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1st: Never mind the rain After a night of strong winds, the rain decided to give it all it could and wash our newly swept flagstones, top up the ponds and test the mats over the pond piping to check they were laid well enough to hold back the mud (they were). Wet dog walks were the order of the day along with inside admin, spinning, guitar and keyboard playing. The birds on the other hand continued to flock to the feeders in huge numbers, especially the tits. How we love feeding and then watching the birds. Species so far now include all the following - some more regularly than others: Great, Blue, Coal and March tits; House sparrows, Chaffinches and Goldfinches, Starlings, Blackbirds, Robins, Wrens, Nuthatches, Dunnocks, Siskin (once on 30th Dec) and a Jay (also once on 16th Dec). A total of 15. Our total of birds spotted on or from our land is now around 50 (must get a proper list published). |
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2nd: Sun!!! Today was a perfect sunny winter day. The frost was severe but made everything shine and look so clean and we had the joys of watching a Red Admiral taking advantage of a bit of warmth and sunning itself just outside the barn. Meanwhile we have continued to tidy the barns and the new bran is now starting to look ready for this weekend's tree planting. We are very excited. AND, in really exciting news, we caught on fox on the trail cam last night, just briefly as he (and it looks like a he) emerged from the outer hedgerow in Goat field and sauntered up to the Pong area. We are going to put a bit of food down by the obvious track he comes up, and see if he will eat and so stay a bit longer in shot!!     |
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3rd: Bird photoshoot Another amazing half hour at the Bird Feeding Station - the nuthatch is still slightly alluding that perfect shot but is getting less skittish at hanging around and feeding, so we are now getting more opportunities to photograph it (or them, we have in fact seen three at once). The blackbirds are great at posing, as is the robin and with the blue tit, the best thing is often to focus on a branch and wait!!! They are so active and there are so many that one usually lands on your chosen view with a minute or less. Having 20/30 birds all feeding at once on the feeders and the ground is not uncommon!! It is all quite captivating!!       |
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4th: Trees and foxes A totally fabulous day planting trees and hedging on our land. 19 species (Beech, Bird Cherry, Blackthorn, Buckthorn, Crab Apple, Dog Rose, Downy Birch, Elder, Guilder Rose, Hawthorn, Hazel, Hornbeam, Lime, Oak, Rowan, Spindle, Sweet Chestnut, Wayfaring and Wild Cherry) and around 700 ish individual plants. We created five mini copses of around 50/60 trees each and fenced round the pond area and in front of the fence between Fruit and Swallow. HUGE thanks to all the volunteers who came to help as we slowly give our land back to nature. The weather was kind (it stayed dry) and the ground neither too frozen nor too wet!! We are planning a fair few events here over the coming year working with Sustainable Chulmleigh which is all very exciting: Pond days, Plant Hunts, Summer conference, Moth trapping and more.... HUGE thanks to Nick, Claire, Mike, Felix, Julie, Andy, Dennis, Ellie and Amy and her seven Ashreigny volunteers. More planting tomorrow...... AND, once again, the trail cam in the field picked up our fox - there were several clips as he obviously found the food we had put out (dog biscuits and peanuts) and had a good feast. Thrilled to be encouraging him like this - something we would never have considered when we were smallholders!!!       |
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5th: More tree and hedge planting plus more pond planning After another night of very heavy rain, we walked around the land this morning to talk ponds with Nick Benge from Roborough Rewilding. It was a very inspiring and exciting visit as we discussed the possibilities of at least two more ponds in each field plus potential adaptations to the current one to make it a little more diverse in terms of the habitats it can offer. More on all this later this month. And then it was more tree and hedge planting with Nick, Claire, Ben, Viv and Kelly - by the end of the afternoon, all but around 100 out of the 1300 plants were in the ground. We now have seven mini copses and five rows of new hedging. We couldn't be more grateful to all our friends and other volunteers. Watching everything start to bud in the spring is going to be soooo exciting!!   |
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6th: The fruits of our labours A perfect day to take photos of the pond as well as all our newly planted copses and hedges!! We very much hope that in four to five years, the views will be very different..        |
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7th: Amazing light A day of mixed weather: sun, rain, hail.... the bird feeding station has been very busy as usual and we are delighted that we now have siskins coming to feed most days. We have seen males and females and up to two at once. In not such great news though, today we saw a male chaffinch with 'Trichomonosis' - the equivalent of pigeon canker. He came to feed on the fat pellets and had a really good feast. Sadly, we know we probably won't see him again as they don't recover once they have it. We are trying to keep the bird feeding station as clean as we can so it won't spread!! ADD video 64        |
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8th: Fox We are seeing our fox every night now - the question we are not sure about is whether we have one or two - it is really hard to identify them on the videos and spot any distinguishing features. Now is the time of year when they are looking for mating partners and as such, there is a lot of movement. It seems likely that more than one may be on our land but who knows. Question is, will one next nearby and will we then see any youngsters??? |
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9th: Roborough Rewilders A stunning afternoon at Roborough Rewilders with Nick Benge - he started like we are, with grazed pasture and these pictures now represent four years on. They have gone from 250 species to 559!! We very much hope that our land will be similarly successful. We have yet to count the species we found last year but hope to have a total soon.  
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10th: Let sleeping dogs (and cats) lie  |
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11th: cont/ Let sleeping dogs lie |
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12th: Love our tree lines  |
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13th: Orange Moor It's been a while since we have been to the Moor (thanks to illness and xmas) - the dogs were very happy to have a good run here - and they were, as usual, very well behaved!   |
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14th: Bird Feeding Station Another 'grey' visitor today - and look out for the nuthatch too - in both videos! |
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15th: More shots more the Bird Feeding Station 
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16th: Morning Light and Macro    
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17th: Bird Feeding Station (it's compulsive viewing)
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18th: Crazily Busy - the blue tits are taking over... |
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19th: It's started... This week, Nick Benge from Roborough Rewilders came to stake out our ponds, all ready to begin digging them from tomorrow. He has planned out eight in total: one in Fruit, two in Swallow, three in Oak and two in Goat. In addition we will have banks and scrapes and then when he has finished we will plant a more more trees and bushes around them. We are beyond excited.  |