Two months of summer wildlife highlights in two minutes of video
Updated: Oct 27, 2020
It's been nearly two months since my last post, so I thought the fastest way to summarize what has been happening on the farm from a wildlife perspective would be to put a two minute video clip together (scroll to the end to avoid the blurb!)
As the migratory birds start to depart to their wintering grounds (the swifts have already gone), the continuous passage of young warblers, flycatchers, swallows, martins and swifts serves as a reminder of how productive the summer months can be. Although the butterflies and bumblebees have passed their peak abundance, the grasshoppers are still singing away in the meadow grasses, and on sunny days after some rain everything seems to spring back to life.
The farm itself has been under some strain due to the lack of rainfall, and the yields from the arable crops harvested so far have been well below average. The soil was already under pressure due to the very wet winter conditions, and the land could now do with some relief. The same is true for the grazing pastures, although the rotational grazing system does provide some leeway, allowing longer rest periods than traditional set-stocking systems.
The effects of climate change are clear to see, and these so-called "extreme" weather conditions (very warm and wet winters, very hot and dry summers) are becoming the norm. In my view, together with changes to farm subsidies, this emphasizes an urgent need to build a greater degree of flexibility into farming systems, to ensure resilience through difficult times. This might be easier said than done, but hopefully the new Environmental Land Management scheme will be ambitious (and user-friendly) enough to promote the development and implementation of some new ideas.
In the meantime, the annual cycle continues and migratory birds have started their epic journeys from Europe to sub-Saharan Africa. As always, they have given me a huge amount of pleasure, and this year in particular it has been wonderful to see spotted flycatchers raising young successfully, and the swallows seem to have had their most productive year ever (fledging ~40 young). It is always sad to see their numbers gradually reduce as they leave on their epic journeys southwards! Occasionally we are treated to the spectacle of hobby falcons hunting the young swallows, but they seem to have much greater success when chasing dragonflies (thankfully!).
The habitats created specifically for wildlife on the farm are doing well, despite difficult growing conditions early on, and so there should be plenty of seed to help the resident farmland birds through the winter. In my next post I'll write about the process of establishing winter bird seed crops, and some of the challenges along the way.
The flowering plants have provided food for pollinators throughout the summer and the meadows have really thrived this year, probably partially because the reduced rainfall has allowed the wildflowers to grow away from the grass. In the next few weeks the hay will be cut, and we plan to spread some of it into new areas to encourage the wildflower seeds to germinate in some other areas of grassland.
By then, the last of the swallows will be thinking of departing and winter will be approaching, but let's not think about that yet, and just enjoy some highlights from the last couple of months:
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