Its a classic!

Needs a bit of work, but a classic

Normal service resumed at Sherborne today but a new location for me for the days work at Windrush Camp. I followed Mike, driving the tractor with bucket, with the 4x4 with trailer and having reached the work site it was pretty clear what faced us. The contractors had completed their major thinning of this area but left a good deal of clearing up behind, which the tenant farmer was anxious to be addressed. Some interesting history in this area with the remains of the World War II military site plus adjacent to the farm buildings an iron age fort. However back to the work which had me shrub clearing mainly elder too close to the camp buildings and boundary wall plus moving a number of brash piles to enable Mike with tractor to move them to a better location. The morning shot by, but the first phase of clearing had progressed well.

As usual I wandered down to the Broadwater for lunch and was surprised by the lack of waterbirds. I'd forgotten that the wigeon had left {except for a single pair} for their summer home in Scandinavia. Our resident swans were down by the boat house and looking after their nest, the tufted ducks and mallards were still present plus a pair of canada geese but the new pair of swans appeared to have left their nesting site which had probably been disturbed by a predator.

Returned to Windrush Camp in the afternoon to complete the clearing where we managed to fill the trailer with some decent cord wood, finished the shrub clearance and cleared more of the access tracks. Hopefully the farmer will be pleased with the overall result. Even more exciting was discovering a classic morris minor hidden behind the old camp buildings.

Back from the Fens

Lambing in full swing at Sherborne

Early peacock in the sun

What is this and where is the plug

Weather sunny but fresh in Norfolk for my brief visit to pick up my new car and on the return journey I enjoyed a relaxing visit to Welney wetland centre where Marsh Harriers, lapwings, Avocets and Oyster catchers were amongst the birds on view. Missed seeing the hares who like the birds were breeding early this season.

As I also missed my normal Sherborne duties this week couldn't resist a visit to the Sherborne water meadows this Saturday and with the warmest weather of 2014 wasn't disappointed with the wildlife on show. Got off to a good start from Northfields car park with 3 red kites play fighting in the sky above the Broadwater with a buzzard looking down on them with interest. Couldn't mistake that spring is well underway as I took 'Sabrina way' down to the water meadows and witnessed lots of healthy young lambs in the upper pastures. Nearing Century wood five more Red Kite were flying in and around Picardy. Decided to take a right and head over to the Birches via the Gravel pits and discovered some freshly installed Solar panelled water pumps. Ground still soaked but navigable and the Sherborne brook running full hence the 'vortex' of water above. Although the 'lake' in the pasture by the brook and Birch copse had almost disappeared there were plenty of gulls along with a few lapwings. Disturbed a magnificent male stag with impressive antlers in Birch copse on my way to the bridge to allow me access to the river windrush. On a pleasant walk alongside the windrush was accompanied by brimstones, peacocks and tortoise shells plus plenty of bees! Again managed to disturb a couple of snipe,  spotted a reed bunting and then a tree creeper.  Was hoping to spot a hare or two as I wandered towards the 'hyde' area but was content with spotting a heron, a pair of canada geese and cormorants, 2 more buzzards, and a watchful sparrowhawk perched in one of the mature oaks.

Surprised that not more people were out on such a fine day but suits me and although not a rare sight it was good to see a number of chaffinches on show on my return back to Northfields. It was all about the lambs today though, how can you not be lifted by their presence.

A Dark Knight army!

Large turnout for the March bat count

A bit of an 'upside down' day at Sherborne with the March Bat count taking place in the afternoon. The morning was spent in the nursery splitting wood with 2 full loads delivered to local Sherborne customers. Its amazing how the remaining 'seasoned' wood stock is lasting but hopefully the demand should be tailing off now spring is upon us.

Lunchtime by the Broadwater provided some interesting changes: with the resident mute swans having built their usual nest by the boathouse, the new pair of mute swans  establishing their nest on an island above the weir, a pair of red-crested Pochard and a little Egret. All the usual suspects on the water were also present with a single Red Kite flying low over the Broadwater and 3 Buzzards flying high over the woods up from the brook. Also spotted at Sherborne by a local resident was a female hen harrier, I will of course be attempting to spot it myself.

The afternoon began with a bat count in the village roosts:  the Cellar 17, bothy 1 and the Kennels 8 lesser horseshoes. We met Morris up at the bat cave accompanied by a number of students and consultants. In addition Anna one of the new Sherborne volunteers joined Mike and Maddie to complete the bat enthusiasts. So it was quite a group looking forward to exploring the winter roost for the first time. The count for the cave proved very disappointing with only 88 lesser horseshoes giving a grand total of 114 well below last month and the 183 last March. The much warmer weather than last year  and a possible undiscovered summer roost may account for the drop, here's hoping its not something more serious.

