Owls of Delight - Autumn 2016

THE LARK

THE COUNTRYSIDE RESTORATION TRUST

MAGAZINE

Autumn 2016 | ISSUE No. 58

Owls of Delight...

Plus: Bracken Bashing in Surrey, Pastures and Meadows of Turnastone and Attracting Tree Sparrows

The Country Store

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01223 837977

Experience the Magic of Christmas

A visit to Bury Lane Farm Shop provides a truly magical experience with all that you need for Christmas under one roof.

Christmas trees, decorations and Christmas sparkle in the Christmas

Shop with our traditional and locally renowned Santa’s Grotto.

Quality gifts for family and friends.

Everything you can think of to stock up on Christmas food treats and essentials.

Locally sourced, Free Range Bronze

Turkey, Goose, Duck, Chicken, Beef or Game from our Butchers.

Our delicatessen has an extensive range of delicious and unusual cheeses, hams, quiches and pies with a huge selection of chutney & pickles in the shop.

Order before 4th December for your chance to WIN a £100 Bury Lane Hamper

Free Range Bronze Turkeys,Barn Reared White Turkeys,Goose,Duck, Chicken,Beef,Game,Gammon,Deli produce and much more

Top quality Nordmann Fir,Norway Spruce & artificial Christmas trees, sparkling decorations,lights & ornaments in our Christmas Shop

Have tea or breakfast with Santa (contact us to book) or visit him in his grotto on selected dates from 26th November

Discover a treasure trove of luxury gifts for the home,the kitchen or garden,stocking fillers,scarves, jewellery,hampers & much more

A10 Melbourn By-Pass, Melbourn, Royston, SG8 6DF • 01763 260418 • www.burylanefarmshop.co.uk • Open 7 days a week all year round GARDEN CENTRE • FARM SHOP • FISHMONGERS • DELICATESSEN • CAFE • GIFT SHOP • FUN BARN • BUTCHERY • CHRISTMAS SHOP

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THE COUNTRYSIDE RESTORATION TRUST NEWSLETTER

Contents

Features

The Lark is published three times a year by the Countryside Restoration Trust.

The Countryside Restoration Trust is the UK’s leading charity promoting wildlifefriendly farming and campaigning for a living, working countryside.

We believe that wildlife is integral to good farming.

That philosophy is put into practice on over 1,500 acres of working farms, small-holdings and woodland across the country – where, alongside our tenants, we are demonstrating how farming and other sustainable land uses can co-exist with and benefit from a countryside rich in wildlife.

Our mission is to protect the farmed countryside, its wildlife, and the people with the knowledge and skills to look after it – and to communicate that together these represent a strategic resource vital for our future food security.

Patron: David Shepherd CBE

Bashing the Bracken Owls of Delight A Feast of Field Voles The Pastures & Meadows of Turnastone Attracting Tree Sparrows Poetry Corner

Regulars

6 8 9 10 13 17

Chairman’s Thoughts 4 Director’s Report 5 Fundraising 14 Volunteers 15 Education 18 Farm Diaries 20 Merchandise 23

Join or Donate to the Trust Please help us continue our work by becoming a Friend of the Trust If you are already a Friend, subscription renewals will be sent to you automatically. So please pass this on to anyone you think would like to join.

Title:__________ Surname: ____________________________________________________

Wildlife Patron: David Bellamy Environment Patron: Sir Jonathan Porritt

Forename(s):________________________________________________________________

Patron for Dorset: Brian Jackman

___________________________________________________________________________

Patron of the Gordon Beningfield Farm Appeal: Dame Judi Dench

Postcode:___________________________________________________________________

Trustees: Robin Page - Chairman Tilly Smith - Vice Chair Robin Maynard Annabelle Evans Chris Knights Nicholas Watts MBE John Terry Zac Goldsmith

Address:____________________________________________________________________

Telephone:__________________________________________________________________ Email:______________________________________________________________________ Please tick this box if you are happy to receive information/e-newsletters from the CRT:

Please circle required ‘Friend Category’ below: Subscription Rates: Individual - £20

Joint - £30

Family - £35

Life - £500

Concessionary (over 70) Life Member - £250 Memberships can also be processed over the phone by credit card or via the website.

Photographs and drawings courtesy of Julian Eales, Geoff Harries, Annika Rees, Viv Geen, Tim Scott, Vince Lea, Jackie Cooper, Luca Montipo, Robert Bridgens.

Front cover image: ‘A young Barn Owl preparing to fledge its nest at Lark Rise farm’ courtesy of Geoff Harries.

Editor of The Lark: Lois Dixon

Paper sourced from FSC® compliant, responsibly managed, sustainable sources.

MAKING A DONATION Whatever you can afford will help us continue to build on the work of the CRT. I enclose a donation of £_____________ I attach a cheque payable to: The Countryside Restoration Trust for the total amount of £__________________ Please return to: The Countryside Restoration Trust, Haslingfield Rd, Barton, Cambridge CB23 7AG

Gift Aid Declaration Boost your donation by 25p of Gift Aid for every £1 you donate. Gift Aid is reclaimed by the charity from the tax you pay for the current tax year. Your address is needed to identify you as a current UK taxpayer. I am a UK taxpayer and understand that if I pay less Income Tax and/ or Capital Gains Tax in the current tax year than the amount of Gift Aid claimed on all my donations it is my responsibility to pay any difference. Please treat as Gift Aid all qualifying gifts of money made from the date of this declaration and in the past 4 years.

Signature:____________________________________________________ Date:_________________ *If you pay Income Tax at the higher or additional rate and want to receive the additional tax relief due to you, you must include all your Gift Aid donations on your Self-Assessment tax return or ask HM Revenue and Customs to adjust your tax code.

THE COUNTRYSIDE RESTORATION TRUST NEWSLETTER

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Trust News

The Chairman’s Thoughts Time for another edition of The Lark already – doesn’t time fly? I thought the last one was possibly the best ever – I hope we can match it again, or at least almost, this time.

What a time of change and challenge there has been in recent weeks in both my personal life and in the CRT – it helps to keep me on my toes. With Martin Carter retiring from his position as Director we now have Sarah Stannage filling this very important seat – well “seat” is the wrong word as Sarah intends to undertake a grand tour of CRT properties to acquaint herself with everything as soon as possible. We had much interest in the post and a high calibre of candidates, but the Trustees were unanimous in selecting Sarah and we wish her well during her time with us. She comes from a farming background – her father was a farmer, and her brother now runs the family farm – and she has a good knowledge of farming and the countryside. Along with this she has expert knowledge and experience in the mechanics of current farming issues and in the technical requirements for successful project management and fundraising. Consequently we are hoping that her contributions to the Dorset Farm project and the development of the redundant farm buildings at Pierrepont will be both positive and exciting. It would appear that the CRT’s white-knuckle ride into the future will accelerate for a couple of years and we will all be working together for a successful conclusion.

While the changes were in progress Lois Dixon took control of managing the office brilliantly, and we are grateful to her. Also to Ann-Marie our administrator – who deals with the post, phone calls, memberships etc. and seems to have a permanent smile – and then Sarah Clay our fundraiser is another new member of the team.

This leaves Liz Kirkby who expertly manages our finances and Kenny MacKay - our only male and longest standing member of the CRT office staff.

So while the CRT appears to be moving in an upward and onward direction my personal life has taken a bit of a plunge when The Daily Telegraph informed me by email, that after thirty years they were ceasing to publish my Country Diary because of an “operational review” – in other words they simply wanted to re-write press releases etc instead of having real articles dealing with the real issues. I have been sacked several times in my life before but Lulu has found the whole thing very disconcerting.

