We thought we were doing well with our tree planting last month when we were offered another 900 saplings by Andy Bell from the North Devon Biosphere for Lay Field. We were delighted to complete another part of our regeneration for the farmland especially as the woodland takes years to mature and I can’t wait til we have owls nesting and kestrels hunting. The saplings are mixed woodland species of willow, oak, hornbeam, hazel, spindle, silver birch and cherry and perfect for our woodland pasture planned for the eastern edge of the farm – further away from the salty sea breezes. We were super keen to get them in quickly as we are at the end of the recommended planting season for trees and thanks again to Andy we had some help from a professional crew who made short work of the staking and planting. Within two days the trees were in and then the drought started !! April this year has been one of the driest on record with southern England receiving only 7% of its monthly rainfall average. It has also been the frostiest as a consequence of the high pressure – I was constantly bringing in my birthday fern overnight and I know all the environmentalist employed to count newts were cancelling work as it was too cold.
Sam and I were quite worried about the saplings as they are in an exposed spot with thin topsoil and have shallow roots so we took large dustbins full of water with watering cans up and spent an exhausting weekend watering 900 trees. I really hope we made a difference…. The trees in Boatlake which were planted in March are in much damper soil with some shade from the trees established in the hedge and they are doing really well, so well that the willow planted with the short spirals supports were shooting out the top and being nibbled by deer, so we swapped them over to the taller green cone protectors.
Who’s Poo?
We were really excited to see this poo on the lawn ……. is it hedgehog? Both our hedgehog houses are unused and we have not seen or heard one at night – but we are a little bit hopeful. I put some hedgehog food out last night and it was gone this morning, but it could well have been eaten by our rascal resident rats.
It’s murder on the Bird Table
There was a terrible killing of some sort with blood splatters CSI need to take a look at. There were no feathers left and the feeder was empty. There was so much blood I suspect a sparrow hawk took a squirrel. I have not seen squirrel in the garden, but they are in the area. We have also had an unexplained crow death and a pigeon (sparrow hawk again probably). Luckily our garden nesting birds are keeping their heads down busy now feeding young – the clever blackbirds have four babies, the robin is happily incubating 4 eggs (news flash…. now 4 chicks!!!) and the fussy bluetits, wrens and sparrows are attending their eggs and young too.
Just to confirm Spring is here we have Neil the farmers joyful lambs on the land – they are quite loud bleaters so that if you hear them you think they are just behind you….
What a circle of life at Greencliff. Saying goodbye to squirrel and hello to this years chicks, Just as it should be. I googled hedgehog poo and it looks just like your photo. This time of the year they probably wouldn’t be using the boxes you have provided. They will be trundling around sussing them for next winter. The field with the planted trees looks amazing, what a lot of work. I think this rain has arrived just in time.
Like it Sue…….I assume you’re less worried about the rainfall now!!
Yes, it’s been none stop!! Hope all is well with you xx