On a totally different note I quite liked this piece from the Wildlife Trust providing good examples of youngsters adventures in nature, in this case more is even better. A final word about this years budget from Martin Harper, his blog unfortunately and unsurprisingly revealing no positive news for the environment.

Away from the gold cup, a little bit of everything

Sherborne village in the mist, from 'upper' brook bridge

Lodge Park farm buildings,  view from Larkethill wood

Fresh and misty weather dominated the early morning at Sherborne but at least I had escaped the congestion that the Cheltenham festival brings to my local area. A good start to the days proceeding at the nursery as a red kite provided a very low fly by in order to pierce what was a thick blanket of fog. Mike had to fit in a meeting reviewing the Sherborne estate's conservation performance indicators [CPIs] which also included other NT estate/properties. So Simon & I were charged with splitting a number of Ash 'cords' {blocked by Mike} for a new customer order for Windrush and also to measure the cubic metres it took to fill the trailer. Its not often we get the chance to split nicely blocked Ash and it was a pleasure filling the trailer with 'hand crafted' uniformly shaped Ash wedges, the customer hopefully appreciating what a special trailer load he was getting.

Lunchtime, with slowly improving visibility, was spent by the Broadwater on the section above the weir. It looks like we have an additional pair of mute swans settled on this part of the river with our resident pair happy enough with the waters below the weir. Also on show were lots of especially wigeon, coot, mallards plus half a dozen tufted ducks,  a pair of canada geese plus two roe deer. A bonus awaited on my return to the estate offices as I enjoyed a good view of a greater spotted woodpecker in the large cyprus tree, followed by another low flying red kite. 

A departure from normal activities was offered by Mike for the afternoon as he 'kindly' invited me to enjoy the completion of the CPIs for the Sherborne part of the review meeting. This included progress on objectives associated with features like Archaeology and historic background (e.g. iron age Windrush hill fort , long barrow at Lodge Park),  Arable land (habitats and species), Parklands and designed landscapes , Woodland and Trees (e.g. ancient & veteran trees, managed woodland, tree disease monitoring), Views and iconic settings (photographic records of landscapes). Missed the Water( habitat and species- local rivers & water meadows). All enlightening & food for thought for me!

Fortunately Mike & I were able to leave the meeting mid afternoon and in excellent weather re-visited Larkethill wood to continue thinning (and haloing where needed!). An excellent way of completing another storm free day at Sherborne.

Interesting Martin Harper blog on the sort of strategic planning (25+ years) and ideally cooperation needed for effectively protecting our natural environment, plus to Frack or not to Frack.

Spring in the air!

Will our male resident swan better 9 offspring 2014?

Water flow still strong by the Broadwater weir

Slight frost first thing but temperatures soon up to double figures at Sherborne today. The morning was spent at the nursery splitting wood and by lunch we had completed 3 customer orders. Spent a warm lunchtime down by the Broadwater where springlike activities were well underway. A pair of coots had built their nest on the remaining weed patch on the Broadwater close to the fallen oak, a pair of buzzards were perched close together in the copse above the weir {probably preparing for nesting in Clarkes close nearby}, the resident swans look ready to start this years family {can they beat last years 9 offspring!}, and the various wigeon, tufted ducks, mallards were all 'pairing up' on the quieter places upon the Broadwater.

The afternoon with weather still holding was spent up at Larkethill wood initially tidying up the previously cut wood into cordwood piles and the smaller items loaded on the trailer. Mike was then unleashed on some much needed thinning of sycamore, beech and ash. In no time additional cord wood piles were building at quite a rate given most of the trees felled put up little resistance. I only had to use the wedges and tree lever on a couple of trees with Mike using the 'lever' technique to untangle a tree caught up in an adjacent trees branches. Again in this springlike weather, once the chainsaw was silenced,  the birds {males} were certainly showing off their voices. So another productive day out in the country and perhaps we've finally escaped the incessant round of winter storms.

Obviously the flooding this year notably in the Somerset levels and alongside the Thames has and is distressing for those impacted but hopefully an adequate/more long lasting response will come out of this as outlined by most 'experts'/NGOs  illustrated by this WT piece.

