Keeping dry?

Winter colour in the Pleasure Grounds

Another wet day forecast (contributing to why this is the wettest January on record} but the show has to go on at Sherborne so I duly reported in and happily was rewarded with fine weather. The day began with a wood delivery to a nearby village and on the way back checked out a few things on the Lodge Park boundaries. The first was assessing a fallen beech branch which will need clearing at  a later date, the second was observing sheep happily grazing in the pasture where we had previously erected the temporary fencing adjacent to Larkethill wood and lastly, because we had the trailer, was to collect some of the wood previously stored in the Eastern borders of Larkethill wood. While doing this a red kite dropped in to see what we were doing followed by a buzzard. By the time we had dropped the loaded trailer of wood in the nursery it was lunch.  After spotting the usual birdlife on the Broadwater with the addition of 2  little grebe I paid a brief visit to the Pleasure Grounds. It was good to see fine displays of snowdrops & aconites and a good number of great tits enjoying the relatively mild & dry weather.

Riding our luck a little with the still dry weather,the afternoon was spent back at Larkethill woods . It is still one of the few areas of the estate where  its possible to use the tractor with trailer and the 4x4 with trailer without getting bogged down in mud and deep water. Before starting to gather up the cord wood stacks I had time to take Maddie for a short walk and wandered over to the Lodge Park boundary to check out the water levels by the river Leach. Surprised to disturb 2 herons by the river and noted the water levels were still high. Soon had filled both trailers and with the rain finally making its appearance retreated back to the nursery to end a pleasant day out in the country.

High tension by the Dikler !

View over Lodge Park, river Leach levels down

see below to identify the only man to tackle 2 monkeys!

No sign of Morris for the January count this wednesday at Sherborne { Dark knight still in Oz?} but we still went ahead supported by Simon on safety and Mike and I carrying out the count. Temperature near the entrance was 11C but further in the cave it averaged 8C and definitely had a damper feel in the cave due to our fairly wet weather over the last few months. The final count for the 'bat cave' was 158 , 0 for the Kennels and Bothy and 12 in the nursery cellar giving a grand total of 170 lesser horseshoes, a healthy total for the time of year plus an increase since December 2013 and January 2013 counts.  A bonus near the Kennels summer roost was my first sighting of a Bullfinch for quite some time!

Lunchtime, on yet another mild winters day, was down by the Broadwater. 2 pairs of Tufted duck, usual coot and a moorhen were on show above the weir but the mute swan family spotted last week had moved on. Downstream were significant numbers of wigeon with another pair of tufted duck, the 'sherborne' pair of swans and the usual mallards preferring the area near the boat house. The afternoon session was spent in Larkethill wood, adjacent to Lodge Park where contractors had felled selected trees, mainly ash too near to the roadside boundary. The task was to generate cordwood to be stacked and placed in the tractor trailer Mike had towed with his tractor to this location. I drove the 4x4 with Simon to aid in the operation which proved fairly tricky given the density of remaining trees. By close of play the tractor trailer was filled and a number of cord wood piles left for future retrieval to the nursery. Another bonus for me was  spotting a small flock of long tailed tits in the hedgerow across the road from the wood.

Attended first session this year with the Wildlife Trust at Greystones with two interesting tasks on offer;
The first to be led by Will on cutting stakes & hazel heatherings on green lane for the hedge laying at Sherborne in March,
and the second led by Richard on stock fencing by the river Dikler, with the added bonus that the strainers and posts were already in place.

