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| << November 2024 | December 2024 | January 2025 >> |
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1st: Winter trees and cloudy skies!  |
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2nd: The dunnock Dunnocks are frequent visitors to the garden. We see them all year and they are very common round the bird feeders each day, confidently feeding in small groups of twos and threes. They are delightful birds with a stunning mixture of grey and brown colouring, twitching wings and beady eyes. There are over two million pairs in the UK, so hopefully a species that won't be declining any time soon!! Love the lighting of this shot. This is a classic pose each morning as they come to feast on the mealworms, whilst keeping a look out for danger too. They were for a while, mistakenly called Hedge Sparrows but are in fact a different family!  |
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3rd: More trees Devon Wildlife Trust are beyond amazing. Their help with our rewilding has been truly fantastic: we have had a site visit, chats on the phone and via email, advice leaflets and guides and now today, we have taken delivery of 800 trees for hedge and and copse planting. We are so grateful - and all this has not cost us a penny (not that we wouldn't have gladly paid) but thanks to funding (membership, donations, grants etc), all the above is offered free to landowners who wish to help towards nature recovery. Huge thanks to Tom Parsons, Ewan Wallis and Izzy Moser in particular.  |
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4th: Macro We got the Macro lens out again today - its been a while and we were quite pleased with these images of moss and fungi - not expert enough to ID them but needless to say, both were growing on deadwood.   |
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5th: The utter beauty of the starling! |
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6th: Almost!!! Getting a decent picture of a nuthatch is really hard - thy literally are here-one-minute-and-gone-the-next - best effort to date!!!  |
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7th: Kite and Fire - setters really know how to pose!!  |
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8th: A Red Campion and Meadow Buttercup braving the weather  |
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9th: A delightful hour at the bird feeding station    |
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10th: Redwings and Fieldfares together - just fabulous! |
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11th: Autumn Ivy |
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12th: Supporting our local businesses - Station Yard Farm Shop and the Tarka line Bistro - both at Eggesford   |
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13th: Still really busy!! |
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14th: 'Our blackbird' This is our most friendly female blackbird - always the first to arrive when we start to put out the food, sits so close we could touch her and not quite happy enough to feed from our hand!! Such beauty!  |
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15th: Mustard... ...Making herself at home on the latest rugs  |
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16th: Look what popped in to check out the bird feeding station today!!!! |
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17th: Even more excitement And today we got a bullfinch, chaffinch and two nuthatches in the same thirty second video... |
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18th: More trees Today we picked up 440 hedging plants from Sam and Gemma's. They are from Tamar Trees (Sam had kindly picked up our order) and then we bought another 20 or so off Sam himself, including Walnut and Black Poplar. We have a tree planting weekend planned for 4th and 5th January so with these, the 800 from DWT and a few other odds and sods we are looking to plant around 1300 or so!!! Here's to good weather and lots of volunteers!!!  |
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19th: One of the best views from our land. |
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20th: Waiting for supper!! |
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21st: Our deadwood piles are getting slightly bigger |
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22nd: We're not just feeding the birds it seems... But we really don't mind!!!! |
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23rd: Photoshoot at the Bird feeding Station Nice to get shots on the natural vegetation just before they flew in to feed.     |
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24th: A new hobby... The plan is to find and press each of the 170 plus native plants we have so far found on our land and then to create a book with photos and pressings together. Wish us luck.    |
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25th: The best Christmas present ever - thanks Becky!   |
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26th: Views in the early morning mist    |
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27th: Macro Stunning dewdrops on a hawthorne branch.  |
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28th: The grass beneath our feet The lack of grazing on our land this last year (some fields have had zero, others a few months) has given us a very springy, dense covering of grasses, buttercups, docks and other plants which must be a haven for hibernating invertebrates, as well as providing lots of safe places for small vertebrates to keep safe and warm. It's a joy to walk on as we imagine all the slumbering and snoring going on beneath us. And then when we crouch down, we become even more aware of the depth and intricacy of this vegetative mat: the thousands of tiny trichomes (hairs) on each blade of grass that in the mornings are covered in drops of moisture, some of which get quite large as more moisture joins them and act like magnifying glasses, showing more detail beneath. No animal has to travel far for a drink when they are snuggled down under the grass. The wonderful world of macro really can be eye-opening...  |
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29th Barn tidy: We are slowly starting to tidy and sort the barns in lieu of various events (Sustainable Chulmleigh ones) being held in the new barn this coming year. We also want to sell a lot of the smallholding equipment and hardware we have and so getting it all together in the old barn will hopefully enable this to happen in the spring. It's hard work but after two days we have made a lot of progress. It is also sad though as we recall memories of all the livestock we have kept in them over the years: hunting for chicken eggs in amongst the hay, the playful calves trashing the straw bales, goats lying around chewing the cud, bottle fed lambs racing over for their milk, emu and rhea snuggling under heat lamps. We wonder if the barns will ever see animals inside them again- aside from the dogs of course, who have of course been predictably helpful as we have worked - and when not helpful, falling asleep... More photos to come as it gets tidier... 
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30th: Getting there The Old Barn is now sorted, and the New Bram just needs the tables and chairs sorting and the straw spreading out evenly.... we are soooo pleased we have done this.     |
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31st: Botanical Society Plant Hunt Every year, the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland run a New Year Plant Hunt - asking everyone to spot how many plants are in flower at this time. All part of helping to gain a clearer picture of how our wild and naturalised plants are responding to changes in autumn and winter weather patterns. This was our haul from today: left to right, top to bottom: Spiny sow-thistle, Common ivy, Gorse, Bramble, Birdseye speedwell, Herb robert, Primrose, Meadow buttercup, Mouse-eared chickweed, Red campion, Dandelion and Dog's Mercury. A total of 12 over 10 acres!!  |