Farm launches new nature conservation events

Would you like to join the wildlife projects at an organic, eco-friendly farm? Sheepdrove Organic Farm is now planning a calendar of nature conservation ‘task days’ for volunteers who would like to help  manage and monitor the natural heritage of the beautiful Lambourn Downs, on the border of Oxfordshire and Berkshire.

The new conservation volunteer group will meet on selected Mondays.

As a nature conservation volunteer you’ll be able to enjoy an outdoor experience in a very special area of the English countryside. Sheepdrove Organic Farm is blessed with small pockets of ancient woodland and chalk grassland, on a farm converted to organic by Peter and Juliet Kindersley who bought the land in the 1990s.

Peter and Juliet share a passion for Nature. So biodiversity is a cornerstone of the working farm, and much has been done to create and enhance habitats for wildlife. Vast lengths of new hedges now span the land, linking new and old woodland. Water sparkles in ponds and reedbeds. Wild flowers abound on Bockhampton Down.

If you are interested in joining in with this story of a farm working with Nature – not against it – please get in touch. Here are the details of the first session…

Mon 22 Feb
Bird and Bat Box installation
(10am-3pm)

The race is on to get dozens of new boxes up in time for the breeding season! Please join us at the farm for our very first volunteer day. (If it rains, the plan is to shelter in a barn and make even more boxes!). Meet: The farm office, at the front of Sheepdrove Eco Conference Centre, Sheepdrove Road, Lambourn, Berkshire. Directions and map here… (link). What to bring: Please bring a packed lunch – we will picnic on the farm! Wear sensible shoes or boots – wellies are good on a farm! Bring clothes to suit any weather. Contact: Jason Ball 01488 674727. Email: jason.ball@sheepdrove.com

Coppice workshop

Coppicing Course, 9.30am – 4pm, Little Hidden Farm. To book a place please contact Bill Acworth 01488 683253 or acworths@littlehiddenfarm.co.uk
Children 12 yrs & over welcome if accompanied by responsible adult.

JB: I loved this day when I attended last year, it really is enjoyable and the instruction was excellent. Gorgeous food included! Here’s a bit of video from a previous workshop…

www.littlehiddenfarm.co.uk

Lovely bone china

Apple Mug in fine bone china

Mug up for Warneford Meadow

The Apples on this fine and collectable bone china mug are portrayals of the orchard apple varieties growing near Warneford Meadow.

Friends of Warneford Meadow is a group campaigning to save this wildlife-packed meadow from the bulldozer. One easy way to help FoWM with their fundraising is to buy the lovely apple mugs! I am ordering a handful…

FoWM_apple_mug_order_form

Moonset picture

Moonset Through Pine Needles ©2010 Jason Ball

This is my first picture of the moon as it was setting the other day. Actually the image doesn’t show the amazing colours of the sky, or the intense glow of the moon and the bright moonlit landscape. Next time I’m going to set the camera to take a long exposure, with a tight aperture, on a tripod.

Hoots at moonset, grunts at sunrise

Nature notes by Jason Ball - 31 Jan 2010

Can you tell this is a Barn Owl?

Just before dawn I wrapped myself up and walked out into the cool, crisp light of a moonset (you know, like a sunset, but the moon). It was a full moon, and as it was setting, I thought I would try to take a photo of this extremely beautiful phenomenon, because I’ve never done that before! This is a daily occurrence, but how often do you go out and watch it? Today it was worth it, despite the freezing temperatures. With a full moon to the west and the emerging colours of sunrise on the eastern horizon, it was fantastic!

A male Tawny Owl was answering a female in the woods, and a Grey Partridge was calling just beyond. Like yesterday it was a well frosted landscape. As I clicked and fiddled with camera controls that I couldn’t see, my fingers gradually became too cold to feel the shutter button.

After putting my camera back in the house, I went out again put out some food out for the birds. I walked alongside Nut Wood and stopped alongside a reedbed, watching out for owls. Very soon I got a surprise, when I heard something grunt.

A startled badger was on the path in front of me, looking right at me. After a moment of uncertainty, it dared to come closer. The badger sniffed the air, presumably attracted by the fragrance of food. But the badger didn’t like the smell of me, I suppose, and made a rapid about-turn and scarpered away – only to bump into a feisty friend.

This other badger – presumably a sibling – hadn’t noticed me and it immediately started wrestling the first badger – adding to its sense of panic!

I walked back home and decided to set up a camera to film a Barn Owl who I have often noticed flying past the house, usually soon after 7am.

The Barn Owl is a crepuscular bird, haunting the edges of day and night. When we recently had snow laid on the ground for days on end, these owls were seen during the day. They had to search longer to find prey – if any – and were desperate enough to risk being out when diurnal birds attack them. That was a difficult time for many raptors, except the scavengers.

Success! As the owl flew by I could see that my camera was recording, and the owl was in shot. I went out to switch off the camera, but the Barn Owl was coming back my way, so I stood still and tried to photograph the bird again, but with a stronger zoom.

Being only sunrise, the light levels were too low for the camera to autofocus. And with a 12x zoom, at this relatively close range, it was hard to pan fast enough for the Barn Owl, which was flying up and down the road. Ah, it was best to leave the bird to its business, and try again another time.

But what an excellent start to the day!

Barn Owl, Tawny Owl and a few more bird records from this morning.

