My little Exocet friend has now begun to take the micky!!

Back on the 7th January, I wrote a blog about this little male Sparrowhawk visiting my garden (and by all accounts, everyone else's garden in the village too!).  

Well, not only is he still rushing through from time to time, but he has also decided that a good place to while away part of the day, is by sitting on the bird food holders! 

I must say that this behaviour really does show quite a lot of contempt for his fellow feathered brethren.

If I can't eat - then neither can you!

"Hey little birds - if I can't eat, then neither can you - so I'm going to sit here for a while"!

I told you this would happen!

On the 29th January I wrote a blog about the rush by everyone to do their bit for climate change by planting trees. (Scroll down to read this blog) This is one of the things that I said - "They (Government) also need to give better guidance as to the best places to plant new woodland and importantly, where might not be the best place".

Today I read that Nestlé have apologised profusely that they have planted a load of trees all over a rare wildflower meadow!  Their intentions were good - to help offset the carbon that they produce on the dairy farm they look after in Cumbria, by planting a wood. Sounds good doesn't it! 

However, the problem was that the meadow they chose to plant these trees on, grows Butterfly orchids, Betony, Scabious, Restharrow and Harebells amongst many other flowers.  

It is estimated that that we have lost around 97% of the UK's wildflower meadows since the 1930s - so that they are now an extremely rare habitat. Planting trees on a wildflower meadow would in time, as the tree canopy closes over, bid farewell to all the flowers, leaving just a boring group of trees planted in straight lines.

Wild flower meadows are not the sort of place to plant trees!

To be fair to Nestlé, they have reacted quickly when local conservationists pointed out the mistake. They have ripped out all the saplings and will plant them somewhere else - hopefully this time giving the plan a little more consideration! 

This particular incident does demonstrate the issue that tree planting is fine - but only in the correct place. Often, land managers will naturally look to plant trees on the least productive land, which ironically, may well also be the place that has the greatest biodiversity within the landscape.

So, I repeat. Government, you need to bring out much better guidelines as to where to plant trees to maximise their benefits and importantly, where NOT to plant them!   


  

Wonderful colours in the countryside - even on a grey, wet day!

Walking through my local woods lately, with the rain lashing down and the trees above thrashing around in the wind, has been quite hard work. Underfoot, the ground is so sodden that each step taken is difficult, as the chances of slipping over is quite high. 

The signs of spring are abundant though, with masses of bluebell leaves springing forth and here and there, the big, broad leaves of Lords and Ladies standing proud, resembling the green sail of some hidden yacht lurking beneath the ground.

But, apart from one very battered primrose, there did not appear to be much spring colour in the woods as yet. 

That is until you look a little more closely.

How about this wonderfully vibrant fungi! Known as yellow brain fungus or sometimes "witches butter" - it positively leapt out at me with its vibrant splash of vivid yellow! I thought some young girl had lost the pretty scrunchy from her hair!  

Yellow brain fungus or witches butter - what great names!

A little further on I came across a branch across the path, that had obviously been blown down from the tree above by the storms. Closer inspection revealed a series of pink blotches with a surround of white. Another rather gaudy fungus, with once again an excellent name - pink disco!

Pink Disco - a rather peculiarly coloured fungus to come across

Not to be outdone, the Lichen family wanted to show me that they too can add some colour to a miserable February day! This lichen looks as though it had originally been squeezed out of a toothpaste tube - it looks so fresh and minty! 

Phlyctis argena (I'm fairly sure that I have identified this correctly, although I'm no great expert on Lichens!)

So it just goes to show; look more closely and nature always has a delightfully colourful display for you - even on a dull, dull day.

BBC increasingly guilty of repeating a lot of hot air

The recent BBC investigation Meat: A Threat to our Planet? has caused quite a storm.

For many farmers, much of the issue they had with the programme was that they filmed the majority of it in America, where standards of welfare are substantially below those that British farmers adhere to. But the BBC implied throughout much of the programme that  what was been said was equally applicable to any livestock farmer - even here in the UK. 

Some things they stated were just plain wrong. Below is just one such example.

The BBC said: “Over the course of a year, the burps from a single extra cow heat the planet as much as burning around 600 litres of petrol. Together with all other livestock, the meat industry now produces more greenhouse gases than the running of all our transport”.

Fact: As far as the UK is concerned, this claim is completely erroneous. Figures from the Committee on Climate Change show that UK agriculture as a whole accounts for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions, compared with 24% for energy supplies and 27% for transport. Furthermore, of farming’s 10% contribution, just 4.5% is from livestock.

When I was growing up, everyone had huge respect for the BBC, especially the standards that their journalists upheld. Perhaps we were just being naive? 

Nowadays however, I feel that there is an underlying attitude of "don't let the odd miss-truth get in the way of creating a damn good, headline grabbing story". 

That is a great shame. 

What's that bird?

I held a small bird ID day for the Chalke Valley Farmers Cluster in Wiltshire the other day. A reasonably sunny, dry day, was great for spotting birds, but also meant that a number of folk could not attend as they were making the most of this pleasant gap in the weather, so were collectively sitting on tractors - drilling!

