I'm beginning to think we have a poltergeist in the allotment.
It started about a month ago when I found some water hyacinth pulled out of the pond and left round the edge, along with a couple of plant labels - I put it down to pigeons or magpies - but it happened overnight so thought it was a bit strange, A week later the same thing happened but also this time one of the potted plants had been taken from the margins of the pond and dumped about 30 feet away. This time I suspected a dog but wasn't sure if a dog would do that or manage to carry the weight of the pot. The same pot was taken out last week and left a bit nearer to the pond. Yesterday morning I went to the allotment and the chickens were out of their run with their door wide open (that might have been me not closing it properly at night of course.) This morning there were two plants taken and left next to the pond, one plant knocked over, two labels removed, a large pebble taken out from the shallows of the pond, and most strangely a watering can pushed in with the comfrey. It was getting dark when I left the allotment last night and was back there at 8 this morning to check on the chickens.
The allotment is fenced off on all four side although a fox would have little difficulty jumping the fence. There's a metal gate in the entrance and the doors are kept closed by a stone (that hadn't been moved). The village here is quite isolated so it wouldn't have been kids. The old guy we bought the allotment off is the only person other than us that goes down to the plot as far as I know.
So discounting poltergeists and kids, who or what do you think is visiting the allotment after dark?
Cheers
Perhaps someone is after your plot and is trying to frighten you into leaving ;D
web cam............maybe not possible ?
Logic says then it can only be the old guy.
Was there someone else who wanted to buy the allotment?
Maybe you and a few friends need to spend the night,hide yourself and see what happens?
Invite most haunted for a gardens special :D
I would suggest carefully raking round the pond and seeing if the ghost leaves foottprints
Do you have deer?
Would a Deer open a chicken run door though ?
I thought it might have been the old guy, he's 84 and misses not having his allotment - I drive him down there sometimes so he can tell me how I should be doing things. After the first plant was moved I put a padlock on the gate and there's no way he could have got in for the second time things were moved. I've since removed the padlock though. My main suspect is an animal or bird now, but I can't imagine what it could be.
I had thought of spending the night there but it only happens about once a week. I have also just put up a solar powered lamp on the shed with movement sensor. I can see the shed from my house so could set up the telescope to point at the pond but again, a lot of hassle. I might water heavily at night around the pond as it's still bare ground there and see if anything has left its mark overnight.
Failing that, I'll just have to give Shaggy and Scooby a call.
Edit
There's no deer here, plenty of foxes, badgers and wild boar. We get golden eagles but no water birds, herons etc.
Badgers are quite clever about opening things but I cannot see one leaping over the fence. It has to be the fox. I would suggest a better lock on the chciken coop. Mind you if it was a fox and the coup was open I would not expect much chicken left. Perhaps a manged mess.
Ye s on thinking about it it probably is an animal of some kind. :)
All very interesting.
I agree with the suggestion to carefully rake the soil in the suspect places, so you can look for footprints, animal or otherwise, in the morning.
Do you have any clay soil around the place?
If it's not too much of a faff, you could always do what people monitoring animals do, and put some clay soil into a plastic tray, smooth it down, then put it in place (sinking it into the ground).
Many animals are habitual, so will walk along the same tracks - so you'll have to work out where to put it.
I'd think that a human would see it and avoid (depending on how dark it is), but you might get some lovely fox prints to admire.
I'm erring towards the badger theory. I don't think a smaller animal could move the pots so far or push the watering can into the comfrey. It had been pushed in with some force as after removing it was still clear where it had been. My only doubts are how it could get in and I would have thought it might have had a nibble or more on the lettuces only a couple of yards away from the pond. What are the tell tale signs of badgers on the plot? Wouldn't it be burrowing, scratching and nibbled plants and crops?
When we get badgers in the garden the tell-tale signs are huge holes in the lawn... so I'd have thought you'd have more damage.
Alison
ooooh....tis witchcraft!!
Or maybe it's a combination of things. I favour the fox explanation, they can move things around all over the place to a surprising extent and without doing a lot of damage. They would leave footprints though. You mentioned that you might have left the chicken door open by mistake...and there's always the wind blowing things around too, although not the heavy plant pots.
Deffo a ghost, :o has it been near your pumpkins. ??? ??? ???
Why don't you go spend a night there , take a camera.....
Apparently the chap that had my allotment died on it, but he is an OK dead bloke, and he doesn't bother me. His raspberries are doing well and he is welcome to eat some or move my pots about. That is why when I dig too much and get a pain I go and have a chat. I don't think you are haunted, sure it is animals.
Quotehas it been near your pumpkins.
Funny you should say that, we don't have pumpkins but noticed last night that one of the butternut squashes has deep gashes in it, looks like claw or teeth marks.
