WWW @ Sherborne!

Hedge by Sandy Hill Copse

Nicely 'disguised' trap in Clarks Close

There is currently a big initiative at Sherborne to discover more about the local wildlife and its behaviour in the varied Sherborne environments {the Who &Where of local Wildlife}. So with James this wednesday the main task was to survey the humane badger & fox traps which were setup at promising locations to allow the 'GPS tagging' of these larger mammals . Currently the traps aren't primed to trap wildlife, but baited with suitable food aimed at making the wildlife comfortable with the presence of the traps before they are eventually set. Once the foxes&badgers are fitted with 'trackers' their daily behaviours can then be monitored to give an important insight into how they interact with the Sherborne environment. With surprisingly good weather we started the survey at Northfield Barn before moving onto Sandy Hill Copse and Clarks Close. It was good to see the hedges I planted with Mike in the Sandy Hill/ Clarks Copse  area  are looking good and that the rail fence around the top of Clarks close has been completed. The 3 traps in this area all appeared to have been visited as most of the food placed in them had gone. Hopefully the motion cameras located by the traps will reveal which animal had consumed the food.

Speckled wood, Century wood

GWT river bank improvements, Sherborne Brook

We then moved on to Century Wood and again the traps in this area had been visited. Once again the traps were replenished with food, peanuts for the badgers and dry dog food for the foxes. While in this wood we were treated to a sighting of fallow deer, a hare and a speckled wood butterfly. We also saw quite a number of Orange tip butterflies throughout the survey. I have seen this butterfly in a number of locations and on days where the temperatures have been quite low, its obviously one of the more 'hardy' species. The final trap was down in the Water meadows  by the Sherborne Brook close to one of the Otter holts Mike had built some years ago.  While in this area we paid a visit to the Sherborne Brook where the GWT had recently carried out further  river bank improvements and we disturbed a grey heron also interested in the improved fishing opportunities. We saw a couple of red kite flying over the pasture adjacent to Birches & Century wood {probably attracted to the sad demise of a spring lamb} and we observed there was still a small amount of water left in the 'scrape'.  Look forward to seeing what James discovers on the various motion camera cards he extracted on this survey.

'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!

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.

Fencing with rails?

Hedge plants starting to mature, Sandy Hill Copse in distance

Northfield Copse in distance, fence gone by Clarks Close

It's a long stretch of fencing needed down to Sherborne wall

First fence section poles erected at Clarks Close 

Not a new olympic sport but alternative fencing construction to usual stock fencing. Previous volunteer session had removed old rail fence line along the top section of Clarks Close, it was a significant stretch of fencing to replace so the tractor was a welcome support to the task. Before starting to layout the fence poles I took the opportunity to see how the hedges built in 2013 were doing. Although James and I had a healthy number of fence poles in the trailer it became obvious we had insufficient  to cover the extensive fence line needed. Mike also concluded the old rails wouldn't be good enough to re-use and the old gate posts giving access to Clarks Close would also have to be replaced.  James and I positioned  the posts while Mike using the power of the new tractor pushed the poles into the ground. Given the unseasonable cool weather the limited use of the drival and metal pole for positioning the poles was sufficient to keep me warm. Unfortunately I didn't get to attach the rails to the first section of the fence line but hopefully I may get the chance to have a go next week unless Mike and James get the extra poles and finish the job over the next week. Whatever the outcome Mike has more fencing work planned plus plenty more tree guards so my drilling and hammering skills will come into play over the coming months.

This blog from Martin Harper confirms a number of things: EU is a positive {albeit slow} force for the environment/wildlife, DEFRA {Truss} are pretty useless, Shooting fraternity {with their super figure head Botham} may start to worry their sorry minority of privileged, arrogant members could face a bigger threat from 'us' than they ever considered and Mark Avery's dogged persistence is edging the environmental position slowly forwards. Not bad since this Government supported by the press {owners/editors with shooting bias} continue to provide a powerful negative force concerning issues impacting our Natural environment.

