Bats..

With the arrival of Maurice this Wednesday the December 2016 bat count was ready to take place. James and I were to act as health and safety while Maurice and Mike carried out the count inside the winter roost bat cave. The temperatures outside and inside the cave were unusually high {11C outside and 10C inside with 96% Humidity}. The counts for all roosts were 158 bat cave, 5 Kennels, 4 Bothy and 0 Cellars with a grand total of 167 lesser horseshoes[December 2015 total 146].

Major clearance at Greystones

Today was the final volunteer session 2016 for GWT which took place at Greystones. There was a good turnout possibly motivated by the end of year BBQ. The task for the morning was to 'clear and burn' a large amount of brash and wood at the margins of an SSSI pasture at Greystones. The SSSI factor meant that the construction of the two fires were on platforms at a height that prevented damage to the ground. This clearance work would allow a new fence to be constructed along the pasture boundary plus the laying of  a new hedge and make available a significant additional area to the existing pasture.  A very important consequence of this should ensure Greystones will meet the conditions of the environmental grant allocated to this reserve.

Even more River work!

Frosty start on the Windrush on Slaughter Farm, WA1

Looking down the Windrush to bridge & WAs beyond

Large multi-organisation team near WA2

WA2 stake line set ready for fascines

Fascines in place for new river bank, WA2

WA3, extensive shrub clearance

WA5, EA team setting stake line

Frost gone near area of Windrush I worked, WA1

Today was spent with the WT on the Windrush, near Bourton on the Water at Slaughter  Farm. Will and John led a 30+ strong team which included/had contributions from the usual GWT volunteers, an EA team, Bourtons local fishing club members and Cotswold wardens. Its been a while since I have worked this area of the Windrush and it was a good deal warmer than today. The team were to carry out shrub clearance and river bank narrowing along a long stretch of the Windrush. Earlier stakes and fascines had been placed down by the Windrush where the new river narrowing was to take place. After the introduction of the days task was delivered by John teams were formed to work various sections of the Windrush. My area, as I wasn't wearing waders, was work area 1 where stakes were already in place {circa 10 years ago}. The first task was to coppice the willow which was growing along a ditch which fed into the river. This willow was then used to weave a barrier between the existing stakes, as there were not enough fascines to cover all the sections requiring them. I unfortunately had to leave early but as the pictures above show an impressive amount of work had already been accomplished.

Have been working at Sherborne the past few weeks mainly on adding to the wood service supplies and this Wednesday on helping to clear shrub and trees along 'tight' avenue. This starts by Sherborne school/war memorial and continues up past Hope farm to Vincent Lodge by the A40. Recent growth and fallen yew has began to interfere with traffic using this narrow lane. Needless to say even with Mike using the pole saw, James with chain saw and me with loppers the work was not going to be completed in a single session!

Sadly but not surprisingly the petition I supported to ban Driven Grouse shooting to save the Hen Harrier {plus thousands of other mammals and reptiles} and highlight the damage to unique blanket bog and peat land was 'Shot down" in the parliamentary debate. I received letters from Defra ministers to respond to my questions and transcript/video of the debate which were to say at best embarrassing {not for me and 120,000 + supporters}.  I can't criticise my local Conservative MP who responded helpfully to my concerns on the issues and even showed some sympathy to this conservation issue. Given the wealth of scientific and compelling evidence questioning this Victorian pastime the need to ban this particular form of shooting will become irresistible and the behaviours of certain MPs and Defra be shown to be completely unacceptable. The only hope is this will happen before rare species like the hen harrier become extinct and  the rare upland environments damaged beyond recovery.

River work

Young welcoming party at Meadow farm

The WT team being introduced to the days task

Start of the river section 'narrowing'

Spent today with the WT on the river Dikler, downstream from Hyde mill and close to Meadow farm. Richard & John were leading and as well as the usual volunteers we were joined by Defra & NE representatives, all amounting to over 20 people. Before starting on a variety of 'river tasks' we were fortunate to see a kingfisher fly by obviously a little put off from its quiet fishing by such a large body of human invaders.

