Storm Henk wreaked damage dumping massive amounts of rain on already swamped ground and bringing down a Payhembury landmark. We have lost the dead tree which was in our bog garden. It was there before we moved in over 8 years ago and we have no idea what species it was. Many people have asked over the years why I did not simply cut it down but I loved that tree. It was a perch for owls and woodpeckers but has now been sawn up and left to rot further to become home to many more beetles.
New additions to the parish database of flora and fauna continue albeit at a slower pace but this year I want to learn more about our trees I need your help. The late Angus Forbes of Cokesputt wrote an update for the Payhembury Millennium Book in which he mentioned a tree survey carried out in the early 1990s. Does anyone have any idea if a copy of this still exists, as I would dearly love to see it and I feel that such a document should not be lost forever?
One of my fondest wintertime memories from when I was young was the haunting call of curlews echoing across the marsh late into the night. They could be heard from several miles away but, alas, I rarely hear them these days, as they have become, it is said, a casualty of changing farm practices, land use and, dare I say it, disturbance from a burgeoning human population and where once these birds were common and plentiful, they are now red-listed, or in other words at risk of extinction. We have lost half of our breeding pairs in the past 20 years alone and the UK holds about a quarter of the world’s total population.
Last autumn the dynamics on our bird feeders changed dramatically. In past winters goldfinches were in the majority with upwards of a dozen at peak times, most deserted us for feeders anew and have been replaced by numerous tit families. The goldfinches were always feisty and territorial, seeing off many larger birds which had the temerity to disturb their feeding frenzies and they were greedy little beggars. There were still an odd few turning up but in nowhere near the same numbers and I suppose I should not complain too much because I have saved a small fortune, as in previous winters I had to refill their feeders at least once a day. Then, in early January the word must have got out and back they came, with up to a dozen or more at any one time.