Back in Black

Not blown down by 'Barny' but felled by fungal disease

Clarkes close and a new tractor!

Its been a while, almost 3 months, but joined Mike and James at Sherborne today in my standard , mainly black volunteer outfit. A mixture of a shoulder injury, more building work at home and Ollie has kept me from any volunteer work over the Autumn. It was a gentle introduction back to countryside work as I joined James in a quick tour of the Pleasure Grounds, the Commons ending up in Clarks Close to complete a survey of the Sherborne estate trees to check for damage after 'Abigail' and 'Barney'. Good news was no obvious tree damage so all attention was on the huge beech that had fallen last year in Clarks Close because of fungal damage.

As we reached the site of the fallen Beech, Mike had already reached there in a new 'Demo' tractor, and was continuing the work he and James had started on the fallen Beech earlier in the week. It didn't take long with the use of this high powered tractor to fully load the tractor trailer with plenty more still to load. What with a quick tour around the new tractor, with all its fancy electronics, and the tree survey work the morning disappeared and its was time to head back home. It was good to restart the work at Sherborne again.

Not wishing to end on a downer but the future again doesn't look too bright for the environment with DEFRA likely to be hit with huge cuts { they may not be brilliant but with ~35% budget cut plus the weak leadership from Truss it will be hard for the NGO's to keep the environment from a collapse akin to the huge Beech!}

Spring arrivals and one farewell

Dense growth over the fence line by Crookmoor Ash

Missed the March bat count but the total count carried out last week was a healthy 174 lesser horseshoes a good deal higher than last years 114. This could be explained by a cold snap deterring the bats from moving to their summer roosts. Joined Mike at Sherborne wednesday where the day started with a visit to the horse 'pastures' which are bordered by Sandy Hill Copse, Moors Copse and Crookmoor Ash.  Accompanied by Ollie we took the Clarks Close route joining the trail through Sandy Hill Copse. It gave Mike a chance to check out this area of the estate for fence & tree damage, as well as observing how the hedges planted a while ago were doing. The hedges by Clarks close/ Sandy Hill were progressing well and it was also good to see a very healthy number of new lambs in the sheep pasture in this area.

Curious locals investigating our presence in their pasture

Was greeted by 4 horses as we entered the first of the pastures and as we stopped to inspect a ~500 year Oak which had fallen Ollie had his first close encounter with these large animals who were curious to see what we were doing. The size of the Oak and its large limbs proved to be too much for us to tackle so we headed on to inspect the 'fence' line boundary by Crookmoor Ash. This fence line certainly needed a good deal of work given vigorous tree growth and fallen branches.  It was certainly going to occupy the whole day in clearance work, with chainsaw and pole saw. Even with the 'help' of Maddie in the afternoon there was plenty left to do for the volunteer group later in the week. By the end of the day we had created some significant brash piles, which the horses seemed to appreciate as an additional food source, and a good proportion of the fence line was cleared to hopefully allow a new fence to be erected.

Snowshill nestling in the Cotswold hillside

This Friday marked an emotional leaving do for Linda, Snowshill Manor head gardener. Also my last visit to Snowshill Manor as a volunteer, all good things come to an end eventually.

Short and sweet

Weather we'd like for Apple weekend 

Tuesday at Snowshill provided dry and sunny weather which was a great help as we erected the 3 large Marquees and collected/setup the tables in readiness for the apple weekend celebrations starting this coming Saturday at Snowshill. Our hope for the great weather of last years event may be a stretch but the apple collection will be much improved given better growing conditions this year.

Morris was at Sherborne today which can only mean one thing, a visit to the bat roosts for a bat count. Not so lucky with the weather, heavy persistent rain, we seem to be making up for a relatively dry year. Nice surprise at the bat cave, given the temperatures have been mild of late, as there were one or two bats flying around in this winter roost. The final tally was 83 lesser horseshoes in the bat cave,  31 in the kennels, 5 in the Bothy and a record 56 in the Nursery cellar. They all looked in good shape and the total for this time of year pretty healthy. Even though we completed the count in record time we were all soaked, so since the rain showed no signs of relenting,  Mike called it a day for any further outside work.

