Two new Wildlife Walks coming up soon:  the first comprised of the Malvern Wildlife group led by Peter Garner, at 2pm on Tuesday 24th May, here at Old Country Farm, WR13 5PS. We will likely wander through the orchards, just coming into blossom, and maybe hear Redstarts and even Lesser-Spots!  Peter will also be considering plants and insects along with the birds of this place, so there will be plenty to marvel at before we return to the farmhouse for refreshments (free, but donations to charity appreciated).

Next, a morning walk around the farm on Saturday, June 4th, at 10.45 am, with Ledbury Naturalists and Worcester Wildlife Trust.  By then, the meadow near the old sand pit should be nearly at its best, the only truly 'unimproved' flowering meadow on the farm.  On the way we may pass beside the large lake remaining from the gravel pits, and maybe glimpse woodpeckers on 'our' side on the dense wet woodland left over from the original sand pit.  I am hoping recent work done here cataloguing fungi in the orchard will be described too.

Please bring stout footwear or wellingtons for the walks, the ground is overgrown and uneven in places, with some steps. We do have parking areas but try to limit the number of cars if you can.

I look forward to seeing you all there!

Monday May 4th, 2015

News of Wildlife walks for this summer - on Saturday 27th June we are having another
 'Baps and Bats' evening, when David Lee will be leading us around the farm buildings and yards and helping us to identify flying bats with his machines.  I look forward to hearing the amazingly addictive up and down sound made by lesser Horse-shoe bats!  We'll meet an hour or so before that, probably around 9pm, for a barbequed snack cooked by Will, meat from Legges lovely shop of course.  Food and event free but donations to local nature charity welcomed.  Please bring a torch and warm clothing, also remember there may be gnats flying!

Before then there's another chance to meet Ben MacDonald (of the BBC One Programme)  who'll be leading a walk through the orchards looking at his ongoing nest-box project and we'll be hearing about his earnest and dogged pursuit of the Lesser-spotted Woodpecker! (and other rare beauties).  The walk will take place on Sunday June 7th, at 2.30pm.  Bring rugged footwear as the grass is uneven. there will be refreshments (free like the walk) after Ben's walk.

Work has been ongoing in the orchards this winter, with many days spent removing mistletoe from apple trees, some of which have been saved by this action.  There are many dead or dying apple trees, mostly relatively recent hybrids, which can't cope with the damp conditions, so we are beginning to replant with older varieties of pears. Unfortunately there are not enough working winters in the year!

Blossom is just coming up to full strength (cider apples are often late flowerers) but very few bees.  We now have much-sprayed new cider orchards belonging to a neighbour on one boundary.

Redstarts are now here, swallows and cuckoo too, a reed-warbler by the sewage ponds, and a duck who nested beneath a rosemary bush outside my kitchen has already hatched her 5 ducklings and taken them off to the pond.  Exciting spring days!

Going Batty in the Woodland!

Anyone walking in our woods last Saturday night might have thought that filming was going on, of a macabre outdoor operating theatre;  serious people with protective clothing and rubber gloves stood around, headlamps glowing, lighting up the tiny specimens which they passed between them, under the gaze of a group of awestruck bystanders.  The experts handled their fragile captives efficiently and kindly, measuring dimensions, recording sex and physical attributes, and attatching minute identification tags.  At first the only remarks to be heard were 'look at that nipple!' or 'this is a big one' and the shrill squeaks and, in one case, screams of the feistier specimens, snapping and showing their sharp teeth and idiosyncratic ears.  This dramatic scenario was explained clearly and entertainingly by David Lee, whose tremendous enthusiasm and knowledge of the subject kept his audience rapt and amused for a good couple of hours.  67 bats from our batboxes had been processed, comprising Bechsteins (with many breeding females),Pipistrelles, and, a first for us here, one large Noctule, who screeched and grumbled throughout, before shuffling grumpily back up his tree and then gracefully winging away.

A wonderful evening's walk and talk, evidence of the dedication of a very special group of people belonging to the Herefordshire Mammal Group.
Unfortunately heavy rain at 10pm meant that the Harp traps had to be taken down, so we don't know what else we might have discovered - but we plan to hold more such evening walks next year.