31/01/10	Dunnock	Sheepdrove Organic Farm	1	J Ball
07:45	SU358819.
31/01/10	Woodpigeon	Sheepdrove Organic Farm	1	J Ball
07:45	SU358819.
31/01/10	Blackbird	Sheepdrove Organic Farm	1	J Ball
07:45	m. SU358819.
31/01/10	Blue Tit	Sheepdrove Organic Farm	2	J Ball
07:45	feeding. SU358819.
31/01/10	Chaffinch	Sheepdrove Organic Farm	4	J Ball
07:45	2m+2f. Feeding. One of the males was mature, the other juvenile; harder to tell with the 2 females. SU358819.
31/01/10	Great Tit	Sheepdrove Organic Farm	3	J Ball
07:45	on feeders. SU358819.
31/01/10	Great Spotted Woodpecker	Sheepdrove Organic Farm	2	J Ball
07:45	m + unknown. 1 definite male at nut feeder. Another GS flew off but too fast to check gender. (Would 2 males tolerate a close presence at this time of year?). SU358819.
31/01/10	Rook	Sheepdrove Organic Farm	70	J Ball
07:30	flying from north. SU359819.
31/01/10	Barn Owl	Sheepdrove Organic Farm	1	J Ball
07:15	Perched on a post for a short while. Hunting in flight. Saw one unsuccessful dive. SU358819.
31/01/10	Great Spotted Woodpecker	Sheepdrove Organic Farm	1	J Ball
06:45	m. drumming. SU359818.
31/01/10	Grey Partridge	Sheepdrove Organic Farm	1	J Ball
06:40	m. calling. SU356817.
31/01/10	Tawny Owl	Sheepdrove Organic Farm	2	J Ball
06:40	m+f. Both calling in the woods. SU356817.

Barn Owl roost box idea

www.natureheads.com

My design ideas for a Barn Owl roost box are set out in the diagram below. Click on the image to see it full size, and take a look at my notes. All comments appreciated…

Please bear in mind that this is not suitable as a breeding site, but it’s intended to be a shelter. A single Barn Owl – perhaps a pair – would fit in the roost box, but it’s not sufficient for a brood of chicks, which reach full size before they fledge. Here I’ve thought out a pattern to make the most of a standard plywood board. There’s enough space on the plywood to cut material for an indoor barn box too. But will my Barn Owl roost box work?

Copyright 2010 Jason Ball.

The role of a roost box is valuable in Barn Owl conservation for 3 main reasons:

1. Barn Owl males often require a roost apart from the breeding site because once the eggs hatch, he is not usually tolerated in the same space as the female with the young chicks. 
2. Alternative roost sites are also important at certain other times, e.g. when owlets seek their own home, or during winter, or when competition for boxes is high, and owls cannot afford the energy to defend prime breeding sites.
3. Because the cost of large boxes can be inhibitive to Barn Owl conservation groups. Extra boxes are useful as monitoring locations. At a roost box like this, a Barn Owl might make a ’first appearance’ in a new area, and that indicates where to invest in nest boxes.

Key factors to consider for this outdoor owl roost box are weather, box competitors such as Jackdaw and Squirrel, and the ease of installation and monitoring. I’ve made key notes on the diagram, and other details would include methods for fastening the box to a tree, drainage holes in the floor, etc…

UK petition – help our bats and birds

There’s an excellent petition now up – please add your name - to ensure buildings make room for birds and bats.

Contrary to popular belief, it’s not just the old castles and churches that make excellent homes for bats and birds such as Barn Owl and Swift. New buildings are very important. Also renovations of old buildings can be done with bats and birds in mind more simply than you might think, using bat-bricks, nest-bricks, etc.

Petition > to make builders provide for bats and birds

Weasel Run

www.natureheads.com

I can't believe I was two steps away from a Weasel

A wet and wild weasel  got me jumping on Saturday. I was amazed to see one in the garden. Three times it zipped up and down a path, and away again. The creature was soaked, it was raining and blowing a gale.

Mad for nature as I am, I couldn’t resist running outside, with even the ridiculously tiny chance of seeing this mad mammal again. More than a glimpse is a rare treat. But it hadn’t gone far – it was running back and forth across the road, just outside my place. I froze still against the garage wall and let the weasel get on with whizzing along what I think must be a series of short patrol lines.

Absorbed by its frenzy, the weasel was only slightly distracted when it noticed me, as it ran nearby under my garage door, out again within a second, and then disappeared along a fence line. View my Berkshire Autumnwatch gallery.

Words and pictures © Jason Ball
jasonball@natureheads.com

Oxfordshire £millions on the radio

I set up a media interview for a local LEADER programme this week…

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Today on BBC Radio Oxford, Louisa Hannan hosted a feature about the millions of pounds  available to Oxfordshire’s rural economy through LEADER funding.

Listen again… (available for 7 days only)
Drag the iPlayer timeline to 2hrs 2mins to hear the interview.

Full story at www.northwessexleader.org.uk

Bovril gone green?

The Google Ads on my new videos page drew my attention to something surprising… Bovril has a snazzy new website for its Great Outdoor Revival.  (note the rather gorgeous redhead on the homepage).

Bovril has £100k to give away to deserving sites that need a makeover. Can you think of a place that needs doing up? A countryside plot that needs a spot of polish? Nominate it!

Bovrils’ Great Outdoor Revival 
http://www.bovril.co.uk/revival/files/campaign_poster_2.pdf