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A Patch Wilder

A Patch Wilder is a conservation project aiming to benefit wildlife and connect people with the environment around them.

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Gallery

As well as documenting the sights and sounds of nature at A Patch Wilder, Charlie and Spade have built up a portfolio of nature photography from across the globe. See our other photos here.

Dogtooth, one of the male adders here, coiling him Dogtooth, one of the male adders here, coiling himself up ready for an afternoon of basking in the warm sunshine. Dogtooth is one of our longest-staying adders.and was first recorded here over 5 years ago back in July 2020. This is the first time that he has chosen to hibernate here on the Patch though, which is very exciting.

I should point out that this video is a 3x crop of a video taken at 500mm focal length, meaning that I was quite some distance away and, as a result, you can see that Dogtooth is exhibiting very natural behaviour and was not disturbed by my presence.
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#apatchwilder #mendips #adder #snakes #snakestagram
Well it definitely feels like spring is here and o Well it definitely feels like spring is here and our cold-blooded residents have been out in force. 
We love nothing more than watching the adders here, but it is really important that they aren't disturbed whilst basking, especially during these early-season warm spells, so we thought we'd try something a little different this year... 

Here are a few clips from a 24 hour period on Adder Cam, pointing at one of the reptile mats we have put in the scrub.
So fat we have seen 3 individuals here - Noodle, Mr Biscuits and Dogtooth. We can identify individual adders by the scale pattern on their heads, which are unique and act like a fingerprint.
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#apatchwilder #mendips #adder #snakes #snakestagram
A bouncy stoat making its way through the woods. T A bouncy stoat making its way through the woods. These are the second smallest of the 5 mustelid species we get on the Patch (the others being weasel, polecat, pine marten and badger). Whenever we see stoats they seem to be curious and hyper-active, making them one of our favourites up here.
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#apatchwilder #mendips #stoat #mustelid
A sight for sore eyes. Stunning Blackthorn blossom A sight for sore eyes. Stunning Blackthorn blossoms against a bluer then blue sky. But, old folklore teaches us to "Beware the Blackthorn winter!" The snow-like flowers covering are said to herald the oncoming of an early Spring cold snap.
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#apatchwilder #mendips #bewaretheblackthornwinter #blackthorn
Why walk when you can take the hisscalator? Just m Why walk when you can take the hisscalator? Just make sure it's going in the right direction first though!
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#apatchwilder #beetle #grasssnake
Kelpie looking majestic in the evening sun. Nearly Kelpie looking majestic in the evening sun.
Nearly time for her Spring shearing!
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#apatchwilder #kelpie #dog
The charming goldfinch. . . . #apatchwilder #mendi The charming goldfinch.
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#apatchwilder #mendips #goldfinch
Hello sleepyhead! Our resident brown long-eared ba Hello sleepyhead! Our resident brown long-eared bat has woken up to head out and enjoy a mid-winter snack whilst the weather has warmed up a bit.
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#apatchwilder #mendips #bat #bats
There he goes again - our resident pine marten, Ch There he goes again - our resident pine marten, Chuzzlewit (thanks to Maureen Ridge for the name).

We are assuming that this is the same pine marten that we have been sporadically catching on camera in the woods over the last 5 months but we can't be sure. Individuals can be recognised from the unique pattern of their white bib patches but we haven't yet had a clear enough view to check if Chuzzlewit is the only one up there.
Captured with a Browning Recon Force Elite HP5 camera trap.
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#apatchwilder #mendips #pinemarten
Ravens living their best lives! I've wanted to cap Ravens living their best lives!
I've wanted to capture this behaviour for a while and recently the ravens have been flying round the farm croaking and doing aerial acrobatics non-stop, affording me plenty of opportunities.

Ravens are highly intelligent and will often do things like barrel rolls and flying upside down. This behaviour actually appears to be not particularly linked to attracting females and may just be for the sheer fun of flying!
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#apatchwilder #mendips #raven #ravens
We were just taking a break from a bit of tree pla We were just taking a break from a bit of tree planting to fuel up with the obligatory biscuits when look who should pass us by on their mission to soak a bit more of that warm winter sun!
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#apatchwilder #mendips #grassnake #snakestagram
The first early purple orchid rosettes are pushing The first early purple orchid rosettes are pushing their way through the ground up in the woods now. These spotty starfish are one of my favourite harbingers of Spring.
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#apatchwilder #earlypurpleorchid #orchid #signsofspring #springwatch
and frogs aren't the only things coming out to enj and frogs aren't the only things coming out to enjoy the warm weather. Mr Biscuits the adder has emerged from his hibernaculum for a spot of sun bathing on one of our reptile mats. 
February might seem early for adder sightings but it is perfectly normal for males to come out on any warm days through the winter. This can help give them an edge when they finally emerge properly in Spring.
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#apatchwilder #mendips #adder #snakes #snakestagram
Count the frogs! 🐸 Sound on 🔊 Last night we had d Count the frogs! 🐸 Sound on 🔊

