Biodiversity video diary

This page shows a number of video clips that have been taken (with Wessex Water permission) in the Wessex Water woodland in the valley above the village.

The aim of this video diary is not to provide a pictures of rare or exotic wild life (let the BBC do that ) but to capture the atmosphere in a peaceful and secluded part of the village and to watch the wildlife undisturbed by human activity. Some call this mindfullness.  Once Wessex Water have completed building a board walk to enable easy passage in what is now a flooded wet woodland we hope to start organising guided walks around the wood to see the management work that the biodiversily group have been carrying out for over 10 years.

Click the links below to select a video playlist, and then press the Play button. While a video is playing, hover on the video window to get information and controls - you can skip straight to a selected video in the playlist using the hamburger menu button (top-right), or pause and play the video using the pause button (bottom left). At the end, click the browser's back button to get back to this page.

November recordings. The first few clips are new sightings of a peregrine and a Tawny Owl that brings us up to 4 species of birds of prey visiting this little woodland clearing. The remainder show drone footage of work in progress laying a hedge we planted with a grant from the Dorset Biodiversity fund as a village project 12 years ago. We are especially pleased with progress the oaks are making, overtaking the millenium oaks planted 12 years earlier. The last video shows a new entrance to the fen that Wessex Water have created for us which can be used with advance permission.
An amusing clip showing the perils of flying drones in a wood over a stream. After a night drying out over a bed of dry rice the drone lived to fly another day.
An amusing clip showing the perils of flying a drone in a wood above a stream.
December  recordings collected over a couple of weeks, it is interesting the variety of wildlife in such a small wood. It is nice to see  the new bridge built for us by Wessex Water being used regularly by Badgers, presumably to keep paws dry crossing the river. The fun part of the Buzzard video is the effect on a squirrel in the background. The new visitor is a bit of a challenge to identify but I think we are there now.
December 2023
January. All the usual characters make an appearance the most significant are some new videos which answer the question about the identity of the " sutton poyntz beast". It turns out to be a mink which we haven't recorded round here before. It could go in some way to explain the disappearance of water voles further down stream.
January 2024
Quieter month with no exotic sightings still a nice video of a pair of Roe deer that have been quite infrequent visitors this winter.
February 2024
We think the unknown is a mink, nice video of a Tawney Owl calling.
March 2024
April 24
A nice view of life carrying on without human interference.
 
May 2024
Mainly Tawney owl videos first swallowing a wood mouse then rare sightings in daylight and then getting cross with a fox. nice blackcap recording and night vision of bats in a cave slowed down so you can hear them calling when they come into view.
June 2024
Nice to see a young owl makes more noise than catching mice. Managed in the space of a few days to record 3 different species of deer the Muntjack being first for this wood.
July 2024
Favourite spot to see just about everything moving through the wood. It's suprising how a bird the size of a buzzard finds it's way through the tree cannopy down to bath and drink in the stream. Also a rather sweet video of a badger family out on the prowl.
August 2024
Very quiet month just the usual residents pottering about.
September 2024
Good cross-section of wild life in the wood
October 2024
Tried the camera lower to try to get some close ups
November 2024
I hope the owl is eating a wood mouse not one of our precious harvest mice.