Dear Wild Finca Community,
​
It's been all go at Wild Finca recently! Last week, Luke and our volunteer Jolyon created five new ponds, with Ro and Albs joining in over the weekend to complete the last one. We eagerly anticipate the wildlife these ponds will attract.

And we've had some fabulous activity across our camera traps. Down at the Wild Finca cave we've had boar, foxes and Genets regularly passing through the area, but most exciting, was the visit from a chuntering large male badger. Over a couple of nights he hung around the entrance making his strange noises, and despite being chased off a couple of times, it looks like he was successful at least once in mating with one of our regular badgers!

​

​
After sharing a short clip on Instagram a friend of ours, the brilliant Kate MacRae AKA Wildlife Kate, messaged to say that it was likely that the badgers in the cave already had young. Apparently as soon as a sow gives birth they go back into heat, which is what would have attracted the new badger boar. Kate knows a thing or two about badgers after building a badger sett, having badgers move in, AND THEN live recording the first ever wild badger giving birth - watch it here, it is AMAZING! And if you enjoy our camera traps you will LOVE Kate's live cameras, from her home in South Wales and across the UK, do go and check them out here.
​
Meanwhile, over on the land we call Adlington Meadows, we've had TWO species of Deer visiting! In Asturias there are three species of deer; Roe, Red and Fallow Deer. Roe are our most frequent deer inhabitants here, and we have had a Doe with a fawn all of last year and it looks like we may be due another generation this Spring. Fallow Deer are sporadic visitors but a young male is hanging around in the same area as the Roe currently. We would love some Red Deer but they are quite rare locally and would have to traverse over quite a few kilometres to make it to Wild Finca.

​

​

​

We are currently working on an exciting collaboration for a Kid's Bug Art competition, with a fabulous book called The Little Adventures of Erig the Earwig, which we will be announcing soon and which will run over the Easter Holidays. Our aim is to encourage kids and their families to explore and engage with nature over the holidays, focusing on discovering bugs in their natural habitats. With Erig The Earwig we are in the middle of creating a PDF that will have all the competition details plus a 'Top Tips for Bug Hunting' Guide. The competition involves going for a walk to search for bugs with the help of the guide. After the bug hunt, participants will return home to draw the bug they found and write a few sentences about the walk. They will then send a photo (phone photo perfect!) or scan of their entry to wildfinca@wildfinca.com. There will be 3 categories: Junior Category (Ages 5-8), Intermediate Category (Ages 9-12) & Teen Category (Ages 13-17). We have some brilliant judges lined up, and some amazing prizes, but we were wondering if there was anyone in this community who might be interested/able to donate some additional prizes, or be able to help spread the word of our competition? Do email and let us know if you might! We will have more details coming soon!

In the meantime, if you are looking for some extra support on your nature walks we've just shared our March Treasure Hunt ideas over in the Wild Finca Community Space so feel free to join us there to see those!

Finally, by the end of this week we will be sharing all the details, and opening booking for the Sam Lee X Wild Finca Asturian Adventure! So if you are interested in this make sure you are signed up here to be the first to know when this goes live.

We hope you have a wonderful week!

From our wild corner to yours,

Katie, Luke, Roan & Albus