So, I have picked myself up, dusted myself down and have continued to write my Country Diary as a “blog” at www.skylarkwarrior.wordpress.com . If any of you want to complain to the Telegraph – a paper that appears to be in an astonishing, avoidable decline – the address is: Mr. Chris Evans, The Editor, The Daily Telegraph, 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0DT. All in all, I contributed to the Telegraph for 47 years and wrote for some brilliant editors. The great Bill Deedes

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THE COUNTRYSIDE RESTORATION TRUST NEWSLETTER

and Charles Moore being the most outstanding. It is a sad state of affairs. It is too early to say whether the loss of the Telegraph will impact on the CRT. I hope not; what it does mean is that we must all try harder to get our friends and neighbours to join.

I hope some of you have noticed that we have a smart new website – we hope you like it – your comments will be welcomed.

Our Dorset Farm Patron, Dame Judi Dench has been very busy filming “Victoria and Abdul” – and filming is still taking place as I write. It is about Queen Victoria’s friendship with a young Indian, Abdul Karim, after the passing of her close friend and confidant John Brown (her ghillie). She has also narrated a very good DVD about summer at The British Wildlife Centre (BWC). Twenty five copies have been specially signed by Judi for CRT members on a first come, first served basis (£11.50 inc p&p to The British Wildlife Centre, Eastbourne Road, Newchapel, Lingfield, Surrey, RH7 6LF). In the next issue of The Lark, I hope there will be more exciting red squirrel news involving the CRT and BWC. We always have to mention money unfortunately. We were so sorry to lose John Rogers – mentioned in the last edition of The Lark. John, being John, left us a generous and much needed gift in his will. He hoped too that one day we could name a CRT field after him, “John’s Field” and this we will do. Please remember us now and in the future – I believe that everything the CRT stands for is more vital today than when we set out twenty three years ago and we have the team in place to make our dream and hopes a reality.

At Lark Rise Farm there is exciting news about our Barn Owls, see inside for the details – since their return in 2001 we have now ringed well over 50 owlets – good news indeed.

Finally Brexit; some of you will be pleased; some of you will sit on the fence; some of you will be disappointed.

What we as a farming and wildlife charity must make sure of, is that even after Brexit we have the proper resources to help our farmland wildlife. In the next copy of The Lark I hope we will write about some of our hopes – and some of our fears.

It seems rather early – but have a good autumn and winter – and Christmas too when the time comes.

With very best wishes,

Robin Page

The Director’s Report What a pleasure it is for me to join the team here at The Countryside Restoration Trust, just as autumn has arrived, bringing with it warm shades of orange, red and gold rippling through the trees and hedges.

As I take on the role of Director, I have many reasons to be excited and energised: a valued Trust with 2000 acres of land, over 4000 friends and 116 volunteers to support our work; a dynamic set of farms and tenants teaming with enthusiasm and deserved pride in their working practices; talented and engaged staff, volunteers and trustees to work alongside; and a vibrant community of supporters, putting philosophy into action in order to build a better future.

Coming from a farming family, my career and my education have focused on the connections people forge with the land and their environment. I have worked across many areas involving social, economic and environmental policy, including local community regeneration. I have also taken on landscape scale conservation projects, championed local sustainable food production by trying to shorten supply chains and even debated with Government the move towards local public procurement strategies that encourages schools, NHS and armed forces to buy local produce. I have seen children wide-eyed in amazement as they connect the food they eat with the fields around them; I’ve observed an amputee and an armed forces veteran regain confidence and well-being through conservation volunteering; and I’ve held hands and provided guidance to farmers in times of crisis.

Organisations like ours continue to thrive, not as luxuries, but as elements crucial to supporting a healthy and resilient world.

Over the coming weeks and months the CRT, together with our like-minded partners, will look to inform the debate on food and farming for the UK. We’re a critical part of the economy; the British food and drink industry is worth £108 billion a year. We will do this through high

quality evidence driven research, that will put forward the case for wildlife friendly farming here in Britain, and more fundamentally, promoting the farming models that will get us there.

Whilst this is a great moment to review the UK’s Agricultural Policy it would be devastating to see a bonfire of policies designed to help wildlife. A balance needs to be achieved; farmers need a better deal, but one that helps us to restore nature and produce food. It shouldn’t be one to the exclusion of the other.

Our activities and purpose as a charity is to see a living, working countryside where it’s possible to harness the potential of both the ecology and economy of the land.

Experience across our farms at CRT bears this out, and you can read more about this in the Farm Diaries.

Looking forwards I hope to see CRT’s connections with local communities as well as national policy makers deepen and its visibility grow, drawing in commitment and partners from across the UK into its pioneering vision.

It is already clear to me that one of the Countryside Restoration Trust’s greatest strengths lies in the long-term relationships being built with the farming community, schools and society, and with it the inspirational drive of staff, trustees, volunteers, friends and tenant farmers towards creating a living, working countryside. I am proud and privileged to be part of CRT’s future, and very much looking forward to delivering an ambitious programme of work with an incredibly talented team.

Sarah Stannage

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Feature

Bracken Bashing - the traditional method

Bashing the Bracken Green Farm, Surrey

By Robin Page

I have to say that Lloyd George came into my life at a very early age. Jim, the First World War veteran who worked on our small farm throughout my growing years had a view of Lloyd George that is unrepeatable in these pages. To sum it up briefly, Jim thought that Lloyd George was a man who was most unsuitable to lead Britain; his behaviour in Parliament, inside and outside marriage was all unacceptable, and he was Welsh. Please note this is not me saying this – it is from the old soldier Jim, who had a pitchfork and a hedgehog skin that he claimed he would like to send in Lloyd George’s direction. So my political education began.

Then comes a leap of over fifty years when I received an invitation to Green Farm, Churt, in Surrey – the home of a remarkable man, John Broadbent Jones. “Welcome Robin, to Green Farm”, he said, “once owned by a British Prime Minister – Lloyd George”. All I could think at the time was that certainly as far as farms go, Lloyd George had exceptionally good taste. The farmhouse was a large and beautiful building with oak beams, magnificently restored after a fire, and it was linked to “The Cottage”, a house dating back to 1600 that was even bigger than the farmhouse. All this Lloyd George had given to his daughter Megan – a fiery politician apparently, with a social conscience – who then, in due course, sold the property to John Broadbent Jones.

John was a “head-hunter” – he had travelled the world fitting important people into top jobs for assorted banks and Marks and Spencer. He had served in the army and when posted to Israel he had the remarkable record of being wounded by a flying commode. As he had been

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THE COUNTRYSIDE RESTORATION TRUST NEWSLETTER

Photography © George Gunn

This is a strange and tangled tale of history, geography, philanthropy and bracken – yes bracken, that invasive weed of moorland and heathland. The Countryside Restoration Trust has quite a lot of the stuff on its farm in Surrey – the question is how to get rid of it? There is an even bigger question, how did the CRT get the 200 acres of Green Farm in the first place? And where does Prime Minister Lloyd George come into all this?

Daniel Brown and ‘Tooky’

patrolling a street – from a balcony high above someone hurled a commode at him and scored a direct hit – whether projected by a Jew or Arab I can’t remember, and John probably did not know.