News about a new Walk to be held here at Old Country Farm, led by
Denise Foster
Bat Co-ordinator, Herefordshire Mammal Group

Old Country Wood is hosting a Bat Experience Evening being run by the Herefordshire Mammal Group (HMG) on Saturday 9th August (19.30 pm till late).  Old Country Wood has a long term bat box scheme of 100 boxes scattered around the wood.  These boxes are currently being used by one of the UK’s rarest bats, Bechstein’s Bats.  A box check during the day will hopefully seek out one or two individuals for us to see in the hand in the evening.   HMG will then be placing traps around the wood to catch other bat species, starting at sunset which is 20.45 hrs.  This bat research  is part of a Herefordshire Woodland Bat Project comparing deciduous woodlands with plantations to determine what species favour each type of woodland and to gauge the amount of bat activity within each wood.    All bats caught will be identified and various biometrics taken for the project.  This is a good opportunity to  experience bats close up which is out of range for most people.

This event is weather permitting.

Next wildlife walk on Saturday June 28th at 2.30pm is 'The breeding habits of Bird of Traditional Orchards'.

  This walk promises to be very interesting indeed and will be led by Ben MacDonald, who has been visiting these orchards for several years to observe and monitor our breeding birds.  Ben is a natural history film-maker, working currently for the BBC's Natural History Unit, having recently worked on Springwatch, The One Show, and various other programmes.  He is extremely excited about our spotted flycatcher population this year!  Please come along for this walk and talk and find out more about the teeming wildlife in our orchards!
Refreshments will be provided after the walk.

A small but enthusiastic group showed up for Gerald's fascinating talk on the botany of marginal areas recently.  We were well supplied with a plant list of 90 different plants, and succeeded in spotting a good many of these, including 'Town Hall Clock', Pignut, Wood-dock, Goldilocks, Mouse-ear Chickweed and Marsh Orchid.  Gerald's erudite researches and humorous style kept us all enthralled so that two hours passed very quickly.  Many thanks also to the members of Ledbury Naturalists and documenters from Bringsty Common for their contributions.  It was quite magical after all the recent cold and rainy weather to dawdle home  through the beautiful 'back meadow', a patch of unspoilt grassland near the old sand-pit, a place thats full of wild-flowers thanks in part to the current management regime.  We all now await Gerald's new book with some impatience!

The next walk is on Thursday evening, 5th June, 6.45 (its going to be fine!) and will be looking at Moths and their habitat.  This is something not to be missed!

The Farm Walks Programme for 2014

Gerald Dawe begins this season's walks programme with 'Botany on the edge', a look at edges, hedges and margins.  I look forward to another helping of Gerald's entertaining humour and knowledge.  The walk is to be held on Saturday 31st May at 2.30pm, with refreshments to follow .

Peter Garner and Tony Simpson will present 'Moths and other Insects and their associated plants' on Thursday June 5th at 6.45pm, a new topic for us when hopefully the evening will provide plenty of airborne examples to examine.

Ben MacDonald, our frequently visiting ornithologist, is to give a walk and talk on the weekend of June 28-29, in which I have no doubt he will speak about his work in our traditional orchards monitoring and observing woodpeckers and other birds, providing them with nest-boxes and subsequently filming them. Exact time of this event to be announced.

In early July we will be holding another 'Bat evening', when we will tour the farm buildings an neighbouring fields with our friendly experts and their machines which translate the bats' calls.
This is a popular event and I can testify that the amazing sound of the Lesser Horseshoe Bat in particular is quite addictive! Will's barbequed sausages are also rather nice!

On 9th August we shall be hosting a day organised by Dave Lee and Denise Foster explaining their work monitoring Bats, to which the public is invited.  This is a rare chance to see not only some interesting mammals and their habitat but to learn from some very dedicated and knowledgeable people. The details will be put up on the blog in due course.

Spring 2014

Its been a strange winter here on the farm - we spent much of the Autumn working on our large traditional apple trees, many of which needed urgent pruning, not only to deal with fallen branches and to improve their shape but to remove the enormous growths of Mistletoe which have taken over as the winters become warmer and wetter. Its even harder work than we remembered! involving straining one's eyes in the winter gloom to identify which branch to cut, stretching up as far as possible while balancing the telescopic saws, trying to stop the debris and sawdust going straight into your eyes, and avoiding the heavy growths as they crash to the ground! Then the gathering up and dragging to bonfire sites at suitable places in the orchards... The plan was to carry on after Xmas but the weather soon saw to that! So we only did about half the necessary work, and missed having the bonfires altogether. However, many birds (dunnock, blackbirds, robins) are very grateful, building early nests in the huge heaps of cuttings! So, no bonfires now until autumn.

