'A romp' down by the Windrush & the first 'fall' of Autumn

Windrush, with good feeding for water voles

Pair of kingfishers frequent this area, but not tempted today by this  perch

Out with Will and Richard from the Wildlife Trust, on the Windrush. beginning of the week along with  a shedload of volunteers. I like collective nouns but they do vary, with for example a romp of otters or a colony of water voles. The voles get a bad deal here so I prefer Richard's offering of a shedload or maybe mine a drizzle of water voles?.  In any case I didn't spot either otters or water voles whilst we were working a new stretch of the Windrush  just upstream from Bourton, owned by the 'Slaughters' farm. With so many volunteers we soon cleared a good stretch of the Windrush from overhanging scrub/trees and this should encourage more of the existing riverside sedge to grow, remove shade & help the recently discovered water voles plus the local fishing club.

500+ year old oak minus one large limb

3 hours of clearing later reveals the large limb

Today at foggy Sherborne was intended to be a thinning session but circumstances were to change this.  Shaun the fence master working down in the water meadows phoned in to inform Mike of a fallen oak across the track down to the meadows. After completing a wood delivery to Sherborne village, with heavy heart, we set off with tractor & 4x4 to survey the damage. Good news was the ancient oak tree, one of Sherborne's finest, was still standing but minus one of its large limbs. Lots of debris of brash and smaller branches required moving using the chainsaw, tractor and me before the main limb was revealed. Other good news was the tree looked healthy enough and no rampant disease seemed to be the cause of the limb falling.  The rest of the day was spent clearing up, ensuring the area was safe and removing 3 trailers worth of usable wood from the area. I even managed to round up some of the sheep which had escaped over the broken fence before we repaired it, temporarily at least.

Despite  the day's unexpected events I still managed a visit to Sherborne brook. The swan family looking good plus 1 heron, 1 egret and a buzzard under attack from a number of rooks & 1 raven. The weather improved throughout the day with ever increasing temperature, so although a satisfying day I was glad to get back home to an ice cold beer and curry!

Solo performance

Selection of tools at the bat cave

Spiral staircase, 7 of the 13 steps 

Mike back from Scotland but already had confirmed that  50 lesser horseshoe bats were now back in their winter roost residence. So no work possible in the bat cave so TPs tardiness in delivery has cost us the opportunity of completing the planned work. As Mike was engaged in office work today I was to go solo and the morning was to be spent completing the steps to the bat cave.  True to form the weather  forecast was inaccurate so I had to contend with showers and mud. Not so bad since it put off the flies and as the year so far has treated me well weather wise I can't really complain. So armed with saw, lump hammer , spade and metal bar I got stuck in and by lunchtime had completed the steps despite some inconvenient bands of stone.

Lunchtime with the weather clearing was spent  as usual down by the Sherborne brook where the swan family, herons, coots and mallards kept me company.

The afternoon was a bit of a surprise as I was charged with completing the mowing of the village verges and lawn areas that Mike couldn't cover with the Kubota. Should be the last mow of the year and some of the verge slopes certainly offer a challenge. Already quite a few fallen leaves and some trees were showing autumn colour changes. May have to think about a jumper soon!

 Mark Avery on form with his pithy but fairly accurate appraisal of the main parties form on our environment. This followed by Martin Harper's blog on  Biofuels says it all but I still keep the faith what else can u do!

All quiet ...down in the Meadows

Windrush, good water flows plus kingfisher perch!

Although Mike's up in Scotland this week still popped into Sherborne to check on 'my' Swan & Red Kite families plus a quick wander around the Water Meadows. Pretty quiet down in the Water Meadows, down by the Windrush where the recent water management work has been done. Already mother nature has started to cover up the areas subjected to heavy duty traffic and digging. Surprisingly still some butterflies and dragonflies out and about plus a couple of buzzards. That said it wasn't until I had finished my meander down by the Windrush that wildlife activity increased. I managed to disturb a young deer near the Commons and then was treated to a fly by of a green woodpecker up by Century wood. Spotted a few jobs {tree fallen over fence line, walkers gate and bridge repair} to be added to Mike's list for the coming weeks but that's par for the course.

Egrets visiting Sherborne 

Finished off my visit with a trip down to the Sherborne brook close to the village. Still no sign of the Red Kites but the swan family were enjoying their lunch downstream from the weir. The Swans had some new guests they seemed to accept alongside them {unlike the Canada geese} and this gave me my first sight this year of a pair of Egrets. The Egrets decided to fly off as I approached and settled in one of the dead trees closer to the weir. Interestingly one of the local herons was already perched in the tree but seemed relaxed about its white 'cousins'.

Been a while since I have had a whinge about this government's attitude to the environment so here it is.  Was a little boosted by Martin Harpers excellent blog on INNS but still irritated by this Government's latest 'attack' / apathy regarding nature with the lobbying bill. If it were only possible to trust someone like Osbourne when he says  the Conservatives have shown they really pay attention to what the people say {the Syrian crisis}. This parties actions {and *inactions  Patterson/DEFRA} don't exactly demonstrate too much heed to NGO's/ peoples views on our fragile environment: money {Fracking, HS2} & shooting/hunting still rule!

*to be fair to DEFRA this latest blog by Martin Harper shows they are quite capable of doing good stuff, helped by RSPB.

'The boys are back in town'

Adonis at Calstone Down, one of many!

It's good to see that this year is still providing mainly good news from a nature perspective {badgers in west , moths and ladybirds aside}. Fruit trees are certainly going to out perform last years poor yield and butterflies are still going strong. A late visit to NT Cherhill and Calstone Downs plus Avebury Windmill Hill provided some impressive butterfly sightings. Especially pleased to see Clouded Yellows, Brown Walls and Adonis Blues.

Bit of a good news, bad news today at Sherborne. Good news was TP had finally delivered the supplies for the bat cave, Simon was part of todays team and the weather was still great. Bad news was our Dark Knight couldn't make it, the 'late' supplies were not complete and we had some early returning lesser horseshoes in the bat cave! As ever a few problems don't deter this countryside team and we decided to get the most out of the day as we could. A very hot morning saw us move some substantial supplies of Acro props, poles and clamps to the bat cave. We very carefully began to move a portion of the supplies into the cave. Mike ensured this was done so the early returning bats were avoided by using alternate routes through this underground winter roost.

Lunchtime chat, Sherborne  Brook

Was pleased to see lunchtime so as to cool down and paid my usual visit to Sherborne brook. Swan family were on their lunch break so didn't pay me much heed, only a single heron and buzzard showed up plus the usual mallards plus 1 white duck. Difficult to believe we are in September already and still enjoying such great weather. Rest of the day was spent completing the transfer of supplies into the bat cave and all done without disturbing the bats. No construction today was possible without impacting the bats and it looks like further work will have to wait until next year, subject to another bat survey on 18th September.