Once he had acquired the farmhouse, he set about acquiring land – grazing land and forest – much of it bought from the Rolls Royce pension fund. He bought it as a gift for his wife Elizabeth; they wanted to farm the grassland, manage the woodland and look after and encourage the wildlife.

They had no children and they wanted their prized possession cared for once their interest ceased – they did not want a developer or a planner to get hold of it. John put it simply to me: ”It’s a lovely farm – we want it cared for after we have gone, and nature restored – I have a choice – give it to you (the CRT), or give it to UKIP who would just sell it”. He gave it to the CRT and we are caring for it – hence how do we control the bracken at Gravel Hanger, a beautiful area of potential heathland being overrun with bracken.

and eventually disappears. Therefore, bracken-bashing is a summer job – in winter Tooky pulls fallen trees out of woodland – a less intrusive method than using large tractors.

Daniel and Jess have been working with horses for years – now in his early fifties Daniel started riding ponies at seven – worked in racing stables on Epsom Downs when he was 16 and has since moved to heavy horses and carriage driving.

Machinery in action!

In days gone by bracken was often harvested to be used as bedding for livestock during the winter. This method of management then exposed the heather and the violets underneath – and violets are important food plants for the caterpillars of the Dark Green and Silver-Washed Fritillary butterflies. Heather too helps to make good habitat for nightjars – one of our most extraordinary summer visitors.

So how do we get rid of bracken – cutting by hand?

Chemical spray? And then someone said “Try Daniel Brown – the horseman from the Surrey Hills”.

What a suggestion, Daniel and wife Jess arrived with a six year old Comtois horse from the French Alps, Tooky.

This takes me back to soldier Jim again: ”French horses can’t pull the skin off a rice pudd’n’”. Tooky could. What a fantastic, sturdy, strong horse, pulling a hollow ridged roller, half-filled with a hundred litres of water, along a steep, bracken covered slope at Gravel Hanger – just getting there had me gasping for breath.

Not only was Tooky strong, but he was also brave, as some of the bracken was higher than he was. The theory is that the ridged roller damages the bracken so much, that if it is rolled in the following years the weed will be reduced

Robin chats with Daniel Brown

I have to confess it was a very enjoyable experience for me. When I was born the power on our farm was real horse-power, with a Shire and a Clydesdale – Dolly and Diamond. I can still remember my father lifting me up to sit on that wide powerful back. As Tooky pulled the bracken basher the smell of horses and the creaking of the harness brought back memories from my early childhood too. What a brilliant day and what an eco-friendly way of bashing a growing modern problem.

The bracken covered slope at Gravel Hanger

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Barn owl being weighed

Feature

Owls of Delight...

Ringing Barn Owls at Lark Rise One of the most amazing stories relating to the CRT concerns the Barn Owl – what an astonishing tale. I remember the “white owls” from my childhood – as white as the evening mist through which they flew on silent wings. They are ethereal, beautiful; birds of dawn, dusk and darkness. They quartered the water meadows along our little valley on the edge of the farm – a valley? It was not steep and deep as many valleys, it was a wide, green and gentle valley. To the unfamiliar eye it would not be seen as a valley; it only became clear in the winter when the water spilled over the banks of the meandering brook to fill its wide shallow flood plain.

But suddenly the white owl vanished, after the amazing cold winter of 1962-63. The thaw came, the ice melted but the owls had gone; birds weakened by the ingestion of DDT and its farm chemical offshoots could not survive the long harsh winter.

It was part of the reality of “the silent spring”. In an owl-less world I never expected to see wild barn owls on our farm again, without the reintroduction of captive bred owls. But then, DDT was banned. In 1993, the Countryside Restoration Trust was launched out of despair for our ravaged and declining farmland wildlife.

From it came the CRT’s Lark Rise Farm in Cambridgeshire.

In 1995 Colin and Val Shawyer of the Barn Owl Conservation Network began to visit Lark Rise and erect Barn Owl Nest Boxes. Tim Scott, Lark Rise’s brilliant tenant farmer, had planted barn owl friendly meadows, grass margins and beetle banks. Jean Benfield, an enthusiastic CRT member pleaded with us to erect an owl box in her garden. Colin’s response was simple: ”They don’t breed in gardens”.

More requests came from Jean until we relented and erected a box in her garden – on a horse chestnut tree overlooking Lark Rise Farm. Inevitably, in the summer of 2001 there was an excited phone call from Jean: ”Robin, I have barn owls

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breeding in my box” – what did I know? What did we know?

The white owl had suddenly arrived in two nest boxes, one in Jean’s garden and another in a medium sized hedgerow oak – incredible – wonderful – and barn owls have bred at Lark Rise Farm every year since, after an absence of 38 years.

What a success story until last year; almost complete disaster.

Rain, cold, few voles for food, several failed attempts to breed and just three surviving chicks. The start to 2016 was no better with a cold wet spring that lasted into July, leading to one failed nest and just two surviving chicks in one other. Suddenly the sun shone, the voles bred and the barn owls tried again with second broods and the result – almost unbelievable. Now there are three nests; one with three chicks, one with five and another, a record for Lark Rise, with six healthy chicks. By the time you read this all 14 owlets will hopefully have fledged. What a white knuckle, or should it be white-winged ride, with all 14 chicks safely ringed.

This means that since 2001 Lark Rise Farm and the CRT have seen over fifty barn owl chicks reared, ringed and fledged – a case of farming and wildlife working together to create a living countryside – yes – owls of delight!

Photography © Geoff Harries

By Robin Page

Feast of Field Voles Lark Rise Farm, Cambridgeshire

By Dr Vince Lea - Head of Wildlife Monitoring

Barn Owls prefer to hunt in open country, searching over rough grassland to find their preferred prey item – the Short-tailed Field Vole. The Field Vole is much more abundant in open grassland than any other habitats because it relies on abundant growth of grass and other palatable vegetation. The traditional hay meadows we have created at Lark Rise are ideal, because they are managed by one mowing in summer; for most of the year the grass grows tall enough to hide the voles and provide them with food. Although a population may be temporarily affected by the hay cut, it quickly recovers as the grass grows back – we don’t graze the meadows so the sward quickly grows back. And we don’t make additional cuts as would happen in a modern silage regime, which disrupts the voles too frequently for successful breeding.

The ideal grassland for field voles is dense and tussocky and has lots of space at ground level for the animals to run around under a cover of ‘thatch’ from dead grass stems of the previous years. This only occurs if the grass is totally unmanaged, but after several years an area of grassland like this reverts to scrub and starts to decline in suitability.

Cutting every 3-4 years is ideal, but is of no agricultural use so can only be achieved on small areas. We have lots of field margins and beetle banks, plus the rough grass around the areas of planted trees which act like this and probably provide a reservoir of breeding stock and a refuge area from the meadows when they are mown.

When we see the Barn Owls hunting, they tend to follow these field margins and beetle banks across the farm, until they get to a particular meadow that they want to hunt in.

They then spend a lot longer quartering the meadow until prey is caught, at which point they will take it back to the nest in a straight line.

The number of field voles is one of the factors that is out of our control. We can provide the habitat they need – without which there would be very few at all – but they are cyclical in their abundance. In 2014 we had ‘a big vole year’ and three pairs of Barn Owls reared 15 chicks to fledging – our previous best year. Everything else that eats voles also had a good year and the following winter would have been a difficult one for voles, as all the predators in the countryside would have been out there feasting on them. During the winter months they tend not to breed prolifically so numbers would have gone inexorably down until the breeding season started again in the spring. By

that time, there were four pairs of Barn Owls on the farm but so few voles that the owls were struggling to get enough to eat; the females need to put on plenty of weight before they can start to produce eggs. The female of one of the pairs was too light when we checked her, two of the other pairs did lay but their broods failed, while the fourth pair fledged just two chicks. This particular nestbox was stocked with Wood Mice when we checked it, suggesting they had found an alternative food source – they were often seen perched up at a nearby chicken run looking for prey.