Budding ornithologists, including host farmer (second from left) Ben Jeans

We did a circular walk and found good numbers of birds including lots of Corn bunting, Yellowhammer, Reed bunting, Chaffinch and Linnet. Not surprising because Ben Jeans, the host farmer, grows crops for feeding birds over-winter and supplements these crops with extra mixed seeds spread along track-sides and field margins.

One field of over-wintering stubble with a good regrowth of barley volunteers (the word "volunteers" is used by farmers to indicate that plants were not deliberately sown, but have grown from spilt seed whilst harvesting) was full of Meadow pipits and above, high in the sky, Skylarks sang. In the distance Ravens "cronked" and Buzzards "mewed".

Trying to identify birds, especially at some distance is not easy - especially as so many of them classically look like "LBJs" - little brown jobs! However, we discussed how the "Jizz" of the bird can help you to home in on its identity. Jizz is a birders term for the little things that a particular bird does - flicking its tail, sitting very upright or a very bouncy flight - that sort of thing. Jotting these things down with the help of a pencil and notepad, will help you potentially find your bird when back in the house with a cup of coffee and a bird book!

One bird that everyone cracked was the Song thrush. This bird has a habit of repeating phrases when singing. It picks a few notes and repeats them three or four times, followed by a small gap, and then into a different phrase, which once again it will repeat.

It was great to hear a real cacophony of House sparrows when we returned to the farm - once common, it is now a bird in decline - but not on this farm!

Thanks must go to Simon Smart, who is the facilitator of this farmers group and the organiser of their events and of course to Ben, a farmer who is acutely aware of his responsibilities as the manager of "his" little bit of England - growing food and looking after the environment - a job that he does so well. 

Farmer sheds light on his carbon footprint

Did you know that any given moment in time, there are on average 9,728 commercial planes in the air, carrying 1,270,406 passengers? In 2019, 4.5 billion passengers were carried by commercial airlines. Aviation is responsible for 12% of carbon emissions worldwide, whilst road transport is responsible for a whacking 74%. 

  

Why do I mention this?

Well George Hosier, a farming friend of mine, recently travelled to Australia on an Airbus A380 to visit some relatives. These massive planes carry approximately 500 passengers and use 330,000 litres of fuel for a one-way flight to Melbourne. 

George worked out that this is over 9 years’ worth of fuel use on his farm, during which time he produced enough wheat for 23 million loaves of bread, barley for 152 million pints of beer, peas for 700,000 cans of mushy peas and 500 cattle for prime, grass fed beef. 

George went on to say “Now I am not for one second saying that farming is perfect or that no one should travel in aeroplanes, but within the farming industry there is a feeling that we are being singled out as the bad guys in the whole climate change debate, when actually we all need to look at our personal carbon footprint and all make little changes to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels.

For instance, we could reduce travel (or swap the car for the train where possible), reduce food waste (as a nation we throw away 1/3 of the food purchased), buy local to cut down food miles, reuse/repair more and recycle more. If we all do a little it will start to add up!”

I would also add that George has put about 5 miles of new hedgerows in, to encourage wildlife. He also grows “wild bird seed mixes” – non-harvested crops grown specifically for feeding wild birds’ over-winter. He also supplementary feeds birds too, by scattering mixed seeds along tracks and field edges from January until April as food is in short supply at this time of year.

George is also an advocate of “no-till” farming. He basically does not cultivate his arable land, but instead drills crops straight into the ground. This obviously saves fuel (pulling a plough through the ground is hard work for the tractor which consumes lots of diesel) and because the soil is not disturbed, earthworm numbers rocket. They help to break down organic matter, aerate the soil and provide lots of extra food for birds and mammals.

Soil is also a great sequester of carbon, especially if it is not cultivated. Also, because the stubble from the previous crop is left on the surface, rather than been buried by the plough, birds find lots of food that would otherwise have been hidden underground. 

  

In November 2011 George put PV solar panels on two separate barns at either end of the farm, which provides a total of 54kw/h and helps to reduce his carbon footprint and reduce the electricity costs to his business.

Now, George is a great example of the way that farmers can look to improve how they farm more environmentally. But do not think that he is in a minority in the way he thinks and acts. There has been a big sea change in the way many farmers are now farming, with a keen eye on how to improve the quality of their soils, water and the environment in general.

At the Oxford Farming Conference in January 2019, the excellent National Farmers Union president Minette Batters announced the NFU’s ambition to achieve net zero for agriculture by 2040. With farmers such as George leading the way, I think that this is perfectly achievable.

Farming currently creates around 10% of the UK’s greenhouse emissions. But as George says, “there is a feeling that we are being singled out as the bad guys in the whole Climate Change Debate”.

I would say, yes, there is much work to be done, but I think that farmers fully realise this and are grasping the nettle with both hands. Plus, don’t forget that in the meantime they are growing the food to sustain us all – something that a well-fed, affluent population sometimes seem to forget. So maybe a little less farmer bashing and a bit more encouragement might be the order of the day looking forward?