This week I got 4000 views on my blog. I’ve been doing it for over 3 years now and have got way more (and better) animals than I expected! I want to thank everyone who visits my blog- we have views from all over the planet, from India and Sweden to Australia and Canada. Another special thanks to krewechief for being my number 1 commenter! Anyway, that’s all for this week’s post. Stay tuned to find out what we will see next - as I have said in previous posts, something very exciting is on the way!

Thanks for reading!

JWB News - I Went To See Polar Bears!

 This week’s post is a mix of news and a normal post where I record animals. That is because my Gran took me to see a family of polar bears which had just arrived at Peak Wildlife Park! Peak is the second zoo in the UK to have these cuddly-looking animals. They are the first polar bears ever in Staffordshire and that is why it is in this week’s JWB News. 

At The Zoo

As soon as we got in we went straight to the polar bears. To save this post from being too long I won’t show any other animals that we saw (despite there being a nice collection of creatures there). Once we arrived at the pen we saw nothing. Then the keepers let them out and they came over to us.

There were three polar bears. A mother, (furthest one) and her two 20 month old cubs.

Here are some more photos:

That is all for today’s post. Stay tuned, because as I said in the last post there is some great footage of one of the UK’s rarest animals on the way!

Thanks for Reading!

(And thanks Gran for taking me!)