Introducing...

Wednesday 9th at Sherborne was focussed on the March bat count on what was definitely the most miserable day of the year and felt like the coldest. Despite the weather there was an exceptional turnout with Morris bringing a caving friend Joe, Mike who was pleased he had to drive the tractor to the bat cave {4x4 being full}, James and myself. It didn't feel like it but the temperature had risen to 8.5C outside the cave and 8-10C inside the cave. There were 158 lesser horseshoes in the Bat cave, 2 in the Kennels, 20 in the Bothy and 14 in the Cellar giving a great total of 194, 20 better than last year.

Toby discovers his first countryside gate

Ollie & Toby in the valley next to Barbers wood

My new dog Toby {sprocker} arrived on 13th March, after Ollie persuaded him who was boss he's started to settle in nicely. Off lead walk today around Barber wood went well aside from Toby's first encounter with local cattle. He'd snuck under a 5 bar gate and decided to challenge a big horned cow. I fortunately managed to grab him before anything bad happened. Hopefully my control and his recall will be improving over the coming weeks. The walks so far show he is better at socialising than I was prepared for all looking promising from this spaniel aid Uk 'rescue'.

New arrivals to mark end of financial year!

Its arrived, Mike can't stop smiling

Wednesday marked the arrival of Sherborne's new tractor, not the best of weather but that didn't lessen the big smile on Mike's face. No work possible for me but a quick tour of the new workhorse and updates on upcoming work made my short stay worthwhile.

Cutting back new growth on willows on the river Eye

high water levels on the Eye but sunny skies

Its a Fungus amungas..

River banks shading cleared, water voles happy!

This morning was spent at Greystones where a good number of volunteers gathered,  before being led by Will down to the work area by the river Eye. The Wildlife 'new arrivals' were not quite on the scale of the NT but the new Silki saws and gloves were well received. The task was to remove new growth {mainly willow} casting shade over the River Eye with part of the team in the water and the rest operating from the relative safety of the river bank. This is one of the most worked stretches of the river Eye which highlights the need for sustained efforts to keep on top of the riverside management which benefits this water vole habitat.

Less we forget a Martin Harper guest blog on the Hen Harriers, in addition Ms Truss is continuing to do a fine job for this Government on the environment leading Defra to even more ineffectuality.

Eye of newt....

Lodge front door, with steps, fortunately opened for the wood!

Lodge pond plus Newts

A varied morning, centred on wood supplies, was spent at Sherborne today. Initially James on chainsaw and me on axe to produce a good half load of wood for delivery to Lodge park. While we set to on this task in the nursery Mike raided the wood store with the tractor & bucket to deliver wood to the nursery garden.

Whilst James and I delivered our wood load to Lodge Park Mike set off to Snowbottom belt to start collecting cordwood for loading into the tractor trailer. At Lodge Park we unloaded the wood, using a wheelbarrow, into the 'large cauldron' [no frogs or witches present], large fireplace and video room inside the Lodge. This should keep the fires going for the wedding event to be held this coming weekend at the Lodge. As we exited Lodge Park , on our way to meet up with Mike at Snowbotton belt,  James had a surprise for me at the Lodge pond. He was able to introduce me to this years newts plus waterboat men which seem to be doing fine again in this oft overlooked pond habitat within the Sherborne estate. We finally met up with Mike where we helped him to fully load the factory trailer with well seasoned cordwood produced in the previous winter season. No wildlife sightings or conservation duties but still a worthwhile mornings work for all.

A little bit of everything

Some tricky chain sawing of fallen willow 

River Dickler, close to Rissington Bridge

Scrub clearing over water course which runs out of lake

Wednesday morning was spent at Sherborne with both Mike and James. James was on chainsaw,  I was on wood processor loading the cord wood {plus occasional axe splitting} and Mike was operating the wood processor. Should have been quite straight forward to build up the stocks of wood for the depleted wood supplies but not so. The main difficulty in achieving maximum efficiency was the quality of the cord wood we were using i.e. relatively small in diameter and not straight! This meant much more work for all of us and by the end of the morning we had only achieved one trailer load albeit an  extra large one. The only good news was we hadn't wasted any wood and the remaining cord wood pile for the next session looked to be much better 'quality'. Highlight of the morning, apart from my moans about the wood, was that a sparrow hawk which was hidden on the ground near where we were working flew right in front of us, clearly fed up with the noise we were making.

