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1st: Never mind the rain After a night of strong winds, the rain decided to give it all it could and wash our newly swept flagstones, top up the ponds and test the mats over the pond piping to check they were laid well enough to hold back the mud (they were). Wet dog walks were the order of the day along with inside admin, spinning, guitar and keyboard playing. The birds on the other hand continued to flock to the feeders in huge numbers, especially the tits. How we love feeding and then watching the birds. Species so far now include all the following - some more regularly than others: Great, Blue, Coal and March tits; House sparrows, Chaffinches and Goldfinches, Starlings, Blackbirds, Robins, Wrens, Nuthatches, Dunnocks, Siskin (once on 30th Dec) and a Jay (also once on 16th Dec). A total of 15. Our total of birds spotted on or from our land is now around 50 (must get a proper list published). |
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2nd: Sun!!! Today was a perfect sunny winter day. The frost was severe but made everything shine and look so clean and we had the joys of watching a Red Admiral taking advantage of a bit of warmth and sunning itself just outside the barn. Meanwhile we have continued to tidy the barns and the new bran is now starting to look ready for this weekend's tree planting. We are very excited. AND, in really exciting news, we caught on fox on the trail cam last night, just briefly as he (and it looks like a he) emerged from the outer hedgerow in Goat field and sauntered up to the Pong area. We are going to put a bit of food down by the obvious track he comes up, and see if he will eat and so stay a bit longer in shot!!     |
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3rd: Bird photoshoot Another amazing half hour at the Bird Feeding Station - the nuthatch is still slightly alluding that perfect shot but is getting less skittish at hanging around and feeding, so we are now getting more opportunities to photograph it (or them, we have in fact seen three at once). The blackbirds are great at posing, as is the robin and with the blue tit, the best thing is often to focus on a branch and wait!!! They are so active and there are so many that one usually lands on your chosen view with a minute or less. Having 20/30 birds all feeding at once on the feeders and the ground is not uncommon!! It is all quite captivating!!       |
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4th: Trees and foxes A totally fabulous day planting trees and hedging on our land. 19 species (Beech, Bird Cherry, Blackthorn, Buckthorn, Crab Apple, Dog Rose, Downy Birch, Elder, Guilder Rose, Hawthorn, Hazel, Hornbeam, Lime, Oak, Rowan, Spindle, Sweet Chestnut, Wayfaring and Wild Cherry) and around 700 ish individual plants. We created five mini copses of around 50/60 trees each and fenced round the pond area and in front of the fence between Fruit and Swallow. HUGE thanks to all the volunteers who came to help as we slowly give our land back to nature. The weather was kind (it stayed dry) and the ground neither too frozen nor too wet!! We are planning a fair few events here over the coming year working with Sustainable Chulmleigh which is all very exciting: Pond days, Plant Hunts, Summer conference, Moth trapping and more.... HUGE thanks to Nick, Claire, Mike, Felix, Julie, Andy, Dennis, Ellie and Amy and her seven Ashreigny volunteers. More planting tomorrow...... AND, once again, the trail cam in the field picked up our fox - there were several clips as he obviously found the food we had put out (dog biscuits and peanuts) and had a good feast. Thrilled to be encouraging him like this - something we would never have considered when we were smallholders!!!       |
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5th: More tree and hedge planting plus more pond planning After another night of very heavy rain, we walked around the land this morning to talk ponds with Nick Benge from Roborough Rewilding. It was a very inspiring and exciting visit as we discussed the possibilities of at least two more ponds in each field plus potential adaptations to the current one to make it a little more diverse in terms of the habitats it can offer. More on all this later this month. And then it was more tree and hedge planting with Nick, Claire, Ben, Viv and Kelly - by the end of the afternoon, all but around 100 out of the 1300 plants were in the ground. We now have seven mini copses and five rows of new hedging. We couldn't be more grateful to all our friends and other volunteers. Watching everything start to bud in the spring is going to be soooo exciting!!   |
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6th: The fruits of our labours A perfect day to take photos of the pond as well as all our newly planted copses and hedges!! We very much hope that in four to five years, the views will be very different..        |
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7th: Amazing light A day of mixed weather: sun, rain, hail.... the bird feeding station has been very busy as usual and we are delighted that we now have siskins coming to feed most days. We have seen males and females and up to two at once. In not such great news though, today we saw a male chaffinch with some type of growth round its face and eye. Despite looking awful, he was still feeding and behaving fine!!. He came to feed on the fat pellets and had a really good feast. We are trying to keep the bird feeding station as clean as we can so it won't spread and will see if we can find out what it is!        |
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8th: Fox We are seeing our fox every night now - the question we are not sure about is whether we have one or two - it is really hard to identify them on the videos and spot any distinguishing features. Now is the time of year when they are looking for mating partners and as such, there is a lot of movement. It seems likely that more than one may be on our land but who knows. Question is, will one nest nearby and will we then see any youngsters??? |
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9th: Roborough Rewilders A stunning afternoon at Roborough Rewilders with Nick Benge - he started like we are, with grazed pasture and these pictures now represent four years on. They have gone from 250 species to 559!! We very much hope that our land will be similarly successful. We have yet to count the species we found last year but hope to have a total soon.  
