Strange things have been happening on the mothing front with unprecedented low counts. Low night time temperatures doubtless did not help but this does not explain the total absence of so many species. On the last day of June night time temperatures fell for a second night on the trot to really chilly single digits, with a total count of just 7moths, whereas only a week earlier the total had been 150. This is the lowest count for the end of June I have recorded since I first started monitoring moth populations some 15 years ago.
There are, of …
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Paul’s Nature Notes June-July 2022
28 July 2022 By
Paul’s Nature Notes May-June 2022
28 June 2022 By
My plea for help with the birds of the Hembury Fort area has borne fruit. David Wall, who lives in Tiverton, has been carrying out breeding bird surveys there for the past 25 years and was incredibly kind enough to share his data with me. What a fascinating insight his records offer to the state of our local birds. For those of you who may not know what a breeding bird survey is, this is carried out twice a year about a month apart in the spring walking two 1km lines and involves recording the number of birds of each species seen. It is true …
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Paul’s Nature Notes – May 2022
28 May 2022 By
At a recent parish council meeting a few of us were treated to an intriguing talk about the Poffit Lane Rewilding Project. Now, like many others I have heard about herbal leys but had never actually seen any. What an incredible rich habitat they create, an absolute haven for insect and birdlife and when cut the fodder provides a far superior food source for the cattle that feed on it. The use of flails on most of the hedgerows will now be curtailed, which means that the hedges should thicken out and grow upwards, again to the benefit of all the …
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Paul’s Nature Notes March-April 2022
28 April 2022 By
For me this winter has been cold and, at times, quite wet and so it has been a welcome relief to have become involved with recording the flora and fauna of our parish. The first step was to obtain an up to date parish map and then familiarise myself with where exactly the boundaries lay and to track down several lanes and footpaths with which I am unfamiliar.
Did you know that there are three very special ‘heritage’ things associated with Payhembury: the Payhembury Window, the Payhembury Cider Apple and the Payhembury Daffodil? As the …
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Yellingham Farm – April 2022
28 April 2022 By
Every month is a special month in the farming calendar, but May is one of the months for reflection on the early Spring months and the outcome of weeks of lambing and yet excitement about what the summer months will bring – lots of which is weather dependent.
Lambing went particularly well this year and for the first year for a very long time, there is not one lamb on the bottle – yes, a relief! Mind you, it is lovely when my B and B guests get to bottle feed lambs which they thoroughly enjoy. However, for my sheepdog Nell, bottle fed lambs …
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Paul’s Nature Notes February-March 2022
28 March 2022 By
After the drama of the February storms we were left to clear up the debris – felt needed replacing on sheds, but despite the battering the trees took thankfully none were uprooted. It was an incredible sight to watch massive tree trunks swaying about in the stronger gusts. A few branches did come down and once dried out will make excellent kindling.
Whilst on the subject of trees we have been offsetting our carbon footprint by planting crack willow and alder along the stream, hoping that they will help stabilise the banks but also provide a …
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Paul’s Nature Notes January-February 2022
28 February 2022 By
Will there ever be any let up from all this Covid? It has made for some quite miserable times, especially the unrelenting way in which it is reported upon by the media, but another new year brings with it hope for the future. There are many feel good factors in life for me to fall back on and two of my favourites are the sight of our spreading Japanese flowering cherry tree in the spring and the autumnal colours of our trees. Both are ephemeral, lasting at their very best for such a short time, but what enormous pleasure they bring. Now, as …
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Paul’s Nature Notes Dec 2021-Jan 2022
28 January 2022 By
My moth recording activities always ease up when the night-time temperatures fall close to freezing but when a few warmer nights are forecast I turn the light on again. I am always surprised just how many species survive in wintery conditions – feathered thorns, December moths and the aptly named winter moth to name just a few. Even some of the tiny micro moths can emerge from hibernation, talking of which I have discovered a hibernating hedgehog in the front garden, curled up tight in a pile of dead leaves.
Like so many other people, climate …
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Yellingham Farm – January 2022
28 January 2022 By
It’s nearing that wonderful time of the year…. lambing. By the time you read this we will be approaching March the 2nd which is D day. How do we calculate D Day? Well, it all depends on when you put your rams in. There are lots of different theories, but I go by the one I have always trusted, and which works for me. Put the rams in and 147 days later is the first day that you can expect lambs. But for all of you ladies that are reading this, you know that nature in the end takes its course. We lamb indoors because I find I can control matters …
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Paul’s Nature Notes November-December 2021
4 January 2022 By
There is much talk these days about rewilding, but this word appears to mean different things to different people. Whilst I cannot compete with what has happened in West Sussex, one of their ideas is to let hedgerows grow not necessarily taller but thicker, and this seems like a great idea. I am certainly not going to introduce pigs, cattle or deer, neither am I going to embrace the idea of not cutting our lawn. Who wants a lawn full of daisies and dandelions, however good they may be for insects. No, I am going to continue concentrating on …
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