Today I made a comeback with the Wildlife Trust out at Greystones where a sizeable team led by Will and Richard were to carry out brush clearing close to the river Dickler near to Rissington Bridge on the outskirts of Bourton on the Water. The water course coming out of one of the gravel lakes, adjacent to Greystones reserve, which ran into the Dicker needed some serious scrub clearing. Once completed {more than one session would be needed} this would provide a better habitat for water voles connecting the gravel lakes and Dickler. Previous work in the past in this area already showed encouraging signs of water vole and hopefully this current work would improve on this and make sustaining it much easier. Although I only had a short time on brush clearing my 'sawing' skills proved not to be too rusty and the two fires for burning the large amounts of scrub were well fed.

Bats 2016

Sweet Chestnut Avenue, Dovers Hill

Ancient Oaks by Sherborne Broadwater

Willows in the water meadows 

First Bat count of 2016 at Sherborne today, a bit of a soggy start but weather improved for the count, led as usual by Mike and Maurice. The mild winter weather was still holding with temperature outside the bat cave an almost sultry 12 degrees and inside a balmy 11 degrees. The total number of lesser horseshoes were 143 in the bat cave, 7 in the kennels, 16 in the bothy and 12 in the cellar amounting to a healthy grand total of 178. This compares well with last years January total of 157 and last months 146. Once more we had a good exchange on possible improvements to the Sherborne bat roosts plus the potential to reveal more bats hidden in some of these roosts with the aid of a ladder. Maurice enthusiastic and as ever not short on news of bat activities around the North Cotswolds. He must get round to recording his almost infinite knowledge on experiences and habitats in the Cotswolds.

To add to the enjoyable afternoon on the Sherborne estate,  was observing the springlike displays of snowdrops, aconites, primroses and crocuses plus a brief play session with Pepper!

Thought I might start the year with a thumbs up for an NT web release on one of my favourite subjects {and Ollies} our Trees.

Still life in the old dog yet...

View from a trailer, at Windrush end of Sherborne

The 'old dog' {not me} still doing the job!

A frosty,  fresh start to the morning at Sherborne, could the winter have finally arrived. James was away at Newark Park so I was back driving the 4x4 with trailer and Mike on the tractor. Task for the morning was to deliver wood supplies to customers in Sherborne village. The location of both customers required driving through a picturesque pasture to gain access to the properties to unload much needed wood into their rear gardens. Nothing too challenging here except to be wary of the still saturated ground which fortunately was fairly flat.  The first drop went fine and we even secured a nice cup of tea from a caring local. Unfortunately on the return trip across the pasture the 4x4 got stuck and it was time for the old faithful tractor to pull it out of the mire. After guiding the 4x4 back to the estate offices my job was done and the tractor was left to deliver the final load across the surprisingly challenging terrain. Mixed feelings from Mike possibly as the heroic tractor is to be replaced by the end of February by the one Mike trialled early this year.

January 'clearance' in the water meadows

Willow blocking main track down to water meadows

Track cleared, Mike 'pruning' further down track

Tractor trailer filling up with brash

Misty start to the day at Sherborne where I discovered Anna hard at work in the workshop on a developing 'cottage industry' making bird boxes. Task for the morning was to clear a fallen willow down in the water meadows and this needed Mike +tractor and James with myself to hopefully clear the willow by lunch time. Pole saw, chainsaw and 'Silki' saw were all needed to reduce the willow to manageable parts for placing in the tractor trailer. As the willow was gradually reduced to its component parts Mike left us, armed with the pole saw,  to wander further down the track to begin cutting back other willow tree branches potentially threatening to block the track in the future. This led to more brash piles and work so by lunch although we had cleared the fallen willow more work would be needed in the afternoon to clear the extra brash piles. The weather certainly improved during the morning session to remind us all what a great spot on the estate this was inspite of the fact the wildlife was conspicuous by its absence.

Good reminder from Martin Harper on the sensible approach to 'managing' the land wrt to high rainfall and downstream water levels.