Possibly not my best decision but I opted to pay a visit, while in the area, to the Water meadows and river Windrush. In the heavy rain I was glad to be wearing wellingtons as the previously dry paths were pretty damp. Not much luck in spotting wildlife but the Sherborne brook and Windrush water levels were looking better given a fairly dry year. Good to see the newly erected rustic fencing down by the  Windrush completed and  surprised to see one of the large pastures adjacent to the Water Meadows ploughed. The  sun did finally make an appearance but by this time, even with waterproofs, I was pretty damp. Spotted a heron, cormorant and red kite before I left the meadows area. To end the day I paid a visit to Clarks Close where I had a quick look at the hedges we built and aside from the weeds most of the hedge plants looked to be growing well.

Into the lion's Den: Little and Large!

Dan's Den, compact and bijou

Difficult to believe that a year has passed since the inaugural  Den building event took place in Clarks Close.  Today was to be the second Den building event and Clarks Close was again chosen to be this year's venue, a good choice too. Mike had already 'swiped' some trails through Clarks Close but more preparation was needed before 'the visitors' arrived for the afternoons den building session. So the first task in the morning was to survey the area where the event would take place for safety reasons, ensure that material would be available for the dens and last years dens, which were still standing, were to be dismantled. The plan then was to continue with tree guard building. As it turned out the Den preparations took up all the morning since there were some loose hanging branches to be removed, a new path needed to be strimmed for safe access to one of the den building areas and more material for the Dens needed to be cut than planned.

Peregrine Symonds Yat, didn't have my telephoto for Sherborne!

I spent my lunch by Sherborne brook and was treated to lots of bird sightings. A low flying Red kite, 2 herons enjoying the plentiful trout, a large buzzard perched on a fence post, a green woodpecker in one of the large Oaks. In addition were half a  dozen Canada geese under pressure from the resident male swan protecting his 9 cygnets all in fine condition with their mother. My luck with bird sightings recently at Symonds Yat  with the juvenile Peregines was clearly holding. Also on show were lots of butterflies with many different varieties including whites, painted ladies, ringlets, meadow browns, small tortoiseshell and more yet to be id'd.

Sky Den, side entrance, room inside for many adults and children !

All too soon the afternoon was upon us so off to Northfield barn car park to meet the children and their guardians with, on my part, a little trepidation. Good news was all attendees were on time with a mixture of 10 adults {grandparents, mums & dads, nannies} and 20 children of a slightly younger age than last year. As before Mike led them off on the 10-15 minute walk to Clarks Close where he then gave an introductory talk on the afternoons activities and off they scattered to begin the work. I followed on in the 4x4 with drinks, tools, forms etc.  The Den building took place in 2 main areas and similar to last year everyone bar the very young {1-3 years} enthusiastically began construction of 6 dens, all very different in size and form. We had a teepee, small lean to, medium sized samples in the main area where most of the younger children were. In the 'new' area was a huge den built by a large team of children with grandparents and mums and  a heavily engineered lean to den with 'seats' built by dad with his 2 sons. It was a tired but happy group of den builders which slowly made their way back to the car park with some happy memories & photos to remind them of a good day out.

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

Resistance, hopefully isn't futile

Moor's Copse looking towards Sherborne village

Last years planted hedge, Northfield Copse on the horizon

Later start today, but fair weather contrary to expectation after a hot bank holiday and one of my favourite tasks to look forward to! This was especially true since we were to spend the whole day planting Elm trees which were of a strain which is hopefully resistant to Dutch Elm disease. Part of the work was selecting the best sites for planting the Elms. This included locations in some of the hedges planted over the last 1- 10 years and open pastures near to dead or dying trees ensuring the landscape retains its impressive looks. The location of each of the trees planted was recorded along with the 'root stock' so in the future it will reveal how well the particular Elm strains have fared.