By the end of summer last year there would have been a good stock of Field Voles and rather few predators around.

Therefore, in spring this year there will have been good prospects for Barn Owl breeding, but the weather was not good – another uncontrollable factor. There was much wind and rain during the spring, making hunting difficult as the feathers can’t cope with waterlogging (special soft feathers make for silent flight, but are not waterproof) while windy conditions makes listening for the faint rustle of a vole in the undergrowth very difficult. Two pairs took up nestboxes, one of which failed early on in the spring and the other reared three chicks – a bit better than 2014 but well below average. However, as the summer wore on it got a lot better, and the great flexibility of Barn Owl breeding biology took over. Suddenly there were three pairs on the farm, and they produced a total of 14 chicks from these late broods. It is amazing how these birds can quietly sit through tricky periods and suddenly take advantage of opportunities as they arise. In the past we’ve had chicks fledging from a nest as late as December, but these three nests should all have fledged by mid-October this year.

Photography © Robert Bridgens

The record crop of Barn Owl chicks from Lark Rise Farm this year is a result of several things coming together; some of them in our control such as providing the right habitat for them to hunt and installing nestboxes, and some a result of conditions we cannot control such as the weather and the numbers of prey items they can find on a hunting mission.

As well as Barn Owls, Kestrels also feed on these small mammals. It is thought they can detect Ultra Violet light reflection from areas of vole urine trails and work out where the best hunting areas are likely to be from their high vantage point hovering in the sky. One pair nested in a willow tree in the spring but these birds are not able to adjust to a late food bonanza and have second broods.

Nonetheless, all the offspring from spring broods should be able to find food and hopefully will make a population recovery next year. We have also seen more sightings of Weasel and Stoat this year, and perhaps most surprising has been the appearance of several Grey Herons stalking the meadows. These waterbirds are known to take a much wider range of prey than just fish, and an abundance of mammal prey will attract them away from the water’s edge. They have made a great feature of our school visits to the farm – most birds are too small and shy to be seen by a tractor and trailer tour full of noisy kids, but the herons are much easier for them to observe!

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Feature

The Pastures and Meadows... ...of Turnastone Court Farm

By Viv Geen, Monitoring Officer (Herefordshire) Hay Meadow Hay meadows It was thought that before humans started to manage the woodlands covering the UK the land was covered in dense forest. It is now believed, looking at the diversity of saproxylic species found in woody habitat today, that the environment took the form of a wood pasture with ancient Aurochs roaming and grazing the grassland. So it is thought that natural grassland habitats have always been present until humans began clearing this woodland to create grassland for livestock and to grow hay for the animals during the winter months; thus creating the species rich hay meadows we know today.

the field. The Common Spotted Orchids are also slowly travelling down the meadow. Other species include Black Knapweed, Meadow Vetchling, Meadow Buttercup and Bird’s foot Trefoil (or ‘eggs and bacon’) which supports sixty species of invertebrate, including the six-spot Burnet Moth. The plant gets its name from the ‘bird foot’ shape of the seed pods. Cuckooflower can be found in the damper areas; this is an important larval plant for the Orange–tip butterfly.

Turnastone Court Farm supports important hay meadows and it is because of this habitat, and the other ancient pastures found on the farm, that the CRT purchased the farm in 2003, to save them from being ploughed for potato production. Archive evidence has shown that

Picture of two Six-spot Burnet Moths mating

Bird’s foot Trefoil these hay meadows have not been ploughed for over 400 years. This neutral grassland is farmed in a traditional manner and supports over forty species of plant, which in turn provides an excellent habitat for various species of invertebrates, fungi, birds and mammals.

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Species of plant found in the hay meadows at Turnastone include Crested Dog’s-tail, Meadow Foxtail, Red and White Clovers, Goat’s-beard, Ox-eye Daisy and Common Spotted Orchid; of which a white form has been recorded in the meadow. Since surveying the meadows in 2013, when there was a small Ox-eye Daisy patch of Ox-eye Daisy, it is now spreading throughout THE COUNTRYSIDE RESTORATION TRUST NEWSLETTER

The sweet smell generated when hay is harvested is produced by a chemical in Sweet Vernal Grass. The Yellow Rattle plant is a hemi-parasite of grasses and will reduce the percentage of grass cover in a meadow leaving space for wildflower seeds to germinate. It is important to control the amount of Yellow Rattle in a field because grasses are obviously an important part of the hay crop, as a food for livestock and species of butterfly that lay their eggs on grasses. Hogweed is an important constituent of the hay meadow and has a ‘piggy’ odour.

The plants found in the meadows were also used to treat common ailments. For example Lesser Stitchwort was used to knot wounds together, and Self-heal was used to treat many conditions.

Ringlet, Meadow Brown, 6-spot Burnet Moth, Small Skipper, Small Yellow Underwing Moth, and grass veneer moths can be seen flying in the meadow and Meadow Brown the calming hum of many different

The wildflower meadows at Turnastone Court Farm also support several species of wax cap and associated fungi.

This is unsurprising as these ancient hay meadows have never been ploughed, a process that destroys the fungus by breaking up the mycelium in the soil.

There are about 40 species of wax cap in the UK; being the home of half the world’s population of this species.

Wax caps were once common in our meadows, but do not tolerate the use of chemical fertilisers, therefore their presence is an indication of high quality unimproved grassland habitat. This is good news for the grassland at Turnastone Court Farm where they occur. To date, over nine species of wax cap have been recorded on the farm at Turnastone making this site locally, and possibly regionally, important for its meadows.

Cutting the Hay Meadow at Turnastone Hay meadows are managed environments and the tenants, Madeleine and Gareth Boaz carry out traditional management using modern machinery. The hay is cut annually after the 15th July and not before. This allows the plants to seed which then drop to the ground when the hay is harvested. These seeds will germinate to form the following year’s hay crop, but also provide food for

seed-eating birds like Linnet on the farm. The meadow is then grazed with a low number of sheep in the autumn.

Low levels of manure are added in the winter to provide some nutrients for this low nutrient habitat. Green hay has been taken from the hay meadows and spread on other less diverse fields on the farm. These fields are being monitored.

It is hoped that some harvesting of seed using seed sieves can be carried out with the volunteers next year, to collect some seed for use on the education centre meadow, and also possibly to sell.

Over England and Wales, the last reliable overall survey in the 1980s showed us that in the last century we have lost about 97% of the hay meadows that we had. Most hay meadows were lost during the war when they were needed to propagate food for the nation. Since then, agricultural intensification has contributed to their decline.

“Once a traditional hay meadow is gone, it’s gone.”

Less than 15,000 hectares of unimproved neutral grassland remain in the UK. Most sites are relatively small and fragmented, and for associated species of invertebrate that are sedentary and do not travel great distances this ultimately results in extinction. A landscape of interconnected hay meadows is required. The Herefordshire Meadow Network has been set up to tackle the problem of fragmentation and provide management advice, and swap seed. The CRT is now a member of this group, and hopes to help educate farmers and landowners in the traditional management of these wonderful places.