I with one group of 'workers' were directed to carry out the usual 'shade' clearance to help improve our favourite water vole's habitat. In this instance there were a number of mature trees which were to be left to provide some shading to ensure the brown trout were not too disadvantaged. The other work was to deal with sections of the Dikler which had become too wide and to start work to reduce the width by forming an artificial river bank where the original bank would have been. This was done using stakes weaving in suitable vegetation/fascines to form a barrier behind which the new river bank would establish itself. Sadly I didn't get the opportunity to use one of the 4 seriously large sledge hammers for setting the stakes securely in place. I had fond memories of similar work which addressed bank erosion at Hyde mill, amazingly 2 years ago!.

'Tintin' and a less 'Poplar' Bibury?

Wednesday at Sherborne, with James, started off with a grim task. 6 Canada geese were found dead in the West Belt by a family taking a walk through the woods. Our task was to find these unfortunate geese and discover what might have happened. It was clear when we tracked their location down that poachers had been at work and having shot theses geese probably somewhere along the Sherborne or Windrush had taken what they required from the birds then just dumped the remains over the wall in Westbelt. The incident would be reported and the bodies suitably disposed, its unlikely the perpetrators will be found. Whilst carrying out this task, and on a slightly more positive note, we discovered a lost labrador, 'Tintin', who happily we reunited with his owner. 

6 dominating poplars, Rack Isle

Less dense vegetation, courtesy Belted Galloways

Rack Isle nicely cropped, but something is missing!

No more poplars on Rack Isle

The main job of the day was to visit Bibury to carry out some coppicing plus some ground work in the Arlington row private car park. Quite a change to Rack Isle, Bibury, since my last visit. The Belted Galloway's had certainly done their job in reducing the dense vegetation and the contractors had done an impressive job of removing 6 large poplars a task long awaited for. Lots of willow to be coppiced, alongside the river Coln, all of which would need to be placed in the trailer for disposal in the nursey area.

This week evidence was given, from both sides, on driven Grouse shooting {yet more slaughter, see above,  of wildlife as a consequence}. Odd thing was the Countryside Alliance/Moorland Association were grilled by Simon Hart MP who happens to be chairman of the Countryside Alliance! Next is the Government debate on 31 October, not expecting the pro shooting MPs will be 'shot down' by the petition to ban driven grouse shooting. However its a strong warning to those arrogant elitists that scientific, reasoned arguments eventually will break down their fortress of misinformation, lies, criminal acts and 'tradition' sooner than any of us thought possible only a short time ago.

'Barn storming' and Extreme 'Coping'

Workstation 1 inside Greystones barn

Mine & Andy's  first box, latest design

Today was spent at Greystones with over 20 WT staff & volunteers led by Richard & John for the day's task. So what do you get with lots of drills, screws, saws,  25 'flat packs',  battens {to be cut to specific lengths}, instructions, pencils and several workstation tables? The answer is 25 of the latest designed Barn Owl boxes. The Barn owl box design main features were a removable top to allow 'use' monitoring and waste clearance, an entrance positioned to suit the hoped for 'owlets' {they have to be strong enough to reach the opening}, an outside platform allowing ease of re-entry for owlets. Given the number of people and materials it was fortunate we had a barn we could 'storm' and get the production lines set up. The aim for the day was for everyone to be involved in the production of at least one Barn owl box and ideally to reach a total of 25 boxes. The overall aim of this WT project was to produce 60 Barn owl boxes to cover at least the Windrush{Dickler?}  habitat area. After this construction phase a choice/survey of suitable installation locations with willing landowners will be taking place. Happy days in the future for our Barn owls, at least from a housing perspective.