Barn owl house and end of fence line far right 

Completed stock fencing by the River Dikler

I opted for the fencing, [need the practice], and set off with the team over wet ground with the barbed wire, stock wire and a fine selection of tools.  Its not often I get the chance to either see in use or operate the Monkey strainer, 'Myti' strainer {for barbed wire in this case}, Farmers Boy, metal bar, wire cutters, hammer, lots of staples not to mention the all important Gripples! It was also interesting to see a slightly different technique {to that I have used before} employed to construct the stock fence with an innovative use of the metal bar and 2 Monkey strainers for the top and bottom stock fencing 'strain' wires. Given the posts were all set up the key job was to ensure the correct application of tension to the fencing wires so I gained some more valuable insights into the dark art of fencing and reluctantly have to bow to Richards skills/knowledge in this area. Before we even reached our work site it was great to see a snipe, buzzard and 2 red kite and having reached our destination a red spotted woodpecker could be heard in a nearby tree {a bit greedy I know but it was a shame the barn owl didn't make an appearance given its 'home' was right by the work area}. After a minor hiccup with the length of stock fence available for the longer run of the three fence sections required {allowing for the bend in the fence line tracking the river bank and needing the Gripples to join up the 2 short fence sections} the team was divided up for the various tasks. After bedding in infrequent {if ever} used skills, with Richard's expert guidance, we completed the task and to the standard required. Given the nature of the work {tools and materials} plus the proximity to the swift flowing river and 'mini' lake on the pasture side it was amazing there were no unfortunate incidents. This could be put down to our expertise, good risk management & leadership or luck, probably all, you decide. So with great weather we ended the day on a high and rejoined the team working on stakes & heatherings who were equally well satisfied with their days session.

Couple of interesting blogs from Martin Harper the first on lobbying {still a worry} and lest we forget Natural England {if only its purpose could be fulfilled!}

4 weddings and ..

Lodge Park, loads of leaves

Something different on a warm and damp day at Sherborne as Mike loaded the leaf blower, forks and rakes in the 4x4. Pressure was on to tidy up, mainly the leaves,  at Lodge Park  in time for several 'wedding viewings' next week with the hope to secure the bookings. The recent storms had certainly left quite a few leaves to clear up and the bonus of clearing them was to reveal the snowdrops hidden beneath. As ever Mike had some shrub clearing and tree pruning queued up once we'd finished with the leaves. Started clearing shrubs by the drystone walls at the front of the lodge using a really good bow saw and loppers. It soon became apparent that the pole saw would be more efficient for the thicker stuff. This proved true and this led to pruning back beech wood branches hanging over the woodland walk and park boundary stock fence. Fortunately bad light called a halt to a productive days work as Mike with pole or chain saw often loses track of time especially with no shortage of potential work to do.

In spite of the heaviest downpour of the day at lunchtime I still managed a visit to the Broadwater. It was good to see the pair of tufted ducks still there plus a new family of mute swans {2 adults with 2 juveniles} occupying the river above the weir. The existing swan pair didn't seem to object to the visitors as long as they didn't venture below the weir.

More noteworthy blogs from Mark Avery on continuing declines in farm birds and offsetting.

Wassail: Pagan festivities at Snowshill Manor

On a  great January afternoon the second Snowshill 'orchard visiting' Wassail took place and its fair to say an enjoyable time was had by all! Hopefully supported by the video of this pagan celebration above.

Starter for 2014

River Leach,  Lodge park

Weather was behaving itself for my first session back at Sherborne and Mike was certainly happy to be able to get outside to tackle an ever growing task list which has built up over the xmas break and been obstructed by the stormy weather. The good news was that only a couple of Sherborne's trees suffered storm damage and the bad news was quite a few of the ancient drystone walls out in the estate needed attention. Not quite as extensive as the wall by the estate offices last year but todays task at Larkethill wood required an immediate response. The drystone wall {1700s} on the wood boundary had collapsed in 4 different places and we were to erect temporary fencing to allow the tenant farmer to use the adjacent pasture for his sheep. Fence posts, wire fencing, metal bar , drival and the understated farmers boy all essential to tackle the work. Of course Mike added in some boundary wall clearing, as the large beech trees & hawthorn were obstructing access to parts of the wall, so making drystone wall repair easier in the future. No easing into the work following a long xmas break then and by lunch I was suitably warmed up. Was granted a little respite as we wandered down the pasture to the river Leach and followed it back through Larkethill wood across to the boundary of Lodge park. Not surprisingly in the Lodge Park valley the river Leach had overflowed its banks. Luckily on the pasture side, even with trailer attached to the Ford Ranger, we managed to get in and out without too much fuss given the extent of rainfall over the last few months.

