Life in the valley, now that springtime is here (From Gazette & Herald)

Life in the valley, now that springtime is here

LODGE Farm is a fascinating place in the early spring in every aspect. Our valley, as well as being an intensive dairy farm, is also home to many forms of wildlife.

With woods all around us, and streams flowing through the valley floor, we have the conditions which most birds and animals love.

Unlike most farms, we don't have a cat and this, combined with a wife who loves birds and is prepared to feed them every day, means that our garden is like a magnet to them.

I have just as great an interest in water and ponds so, at springtime, the farm is full of preparations for new life in every way.

As I write, with the daffodils and violets all in full bloom and the larch coming into leaf, there is already the promise that summer is on the way. Most of the birds seem to have come to that conclusion, too, and are beginning to pair up.

It has been fascinating this year for both of us to see, for the first time, what seems to me to be the pre-nuptial gathering together of flocks of our birds prior to pairing up and the subsequent mating.

We noticed this for the first time with the geese who arrived in a noisy flock one morning a few weeks ago. After a few days, when courtship was obviously very much on their minds, the flock split up into pairs and began staking their claims for nesting sites around the ponds.

By this time, of course, the mallards were already paired up and they will no doubt have begun to lay the first eggs of the season.

Already a carrion crow has taken post in a tree near one of the ponds, as if she is watching the duck to discover the whereabouts of her nest in order to begin to steal eggs just as soon as they are laid. The first evidence we have that the ducks are laying is the sight of broken eggshells on the banks of the pond.

The next birds to flock were the magpies, and Pat was fascinated to watch this happening from our bathroom window one morning. Magpies are not the friendliest of birds, and she noticed the first pair fly into the grass field just a few yards away from the house. This was quickly followed by others, either singly or in pairs, until there were ten, all in one group, who seemed to be having a meeting of some sort.

We have not noticed this again, but two weeks on they are all paired up and scattered around the valley looking for nesting sites. Magpies always build their nests in low trees or bushes and always seem to like a place where they can keep a careful eye out for intruders. The carrion crow has very similar habits and is just as wary.

Next, it was the turn of the blackbirds, and instead of our normal two or three cocks and the occasional hen bird, there were at least a dozen of both sexes all milling around the garden. Today, the blackbird population is much reduced, just three cocks now waiting on the lawn every morning, all watching for the front door to open when Pat takes their food out at breakfast time. The hens must have nests now, and be laying, as they only appear much later in the day.

Yesterday, for the first time ever, we had a similar congregation of the tit family in our garden. We normally have about a dozen regular feeders at our bird table at any one time, but there were literally dozens of tits, all milling around the feeder or sitting in the bushes, or even picking crumbs up on the ground. Today, most of them seem to have moved on, no doubt back home with a new mate to look for a nesting site.

Amongst the tits, there is also a pair of tiny gold crests, which are our smallest birds. Gold crests have nested here for many years. Along with their much more spectacular friends, the gold finches, they nest in one of the fir trees in the gardens. The wagtails, too, have arrived again and are beginning to display, outside the house windows or even on a car wing mirror, and cause quite a mess.

Other regular visitors are the cock pheasants, but we never seem to see the hens near the house. One very lame old cock pheasant has been a regular visitor for over two years. He learnt that there was a better selection of food available on the bird table and, after one or two bad landings, found a way to get up on to the top to help himself to the bread crusts which Pat puts out with the rest of the bird food every day.

As well as our normal birds, which frequent most gardens, we also have had what we thought were a pair of nuthatches. They have been with us on and off most of the winter and are quite shy, but, again around the middle of March, the cock bird we have known for most of the winter months had brought a much smaller, but otherwise very similar and much shyer, little bird with him. She fed on crumbs on the floor at the same time he was feeding on the nut feeder and was very timid. She only came with him for a day or two and must also be nesting by now in the wood.

Just as shy, and also an infrequent visitor, is the greater spotted woodpecker who puts in an appearance just now and again.

These are just a few of our birds, which come for food at our bird table. The important ingredient, besides food, seems to be the lack of domestic cats and this is the first time in my lifetime we have been without a cat on our farm.

There certainly were more wild birds around when I was a boy, but we also had a lot more gamekeepers around. They had to keep the vermin under control and there were no anti-blood sports people then.

I see foxes and badgers almost every night when I go round the cows at bedtime. Mink and otters are around the ponds and the stream all the time, and carrion crows quarter the farm in search of food all day. But we also have a lot more walkers with their dogs running wild around the fields too.

The change in the way we farm must be another factor for the changing wildlife scene. But even now, I still leave a few wild corners in the fields for rubbish to grow and for nesting sites as well as having four ponds on the farm with their wild banks and constant running water. We also have a few big hedges, especially for wild fruit for over-wintering feed for the birds, and some sloe bushes because we like sloe gin.

When you get to 70, you realise that life is about living and enjoyment not just making money, and I get more pleasure from watching birds than I ever did from shooting them when I was younger.

This valley must be a paradise for wildlife, but there is also a constant stream of predators, all attracted to the food supply, who take out the weak and the unwary. This is the way of nature.

Good Friday morning, 8.30, a beautiful little roe buck trotted across the field in front of the house, completely unconcerned. Today, I heard about yet another big cat and deer are their food supply.

Updated: 10:47 Wednesday, May 05, 2004