View over North park looking down on Sherborne house

Pat showing off Coping stones reset in an earlier build phase 

Team surveying next section of Coping to be reset

Arrived at Sherborne this wednesday to find Pat and James busily mixing up some lime mortar, in readiness for resetting the extremely large Coping stones on the 17th century wall which runs along the North Park boundary next to Clarkes Close. The Coping stones to be used were the originals from the ~1600s and were pretty heavy. This meant that Mike had to use the 'blue' tractor to lift the heavy weight stones to the top of the rebuilt wall sections.  With Pat and James located on the 'public' side of the wall and Mike with me on the other 'lower' side, it enabled us to move the Copng stones into place. The lime mortar was the 'fixing' agent and applied on top of the wall by James & Pat.

Escaped sheep in rape field, coming to see the wall rebuilding

Sheep being herded alongside Clarkes Close

Before we could start the 'Coping' I noticed that we had an unexpected audience. A small flock of sheep were heading in our direction and it was clear they had escaped from one of the nearby pastures in/close to North Park. Mike immediately organised the 'shepherding' of the nervous flock back towards the potential escape point. It soon became clear that the sheep would have to pass by Clarks Close so James was sent ahead to prevent them entering the wood. Eventually, and with expert handling!, we managed to get the sheep back to their pasture via the damaged fence section alongside the public footpath. Once all the sheep were back in their pasture some temporary fence repairs were carried out and the work on the Coping stones resumed. By the end of the morning we had completed the bottom Coping layer which left the Coping 'top' stones to be positioned in the afternoon. You have to appreciate the drystone wallers in the 1600s who carried out the original wall construction without the aid of a tractor, they must have been exceptionally strong!

Will's first ditch!

view over Sherborne and Broadwater

Hidden in the pasture a yellow cow-pat toadstool?

Varied session at Sherborne wednesday with James, which began on the pasture across the Broadwater and next to the repaired wall adjacent to the road to Northfield barn.  We were scavenging for Cotswold stone, leftover from previous wall repairs, which was to be used for repairing some of the damaged walls in Sherborne village, this time by one of the new drystone wall contractors. After collecting sufficient stone to satisfy the 'waller' James suggested we pay a visit to the Windrush where he had positioned a motion detection camera. This was close to a spot on the river bank where it appeared an otter had been entering /exiting the river. On the way there we spotted an adult red kite, a  female fallow deer but weren't lucky enough to see the juvenile peregrine seen recently in the vicinity. A quick browse  of the camera photos unfortunately revealed no interesting activity so James re-positioned the camera for another attempt to capture the elusive otter.

Nicely maturing hedge running alongside scrape down by the Birches

After checking the motion detection camera for sign of otters a minor detour was made to check out the hedge built by the WT team which looked pretty healthy considering it was built just over  year ago!

Some thick scrub to cut back in the rain, Greystones

Getting stuck in, there is a water course ditch there somewhere

The water course revealed, happy days water voles

Team by the bridge, sunny but next ditch beckons!

Its been a while, February this year, but spent this morning at Greystones with the WT.  Will and John from WT led a team of 8 volunteers down to one of the water courses {ditches} in the meadows at Greystones for some shrub clearance. As it happens it was a return to Will's first ditch shrub clearance experience with the WT leading a team of volunteers.  This was 7 years ago hence the impressive growth that needed attention on this stretch and as it transpired adjacent ditches in this area. As ever it all about the water voles and ensuring they have the appropriate unshaded 'water ways' to enjoy as they thrive in the water meadows at Greystones.

The? shared vision of farming and  the countryside.

Special delivery for Bibury's Rack Isle!

Dense vegetation on Rack Isle, Arlington Row end

Delivery of 9 new visitors for Rack Isle

Last sight of Belted Galloways as they disappeared into the dense vegetation

Ted in the dog house?

