http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/natureblog.html Wildlife and conservation news from our Devon Farm and SSSI Nature Reserve http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogdaffodil10.html The end of February, and a daffodil is showing it's sunny face - plus a shield bug and a pretty pink fungus.... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogsnowdrop10.html Finally the snow drops are properly out! I'd been looking for weeks, reading reports from elsewhere, but ours were just buds and didn't really count. Then suddenly, on about 4 Feb, they were all up and open where the day before there had just been the promise... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogsnow10.html I thought last February's snow was Devon's dose for the next 10 years, but no. The children are off school, we built a bigger better igloo, and of course took lots of photos... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blognewyear10.html Happy New Year! Beautiful sunny morning here in Devon. Resolutions? Loads! Do some more hedging around the farm Grow more vegetables Make our house more of a home and less of a battle camp Join the 10 percent in 2010 campaign - that'll be a bit of a challenge as we've already cut hard Take over all the admin, leaving Ian more time to build the new low-carbon lodge Stop calling Popehouse Moor 'the nature reserve' in recognition that all the farm is managed for wildlife and 3 years work is now paying off - guests left this morning, enthusing about watching the barn owl hunt in front of the lodges, catch something, almost lose it to a sparrowhawk, but break free with its meal... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogmidwinter.html The shortest day, and with a dusting of snow... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogdecembertree.html Some winter sunshine, an inquisitive robin, and another of our mature trees... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogtreeoclock.html Two hundred new trees - part of the BBC's tree o'clock world record attempt for planting trees in an hour. Thanks to North Devon Biosphere Reserve... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogbarnowlvideo.html Some video footage. Poor light but still beautiful as the barn owl hunts over the field and comes really close, ignoring me on the lodge balcony... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogbarnowl.html Finally I get to see the barn owl that has been hunting the lodge field in recent evenings - but in daylight... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blognovemberwood.html November, a great time to admire the elegant 'bones' of trees... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogautumn.html It's autumn proper now, with tawny leaves against (sometimes) blue skies. Flocks of finches in the garden, late red admiral butterflies braving the bluster in search of fallen apples, and mushrooms and toadstools amongst the damp leaf litter... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/bloglatedragons.html Grabbing the opportunity to go looking for wildlife in the sunshine... Golden ringed dragonflies, common darters, fat caterpillars and speckled wood butterflies...... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogkettle.html A chance just to enjoy it all... butterflies, autumn toadstools, and a cup of tea brewed outside... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogflailing.html Time to flail our ungrazed grass and start scrub bashing... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/bloghedgehog.html A hedgehog in the garden, only the second time we've seen one. Muttley found this one and sent it into a ball, from which is us just emerging here... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/bloglateswallowupdate.html The five baby swallows from a late brood in the workshop are out of the nest and perched on a beam, waiting to be fed by their tireless parents... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/bloghoney09.html The couple of jars of honey we've just harvested might not seem much, but considering the problems the hive had in the spring we are delighted... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/bloglateswallowbrood.html It is 24 August but these swallows look almost newly hatched. Will they fledge in time to head south? The cows are back again for the end of the summer, and does anyone recognise this caterpillar?... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogculmgrazing09.html ...the other side of the fence. The cows did their bit, or should that be bite? We let them into the second section of Popehouse Moor from 23 Jul, but by 3 August they'd eaten all that was easy, and started looking for greener pastures. And that revealed another weekness in the fencing ... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogdragonsdamsels.html The dragonflies and damselflies are out in force, patrolling up and down the banks of the ponds mostly but also to be found over the meadows... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blog09grazing.html We've moved the cows onto Popehouse Moor to start their summer grazing. It might be a bit early, but we need to make sure it happens this year... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogflowersurvey.html Many thanks to the botanists who have updated the flowering plant survey for Popehouse Moor - the last one was from 22 years ago... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogexbatts.html George is looking after the new hens, hopefully learning a bit about how to treat animals that feed us. In return he gets to sell the eggs... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogcloverlawn.html We've got an accidental clover lawn. The bees are loving it. So was it the cutting regime or last summer's lousy weather... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogcountingcows.html The cows are back, ready to graze our culm grassland nature reserve in a few weeks time. But for now I'm wondering how hard to graze the big field... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogtyreingwork.html Thanks to the Westbury squash club mob for their hard work, this time removing more tyres from trees that are slowly being strangled... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogbeesdoingwell.html Good news, the bees seem to be recovering. Local bee keeper Rashid came again to look through the hive with Ian, and although they didn't spot the queen there was brood there... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogcollectingwood.html Today was the day to collect our Norway spruce timber from Mike Moser, having seen it milled ourselves in the oak woodland he is restoring at nearby Week... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogbluebutterflyandegg.html This common blue butterfly was so accommodating I wonder whether it had just emerged... And we've another blackbird nest. In the woodshed this time, so no more chainsawing for a while... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogheathspotted09.html The heath spotted orchids are coming into flower on Popehouse Moor, and of course we have painted ladies, part of this year's mass migration... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogblogbean.html This is one of the plants I've been waiting for - a bog bean, so called because its leaves look like broadbean seedlings when they first appear... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogblackbirdnest.html I've been meaning to chop down our monstrous pampas grass for months. I held off just incase there was a dormouse hibernating in there. But when we finally got out the shears we were foiled again - a blackbird has taken up residence and has a fine brood... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogbeeboost.html Our single hive has been petering out because of a drone laying queen. But kind souls from the North Devon beekeeping association have given Ian brood cells and workers to rescue the colony... