April 2008
April’s here it must mean the start of summer monitoring
It is always an exciting time looking forward to seeing the results of another breeding season. The research team started the summer monitoring at the start of April. This consists of recording all birds seen and heard from a minimum of ten whole farm surveys. From these we are then able to assess the number of territories for each species. Activity started slowly due to the cold weather with the starlings, robins, yellowhammer and linnets several weeks than last year. The skylarks have also been delayed with their first nesting attempts. Lapwing are again displaying regularly over one of the spring bean fields, there can be no doubt that this charismatic bird has benefited from our decision to sow a spring crop.
As well as the bird monitoring and nest finding we will continue to record the moths, butterflies, bees on the farm as well as monitoring the vegetation within our research margins and skylark plots.
Cropping
From a cropping perspective, we look to be ahead of schedule with the spring beans planted a month earlier this year than last. The dry but frosty weather allowed us to sow our only spring crop in early March. Snow and rain followed towards the end of the month slowing subsequent growth in all the crops but by mid April all the crops had recovered. The oilseed rape and winter wheat responded quickly to the fertiliser applied and do not look too bad.
Insect rich habitat
The contractor has sown a number of new pollen and nectar mixtures, in early April, as part of our agri-environment scheme agreement. These will provide flowering plants including phacelia, red clover, birds foot trefoil throughout spring and summer to supply food for insects such as butterflies and bumblebees. In addition, we have just established the farmyard demonstration plots with a cornfield annual mix including the colourful corn chamomile, corn marigold, corncockle and field poppy. This will create a colourful area close to the house and provide an insect-rich habitat.
Garden gets a makeover
We spent the winter improving the garden with the advice from the team leading the Homes for wildlife Project. www.rspb.org.uk/hfw. For those that do not know Homes for Wildlife is designed to provide positive practical steps, for any sized garden, to help some of our most familiar garden wildlife species. A new pond was created alongside a hibernaculum, we replanted several beds and will be adding extra tubs and planters this summer. I am looking forward to see if this has any impact on our small House Sparrow population.
Future Open Days.
We will be opening the farm for a number of open days this year so if you would like to visit the farm then please get in touch with chris.bailey@rspb.org.uk. The dates are shown below:
Farmers Open Days: 21st May, 24th May,
Public Open Days: 7th June, 9th July