Another hot day at Sherborne today or as it turned out at Bibury's Rack Isle. With Mike and the 4x4 'sick' I joined James in Pat's Ford Ranger as we set off for Bibury. Today delivery of 9 Belted Galloways was due at Rack Isle for their 'holiday' from the Ebworth estate, an annual occurrence for the year old cattle stock. They normally stay on the Isle for 6-8 weeks where they manage to chew their way through the dense vegetation before returning to Ebworth.  Before the cattle were due to arrive James and I carried out some minor work on the electric fence James & Rob had erected earlier. At the same time a quick survey of the fence line and water trough {with manual pump to extract water from the adjacent river Coln} was carried out. As a bonus we found a slow worm under one of the corrugated sheets previously laid down as an attractive place for such reptiles. As usual Bibury was busy with the usual tourists and some of them were curious as to what we were doing. The 'lucky ones' were at hand when the delivery trailer arrived and provided some unexpected entertainment for them as the 9 Belted Galloways were introduced to their new but temporary home.  Within a few minutes all 9 had disappeared into the dense vegetation and I realised keeping a check on them during their visit was going to be no easy task!

Over 110,000 signatures for  'banning driven grouse shooting' reached and a good article in the guardian placing the 'shooting and hunting' communities communications in a more realistic context. So not all the media/press is led by the elitists who love the sport of killing animals whilst also harming the natural environment.

On a more bright note aren't we having a ball in Rio, makes you proud to be British although its a shame we soon won't be part of the EU.

A view to a kill...

Ted , new kid on the block

Pip, she's no longer the youngest

Commons, Red Admiral

Commons Ride almost cleared for the 'Hunter'

Commons Ride cleared by new tractors flail

Started the morning at Sherborne playing with the resident dogs: the new pup Ted with Pepper the springer plus young Pip the border collie. 

Was eventually persuaded to join James in the 4x4 where we were to join up with Mike with tractor down in the Commons to continue work on clearing the overgrown rides. Pole saw, tractor flail, loppers, and saw were all needed to carry out the required clearance in a rarely used part of the Commons. It was good to see a fair collection of butterflies {no dragonflies though} which included Red Admiral, Speckled wood, Ringlet and Meadow brown { this complements my Crickley Hill observations earlier in the week of Comma, Silver Wash Fritillary, Painted lady, 'Blue', Marble White}.  

Another necessary but  unpleasant reason for clearing one of the smaller rides was for the resident hunter.  Unfortunately the deer population is still too large so culling has to take place to prevent excessive damage to crops and woodland. I climbed up the 'hunters' seat situated up one of the trees to ensure the view down the ride was not obstructed by vegetation and overhanging branches. So another interesting session down at Sherborne and at least I didn't suffer as much with the biting insects this time.

A positive 'awakening by the NT' to nature wrt farming policy as reported by Martin H blog.

Can't tell Stork from Heron!

Tricky access through wood on left, for delivering walling stone

Stork at Sherborne Broadwater

Stork not a Heron!

Back of Monks Farm, rebuilding of  drystone wall

Hot and varied morning at Sherborne on Wednesday, starting with a fire alarm drill at the estate offices before we 'escaped' with both tractors and the 4x4. Mike took the 'new' red tractor with large trailer to Lodge Park to collect a supply of stone. This was for the rebuilding of the dry stone wall at '33' in Sherborne village. The access to the wall was tricky and needed the smaller blue tractor with trailer to deliver the stone supply through a narrow wood trail. Some testing driving of both tractors was needed to even get to the start of the wood trail just up from the Broadwater weir. While Mike and I moved the stone from the large to the small trailer James set about 'strimming' the overgrown trail before we could move it to the work site. As we were discussing with the waller where the first load of stone was to be placed Mike interrupted with news of a rare visitor to the Broadwater.

One of the villagers had spotted a Stork landing/flying in the pasture by the Broadwater. Without too much persuasion and armed with binos, camera {no long lens!} all of us {including 'waller' } headed back to the Broadwater pasture to get a look. It was indeed a Stork and I was volunteered to try and capture it on camera by careful approaching it { couldn't stalk it given I tweaked my back earlier in the week}. An amusing sight I'm sure but I did my best. Although the Stork was the star of the morning we did also see an actual heron, an egret and I saw the mute swans with at least 2 cygnets. All in all a good mornings experience at Sherborne. 

