Eco Lodges in Devon
Rain or shine (well, you’re going to get wet anyway…) the inflatables or wake boarding at the North Devon Wake Park are great fun for kids and adults.
Continue reading “Make a Splash at the North Devon Wake Park”
Some of Wheatland Farm’s summer flowers are starting to go over – but not these ones on the side of Balebarn Lodge.
Continue reading “Beer Can Flowers”
Sometimes not everyone on holiday wants to do the same thing. Sometimes kids are growing up and want a bit more space. So we thought we’d ask the boys to do a series of short videos about their independent Devon days out. Here, they go into Exeter to the cinema.
Continue reading “An Independent Trip Into Exeter”
We’ve been noticing for a while that we could be buying cheaper and apparently just as green power elsewhere, so why do we stick with Good Energy?
Continue reading “Good Green Energy For Our Eco Lodges”
We’ve been down to the woods to bake some bread – in a campfire oven.
Continue reading “Making bread in a campfire oven”
Stretch those wings! A brimstone emerges from its chrysalis by Nuthatch Lodge at Wheatland Farm.
Continue reading “Brimstone butterfly emerges”
Emerald damselflies start emerging in July and will be flying around the ponds at Wheatland Farm until about the end of August – maybe into September.
Continue reading “First Emerald Damselfly of Summer”
We spotted this stunning marbled white butterfly in front of Balebarn Lodge this morning. We think this is a male. We’d rather it was a female so we got some more butterflies… So here’s to hoping he finds a mate.
Continue reading “Marbled White Butterfly”
We promise this clip isn’t speeded up! The peacock butterfly caterpillars are munching their way through the nettles near the Wheatland Farm wildlife pond. Soon we’ll have fresh adults flying in the lodge field.
Continue reading “Peacock butterfly caterpillars munching nettles”
Each sunny morning, more poppies flower by the Wheatland Farmhouse, and the bumblebees seem to be almost drunk with delight! The buzz in this video clip is the glorious sound of our Devon summer.
Continue reading “Bumblebees Revelling In Poppy Pollen”
It was a last minute decision – a late afternoon walk on Dartmoor, an overnight bivvy, and back to Wheatland Farm in time for morning coffee.
Continue reading “#30DaysWild No. 30 Wild camping on Dartmoor”
#30DaysWild No. 29. We might have been too successful in attracting wildlife to the lodges. We bought these little alder buckthorn plants because the larvae of brimstone butterflies eat them, and we wanted more butterflies at Wheatland Farm.
Continue reading “#30DaysWild No. 29 Caterpillars are out-pacing plant growth!”
This is one of the scrapes we dug last year. They’re still muddy, and it will be a while before they bursting their banks with tall reeds, but already they are attracting 6 species of dragon- and damselflies, as well as supporting baby frogs.
Continue reading “#30DaysWild No. 28. More than just a puddle”
Today’s #30DaysWild moment was to post this fabulously green beetle creature on facebook.
Continue reading “#30DaysWild No. 27: Little Green Bug”
#30DaysWild No. 26. Today was #TheTimeIsNo mass lobby of MPs in Westminster. Organised by a coalition of major charities, including WWF, RSPB, The Wildlife Trusts, Woodland Trust, several faith-based development charities etc etc, it called for strong action on the twin issues of climate change and nature recovery. We felt we had to be part of it.
Continue reading “#TheTimeIsNow and #30DaysWild No. 26”
#30DaysWild No. 25 Today’s action for nature is to learn from others – Ian is attending a workshop on managing soft rush at Rose Ash Farm, run by Cyril Cole.
Continue reading “#30DaysWild No. 25 Learning from Devon farmers”
They weren’t here yesterday, but they are today: painted lady butterflies. At least ten are fluttering around the Wheatland Farm wildlife pond.
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#30DaysWild No. 23. Sometimes it rains. Well, it has to. Even in Devon. So we wait, like this bumblebee. At least the plants are getting watered and the ponds topped up.
Continue reading “#30DaysWild No. 23 Waiting out the rain”
Another spectacular day – and another ‘new for the summer’ butterfly at Wheatland Farm. Small tortoiseshell are flying over Popehouse Moor.
Continue reading “#30DaysWild No. 22 Summer is about butterflies”
#30DaysWild No. 21 and it’s the longest day. So at Wheatland Farm we’re celebrating the roses of the summer – the wild ones. Happy Solstice!
Continue reading “#30DaysWild. No. 21 Happy Summer Solstice!”
Today’s #30DaysWild random act of wildness was to spend 10 minutes looking for bumblebees on the marsh thistles around Wheatland Farm’s wildlife pond. We found garden, red tailed, tree, white/buff tailed bumblebees. But what is this?
Continue reading “#30DaysWild No. 20. Ten minutes of bumblebee watching”
#30DaysWild No. 19 a ‘training day’ for the Devon Countryside Access Forum took Maggie to Devon’s new Pegasus Trail.
Continue reading “#30DaysWild No. 19 Exploring the Pegasus Trail”
#30DaysWild No. 18. Today’s wildness was to spend a few moments with the cows. Agricultural rather than wild, you might think, but they are doing a valuable conservation job for us at Wheatland Farm.
