A fox had already polished off cute baby rat's parents but, unfortunately, it didn't take long before cute baby rat became a big fat daddy rat himself and so our rodent problem increased once again. That was until a neighbouring cat found our garden. I got up one morning, a few days ago, to find him sitting on our patio with one dead rat at his feet, 10 mins later there was another, 20 mins later he walked past carrying a third in his mouth, then later in the day he left us a fourth. Since then, despite keeping guard for hours, in all weathers, he hasn't caught anymore.
I can't help feeling sorry for the rats but, on the other hand, it had got to the point where we felt we couldn't leave any doors or windows open in the house as they were nesting so close by. I also can't help admiring the cat's determination and acute senses..most of the time that the cat (don't know his name) was keeping guard he just looked like he was snoozing, with eyes tightly closed, but his ears gave it away as they kept twitching showing he was listening for any sound and very successfully it would seem.
At least without the rats around it has left the fallen bird food free for the pheasants who have returned to the garden for the winter. I have to admit that I have also started throwing food out for them as, if I can keep them over our side of the valley, they won't get caught up in the pheasant shoots. This year, so far, we have two males and five females visiting regularly. Usually, if there is more than one male, they are constantly fighting but these two males are very peaceful chaps...
...unlike two of the females who seem to hate each other and are forever squabbling.
We have continued to help with the Old Surrey Downs Project and have recently assisted with the separating of the lambs and ewes. Neither seemed especially bothered at being separated from each other although I found it quite sad. The lambs are now being distributed to the various sites for conservation grazing and we have given the ewes that will be put with the ram a bit of an m.o.t. and they are now enjoying some good grazing to prepare them for another pregnancy.
The garden has been producing an abundance of fruit and veg but, as usual, too much to keep up with so we've given lots away. It has been a particularly good year for our apples so those that were less than perfect have been thrown over the fence into the field for any wild animals to enjoy. This picture shows a young roe deer tucking in to them
We always seem to get this glut of vegetables around this time and then nothing for the winter/spring so this year we have bought a small poly tunnel for the veg plot in the hope that we can actually manage to grow some things over the winter months ready for spring, although, apart from cabbages, I'm not sure what else to try at the moment. 