The twisted, springy apple branches and fleshy mistletoe are not suitable for chipping - but fallen willows are, and we have laid down a good area of home-made chippings around the Studio as a thick mulch to suppress weeds and provide a nice floor for the picnic area.

Sadly we lost another huge old oak tree in the gales, as well as many older apple trees. Alot of tidying up and replanting to do!

The fence in the orchard behind the Lighthouse had to be replaced, and this time we opted for a cleft chestnut paling fence to divide the grazed orchard from a woodland edge, and were delighted to find it being made by coppice workers locally just outside Bromyard. It was no more expensive than anything I could find online, very strong, and should last a long while. Best of all, it is flexible and so looks beautiful in its setting. If you need nice home-grown and made fencing, look at Say It With Wood. 

Meanwhile dormouse and bat monitoring has continued through the winter and the Herefordshire Mammal Group is planning three special days here this summer, one of which is open to the public. If you'ld like to come along and learn more about the small mammals being studied here, and about how the scheme works, the date is August 9th, and it will be free, with refreshments. More details will be posted on this blog in due course. You'll also find details of upcoming walks in Botany, Insects, Woodpeckers and Bats!

There was good attendance for Peter Garner's Wildlife Walk last month, when we ambled around the old sand pit and adjacent meadows, looking at the more unusual plants to be found on these sandier fields (most of the farm is heavy clay), before ending up in the farm kitchen for refreshments as usual. We found 'Townhall Clock' and also a large patch of Helleborines in the shady woodland in the old pit area. Many small toads (tiny, just developed from their tadpole phase) were observed, one tiny frog!, butterflies of course, although it was evening, and we heard a blackcap singing well. I am very grateful to Peter who has such a detailed knowledge of this area of the farm.

Since then it has been hot - I've been concerned about the trees and damper areas and was pleased to get some rain at last. A Spotted Flycatcher is nesting on my house and I am living peaceably alongside wasp and hornet nests. Just to observe the wasp nest being constructed and organised is awe-inspiring. Young birds are still turning up to the bird table for soaked bread (home-made!) and other left-overs, in particular Robins, Blue-tits, and Hedge-sparrows. A family of tawny owls regularly uses my bedroom balcony rail for their night-time parties and I heard a badger down below in the garden the other night. The wild areas in my garden are a huge success, with birds, bees and butterflies as well as amphibians and even a stoat making use of them. Each year they are cut back down in spring, to grow again such plants as thistle, dock, teazel, vetch, moon-daisy, convolvulus, willow-herb, wild rose, etc. We've added some feverfew, foxgloves and buddleia too. Its so easy! beautiful in flower, and rewarding to watch, even in the winter when the goldfinches and others feast on the seeds. The areas are about 15 foot across and surrounded by short grass which can be easily mown, and offset from each other so creatures can cross from one area to another in peace. I rather enjoy hiding in there myself!

Walking on the Wild Side

Good weather for last Sunday's Wild Plant Walk, (attended by a small but enthusiastic group), when Gerald Dawe discoursed expertly and amusingly on the habits and history of our wild plants. We found many plants which were indicators of ancient woodland, and of course the rare 'Goldilocks' and 'Town Hall Clock' and also 'Pignut'. Even an insignificant short grass or patch of moss is interesting when you look at it closely and consider its staggeringly long history. Since then the weather has remained cold and wet and this morning I was amazed by the sight of a Spotted Flycatcher on the bird table choking down the tit food! We have several pairs of these lovely little birds here this summer, haunting the old buildings and the orchards in their quest for insects. Clearly they are having a hard time this season. The apple blossom itself is very late, and a number of fruit trees look ill, I think the very wet winters have done them no good. Worse still, last week, in the gales, I heard a terrible rending sound and went outside to discover a huge oak tree, apparently healthy and in leaf, had wrenched itself out of the ground and lay across the farm track, fortunately damaging little and hurting nobody! Looking at the roots, we could see they had become rotten, and I speculate that might have happened from compaction around the roots as in the 50's and 60's heavy lorries passed along that track every day to and from the gravel pits. The trunk is huge, an awe-inspiring sight, and sorting it out will be an interesting exercise for Will!

The next Farm Walk will be led by Peter Garner, who has 'naturalised' in these parts for many years, and is entitled 'An Evening Nature Walk', on Thursday, July 4th, at 7pm, with refreshments at the end. I'm particularly looking forward to hearing what Peter has to say about the various habitats to be found here and their importance for certain species.