Anthill Pastures The anthill meadows at Turnastone Court Farm are also very special habitats with wonderful wildlife and magnificent views of the Golden Valley. The presence of anthills indicates that grassland has been managed traditionally as pasture, possibly for hundreds of years.

It is a valuable remnant of the historic landscape, rich in invertebrate and plant life. If grazed sensitively by sheep, it will retain its special character and wildlife value; however plants like Creeping Thistle need to be controlled in a sensitive way. Thistles are an important source of nectar for invertebrates and Marsh Thistle should be left as it is unlikely to be a problem.

Photography © Viv Geen

species of bee, and the uplifting song of the Skylark can be heard. Swallows and House Martins can be seen flying over the meadows in high summer. Bats are recorded flying over the meadows at dusk.

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Anthills are valuable for the botany that they support.

Each anthill has its own microclimate, and the soil in the mound is well drained and drier than the surrounding grassland. The Yellow Meadow Ant that inhabits the anthill builds the mound structure to control temperature and humidity within the nest structure. The tunnels dug throughout the mound provide excellent drainage channels and allow plants liking a drier environment to thrive. Several species of bird also feed on the ants and the Green Woodpecker is regularly recorded feeding in these fields at Turnastone, and nest every year in the surrounding Ash trees. Brown hares are also regularly recorded feeding on the sweet herbs present in the anthill meadows, and will lie low behind an anthill if unexpectedly disturbed.

Common Blue butterflies and Small Skipper butterflies feed in the anthill pastures. Like many other species of blue butterfly, the larva is attractive to ants, although only in its last instar or moulting process. The primary larval food plant of the Common Blue is Bird’s-foot Trefoil, along with Lesser Trefoil and White Clover; all present on the anthills. Fairy Flax, Eyebright, and Lady’s Bedstraw all grow in the meadows. Mosses grow on the northern side of the mounds. Flying ants form an important food for Redstarts and Spotted Flycatchers nesting around the anthill pastures.

meadows through a system of periodic “drownings”. It is an integral part of Herefordshire’s Agricultural heritage.

Evidence of this system can be seen in the meadows and on the watercourses all around the farm, even in the wood pasture areas where Vaughan tapped into upland springs.

There are several stone structures on the brooks on the farm. These are the remains of old sluices used to control and divert the flow of these watercourses. One of these sluices has been restored following extensive Sluice before restoration archaeological surveys. During the excavations an ancient ford, which formed part of a track way across the Shegear Brook, was discovered. The CRT restored this section of the Shegear Brook which had silted up and now flows freely into the Trennant Brook via a ‘lunchi’ (a hole in the sluice structure). Further restoration work is planned in the future.

Come and join us at one of the Turnastone Court Farm Open Days we hold at the farm every year. Walk through the beautiful hay meadows and marvel at the work of a 17th Century entrepreneur.

Viv Geen Monitoring Officer (Herefordshire)

Left: Small Skipper, Right: Checking a Common Blue Water Meadow Systems An important archaeological feature of the farm at Turnastone, bordering the River Dore, is a unique area of water meadows which have remained unploughed for 400 years. The main channel, called the Trench Royal, forms part of a three-mile long irrigation channel. This was completed during the 17th Century by Rowland Vaughan to increase the grass and hay production of the

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The Golden Valley Study Group has published a book on the Rowland Vaughan water meadow system called “The man who drowned the meadows: Rowland Vaughan 1558-1627”. Further details are available from their website www.golden-valley.org.uk Herefordshire Meadow Network contact: Caroline Hanks.

References Herefordshire Fungus Survey Group Newsletter No. 31 Water Meadows by Mark Everard

Photography © Viv Geen

Brown Hares feeding

By Nicholas Watts - CRT Trustee and Owner of Vine House Farm Tree Sparrows are a Red-Listed species. Being on the Red List means they are or have been in severe decline. They will be or have been in severe decline because the British countryside is not suitable for them now and that probably means they are running out of food sometime in the year, so if you don’t have them on your site, you probably never will, unless you try to attract them.

We can sit back and watch them decline or we can get up and do something about it. They can be attracted to a fresh site and their numbers can be increased by improving habitat, feeding and erecting nest boxes in places where there are enough insects for them to feed their young.

All young Tree Sparrows disperse from their natal site, in the autumn they will be roaming the countryside initially to feed but later in the winter to find a place to breed. By ringing the chicks in my nestbox, I know that they disperse a minimum of 3 miles and I have had a recovery from 60 miles away so they can go quite a long way.

Tree Sparrows’ favourite food is red millet; so, put a feeder containing red millet up near a prickly hedge (by ‘near a prickly hedge’, I mean nearly touching it or in it). I have a feeder only seven yards from a hawthorn hedge and they just ignore it even when they have emptied the feeders close to the hedge. This prickly hedge will need to be near a pond or watercourse and you will need to have some nest boxes with a 28 or 32 mm hole; ideally not facing the midday sun. In many cases there will be suitable habitat but nowhere to nest; naturally they prefer a hole in a tree or a crack in an old building, so erecting nest boxes and providing red millet will do the trick.

One of the reasons for the Tree Sparrow’s decline is lack of invertebrates in our countryside. Ponds or watercourses and native bushes together will produce more insects than one or the other. Coupled with red millet and nest boxes, they should attract any passing Tree Sparrow.

Unfortunately, only the Tree Sparrows know if there are enough invertebrates on your site for them to rear a family.

They may have visited your site and decided that there will not be enough invertebrates during the summer and departed without you even knowing! They are not a bird that stands out in a crowd; in fact I would say that they are quite secretive so they will probably be visiting your site without you knowing.

Photography © Luca Montipo

Attracting Tree Sparrows

Photography © Tilly Smith

If you want Tree Sparrows don’t delay. Tree Sparrows are roaming the countryside during autumn and winter looking for somewhere to make their home. The sooner you get all four requirements in place the sooner you will have Tree Sparrows.

At Vine House Farm, I ringed three hundred nestlings in 2014, five hundred nestling Tree Sparrows in 2015 from sixty five nest boxes; in autumn 2015 I erected another thirty five nest boxes and have ringed nine hundred nestlings in 2016. People are already coming to me saying “we have followed your guidelines and we now have Tree Sparrows”.

Nicholas Watts Vine House Farm

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Fundraising

Did you know that you can raise funds for CRT for FREE, just by shopping online?

Now, every time you shop online via Give as you Live at 4,000+ top retailers including Amazon, eBay, John Lewis and Expedia, a FREE donation will be made to us and it won’t cost you a penny extra!

Plus, if you shop through the Give as you Live website, you can access top offers so you can save money at the same time! A handy tool, downloadable from the site, will remind you every time you access a relevant site so you don’t even need to try and remember.

So, whether it’s Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas shopping or simply a treat for yourself, shop via www.giveasyoulive.com and raise a donation for us too.

Grant Success Since starting as Fundraising Manager in May (how time flies!), I have submitted numerous applications to charitable trusts in support of our work. During August and September we are very grateful to have received support from: • Charles Littlewood Hill; £500 for gardening equipment for Mayfields Farm education work.

• Dumbreck Charity; generously donated £1,000 to be spent on any of our work.

• William Dean Countryside and Educational Trust; £500 towards the purchase of binoculars for our education programme, helping us to teach bird and mammal identification skills as well as their habitats and the impact of farming and conservation.

• Alan Cadbury Charitable Trust and The Croft Trust; both have donated £500 towards the Turnastone Heritage project to undertake conservation to the historic sluices on the farm. Other applications have been submitted to raise the remaining costs.