Meanwhile on the 'bigger picture' we now know who replaces Truss heading up DEFRA, Andrea Leadsom  'being a mother' and therefore having a real stake in the future could mean her children might have a countryside environment  left to enjoy?. Sadly Truss gets promotion for doing absolutely nothing {well nearly if we ignore her dismissal of the ban on lead ammunition}. Question is will her replacement Leadsom take any notice of this Martin Harper blog.

A cut above..

Entry to overgrown ride in the Commons

Ringlet soaking up the sun

Spent a hot, clammy  morning in the Commons at Sherborne today with Mike plus two pole saws. Like last week, strimming in Picardy, it was good to be in the relative peace and quiet of the woodland. That is until we cranked up the pole saws to clear the overhanging branches over one of the rarely used 'rides'. The only slight negative was the presence of 'biting'  flies which clearly enjoyed our exposed flesh/blood supply. I even had the opportunity to fell a badly damaged young oak tree using the pole saw. Seemed to be making good progress until Mike pointed out we had only covered a fraction of the ride, so yet again plenty more work to add to the list of future work. I'll need to increase the strength of my left arm as holding up the pole saw for the higher branches certainly exposed my current puny condition. When the work is finished the new tractor will be able to move along the ride without scratching the still immaculate paint work! Whilst there it was also good to see a good number of butterflies, mainly ringlets but also speckled wood and a large skipper. 

On a totally different note some good sporting successes with 'Cav' in the Tour de France, the great win by Hamilton in Austria and the English cricketers still on a winning streak. Absolutely no mention required of Brexit or the English football team!!

On the rails?

Note one  rail 'join' per post for more stable structure

Mike assessing the mornings work at Clarks Close

Got to get some practice with the hammer and drill this week at Sherborne where I helped Mike and James finish off attaching the rails to the poles installed a couple of weeks ago. While Mike and I attached the rails James made a start on replacing the old gate post. I certainly needed the practice since I am a little rusty on this type of construction and as Mike has lots of tree guards to be constructed this season I am going to need to get stronger! Nice and peaceful in this part of the estate and the wildlife obviously enjoying a break since we didn't see any. Still no sign of cygnets on the Broadwater this year hopefully its not too late for their appearance. 

Can't resist a mention of the EU referendum,  the following 2 Blogs [Mark Avery and RSPB] confirm my position.

Spring surprises!

An American invader 

Nice setting for Chedworth overflow car park

Sherborne allotments close to the 'stone site'

Arrived at Sherborne in good spirits on a warm, sunny Spring day with the hope of an opportunity to finish off the rail fencing at Clarks Close begun last week. A few surprises were the flavour of the day ,  this included the much improved spring weather.  As is often the case the planned work for the day was to be amended to respond to a more urgent task at number 33 in the village. While Mike and Pat made a start on the new task to remove a large amount of stone from the site at 33, I joined James to pay a visit to the Chedworth roman villa to take down a temporary fence setup in the overflow car park. The countryside on the journey to Chedworth is pretty impressive, especially helped by the great weather. As the temporary fence line at Chedworth, set in a meadow leading down to the river Coln, led down to the riverside, James and I took the opportunity to survey the river prior to starting to dismantle the fence. With great aplomb James surprised me by dipping his hand into the water and pulling out a signal crayfish which was quite a handsome {but troublesome invader} beast. It didn't take long to dismantle the fence and tidy up so we were soon back at Sherborne to help in moving the stone. This took 2 tractors, 2 vehicles and 5 men so no mean task. 

The final surprise of the day was the fact that another pair of mute swans were nesting in the upper part of the Broadwater above the weir with the resident pair nesting down by the boat house in their usual location. Should be interesting how this works out and how many cygnets we get this year.