There were 6 sites visited during the day and the first was a hedge line {~5 years old} on the northern borders of the estate close to Northfield Copse but on the Leasow Furlong side of the road. We next crossed over the road and planted the next Elms in the hedge built last year which has Northfield Copse at one end and Clark's Close at the other. Next was new hedge 2 and then a hedge line backing onto a paddock {with 2 friendly young horses} which was adjacent to Crookmoor Ash. On route we passed along the edge of Sandy Hill Copse with view of Sandy hill farm and the North West boundary of the estate. Quite a bit of scrambling for me over the Hedge fence lines some with barb wire and plenty of maturing thorny Hedge to restrict my comfort zone as I dug the holes to receive the Elm trees. 

The afternoon offered a change in approach where the locations were 2 fields used for sheep pasture the first down from Crookmoor Ash/Clark's  Close and the second next door and down from Moor's Copse with some splendid living Oaks and some dead ones providing good habitat for insects and lambs!.  Only had time to plant the Elms with tree protectors, in strategically chosen locations, the tree guards needed to defend against livestock would be the next task when Mike returns from holiday. Twenty splendid Elms were planted today a worthy effort and an enjoyable experience in some of the best scenery provided by the Sherborne estate . 

Hedge sitting

Hedge 2, view from Clarks Close towards Sandy Hill Copse

Dead tree makes fine den for sheep, looking over Sherborne

Last minute changes meant no Bat count this week, Mike occupied in the morning with meetings and me flying solo on Hedge duty. So I was challenged with completing the Chicken fencing for Hedge 2 and this meant tackling the existing thorny sections from the remains of the original hedge, some 200+ years old. It also was to be my turn in joining up the 3 sections of chicken fencing needed for this 120+ metre run and this proved tough on my fingers! On the plus side there are worse places to spend your time with great views over the Sherborne village and park land. The sheep proved entertaining expecting food every time I moved the 4x4 plus their many lambs were clearly enjoying the fine weather and freedom to play. Had a quick lunch break visiting Sandy Hill copse and was impressed with the Douglas firs that exist there.

Mike joined me in the afternoon and while I finished off work on Hedge 2 he set to on planting the blackthorn, hawthorn and hazel for Hedge 1. I joined him later on in the afternoon to help in the planting. True to form I hit a rocky section for my first plantings which brought back memories of planting ash saplings in the East Belt. Fortunately it did get easier although Mike's rate of planting was as usual a good deal faster than mine! Still, pretty good progress was made and Hedge 1 was well on the way to completion by close of play. With the volunteer group in tomorrow there was every chance for completing the planting for Hedge 1 and Hedge 2. Overall a pretty good effort in constructing 2 new Hedges, all we need now is some reasonable rainfall to help establish the new Hedge plants.

'Hedging' my bets or monkeying around?

Hedge 1, Sandy Hill copse

The Monkey strainer,  Hedge 2

Who says sheep can't count! click image to see

Tough goal set by Mike today to complete the construction of Hedge 2 and surpass the efforts of last week on Hedge 1. I was worried especially as Hedge 2 was longer in length and there were more environmental challenges to face. True Mike had made an early start in preparing the ground, setting up the high tensile wire and pounding in the first 5 posts. Add to this we had the tractor on duty so perhaps  we had a fighting chance.  Helped by good ground conditions,  using the metal bar and Drival we had fixed into the ground the first row of posts by lunch, a great start.

Spent lunch time on a wander around Sherborne village and the fields around Sherborne Brook . Good news was the sight of so many healthy spring lambs especially since many sheep farmers {especially those without adequate shelters}, have suffered tragic losses due to the extended cold & snowy conditions this year.

