September is such a positive, exciting month for us here at Yellingham. The weather continues to be good – hence the B and B is still thriving, but importantly for us it is the start of a new sheep year. This year’s lambs are not fattening as quick as we would like due to the continuing lack of rain and hence grass growth – hard feed and hay are still very much on the menu for them all.  But for the ewes and rams, it is a time of selection, culling and the purchase of new rams. For some sheep farmers, this task is well underway or even done and …
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Amelia & Dan were thrilled to see their first ever Hummingbird Hawk-moth along the lane, a moment that will stay with them both for a long time. I still remember my first sighting on a Greek island. They are such awesome insects. Did you hear about the eviction of the house martins? Last year a pair built a nest right at the end of the season, only to be evicted by our local thuggish house sparrows, which did not want to lay eggs, merely preferring it as a singing perch. This spring the martins returned and repaired the nest, only to be …
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I first met Alan shortly after we moved to the village and immediately recognised a kindred spirit: we shared a passionate love for nature in all its forms. I met up with Margaret shortly before his funeral, when she explained to me that he wanted his Nature Notes to continue and, when she asked me if I would take on Alan’s role, I was very happy to agree, indeed I felt privileged. As Alan’s life ebbed away, it was replaced with a huge surge in bird numbers. Over a period of three days in June fourteen different families fledged in the …
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Winter scene in the middle of July – hay rack, troughs and no grass With the shearing all completed last month, the next main sheep task was to give the dear ewes a complete break from their ever demanding lambs. The lambs have been on their mums for at least 4 months and with some of the lambs growing to be really large, it was time to wean them. We always try to wean them at a time when we can put the ewes onto a field where we have cut hay, or where the grass is not in abundance – this is so the ewes milk dries up as quickly as possible. …
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