• William Haddon Charitable Trust - £500 towards our conservation work.

Applying for grants will continue to be a major part of my work as I seek to build on the number of trusts who generously support us, some on a regular basis.

Oak Fair

The Oak Fair is a special event for those interested in woodcraft, timber, conservation and the countryside. It provided the perfect opportunity to promote our work and talk to existing and new supporters in Dorset.

I would just like to thank again our volunteers who gave up their weekend to attend and talk with passion about our work. Your continued support is appreciated.

Lark Rise Festival of Farming, Food and Wildlife

We are extremely grateful to all those who volunteered and generously gave their time in support of the day, we simply could not do it without you.

And thank you to all those who, despite a distinctly chill wind, came to the Festival; it was lovely to meet so many of you. Thanks to your generosity we raised £1,130 on the day which will be used to further our work. Thank you.

Sarah Clay Fundraising Manager

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Photography © Julian Eales

A slightly damp August Bank holiday weekend found me at the Oak Fair in Stock Gaylard near Sturminster Newton, Dorset with our exhibition trailer and numerous volunteers.

Volunteers

Volunteer News As I write this article, the Mayfields’ volunteer group are enjoying a ‘Fungal Foray’ at the Farm, organised by Mark Webster of The Conservation Volunteers (TCV). We hope that over the winter months, the volunteer group will be able to make a small clearing in the clay pits, so that visitors will have a clear view from the bird hide. We are also aiming to populate the area with some bird feeders and in time, bird boxes. We will be erecting a whiteboard in the bird hide, so that people can record what they see in the clay pits, as well as out on the farmland. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Trevor and his team over at www.customwoodenbuildings.co.uk, who designed and built this magnificent bird hide and we are looking forward to a grand opening in the near future.

Here at Barton, the Rustics continue their hard work on the farm; coppicing the spinney in Warner’s Corner and hedgelaying at the bottom of Great Catherine’s Field. We have been very lucky to have been contacted by a local organisation, who wished to do some team building. This resulted in some integral conservation work being carried out. Cambridge based Costello Medical brought sixty of their staff to the farm over three days in August. Equipped with waders, a balancing stick and supervised by me and Vince, the group spent the day in the Bourn Brook where they tackled the Himalayan Balsam. This invasive nonnative species can quickly take over a watercourse, blocking out light and outcompeting native plants.

It flowers in the summer, Himalayan Balsam leaving the ground bare in

the winter, making it much more susceptible to erosion from higher flows. Once you know what it looks like, you’ll see it everywhere. Thank you to all of the Costello Medical staff that came along to tackle this mammoth task! A special thanks goes to Mr Stephen Montgomery, who suggested to his colleagues that they visit Lark Rise Farm to do some conservation work and thanks to Lucy Eddowes and Sophie Pearson for helping to plan the day.

We were also joined by a group of 20+ tax advisors from Ernst and Young, who spent a whole day coppicing and hedge laying. Special thanks go to Eve Hopley, for organising such an enthusiastic and hard working group of volunteers.

We welcome any volunteers who wish to join the CRT, so please get in touch if you would like to get involved.

Kenny MacKay Conservation and Education Adviser Bird Hide at Mayfields

Volunteer Dates Volunteers for any of our properties are always welcome!

Please email info@countrysiderestorationtrust.com or get in touch using the contact details below.

• LARK RISE FARM, Barton, Cambridgeshire:

Volunteer Conservation Days – Usually held on the second Saturday of every month. Please call the office on 01223 262999 or email info@countrysiderestorationtrust.com for more information.

• PIERREPONT FARM, Frensham, Surrey:

Volunteer Monitoring Group – Please call Bill Young on 01243 811563 or email bill@parmelia.me.uk for more information.

Volunteer Conservation Days – Held every 2 weeks. For more information, contact Brian Lavers on 01276 471870 or brian.lavers@btopenworld.com.

• GREEN FARM, Churt, Surrey:

Volunteer Work Days – please contact Kenny MacKay on 01223 262999 for more information

• MARGARET WOOD, Upper Denby, West Yorkshire:

Volunteer Conservation Days – please contact Phil Opie on 07762 642814 or jpo.92@live.co.uk for more information.

• TURNASTONE COURT FARM & AWNELLS: Vowchurch, Herefordshire: Volunteer Conservation Days – please contact Kenny MacKay on 01223 262999 for more information.

• MAYFIELDS, Themelthorpe, Norfolk:

Please call Sarah Jenkins on 01362 683337 or visit www.mayfieldsfarm.co.uk for more information.

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Legacies

How your legacy could help create a living, working countryside: • £100 could fund the conservation of a section of water course running through farmland for one year in order to protect a vital habitat for species such as otters and water voles.

• £250 could enable us to bring a school group onto our farms to learn about nature, the countryside and farming.

• £500 could enable us to carry out a season of regular surveys on one of our farms to make sure particularly important species are thriving.

Would you like to know the birds will still be flying after you have gone?

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• £1,000 could pay for the equipment needed by one of our volunteer teams to carry out vital conservation work on the land.

For more information and a free legacy information pack please contact 01223 262 999 or visit countrysiderestorationtrust.com

Ode to a Snowdrop A Poem by Derek C. Corke

Fair Maids of February with dainty heads of white Why art thou with us only for a while?

When winter skies are laden with grey translucent light, A sentinel of Spring, each year thou com’st to raise a smile.

But in the frosty season when earth is still, All clothed in white by yonder wooded dell, You bravely come, a prelude to Spring, amongst the chill, Such promise of Earth’s rebirth is yours to tell

Gentle snowdrop you have kept us waiting for so long.

All through the seasons, though I bide my time, ‘Till yet again I hear the blackbird’s melodious song, And yet you come once more, and joy is wholly mine.

First with green tips through ice and snow, Along the lane, you bravely appear beyond the gate.

You are a vision of loveliness, a wondrous show Throughout the day ,’til shadows linger and wait.

Tender flower, I yearn to see your delicate buds so tight, But though I wait, each year, you come to me at last; At first a show of slender leaves, and then a lovely flush of white.

Behold, the sight is not surpassed!

And through long dreamy Summer days so hot How could I forsake thee for scented blooms so gay?

Would I then your memory have forgot?

For lo, behold, you cheer the winter wooded way!

Oh Candlemas Bells, where have you been?

All through the year you slumber soundly in your bed And many moons have passed since you were seen, So surely now at last t’wards Spring, we are led.

But then, how could another flower ever compare?

Diminutive in stature, but in perfect form you stand.

In divine clumps, veiled in white beneath the copse so bare, ’Tis a beauteous sight upon the land.

Contemplation A Poem by Shirley Browning Think of a world without any flowers Think of the earth without their hue Think of a life without the daisies Think of the borage without its blue.

Think of a world without any roses Think of a rose without its perfume Think of a life without any blossom Think of the orchid without its bloom.

Think of a world without any bluebells Think of the sunflower without its head Think of a life without any petals Think of a poppy without its red.

Think of a world without any flowers Think of a visually bankrupt earth.

If you would like your work (poetry, prose, photographs) featured in the Lark, please send to Lois Dixon ldixon@countrysiderestorationtrust.com

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Education

Lark Rise, Cambridgeshire Again I start my piece for the Lark with some thanks; our Farmer Tim Scott, Graham Girling and Vince Lea have been indispensable when it comes to organising school visits to the farm, without their support and flexibility the children would not get so much from the visits.