Two more plants were removed from the pond this morning, slightly larger ones and they were left a yard or so from the pond. The ground around the pond is hard and bare and I watered heavily around it last night but no sign of footprints, I think the ground is just too solid even with the water (which had all but evaporated).
I checked for holes in the fence and apart from a 3 to 4 inch gap under the gate I can't see where anything could get in, but maybe that's it.
I'm sure if it was a fox there'd be signs around the chicken run of burrowing but there's nothing there so I guess it must be a small badger. I'll see if filling the gap under the gate makes a difference.
Oooh er! Scary!
Big claw and tooth marks....... something bg enough to jump over a fence and move heavy stuff around.....!!!
Over here we have (alleged) sightings of big cats - black panthers etc. - in the wild, do you have the same in Spain?
You wouldn't catch me out there at night - not for anything!!!
Hope you solve your mystery soon!
No big cats here, although our Persian looks like it's been on the lasagna.
Wild boar are probably the scariest around, until you see them close up I don't think people appreciate how big they are. They are also pretty wild rather than the escaped semi-domesticated type. Fortunately I've only come across them when I've been driving at night. They cause a lot of damage to the young olive and almond groves here so I hope they don't find the allotment.
Maybe digging the pond was a mistake as there's not much water here, there's a small stream about a mile away and a village pond that's all but dried up. I think I have maybe created an oasis for the local critters.
Quote from: elhuerto on September 14, 2010, 07:51:44
Quotehas it been near your pumpkins.
Funny you should say that, we don't have pumpkins but noticed last night that one of the butternut squashes has deep gashes in it, looks like claw or teeth marks.
Butternut squashes ya say...then it's a werewolf... :o
Hmmmm.....werewolf.......could be. I'll check the moon tonight and add it to my list of suspects.
Badgers love sweet corn so usually the tell tale signs are completely devasted sweetcorn. Deer nibble them politely but badgers go for total demolition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RaCR3ndaaE&feature=related
Are you any nearer finding the culprit?
Yep, it was the werewolf ;D
Actually one day last week there was a large hole dug in the middle of the tomatoes which suggests it was a badger, so at the weekend I reinforced the fence and since then we've had no moving pond plants and no more holes in the ground. I'm still not 100% sure how or where it got in but no signs of intrusion in the last few days except for some minor burrowing attempts around the fence.
Revisiting this a year later and I'm now pretty sure it's a fox. This morning a plant was out of the pond and the chickens had been spooked. We have two coops separated by some wire mesh, the separation was down this morning which I guess was from the panic. A few plant pots were knocked over outside of the coop and quite a few feathers about on the floor. Fortunately the construction is now pretty solid and the fox wasn't able to get in.
I bought a motion sensor camera last year so will set that up over the next few nights and see if I can catch anything going on.
Quote from: Digeroo on September 13, 2010, 08:52:34
I would suggest carefully raking round the pond and seeing if the ghost leaves foottprints
Do you have deer?
yes, fine sand raked smooth in strategic places, see what footprints you pick up.
What if the footprints turn out to be yours!? :o
Quote from: Robert_S on September 19, 2011, 15:40:51
What if the footprints turn out to be yours!? :o
Then you have a time portal, and money is to be made therefrom.
Finally got a video of the act http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYuNxtYzO7M
Fab. IR source.
What sort of camera? Does it have an IR source?
Yes it does. This is the one I bought http://www.flyonthewall.uk.com/hd-infrared-wildlife-camera-dvr-with-motion-sensor-10mp-p-468.html - works fine apart from a couple of battery issues which the supplier quickly cleared up for me.
I forgot to mention, the fox there is actually removing a large pebble from the pond rather than a plant.
Excellent! I see you have other vids too. the Barn Owl is gorgeous! I wonder what lurks down our allotments at night? they are fenced in so nothing very exciting I fear, although there are many bats in our area...
Holy Moly £169?
Thats more than ive spent on my allotment in 10 years. £25 i might have bought one.
think of all the fun you can have with it Lincs.don't be leave you only spend £16-9p a year?
I really enjoyed looking at your clips. Thanks for posting them.
Glad you liked them. Not sure 169 quid is a lot for a camera really.
My neighbour asked this morning if he could borrow it as his allotment / garden was devastated last night by badgers or wild boar, probably the latter so be interesting to see if they come back.
I would really like to see what is going on at my lottie. Muntjac, voles, fox, hedgehog etc not to mention the size 10 boots. But but would not want to leave that amount of kit about the place.
Does it only work at night. The Muntjac come around dawn.
QuoteDoes it only work at night.
It has settings for day / night / automatic so I just leave it on automatic. You can also choose stills or video and things like video length, resolution etc.
Wow would love one of those, What fun to be had , now wheres that piggie bank ::)