Thought I would share these few pictures I took the other day on my parents farm, spring is well on it’s way down in Devon and the birds are very busy nesting.
The swallows have returened are are already sitting on eggs, you can just see the tail to the right of the nest. I did not want to get any closer though she is well used to people as the nest is in a passage from the side garden to the utility room.
We also have loads of house martins nesting under the eaves.
On one of the ponds the moorhens are nesting,
We have about 10 pairs most years. Plenty of ducks nesting but I could not find any nests and could not get close to any already hatched!!!
The garden is pretty full too, in the old Indian bean tree there is a wren’s nest, again could not capture mum or dad as they were too fast for me!
In this fir there is a siskin nesting, only about 4 foot of the ground and right next door to the patio.
The owl boxes, 3 in all, are all occupied. Troubl;e is one is occupied by a pair of doves of all things!!!!
The two other boxes do have barn owls and they are sitting on eggs, I did not want to go near them to take a picture though.
We have always had badgers on the farm, currently we have two sets and both have cubs. I did see both parents and cubs but it was very late and no good for my camera, this is the entrance to one of the sets in the side of a banked hedge
But it is not all good news I am afraid, some of you will remember the Kestrel’s that nested last year in one of the barns, well they came back and laid eggs.
5 in all. But the pair have deserted the nest and have not been seen or heard for 2 weeks. We hope they may return for a late brood and I have removed the addled eggs hoping that may help.
And we also have problems with small furry animals. This picture shows the damage rabbits can get up to. This is a field that is rented to another farmer, he moans about the rabbits but does little to control them. In this short section of hedge we have removed over 70 in the past 2 weeks. It is like this around the whole field, about 18 acres. The level of damage runs into the £100’s in this field alone. Controls will continue but it is a non stop battle at this time of the year with all the kits emerging from the nest burrows.
We are also awaiting the results of the RSPB’s environmental survey they have conducted on the farm. This should make good reading I hope!
Jerry