I have even had the new Fundraising Manager, Sarah Clay, helping me with activities; she was very knowledgeable and helped the children think about where their food came from. The schools are not long back after their holidays and I was pleased to hear from our local primary school here in Barton. We basically had the whole school visit the farm over the course of a week and they were interested in harvest and where their food comes from. Something that we at the CRT are happy to educate about, of course we were able to tie in how our land management not only produces high quality food but also provides fantastic habitat for all sorts of wildlife.

It is really great to have Barton Primary School visiting us regularly, as the children are getting to know me and Vince, which means they are more confident with their questions and they have had time in between visiting to think about what they have seen and learnt and by asking us questions, we are hopefully completing the educational loop. All the classes just came for a couple of hours and thanks to Graham we were able to collect the children from school in the tractor and trailer and deliver them safely to the farm, from there we split in to two groups one group would go on a tractor and trailer ride with a focus on harvest. Vince and Graham took the children to an area of crop residue or stubble as it is referred to. Tim had harvested the wheat from this field and was also able to get some straw but he left enough so that the stubble field would provide food for birds and small mammals as the machinery doesn’t pick up all the grain. These areas also

provide hunting ground for Barn Owls and some weeds will appear providing essential habitat for invertebrates.

Back at the farm I was trying to get to the bottom of what the children knew about the food that they were eating.

Breakfast? I would say that the knowledge of the children in regards knowing what their food was made from was OK, but by the end of the activity they were much more clued up on what their breakfast was made from. I am always amazed that all children have eaten Coco Pops but few know what they are made from. They are quite surprised to learn that they are made from rice, with this in mind I’m thinking that coating Brussel sprouts in chocolate could be the way forward? I talked to the children about the difference between white and brown bread and what a Wholegrain is. We also got the wheat grinder out and showed children how flour is made. Number one answer when I ask what we use flour to make? Biscuits.

We have also had a visit from Colville Primary School in Cambridge, they came to the farm and had a similar day to Barton but they were lucky to get to meet Farmer Tim and John Page, Tim’s predecessor. I had hoped the children would have loads of questions for them both, but the excitement of the tractor and trailer trumped (not Donald) them both. Psst, don’t tell Barton school that Colville primary got to meet the farmer.

Kenny MacKay Conservation and Education Adviser P.S. Have you got any old binoculars/ monoculars lying around that you would like to donate to our education programme? Please contact me via info@countrysiderestorationtrust.com.

Thank you!

Education in Herefordshire The summer holidays brought a chance to review the first year of delivering education sessions in Herefordshire Primary Schools. The year has been incredibly successful with visits across schools in the Golden Valley and Hereford. The summer holidays led to family activity days at Peterchurch Village Hall which were well attended. The connections that were made at these events have given the opportunity to work with the local community at a fun day and at the local youth club during the Autumn and Winter. School visits are now being booked for the Autumn and Winter term which is encouraging to see.

The children’s enthusiasm for learning about food, farming and countryside is fantastic and I look forward to building the connections with the schools that received visits last year and the new schools that are booking visits over the coming months.

Helen Jones Education Officer, Turnastone Court Farm

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Education

Mayfields Farm, Norfolk Back in July, we finished the academic year with an event to celebrate our garden project with Bawdeswell School.

Parents and children were invited along to an after school drop-in session where the children could show off what they had been doing in the garden, look at the progress and harvest some of their produce. It was wonderful to hear the youngsters talking with pride and confidence about the different elements of the garden they had been involved in, and to see both parents and children pulling carrots and spring onions straight from the ground, giving them a rinse and tucking in! A satisfying experience for everyone as this really was the essence of our hopes for the garden. The children also visited the new herb spiral we had built and were keen to position and smell the herbs ready to be planted. I hope to continue to work with some of the same children this coming year so they can watch the ongoing development of the space.

Over the quieter Summer period, I have been clearing the overgrown concrete area next to the new bird hide, which I am planning to develop into a bird feeding and wildlife exploration area. It is now mainly free of nettles and brambles and I hope to invite some young helpers to come along and create a variety of habitats to encourage some new residents!

More recently, we have just hosted this term’s first visit from a class of Year 4 children. It was a beautiful Autumnal day and the children enjoyed looking for the many fruits and seeds along the hedgerows. We decided that if we were a mouse, we would definitely use the hedgerow ‘corridors’ to travel from one area to another, as well as to find plenty to eat! The red squirrels put in an acrobatic appearance and we played a ‘True or false‘ game to test our red squirrel knowledge. (Did you know that a red squirrel can be either right or left handed when eating a pine cone?) Lunch was enjoyed sitting out in the sunshine on the fantastic new picnic benches kindly donated to us last term by Reepham Primary school.

We have several more school visits booked over the coming weeks, so I am hoping this lovely Autumn weather will continue a bit longer…

Teresa Linford, Education Officer, Mayfields Farm

Pierrepont Farm, Surrey Barn owls…..they’re a hoot!

At Pierrepont this summer we were privileged enough to have a pair of Barn Owls nesting in one of the farm’s barns. Once all the young birds had fledged the nest, I went into the barn and collected a few owl pellets from the floor of the barn. When Owls became the theme of October’s Saturday Safari Club session, these pellets became the highlight of the day.

The children, armed with some tweezers gently dissected the owl pellets to help unearth the secret life of the growing owl chicks.

As owls swallow their prey whole, they produce pellets made up of the fur and bones of the small mammals they are eating. These pellets regularly get coughed up and can often be found underneath roosting and nesting sites. By dissecting the pellets, information about the bird’s diet can be obtained.

The children all loved discovering the hundreds of tiny bones found in the pellets, and worked hard to try to identify the types of animals they had come from. Many tried to put all the pieces together, like a jigsaw puzzle, to try to work out how many small mammals had been eaten to produce their pellet. Most found evidence of at least 3 individual animals, and these were often made up of different species including Shrews and Voles.

The contents of an Owl Pellet

Annika Rees Education Officer, Pierrepont Farm

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Farm Diaries Lark Rise Farm, Cambridgeshire The end of term results for the farming year...

A year of hard toil, lots of worrying and then over a period of a few weeks all is safely gathered in. The question most people ask me - “has it been a good harvest?”. I guess most people are simply being polite, not really wanting anything other than a yes or no answer? Well, hopefully you are sitting comfortably because here goes...

My Oilseed rape started as a winter crop which failed thanks to flea beetle damage and then replanted with spring rape and this duly failed due to pollen beetles eating every flower head before they even opened, the net return from that field was a big fat zero. There was a positive as this was the field the lapwings chose to nest in. The winter barley looked brilliant all year only to be spoiled by a June with little sun. The grains were there but resembled gramophone needles with very little substance. A good analogy is with the solar panels on one’s roof, because both they and plant leaves harvest energy from the sun. I am told solar panels yielded 16% less energy than the corresponding June the year before, and the specific weight of barley was that same 16% down. The bulk was there but it just did not weigh as much as it should have. The

Turnastone Court Farm, Herefordshire We have had quite a nice summer here at Turnastone.

We managed to get most of the hay baled and in the shed without it getting wet, the exception being 90 bales which had to be wrapped as the weather took a turn for the worse.

The contractor came to wrap them in the evening. After the contractor left we received a phone call a couple of hours later from a neighbour telling us that at least 70 seagulls had descended on the field. We got to the field to find that every single bale had been pecked! We spent the next day patching all the holes up. Not fun.

After the new ley had been cut for hay it grew back and was full of white clover, the smell was wonderful and it was humming with bees hard at work. Quite a sight.