Reunited with two 'old friends'

My favourite axe, Mike keeping me supplied with big blocks

'Gripples' to the rescue after fence flattened by Beech 

Surprised by two things today, firstly the weather was particularly fine and secondly the first task involved blocking and splitting, old style, in the nursery. Fortunately three things were to assist in producing a trailer load of wood: Simon was assisting Mike and I, Mike was blocking up some excellent seasoned wood { too large for the absent wood processor} into 'man size' blocks and I had my favourite axe to attack the wood with. In no time we had filled the trailer and so with little delay headed up to Lodge Park to tackle the aftermath of storm damaged Beech trees. The first task was to repair a stock fence crushed by a large beech branch. Enter the Monkey strainer and that old favourite of mine the 'mighty Gripple'.  A little fiddly especially since we had a limited supply of gripples but by lunch the stock fence was restored to working order and even better the two barbed wire strands re-tensioned & connected with the use of super sized gripples.

Lunch time was a little disappointing weatherwise but the Broadwater entertained with the usual water fowl complimented by an additional  pair of  mute swans, a pair of canada geese and a handsome Red Kite. The afternoon began back at Lodge park to tidy up a fallen beech and for Mike to carefully bring to earth a large beech branch hanging precariously higher up an adjacent tree. Before leaving this area of the park my attention was drawn to the Lodge Park 'barrow mound' which sadly and inspite of over four thousand years age still lacks a suitable name {all suggestions welcome}. Next stop from here was to exit the Lodge Park to head for the next damaged beech in the south west corner of the Park. Again we were faced with a sizeable clearance task but with a sting in the tale. An even larger beech branch was propped up by the main trunk and with one of its limbs hanging over a drystone wall. After attaching a rope to different parts of the offending limb Mike finally pulled the branch down to the ground using the 4x4 and more importantly without damaging the wall.  A good end to the day and here's hoping for a continuation of fine weather for next wednesday.

Looks like a positive outcome from Defra on future environmental management schemes NELMS. A timely comment from Mark Avery on the Badger culling following a particular bad BBC showing where a farmer and 'tame' vet illustrated the uphill struggle still facing this issue.

Dark Knight back from Oz

Sunny but very wet in the water meadows

After 2 weeks of cancelled sessions a respite in the stormy weather has at last permitted a return to some  normality. I got a head start on a sunny Sunday with a visit to Sherborne's water meadows which also included a visit to Greater Rissington. Water levels were very high and I only just managed to cross the waterlogged Windrush bridge to gain access to the Barrington estate and the footpath up to Greater Rissington.   A good day for wildlife with yellow hammers, green finches, chaffinches, bramblings, 'serin/siskin', buzzards, red kite, heron, cormorants, mute swans, 100+ lapwing, deer and my first spot of a large male hare of 2014.

Todays Sherborne session welcomed back from Oz,  Morris, who was joined by Simon, Richard with Mike and myself. So plenty of help for the February bat count where expectation for increased numbers of lesser horseshoes were high. Sadly this didn't prove to be the case with 138 in the bat cave, 0 Kennels, 0 the Bothy and 15 the nursery cellar giving a grand total of 153. This was 17 fewer than the January count and a significant increase is needed for the March count if we are to reach last years May high of 212. The count took a little longer than normal since a good deal of knowledge sharing from Morris was the order of the day, with tales from Australia including their healthy Bat status, and some current news on nearby Cotswolds bat roosts.

Ragged Copse, fallen larch to be cleared

The afternoon was spent at the top end of Ragged Copse where fallen larch had blocked the footpath. Access was going to be a challenge given the wet ground but with Mike/maddie in the tractor and me driving the 4x4 with trailer { Simon & Richard on board}  we risked an ascent up the Sherborne Park slope. Amazingly the journey was managed with minimal impact on the grass pasture  and Mike managed to position the tractor, with grab over  the boundary fence close to the area of fallen larch. Given the large team the clearance of quite a few fallen larch was completed and a survey of the paths through Ragged Copse checked for any other obstacles/threats. This all proved to be a timely operation as activity during this half term was busy & the families 'out and about' grateful for our labours clearing the paths for them. The larch were cut into lengths for loading onto the tractor grab where they were then gently loaded into the trailer. It seems the larch was to be used to enhance the play facilities in the Pleasure Grounds, what lucky local children!. With almost spring like weather all day it was a relief to be able to enjoy a rewarding day outside doing some useful work again. Mike couldn't resist informing us of plenty more clearance of fallen/damaged conifers & broadleaf waiting to be dealt with given ground conditions permitted access. Personally I can't wait to get stuck in and hope the future weather plays ball to help us catch up with an ever growing task list.