Vigorous water flow through weir bridge

Lunch was spent down by the Broadwater where water levels were high, the usual bird activity {swans, heron, buzzard, red kite, wigeon, mallard, coots..} on show plus a pair of tufted ducks.  Started the afternoon by removing 2 xmas trees from Sherborne house {for later depositing in Larkehill wood},   clearing a manhole cover and then a small wood delivery in the village. We finished the day back in Larkethill wood to complete the fencing and wall clearing. There was some risk in this since we had taken the wood trail down through Larkethill wood and the rain started to fall towards the late afternoon.  Fortunately Mike's driving in these conditions was up to the task but not before we had spent a worrying few minutes struggling up a tricky ridge on the track back up towards the road. So a good start to 2014 and plenty to look forward to especially if the winter remains as mild {not wet} as we have experienced so far.

Hate to end on a sour note but my favourite 'environmentalist' has started 2014 with a bang. I thought 2013 was pretty bad for this Government's attack on our fragile environment with HS2, Fracking,  Neonicotinoids , Badger culls and… but Owen Patterson's latest suggestion concerning ancient woodland beggars belief!. Mark Avery blog captures the sorry affair but not sure about{although understand} the RSPB 'yes if' stance. Can we expect this government to look beyond the 'yes' to the essential qualifiers, I don't think so! Of course if the vast majority of todays society  places little or no value on its natural environment { through ignorance or plain greed} then the choice our future generation face on this subject will be taken out of their hands.

In-between storms

levels in water meadows still rising!

Lapwings over the water meadows, near Birch copse

After a lot of wet and stormy weather since Boxing day, seized the chance to enjoy a fine day back at the Sherborne's water meadows, before the next storms hit us again! It was to be a good day for raptors with Kites, Kestrels and Buzzards out in numbers on what I guess to be a good day for hunting. Initially headed for the north eastern boundary of Sherborne estate and the 'hyde'. Lots of ducks, mallard mainly but spotted some teal, in the pasture/lake north of the 'hyde'. Intended to investigate the Windrush on the Northern/Eastern boundary but had to turn back in the direction of Leasow furlong as the water was too deep to cross over the 'lake' covering much of the pasture. This turned out to be a bit of luck as I spotted an unusual 'raptor' in the ploughed field bordering Leasow and the Commons. Couldn't decide what this raptor was, smaller than a buzzard but looked bigger than a sparrow hawk. Got a long distance picture but need to get ranger Mike's view {Peregrine looks but Female Hen harrier colour??}. Dropped in on the 'hyde' but water pretty deep and overlapped my wellingtons once I stepped off the bridges.

Decided to head over to Barrington estate ever hopeful of spotting an owl and again water levels by Windrush bridge were very high. No owls on show but was treated to some good sights of Red kites, Herons and cormorants in the Birch copse area. Even better was treated to an impressive fly by of  lapwings {need to click on picture} before they finally settled down , alongside lots of gulls, in the water meadow just before Birch Copse on the Sherborne side of the Windrush. Good job my leg seems to be much better as it was hard work wading and diverting around the flooded tracks and pasture. Finished the day with a spot of a grey wagtail, brambling,  several fieldfares and yet more buzzards {in the air, walking on the ploughed field and perched in the trees on the borders of Picardy}. Well worth getting out today and for January pretty warm. Only slight disappointment, aside from no owl sightings, was the absence of any hares which I have been usually able to spot in this area. If this wet weather persists may have to consider bringing a canoe on my next visit to Sherborne Water meadows!.