The afternoon began with an assessment of the existing fence line which stretched between Sandy Hill copse and Clarks Close. This was to provide the other side of the Hedge 2 rectangle but needed the addition of some new posts to replace the less stable existing ones. The good news was Mike used the tractor with bucket to drive the posts into the ground but the bad news was some of them were located in the middle of the existing stretchers of blackthorn hedge which needed to be 'pruned' back {painful!}. The next step was to return to the newly constructed post line and use the mighty Monkey strainer to set the wire tension prior to fixing the chicken fence wire. So Mike took charge of rolling out the chicken fencing along with joining up the separate batches needed to cover the entire fence line length. Meanwhile I was kept busy stapling the high tensile wire to the posts and using the pig ring gun to hang the chicken fencing from the high tensile wire. Working flat out the chicken wire fencing for the new fence line was completed by close of the day but this left the installation of chicken fencing for the old fence line. Close to meeting the challenge but no cigar! Next challenge would be to plant the 1000 hedge plants made up of Hawthorn, Blackthorn and Spindle for the Hedge 1 and Hedge 2 rectangle 'frames' , then wait 3 or so years for the hedge to mature. 

Olympic effort at Sherborne

West Horsley, no win for Wiggo or Cav but great atmosphere!

Clarkes Close, site of new guide post 

Well, caught up with the emotions from the 2012 Olympics it felt like an Olympic effort {new event for Rio?} as we dug for GB at Clarks Close and nearby Windrush.  Unfortunately no tv coverage and my camera not available so took some liberties with this weeks photos. Day started with Mike jet washing the red tractor and the 4x4 Ford Ranger, they needed it. We set off in the morning to Clarks Close the site for last weeks den building.  It was a little warmer than the photo suggests and fortunately the ground wasn't too rocky for digging the hole for the first guide post. Interestingly what was left of the old one was still around although somewhat mangled by badgers rooting for grubs. Took a bit longer than usual since some woodwork was required to chisel out the circles for the NT direction discs. I won't be giving up my day job to take up woodwork!

After lunch we had to first deliver the red tractor to a local 'juice' business which was holding a special event and it was to be one of the attractions. We then  headed off to a site near to Windrush to replace another guide post. Maddie was along for support but didn't help when she ran off with one of the stones I hoped to use to bed in the sweet chestnut post. Still we did manage to finish the job relatively quickly and just before some friendly group of walkers were to pass by. They were pleased to see the new post which set them off in the right direction back to Sherborne and Ewe Pen Barn. Our day was not yet finished as we then moved on to Budgehill Belt  to do some woodland clearing and wood collection. We finished the day by collecting the red tractor and received our days award, not a gold medal but a much appreciated hot dog and blackcurrant juice!

If you go down to the woods today you'll be sure of a big surprise

Hot morning at the Lodge

Early start , for me not Mike, so we could crack on with mowing & strimming at Lodge Park. Couldn't avoid the red hot weather so by the end of the morning we were suitably drenched but not by rain for a change! Prior to the lunch break Mike prepared me for the afternoon which I have to confess I had some reservations , ok some big ones.

Dentastic

The afternoon featured a premier for Mike for hosting a den building session hosting a large number of young children each accompanied by one of their parents. The starting point was Northfield Barn car park Sherborne with a short {long for short legged people} to Clarks Close wood where Mike had previously prepared some material for building the dens. I waited for Mike to lead the large group to the wood and I followed with the 4x4 Ford Ranger with tools and water supplies if required. Mike gave a quick talk on safety along with some tips about building a den. The group then split up into smaller teams to build 7 dens! Any thoughts about having a relaxing afternoon disappeared as our offer to help cut up some of the larger 'material' was taken up with gusto. The really impressive part of the event was the total participation of all the adults and the involvement & enthusiasm of the children. It would be fair to say each of the 7 dens were unique with different strengths in their construction & design. It was pleasing to see my reservations unfounded and it was a tired but happy group that walked back to the car park leaving some interesting habitat for the local wildlife. It was also good that everyone had a chance to see all the dens constructed with the children taking central stage and naming their masterpieces. A special mention goes to young George who decided to build a den on his own, aptly named 'den of George'. We also had some 'professionals' who built the 'Ash Cabin' which was seriously engineered. But all of the dens as I have said were something to be proud of, so all in all a satisfying day for all.