A Happy New Year to all my readers! The exciting news this month is the fact that we have some new animals in the area. On the River Tale, there are two beavers, who have been around for a while, so it looks as though they like it here, and will stay. I haven't seen them myself, but I understand that The Devon Wildlife Trust people are involved, as are the landowners. Beavers have been living on the Otter for some years, so it was only a matter of time that some would move to the tributaries. The other day, I saw lots of fieldfares and some …
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The start of the New Year at Yellingham is always a little bit of a tense time, as we have our annual routine TB test on our cattle. This test is compulsory and is funded by the Government. Our test is always in January and carried out by our local vets. In brief, each animal has two injections, approximately 12cms apart. First the vet will clip 2 small areas where the injection will be made and then measure the thickness of the skin before administering the injection. Avian tuberculin is injected in the top site and bovine tuberculin below. On …
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Hello Everyone Well, we've had some really cold days recently, haven't we? Also, some sunny ones---a bit like winter really! I've noticed that the cold days bring long tailed tits into the garden and on to the feeders. Did you know that on these cold nights, they sometimes roost in large numbers, huddling together to keep warm. Leonard tells me he's seen a red kite, over Colestocks. I hope it stays around. He's also seen a barn owl and three muntjac deer nearby. Christine has lots of fieldfares and redwings in the field near her house. These …
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December has seen the grass disappear and we are now supplementing the in-lamb ewes with hay which they are certainly enjoying. The cattle have started to poach the ground where they have been grazing down in the river field, so they are now up nearer the farmhouse, where again they are enjoying hay. In the next few days we will house them until the weather improves. We bed one of the barns for them but they have access to the yard and can wander in and out to their hearts’ content and can enjoy the sunshine when and if it shines. It won’t be …
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Hello again, it’s good to be back. Well we’ve enjoyed some lovely late summer and autumn weather since my last notes. I can’t remember getting as much sunshine in autumn before. This encouraged the plants to continue flowering very late and we saw butterflies galore. I think the two most common are the most beautiful, i.e. peacocks and red admirals. In our garden we have enjoyed lots of visits from “Woody”, our greater spotted woodpecker, whose lovely colours sparkle in the sunshine. One day, a male greenfinch came, still in his super bright …
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