Last night we had double-digit temperatures throughout the whole night and for our resident amphibian populations that meant one thing: it was date night!

We set up a camera to capture the action and were amazed by the sheer number of frogs there were. Especially considering we only dug this pond 5 years ago!
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#apatchwilder #mendips #frog #loveisintheair❤️ #infrared
Rainforest? 🌧️ 🌳 Whilst Mendip lies outside the co Rainforest? 🌧️ 🌳 Whilst Mendip lies outside the core range of the Atlantic Temperate Rainforests (which typically start east of the Quantocks), some gorges and combes along the southern escarpment (such as Ebbor Gorge) have been classified as "rainforest fragments" due to their microclimates. A Patch Wilder sits right at the top of Shipham Gorge and this section of the woods always gives us "rainforest vibes" -  absolutely dripping with mosses and ferns and cloaked in mist for much of the colder seasons.
If anyone would like to find out more then I would recommend reading Guy Shrubsole's "Lost Rain Forests of Britain" book/website.
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#apatchwilder #mendips #rainforest #atlantictemperaterainforest #mist
An unkindness of Ravens. This is the collective no An unkindness of Ravens.
This is the collective noun and, as a result of the black plumage, croaking call, intelligence and carrion diet, ravens are often associated with death, prophecy and wisdom. 
Historically, ravens were persecuted by gamekeepers and farmers and were almost completely wiped out from  lowland Britain. Following a reduction of these practices, populations have bounced back however and we still seem to be seeing more year on year.
 Over the last week however, there have been a flock of around 40 birds (the biggest I have ever seen) flying round the valley, performing aerial acrobatics and croaking away.
Atmospheric rainy walks through the hills 🩶🌧️ . . Atmospheric rainy walks through the hills 🩶🌧️
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#apatchwilder #mendips #rain #rainwalk #wetwetwet
Walking past the ponds today I saw a bit of hanky Walking past the ponds today I saw a bit of hanky panky going on so I took a closer look and sure enough - first spawn of the year! 
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#apatchwilder #mendips #frogspawn
A brief instruction on how to build your very own A brief instruction on how to build your very own bird-identification bot!

In July last year I built a BirdNET Pi - a tiny computer that constantly records and identifies birds on the Patch. Over the past 6 months it has recorded over 100k calls from 55 species, including 3 species that I have never seen on the farm! (one of which was a rare yellow-browed warbler which apparently hung out in our garden for 3 days while we were away on holiday!) We verify anything unusual and listen back to the calls to make sure they are correct, as the system produces a fair few false-positives. However, overall it has been a really interesting project and has enriched our understanding of birds using the Patch. We can view results live in an internet browser and all the data is automatically uploaded to a website called BirdWeather, where it can then be accessed by researchers. 

If you want to see what's currently singing on the farm, the live results are shown on our webiste at the bottom of the 'Projects' section: www.apatchwilder.com/projects.
And if you want more detailed instructions of advice then just drop us a message!
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#apatchwilder #mendip #birdnet #birdsong #citizenscience
Something a little different on the cameras tonigh Something a little different on the cameras tonight. This looks a bit like polecat (Mustela putorius) but appears much paler. I think this is a  closely-related cousin, a feral ferret. Ferrets were domesticated from polecats over 2000 years ago and are now classified as a distinct species (Mustela furo). They do frequently escape into the wild however and can breed with polecats  producing fertile offspring known as polecat-ferrets, which can make ID very tricky. 
This one is so pale, I would guess it is albino and this makes the ID a little easier. Albino ferrets were preferred and artificially bred as they were easier to see in the undergrowth when hunting rabbits. 

It's nice to see something new but hopefully this fellow is just passing-through as i prefer my polecats in the OG flavour!
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@a.patch.wilder #mendips #ferret
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