From Frogs to Flowers in a few short hops!

Nigel Hand's Pond Walk here attracted a good number of people, all keenly interested in how to make and manage ponds for wildlife. We took in three ponds of different types on the farm, some of which need to be given more light, or to have some of their sludge cleared out, so there's more vegetation for the newts. Nigel had kindly brought a good selection of creep-crawlies to aid identification. We also heard some Blackcaps singing well and a lesser-Spot Woodpecker drumming away.

Next event is on Sunday May 26th at 2.30 pm, when Gerald Dawe will lead a walk looking at the botany of the farm. Gerald, who lectures on the subject at Malvern Hills College has led a walk here last year and I know the walk will be both informative and amusing. Home-made cake and coffee/tea will be supplied.

2013

Looking ahead to spring 2013, we have a walk planned on May 5th led by Nigel Hand, looking at reptiles and invertebrates.  Nigel, a true expert on the subject, has led a walk here before, and is Project Officer of the Herefordshire Nature Trust’s Ponds and Newts Heritage Network Project, which is holding a  Pond training day here at the farm  earlier this spring.  I am hoping the weather will warm up so we can see plenty of wriggly and slithery creatures! and enjoy learning about their habitats.  The walk starts here at the farm at 11am.

There will also be another botany walk this year led by Gerald Dawes, author and most entertaining lecturer at Malvern Hills College on local botany, to be held later in May.  Details to be announced.

Heavy rain, cold, and Wimbledon semi-final all conspired to make our bat event on 6th July a very small one!  However the barbeque was enjoyed and we were fortunate enough to hear and see lesser Horseshoe bats in the farm buildings, as well as Pipistrelles and others ( including possibly Serotine?) coasting about near the pond and over the tracks linking the buildings.  The following day I heard that 34 Bechstein bats had been counted by the woodland monitors, and  at the weekend, new guests to the B&B were thrilled to watch the spotted flycatchers bringing food to their nest, and, because it was so cold and I’d put out seed again, also saw woodpeckers, nuthatch and others on the feeders. Now we have yet more swarming  bees, who have decided to live under some eave tiles on the granary roof.  Numbers have appeared in the house, seeming confused and out of sorts, and I wonder if they have been affected by insecticide locally, as it has been proved to upset their homing sense (if it doesn’t kill them altogether).  How  I wish that people when buying their food and drinks would make the connection and insist on crops grown without these sprays – but perhaps our own intellectual faculties are similarly affected, or is it just laziness?

Further walks are planned, possibly another bat walk later in the summer when it is warmer (?), and in the winter we are looking forward to an interesting  and educational morning learning how to prune traditional orchard trees with a view to wildlife, landscape, and productivity, led by Janet Lomas.  I hope to then have the time over the winter months to apply these lessons, though there is plenty of other HLS work to do to hedges and ponds. The Higher Level Stewardship Scheme (HLS) is demanding and the weather can play havoc with our plans! We do our best. The new pond we made this spring is already full of ‘wiggly things’ and several hedges have been protected by new fence lines.  With the help of the AONB we have also planted hedge trees, oaks, and disease-resistant elms which will help maintain important features of the traditional landscape for future generations.

Lovely weather for our walk with Janet Lomas on 9^th June, looking at management of old trees and hedges, and we all enjoyed the afternoon even though very few people turned up!  I suspect most were battling with their own gardens on the first fine day for a while… Janet’s interesting talk was constantly interrupted by the drumming of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker – he who was so elusive on the Orchard Bird Walk! I learnt a lot about pruning and the best shapes for budded trees and we all became more aware of the fascinating paradox of how man-made England’s rural landscape is, and yet how incredibly complex and subtle the connections are in the web of natural life that supports it. We must acknowledge this in our readiness to accept we are on a constantly ascending spiral of knowledge. (Well, I hope so!)

The next event is a Bat and Barbeque Evening, on Friday 6^th July, starting at 8.30 pm until after dark (bats stay up late!)  Ste West will be leading this with the expert help of David Lee, and we will be able to identify plenty of bats on some clever machines.  The event is Free, although a donation would be welcome in respect of the barbeque food.