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogbluell09.html Bluebells are just coming out in the woodland part of Popehouse Moor SSSI, and Simon Berry from the Devon Wildlife Trust came to advise us about this year's grazing... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogbeesandflowers.html Spring flowers are gathering pace, and I've managed to snap the bees near Ian's workshop. Can anyone help me identify them - my tentative guess is the flower bee, Anthophora plumipes... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogdormousebox.html Last weekend it was time to clean out the nest boxes before the dormice wake up for the summer (about May probably). This is one of last year's nests... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogfirstswallow.html I've seen the first swallow of the year swooping low over farm buildings near here... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogviolet.html Violets are blooming around a gatepost, willow catkins are everywhere, but unfortunately there's a problem with Ian's bees - a drone laying queen... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogvoleandpeacock.html Three short tailed voles in a nest, and the first butterfly of the year - a peacock just out of hibernation... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogfrogspawn.html There's frogspawn in the smallest pond. Some has hatched but it doesn't seem to be surviving too well... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogbeecampaign.html It's a week to bee friendly and plant early flowers... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogsustainabletimber.html We're delighted to have found not just a sustainble and very local source of timber, but one that is helping restore Devon's ancient oak woodlands... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogswaling09.html We swaled (burnt) part of our nature reserve today, but the flames didn't really catch. At least the dormice will be happy though... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogspringcoming.html Spring is on the move now at our Devon farm, with deer, a hare, and was that a jack snipe... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogmoresnow.html I was wrong about the couple of days bit... Here are some more snowy pictures, looking towards Winkleigh Wood and the ponds etc. The children even had enough snow to make an igloo... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogsnow.html It's not often snowy here - at least it hasn't been in recent years, though Andrew at the farm shop tells tales of being snowed in for 2 weeks. This time it looks like there's just a couple of days to take some winter pictures... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogbettertaste.html It's official - you are what you eat, and a cow grazing a plant-rich pasture tastes better when it gets to the plate. That's the findings of a study led by Henry Buller from Exeter University... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogfirstflowers.html I've got to post a big picture because it's big news to me! The first snowdrop. Spring must be somewhere on the march http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogwintertopping.html The cold snap gave Andrew from the farm shop enough time to nip over with the hay cutter and cut the grass - it has been on the to do list since the summer but the ground has been too wet to take the weight of a tractor. Why bother this late? We're cutting and removing the grass to help deplete the nutrients in the field - and so encourage wild flowers. That's the long term goal. But I also want to sow some yellow rattle, which is hemi-parasitic on grass... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogcoldsnap.html Tomorrow might see the last of the cold for a while - it has already risen to 5 deg outside. But this morning was one of the most spectacular mornings I've seen here. The frosted angelica heads always catch my eye... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogfrost.html Still very cold,almost cold enough to walk on the pond. I wonder how the kingfisher will fare? Probably it will leave for flowing water. All the robins are puffed up against the cold... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blognewyear.html Snow drops are pushing up to welcome in the New Year. Season's greetings everyone... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogtreerescue.html We've finally found a way to rescue our now mature trees from the tyres put round them when they were planted... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogfrostymolinia.html The frost brings out the best in Purple moor grass... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogmysteryjelly.html Does anyone know what this strange jelly might be? http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/bloglatebees.html November isn't known for its sunshine, and we've had our fair share of grey. But when the sun comes out, so do Ian's bees, heading straight for the ivy, flowering on the old barn. You can see the bulging yellow pollen sacks on the legs of the bee in the photo.... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/bloghayroad.html We decided we needed to do something to counter the mud from the pond reshaping, so we've laid a hay road down to Popehouse Moor nature reserve... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogmagicpond.html Thanks to all who helped us get light back into this lovely woodland pond last weekend.... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogadmiralcomma.html It may be autumn, but red admirals, commas, specked wood butterflies and even dragonflies are still flying... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/bloggloriousmud.html The digger has arrived to re-shape the lake, reinforcing the dam and creating new wetland areas... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogsummerintoautumn.html The summer has slipped by,but the flowers are still out, and here's a colourful moth larvae I found crawling across the greenhouse a while back... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blognewpond.html We've started on our next project,reshaping the big pond. And it began with trying to give away some of the fish. Neither the shape of the pond nor the carp in it are good for wildlife. The shape doesn't give enough variation in depths, and the carp, being bottom feeders, dig around, uprooting plants and stirring up the silt. The plan is to reshape the pond in the early autumn, and turn more of the field over to wetland, with wet scrapes, shallow and deep open water, and maybe a kingfisher bank (that glorious flash of turquoise is back again)... http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogbetonybirdsfoot.html The July flowers are coming now. Bird's foot trefoil is blossoming amongst the long grass and betony is peeping through. Gargling with wine and a betony decotion is said to alleviate toothache. I think I'd stick to the wine myself. http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/bloggrowinggoslings.html I couldn't resist some more gosling pictures. Every evening the geese wander up the mown path from the big pond to take it easy and crop the short turf around the top pond, by Otter Cottage. They're not quite so golden now, but are beginning to be more elegant. http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/bloggreenhairstreak.html I think everything must be just about as green as it's going to get now. The shorter grassland is studded with heath spotted orchids, and many butterflies are out - including this green one. Well, the undersides of it's wings are green and that's what you see when it's at rest. It's a green hairstreak. http://www.wheatlandfarm.co.uk/blogscrubbashprogress.html Pictures of Popehouse Moor SSSI before the scrub bashing day in January) and its recovery - up to May 2008