Sheep escapades

Walkers gate, sheep escape route

Today at Sherborne was a resumption of 'Elm defence' with the completion of tree guards in the sheep pasture below Crookmoor Ash. Before we reached the pasture we came across some escapee young sheep by Sandy Hill Copse which Mike rounded up using the 4x4 Ranger. They had squeezed through a 'walkers' gate {by Clarks Close} between chains which were designed to prevent this but clearly not well enough for these youngsters. So yet again the sheep were surprising us, noting their attack on unguarded Elms a few weeks ago. We continued on to the first of the newly planted elms where the hard work of constructing the tree guards began. 1 tree guard [the 4 posts already in place] comprising of 2 sections of heavy duty wire fencing,  8 horse chestnut rails requiring 24 large staples for fencing and 32 -5" nails for rails meant a lot of heavy hammering. Mike lead on the drilling, tensioning and extra grunt when I failed to penetrate the occasional knot in the wood which was too often for my comfort. I was pretty pleased when lunch intervened and I could rest my aching forearm.

All present and correct

Over lunch spent time down by Sherborne Brook where I was pleased to see that the swan family were all in tact and enjoying a leisurely paddle down the brook with mum & dad as escorts. Also good to see the tufted duck family, 2 herons, swallows and grey wagtails. It was soon time to resume work on the tree guards and on route along from Northfields barn car park we spotted gold finches, yellow hammer and chaffinches in the hedgerows. Yet again sheep needed rounding up by Clarks Close where Mike set about closing off their escape route by reducing the space in the Walkers gate with 2 strands of wire. We were soon back to the hard work of building the next tree guard where unfortunately we ran out of 5" nails and had to use 6" ones. 1" difference doesn't sound much but I can assure you it increases the effort considerably. However we completed the second guard and got half way through the next. Bad news on the journey back as we saw 3 sheep had forced their way through the Walkers gate, obviously a little more work on Mike's design was needed. I was relieved , though satisfied to see the end of days work, only 6 more tree guards to go, hopefully with a new supply of 5" nails!

Latest on archeological dig was a surprise indicating the probability that the construction was that of a Roman corn drier linked to a Roman farm.

Late update on CAP from RSPB and its impact on wildlife