We are nearing the end of our lamb sales for this year. The price of lamb increased after the referendum result which was a nice surprise but has been coming down, although this is normal for this time of year as the market is saturated with lamb from Scotland.

We have had a real problem with foot rot in our sheep this year. The main reason for this was because we had to bring most of the in-lamb ewes in early for lambing at the beginning of the year as the weather was so awful. Being indoors creates the perfect breeding ground for the bacteria that causes foot rot and that is why we try to minimise the amount of time the sheep spend indoors. A lot of the ewes that were treated responded well but some became chronic and therefore we had to cull them out.

We sold our shearling Rams through the market this year, for the first time. We do need to learn how to colour and trim them for next year but we still got a fair price for them so we were happy. We also took several sheep to a couple of local shows and managed to win 6 x 1st , 3 x 2nd and 1 x 3rd so we must be doing something right!

We have a big problem with thistles on the farm and under our current Countryside Stewardship scheme we have to manage those thistles. The CRT has kindly lent us a weed wiper which will allow us to wipe the weeds with a herbicide whilst not disturbing the grass ley.

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further east in the country you went the worse the effect with some samples having £30/tonne deductions when it was only worth £90 in the first place. The winter wheat was generally adequate but sadly where blackgrass (a very competitive weed) was present in high numbers then yields plummeted.

The other crops were winter and spring oats, spring barley, spring wheat and canary seed all of which achieved average to mildly pleasing yields. Post the Brexit vote grain prices have been creeping up, so all in all the harvest was average to middling.

Looking towards the next cropping year this autumn could not be more different from the previous one. Currently the soil is like concrete with clods the size of your head, whereas 22 months ago one nearly needed a boat to get on the land because it was so wet and horrid. Interestingly the really bad fields for clods are the ones I mauled spring crops in earlier this year. The soil is my master. The moral of all of this is I am at the mercy of the weather and I guess that is why us farmers always moan about it.

I never moan about our wildlife and whilst recently hosting the Grey Partridge farm walk I was so proud with our achievements at Lark Rise Farm.

Tim Scott On the farm this summer there have been two resident grey herons on the River Dore and Trennant, along with two Little Egrets, Kingfishers and a female Tawny owl that was heard calling for about a month. We also saw a Lapwing in the arable field but it was just passing through.

The volunteers have started coppicing an old hedge line with the aim of restoring the hedge to create a corridor for wildlife.

HOT OFF THE PRESS...we have today, as I write this, just gone clear on our TB test! This means we can sell all our store cattle now with a view to purchasing some in-calf Hereford heifers. Exciting times!

Gareth & Madeleine Boaz

Mayfields Farm, Norfolk Early Summer at Mayfields was very wet. This meant that the Claypits had more water in them than we have seen in years, which is very pleasing. Habitats flourished. Unfortunately there is evidence of Ash Dieback and we have lost several trees, with a strong possibility of losing more. We are still in the process of clearing rubbish out of the pits with the help of The Conservation Volunteers.

The prolonged wet summer meant that our hay crop was cut very late, but successfully baled.

It’s been a very good year for our Red Squirrel breeding program. The breeding trio produced two kits early on, and four in the second litter. One female has been removed to leave the established pair, parents to both litters. The first two kits have gone on into other programs and at present our female is still feeding her four male kits.

Unfortunately we are short of help with our Suffolk Punch “Duke” which means very regretfully we will have to sell him.

Education wise, we have had a busy and successful time.

Seeing children learning about nature is immensely enjoyable.

For me, it is quite moving to watch particularly the special needs children and young adults interact with the livestock we have at Mayfields.

Sarah Jenkins

Farm Diaries Margaret Wood, South Yorkshire

The bluebells can’t have been at the planning meeting this year or they just chose to do their own thing but they weren’t at their best until a fortnight after the open day. Waiting patiently in the wings every year is the bracken but as soon as the bluebells have finished up it comes like a tsunami of green enveloping all the young trees we have planted.

Margaret Wood bracken is like no other I know, reaching head height at times. When planted as whips, the young trees are only about 18 inches, so summer work days are mainly bracken bashing round the trees to give them light and air.

The problem isn’t just the summer months either, because as the bracken dies it becomes hard and forms sheaths that fall across the young trees bending them to the ground together with their support and guard. The winter months are therefore spent hunting for sapling under the fallen bracken.

We have had two visitors to the wood recently. Caroline Robinson from Clear Mapping came to see the lie of the land for herself before compiling special maps of the wood and pastures for us, but we have yet to see the results.

The other visitor was Robin Ridley from the Woodland Trust.

His visit was a sort of ‘advice and assistance’ thing and for the Woodland Trust to make itself aware of what our wood is like. He seemed to be pleased with what he saw, especially the diversity that we have in the wood. He said he would compile a report for us, but that isn’t to hand yet.

We have started to plant some fruit trees in the paddock in the lee of the barn. The first was a Braeburn Apple to celebrate my 65th birthday, three years ago and this year it produced its first apple. However on Friday 7th October it had blossom on it; one flower fully open and one in bud. We thought we were at the limit for growing fruit trees being high up in the Pennines but we didn’t expect blossom in autumn.

For a number of years the Oaks in the wood haven’t produced any acorns, for some reason not immediately apparent to us. This year however we have a bumper crop.

We have noticed a decline in the grey squirrels recently and wonder if the two are connected, so we will have to wait and see if we have a bumper crop of young squirrels next year.

Pierrepont Farm, Surrey Good news, good news. The barn owls that regularly hunt the water meadows in front of the house have successfully reared three chicks which have now fledged. They have been seen out and about across the SSSI recently practising their flying and hunting skills. It is brilliant to know that the conservation efforts we put in here are working well.

We have had a very busy summer on the farm, with Mike taking on more of the field work to cut contractor costs which has meant I have spent more time with the cows as Tony has been on a tractor helping with the harvest too. The milk price has finally hit rock bottom and is now on the turn for the better! However, there is still a long way to go before it matches cost of production so efficiencies will carry on at Pierrepont. The cows have adapted well to the efficiencies we have made to their management and they are milking well still and looking good too. Most of the crops have been harvested now, just the fodderbeet to go. The weather has been good to us this year producing plenty of grass for hay and silage, although the maize didn’t yield quite as well as we hoped we have produced plenty of forage for the winter so the cows won’t be going hungry this year and we won’t have the need to buy in expensive forage.

In July we launched our Raw Milk vending machine. The sales of Raw Milk direct to the public have been growing ever since and an article in the local paper doubled sales in one week!

Our customer base is growing and they are asking for cream and butter and the younger customers always ask for ice cream, so watch this space for the next development.

The Show season has been limited this year due to the poor milk price and lack of time, but we did manage to get to a few shows, with Discovery Lirsks Topaz standing Reserve Champion at Surrey County, and Discovery Mays Icecube taking Champion Jersey at Bucks County. At the South West Dairy Show we were hoping not to be last, but to our delight Pierrepont Flash Honey stood Reserve Champion calf and then Topaz won the Intermediate cow class. Pierrepont Iatolas Maple came 3rd and Icecube stood 5th in the Junior cow class; so we came home very pleased indeed.

Zoe has also had a very successful Young Handlers year winning at Bucks, Edenbridge (with a Holstein), Norfolk (with an Ayreshire) and finished the year off at the All Britain All Breeds calf show with Reserve Champion Jersey Handler for the second year running.

Mike and Bev Clear

John Dunn

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