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10th: Let sleeping dogs (and cats) lie  |
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11th: cont/ Let sleeping dogs lie |
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12th: Love our tree lines  |
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13th: Orange Moor It's been a while since we have been to the Moor (thanks to illness and xmas) - the dogs were very happy to have a good run here - and they were, as usual, very well behaved!   |
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14th: Bird Feeding Station Another 'grey' visitor today - and look out for the nuthatch too - in both videos! |
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15th: More shots more the Bird Feeding Station 
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16th: Morning Light and Macro    
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17th: Bird Feeding Station (it's compulsive viewing)
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18th: Crazily Busy - the blue tits are taking over... |
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19th: It's started... This week, Nick Benge from Roborough Rewilders came to stake out our ponds, all ready to begin digging them from tomorrow. He has planned out eight in total: one in Fruit, two in Swallow, three in Oak and two in Goat. In addition we will have banks and scrapes and then when he has finished we will plant a more more trees and bushes around them. We are beyond excited.  |
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20th: Goat Field: Pond One And so it begins... and amongst all the excitement of seeing the first pond being dug, Jack was today bitten by a shrew. We spotted it scurrying somewhat frantically in all the soil desperately trying to find somewhere to hide. Nick B and Jack raced to rescue it and in the midst of hearing the words: 'It might bite' Jack, scooped it up to release it in the grass, away from the dogs and out of danger. Within seconds she emitted a loud yelp. No one laughed, obviously!!! And neither did anyone say, 'told you so'. AND, the dogs hadn't a clue as not one of them saw or heard it! So, it quite possibly would have escaped to the grass without incident anyway!!! In other news, yellowhammers were once again spotted in the Ash trees above Yeti's gate, a bullfinch was spotted via the trail cam by the feeders (hopefully drawn to the sunflower hearts we have started to put out) and mole activity has seriously increased in this last week - we have mole hills all over.     |
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21st: Goat Field: 'Stonechat Pond' By the end of the day, Pond One was almost finished and it looks amazing - the photos don't really show how fab it will be but essentially we have a large shallow sloping area that then falls to a slightly deeper section before dropping off to a very deep area below the bank. The run off from this pond is via a channel that runs down by the side of the bank towards to the hedge, which in heavy rain will create a marshy area. So, lots of potential habitats here and with the new copse behind, beyond which is our established willow and blackthorn copse leading through bramble and scrub to the green lane, we should have a fabulous wildlife corridor. And because nature is wonderful and recognises an opportunity when it sees it, as we stood looking out and imagining the pond filling up, on the far side, amongst the bank and the rushes and whips, we watched a pair of stonechats, two pied wagtails and a robin, all eyeing up a potential place to forage. This first pond therefore, is now to be known as Stonechat Pond! Elsewhere, we spotted our first snowdrops today in the garden hedge just by the back gate!! Utter heaven. And on the morning walk we had a great time spotting new growth and frosty leaves.         |
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22nd: Goat Field: 'Spider Pond' Stonechat Pond is now finished (bar a few digger ruts that need smoothing) and today then saw the birth of Spider Pond, so named because of the huge numbers of what we think are Money spiders, climbing everything they could in order to take off. We have noticed lots of webs in the grass the last week or so and today seemed to be the day for large numbers of these tiny spiders to head for the skies on their silken strands. Nick reckoned he saw hundreds. They will be back we know. Spider pond is smaller than Stonechat Pond and as it is more open in the middle of the field, it will provide a different sort of habitat. It was another misty start today - we were unable to keep up with where the dogs were so we had a quiet meander round the hedgelines, listening to dunnocks, tits and robins regale us with their 'we're building up to spring' voices!!      |
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23rd: Oak Field: 'Trickle or Wagtail Pond' Spider pond is now finished and by the end of the day so was pond number three, our first on Oak field. This now has two names!!! The first, Trickle Pond (as named by Nick B.), as it has a constant trickle of water running into it, courtesy of the drainage pipe from the well at the top of the field. This used to take the overflow water down the field and into the ditch in order to keep the land 'dry'. Now of course, we are very happy to have the field wet. This pond should now fill up quite quickly as there is a constant 'trickle'. The second name we have is Wagtail Pond because the Pied wagtails were all over it this afternoon - we don't usually see them this far down on our land but all these soily banks, hillocks and dips, are providing perfect foraging for them. It may be that we call the pond Trickle Pond and the copse behind Wagtail Wood. Time will tell. Pond four was started late afternoon - this is going to be a biggie!!      |