Recent monitoring of bats here has revealed  the continued presence of Bechstein bats (see picture), as well as dormice who keep turning up in the boxes!  More dormouse monitoring in the old Sandpit has just begun – it will be exciting to see if any live there.  The Sandpit is an interesting area, worked for sand and gravel in the 50’s/60’s,  which now presents several large, shallow pools in a deep hollow, shrouded by willows of all persuasions, alders and rushes.  Dragonflies are notable here and we hope to attract some funding to coppice some areas to allow more light in. On the recent Botany walk we found ‘Goldilocks’ and ‘Townhall Clock’, two less common species of plant, as we filed along the footpath along its perimiter.  To the North the surrounding grassland is very unspoilt and species-rich, necessitating a special management regime.  Thank goodness for helpful cows!!

But as well as being thankful for cows, I must record here my gratitude and appreciation of all those who contribute to this special place, observing and monitoring ( and wobbling up and down ladders in wet prickly woods all day is a labour of love!), sharing knowledge and skills, and just tirelessly turning to and getting down to the jobs that need doing.  Thankyou all very much, everyone - I'm sure you all know who you are (well I should hope so otherwise how can you tell bats apart!) and I'm so pleased that we are gradually building up a better picture of what lives here and how we can care for it. And I very much appreciate the interest and enthusiasm of our visitors, holiday people and locals too.

To end - yesterday evening my son and I spent a few hours helping a local friend collect two swarms of bees here - much more exciting than watching the match!!!

Last weekends walks were hugely successful despite low temperatures - hard to remember now we're enjoying summer warmth!  On our Bird walk we not only heard lots of birds, thanks to Simon Barker, (who is soon to publish the reults of his studies of Orchard Birds),  but found evidence of the Noble Chafer Beetle, and tucked into Legges' famous local sausages for breakfast.  And on the Botany Walk we were all immensely entertained by Gerald Dawes,  by the description of the chemical properties belonging to various plants (including some rare ones) and the statistics describing their 'movements', ending up in the farm kitchen consuming coffee and cake and discussing nearly every subject under the sun!  Next walk is about the management of orchard trees and hedges, led by Janet Lomas, on June 9th at 2.30pm.  There will be a cuppa and home-made cake afterwards.
Now I'm back to B&B and letting the Lighthouse - we have our usual interesting mix of tenants and guests : orchestral players (playing at the Three Choirs festival), internatonal furniture makers and woodworkers (doing a course near here with Gudrun Leitz in the woods), an American professor pioneering radical new surgical techniques, puppeteers, cider makers, and people just 'in passing' up and down the country. In between whiles I slink out to the veg garden and water my seedlings or do some much needed weeding! The cuckoo is singing well and our younger swallows have now joined us, somewhat later than their parents, though I don't think they are old enough to nest this year. All the various roses here are about to flower: Cecil Brunner, a tiny noisette rose which is at least 50 years old, as is 'Gloire de Dijon',  'Breath of Life', planted by a former partner of mine, on the farmhouse walls, and  'Graham Thomas','Malvern Hills', and 'Pegasus' up at the Lighthouse, where they fulfil a dual purpose of shielding the interior from overhead rays from the sun, with 'Grace' and 'Lady Emma Hamilton' as shrub roses, providing shelter from the road. How I enjoy the seasons!

Heavy rain caused our Bird Walk led by Simon Barker to be postponed to Saturday, May 19th, at 8am (with breakfast afterwards). Its a treat worth waiting for.  The following day we have a new topic:  Botany, led by Gerald Dawes, which I am also really looking forward to, as I know less about plants than birds, despite having grown up with two plantspeople!  Gerald knows a great deal about our local botany, and has also written persuasively about the role of the plant world  in 'green places' in our own lives and health from an holistic, yet scientific, viewpoint. Come and learn about our plant life here on Sunday 20th May at 11 am!

28th April, 2012

Getting ready for our first Farm Walk of the year, tomorrow morning : 'Discovering the Birds of Traditional Orchards', led by Simon Barker, who works for the National Trust and has visited these orchards often. The weather is not good and it looks as though the whole thing may have to be called off!  This is a great shame as several people have been very kind in helping me to publicise these walks, and there looked to be a good turnout.  We were to have learnt about redstarts, woodpeckers (including the smaller spotted), blackcaps, garden warblers and nightingales.
These walks are held as a result of us joining the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme, which gives us a basic payment towards hosting them and allows the public to get a better idea of what it does and what we do here. There is to be a walk on the Botany of the farm on 20th May, 11 am, led by Gerald Dawe,  and another on caring for hedges and orchards on 9th June, led by Janet Lomas.  Later in the year there will be our usual Bat evening, with barbeque, which is always enjoyable.