Spring has Sprung

The lambs are bleating on the hill, the bees are buzzing on the crocuses and at last the frogs have started croaking in the ponds..oh and the sun is still shining..hooray spring has sprung :-)

I love this time of year as it fills me with feelings of anticipation and this year more so than usual as we have the new area of SSSI land to watch over as it starts to unfold its previously hidden flora and fauna. Every time we check the ponies now we notice new shoots sprouting up. The ponies have done and are still doing an excellent job of eating the unwanted rough grass and scrub. It has been a hard winter for them but as you can see from this photo of Tivy looking the picture of health, they have come through it very well.

Sadly the sheep have now been moved so we will not be stock checking them until they are returned again, probably in the late summer. I will miss my tickle sessions with Rambo but it's another place where it will be interesting to see which wild flowers appear. I am dreading the day when they move the ponies as I will miss them so much. I keep thinking about getting a pony/horse of my own but I am not sure I can really afford it.

I have now put the fleece that I collected from the sheep's field around the garden for the birds to use for their nests but so far I haven't seen any takers. It is perhaps still a bit early. Friendly robin and partner have now been joined by a blackbird who is also getting quite friendly and is usually waiting with the robins in the Elderberry for me to restock the bird table in the morning.

Luckily my cat, Lizzy, at 19 years old, is past the age of wanting to catch birds and is just happy to sit in the sun watching them flutter around. It is strange how the birds seem to know that she is not a threat to them anymore. I have seen the same in Namibia where springbok will sometimes happily graze really close to resting lions and it is this body language that Monty Roberts (horse whisperer) uses when working with horses.

SSSI

The area of SSSI chalk downland that we overlook has for a long time been a complete mess following the scrub clearance that took place last year. I have been concerned that the work that took place at great expense, both in monetary terms and the disruption to habitats, was going to wasted as almost a year after the scrub clearance the area still is not being grazed. I therefore decided to email English Nature. They were wonderful and replied almost immediately, reassuring me that everything is in hand and going to plan and the area will soon be grazed. I am so pleased and excited as this area used to be very rich in wildflowers. They also asked if I would be interested in doing recording for them this spring and summer so I have put my name forward. Hopefully this will mean I will still be able to access the area even when it is fenced off.

I find it very hard to motivate myself to do anything at this time of year (although I have got loads that I should be doing) but at the same time I feel bored. The highlights of my week are stock checking of the ponies and the sheep and my weekly visit to the stables where I help to get the horses ready for the evening lessons and have a ride myself. As I left home for the stables last week the sky was very red giving a lovely rosy glow to everything. They say, 'Red sky at night, Shepperd's delight' but although the sky looked wonderful, I am not sure there would have been many happy Shepperds as the temperature plummeted. By the time I was ready to ride it was -2 and the yard was frozen solid so I gingerly led Molly to the sand school to mount up. Molly is often a bit reluctant to do things but on that night I think she just wanted to move to keep warm because she was really quite lively.

Foxes and Wild Flowers

Since seeing the vixen ambling through the field with her cub following close behind her (7 days ago) I have twice seen a fox cub alone in our garden and wondered if it is the same one. Both times he has looked a bit lost and confused but he is probably old enough to look after himself and he already seems to have learnt that there are often scraps to be found under the hanging bird tray. No sign of the vixen though, so I went for a walk down the valley to where I have seen her sitting outside her den before. She wasn't there, so I started to look for wild flowers on the SSSI land.

This area used to be prolific in wild flowers common to chalk downland so I was pleased to see that, despite the land having been driven over by big tractors during the scrub clearance, there are still a few patches that the tractor missed and some Orchids and other flowers are coming through.

Common Spotted Orchid




Twayblade Orchid




Vetch

Campion