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. 

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.

Bat-fantastic!

A dog each!

Spring Bat count at Sherborne today and Toby's first visit to Sherborne. In fact with Pip, Pepper, Maddie, Ollie and Toby the dogs nearly outnumbered the humans! Probably influenced by the weather but everyone in good spirits as we prepared for the tour of the bat roosts. Morris and Mike lead the count with James and myself on security with Maddie, Ollie and Toby as 'guards'.  The Bat Cave total of lesser horseshoes was 88, the Kennels 65, the Bothy an astonishing 66 and the Cellar 15 giving a great 234 Total [ Good but not not quite record breaking as 249 total last year].

Debate on the EU still raging with plenty of nonsense from both sides but from an environment point of view staying in has to be a better option bearing in mind the way this government has acted while in power. Amusingly but not surprisingly the NFU want to stay in, can't be the funding they/their members  receive with very little accountability can it! Lastly another good blog by Martin Harper, especially the bits about 'feisty NGOs' and powerful statutory agencies.