Continue reading “#30DaysWild No. 18 Visiting the Cows”
#30DaysWild What a creature! Probably a dark bush cricket. Look closely and you’ll see it’s a bit damp, having been rescued from a hot tub by Balebarn Lodge. Random Act of Wildness No. 17.
Continue reading “#30DaysWild No. 17 A rescued cricket”
#30DaysWild No. 16. Yep, the teasels we planted out a year ago today have certainly grown.
Continue reading “#30DaysWild No. 16 My, haven’t you grown”Hmmm. No flies, no swallows or other insectivorous birds. So bearing that in mind, we’re delighted to have the start of a ‘fly list’ for Wheatland Farm and Popehouse Moor SSSI, courtesy Rob Wolton and the Devonshire Association, who visited recently.
It will sit alongside our flower list, for Popehouse Moor, started in 2009.
Rob found a southern yellow splinter cranefly (Lipsothrix nervosa). It’s not an especially pretty species, but is rather scarce, found in the UK and one other European country. Their larvae need saturated deadwood under a woodland canopy – and preferably quite large bits of wood at that. Allowing dead wood to lie where it falls, and leaving woody debris in the really wet bits of Popehouse Moor should help.
Rob found a hoverfly that parasitises ant nests, Microdon myrmicae, and that has its national stronghold on Culm Grasslands. He also found a kind of robber fly (this group are sometimes called assassin flies because they are ruthlessly predatory). The species found here was Leptarthrus brevirostris.
Rob’s fly list for Popehouse Moor SSSI is as follows:
| Anthomyia liturata |
| Chirosia cinerosa |
| Delia platura |
| Delia radicum |
| Pegoplata aestiva |
| Pegoplata infirma |
| Leptarthrus brevirostris |
| Pollenia angustigena |
| Clusiodes albimanus |
| Campsicnemus curvipes |
| Campsicnemus loripes |
| Dolichopus pennatus |
| Dolichopus picipes |
| Dolichopus plumipes |
| Dolichopus simplex |
| Dolichopus ungulatus |
| Gymnopternus aerosus |
| Gymnopternus cupreus |
| Gymnopternus metallicus |
| Rhaphium appendiculatum |
| Rhaphium monotrichum |
| Syntormon aulicus |
| Syntormon sulcipes |
| Clinocera fontinalis |
| Dolichocephala oblongoguttata |
| Empis pennipes |
| Hilara cornicula |
| Phyllodromia melanocephala |
| Rhamphomyia tibiella |
| Fannia armata |
| Fannia similis |
| Suillia bicolor |
| Meiosimyza affinis |
| Meiosimyza rorida |
| Minettia longipennis |
| Tricholauxania praeusta |
| Austrolimnophila ochracea |
| Dicranomyia autumnalis |
| Dicranomyia fusca |
| Erioptera fusculenta |
| Euphylidorea aperta |
| Helius flavus |
| Helius longirostris |
| Lipsothrix nervosa |
| Lipsothrix remota |
| Molophilus appendiculatus |
| Molophilus medius |
| Neolimnomyia filata |
| Ormosia nodulosa |
| Phylidorea fulvonervosa |
| Pseudolimnophila sepium |
| Azelia zetterstedtii |
| Eudasyphora cyanella |
| Haematobosca stimulans |
| Hydrotaea albipuncta |
| Musca autumnalis |
| Mydaea urbana |
| Myospila meditabunda |
| Phaonia incana |
| Phaonia pallida |
| Thricops semicinereus |
| Geomyza tripunctata |
| Opomyza germinationis |
| Chrysopilus cristatus |
| Rhagio scolopaceus |
| Sarcophaga sinuata |
| Scathophaga stercoraria |
| Renocera pallida |
| Sepsis fulgens |
| Cheilosia albitarsis sens. str. |
| Cheilosia variabilis |
| Chrysogaster solstitialis |
| Eristalis arbustorum |
| Eristalis pertinax |
| Helophilus pendulus |
| Melanogaster hirtella |
| Microdon myrmicae |
| Orthonevra nobilis |
| Platycheirus rosarum |
| Rhingia campestris |
| Sericomyia silentis |
| Syritta pipiens |
| Syrphus ribesii |
| Volucella bombylans |
| Volucella pellucens |
| Dufouria nigrita |
| Lydella stabulans |
| Nephrotoma quadrifaria |
| Tipula oleracea |
Additionally, these species were found around the main wildflower pond at Wheatland Farm:
| Botanophila striolata |
| Sicus ferrugineus |
| Sapromyza quadripunctata |
| Lonchoptera bifurcata |
| Anasimyia contracta |
| Lydella stabulans |
It’s Saturday, and that means lodge cleaning – but it’s so easy to be distracted by the birds on Honeysuckle Lodge veranda!
Continue reading “#30DaysWild No 15 Distracted by baby blue tits!”
#30DaysWild No. 14 When exam season is nearly over….
Or is this the look for tomorrow morning?
Either way, the picture says it all.
#30DaysWild No. 13. We were going to picture the bedraggled bumblebee we fished out the of the little ponds near Balebarn Eco Lodge, but this male banded demoiselle we spotted nearby is so much smarter!
Our favourite blackbird is so familiar she asks for food now…
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