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24th: Oak Field - Pond Four Pond Four, yet to be named, will be our biggest yet - it is probably the size of at least two or three of the ones built so far and rather wonderfully, looks to have the best clay. But in fact, all the clay seems to be holding up, as yesterday and last night we actually had a fair bit of rain, and all the ponds are now starting to fill up and hold their water. We are amazed at the bird numbers. This morning we saw a good half dozen meadow pipits round Stonechat Pond and a fair sized flocked of Pied Wagtails down by Wagtail Pond this evening. The pipits we don't usually see in these fields at all and we have only ever seen up to three Pied Wagtails at once. It just shows what a difference it makes when you no longer have just basic flat fields. In other news we saw small diving beetles in Tree Pond last night - our original pond in the old Poultry Area, named Tree Pond as we have plans to put a large fallen tree in there to provide underwater habitat and above water perching. And today's bird news: we had FOUR bullfinches feeding at the bottom of the bird feeders in the Green Lane - three male and a female. It was an amazing sight. At one stage, we had three three different finches in one video clip: bullfinches, goldfinches and chaffinches!!    |
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25th: The Devon Countryside and the Dogs Today we went on a walk with Lynda, passed Dobsmoor Cross, down and back up via Bond Farm and then back down to come out at Becky's. It was a good five miles with lots of ups and downs and thoroughly enjoyable. Meanwhile back on the land, the dogs are thoroughly enjoying the ups and downs of our fields with all the ponds and banks. We captured some beautiful poses. Clockwise from top left: Roxy, Otter, Kite and Redwing.         |
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26th: Squirrels and Ponds After a night and morning of heavy rain, the ponds are really starting to fill up. And then after lunch, it was lovely to see a pair of squirrels enjoying the late pm sunshine. Wagtail Pond  Spider and Stonechat Ponds   |
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27th: Filling up well The rain continues and it's all good news. The ponds are really really starting to fill. Wagtail Pond is very nearly at the top. Meanwhile at the top of Oak field, pond number four, to be named Nick's Pond (after Nick Digger), is growing well - it is going to be huge!! On the trailcam side, the Bird Feeding station continues to be so busy. There are a total of ten species in this 30 second clip: greater spotted woodpecker, chaffinch, bullfinch, blue tit, great tit, coal tit, dunnock, house sparrow, dunnock and starling, and approximately 25 ish individual birds. Wagtail Pond  Spider and Stonechat Ponds   |
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28th: Oh my word!!! We were utterly gobsmacked to see this this animal on the trail cam this morning. This is the same area where the fox appears (although it hasn't been as regular recently). Feeding here feels even more important now. Meanwhile, Nick's pond is filling up well (we have had a lot of rain this last couple of days), Wagtail Pond is full enough to be virtually overflowing and pond number six is now dug and pretty much complete too. There is also a pond number five, tucked behind Nick's pond which was only dig in order to extract a bit more clay for the bank. It's tiny and very sweet and will provide a very sheltered patch of water for whatever may be interested. Nick's pond  Wagtail pond     Ponds five and six   |
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29th: Water power Yesterday afternoon, Nick dug out a channel from the top gate in Oak field (between us and Andrew's land) and pond number six. As you can see, the water poured down. It filled up very quickly and was totally full this morning. Quite extraordinary. In addition, Nick then dug a channel from this pond (now to be named Stream pond) to Nick's pond so that when Stream pond is full, the water will then flow down into Nick's pond too. Water channeled like this into ponds and across the top of the land, helps to reduce flooding further down - and is so much better for wildlife than it all rushing down through land drains under the ground.      |
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30th: Cracking on and looking amazing Oak and Goat field are now complete with six ponds plus a variety of channels, mounds and banks and the digger is now onto ponds six, seven and eight in Swallow and Fruit fields.. With a lot of sun this afternoon, we began to get a feel for just how amazing our land is going to look, indeed, already is looking. We end today's entry with one of our bird seed eating squirrels - s/he is handsome chap(ess). Stonechat Pond  Spider Pond  Wagtail Pond  Nick's Pond  Stream Pond  Pond 07  Pond 08  Pond 09    |
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31st: Our very own stream Yesterday, Nick created a stream!!! And we now have moving water!! It's fed from the run off from the shelters and barns and the ditch by our middle hedge. It won't be an all year round stream but will hopefully run in the autumn/ winter when we have rain. It meanders its way down to Nick's pond and as we hoped, this has raised the level considerably and with any luck, despise the weather now being a bit drier, the pond may well get near to full in a few days or so!! It is just fabulous how we are using natural water flow and direction to get our ponds filled. And of course these streams and channels will provide more habitats too. Ephemeral ponds and streams (ones that dry up) are extremely valuable as they never allow any one species to dominate but can provide very nutrient rich environments for animals to feed and breed. Meanwhile, all our ponds are now finished, all NINE of them - ponds seven, eight and nine (in Swallow and Fruit fields) are very different to the others - the soil is very different to that in Oak and Goat, much richer, and as these fields are less sloping, we have ended up with shallower ponds and smaller banks. It will be very interesting to notice the difference in how they are used by the flora and fauna that discovers them.     |