Guardians of the Countryside

The little group of Bee orchids growing on the edge of a recently established meadow near Westhorpe has just been mown down; a footpath strip of over 3 metres wide has been cut where they were growing.

Bee orchid, just mown down on footpath

Kiln lane, a 2-mile bridle path running between Westhorpe and Badwell Green has been mown, again 3 metres wide. Kiln lane was lined by wild flowers it is now littered with the eggs of ground nesting birds and the 2 pairs of Grey partridges I saw every day have gone.

Kiln Lane, mown 3 metres wide, needlessly

St Mary’s Churchyard in Westhorpe in early spring is peppered with yellow primroses but, these are soon mown down, in May after one of the weekly mowing was missed more wild flowers appeared only to be cut down a week later. The Churchyard is now a characterless lawn studded with gravestones; it could be beautiful and peaceful with wild flowers like many others in Suffolk.

St Mary’s Churchyard mown down

The very many Tortoiseshell and Peacock butterflies that were flying a month ago laid their eggs on the nettles lining the edge of the path running down from St Mary’s. The nettles were cut down this morning.

Footpath where Bee orchids were growing

Well over 90% of the hay meadows in Suffolk have been ploughed up in Suffolk over the last 50 years, they were home to hundreds of species of wild flowers, birds and insects. The only places where remnants of meadow remain are road verges, churchyards, footpaths and some field edges. Many farmers are paid subsidies to establish field margins to try and replicate hay meadows. But, all the places where little meadows could thrive are relentlessly mown down every spring by farmers, parish and county councils, people who should know better.

Allowing these little meadows to thrive is not difficult. Field edge footpaths do not need to be 3 or 4 metres wide, one metre is fine. Kiln lane does not need to cut 3 metres wide, the track made by horses and bikes is ample width. St Mary’s Churchyard only need to be mown round graves less than 50 years old.

Not only is all the mowing killing wildlife it is also expensive, St Mary’s is always fund raising but can afford to have the Churchyard cut every week. The cash strapped Council pays to have the bridle paths needlessly mown several time a year. Farmers who should know better and are paid to manage wildlife field margins thoughtlessly mow the life out of their field margins.

The farmers and land managers round Westhorpe pride themselves on being guardians of the countryside and having little impact on wildlife. The shattered Bee orchids, missing Grey Partridges, sterile Churchyard and featureless footpaths A road width perhaps suggest there is room for improvement.

Westhorpe footpath mown to the width of an A road

Very few Barn Owls had young in 2013 – there was not enough food for them and even many of the adult birds were very hungry and did not survive. This year Barn Owls have been very elusive, they could be just hunting after dark or just very low in numbers, checking the nest sites is one way to find out.

At least once a year I check the Barn Owl nest boxes at Halls and Little Haugh Farms to see what is living in them. I try to keep checks to a minimum, partly to avoid disturbing nesting birds and partly because some of the boxes are quite high and looking into a box on the top of a ladder is not my favourite job. There are at least 10 boxes, the number is creeping up because people put boxes up in their gardens then ask me to check them on their behalf as I have a licence to do this.

I decided to look last weekend – a little earlier this year because it has been an early spring and the Barn Owls living in the straw barn at Halls Farm have been a bit more obvious. This is perhaps a sign that they starting to feed young but they are so deep in the straw it is impossible to know for sure until the young come out.

Barn Owl with one young bird and eggs

The reason why so many boxes have been put up in Suffolk is that most of the old farm buildings where owls used to live have been converted into houses and many of the old trees which were used for nesting have gone too.

The first box I looked in at Halls Farm has been up for two years and last year it was used as a roosting box. I opened the door this year and there was an adult Barn Owl sitting on 4 eggs. A nearby newer box looked like it was being used by the male bird who moves out when the female starts to nest. The other box at Halls has Stock  Doves in this year, which is good news too.

At Little Haugh the boxes are older and harder to check. There are no access doors so I hold a camera inside the box and take photos “blind”, not easy from the top of a ladder. The first two boxes had pellets and feathers inside, so have been used by Barn Owls since last year. The third box had an adult Barn Owl, one young bird and 4 eggs. Two more boxes at Little Haugh have Owl pellets and feathers, and the remaining boxes are being used by Jackdaws for nesting. There are many veteran Oak trees on the farm and it is highly likely that these are being used by at least one pair of Barn Owls.

Checking one of the empty boxes at Little Haugh

Last year we found no nesting Owls in the boxes, this year there are at least two pairs with eggs and young, and probably another nest in the straw and an old Oak tree. This is very good news, and it looks as though the local voles and mice are going to have a difficult summer as a result.

As the nights grow even shorter into June I will watch out to see if the Barn Owls at Halls and Little Haugh are catching food and taking it to their, hopefully, growing families. I will let you know.

I am often told that that I must be very patient to take my photographs. If I was sitting in a hide for hours waiting for a Hare to come close and nothing else happened I would have to agree. This spring I have spent a lot of time in a hide watching, and trying to photograph, Hares. Fortunately there is a lot more than Hares to watch and listen to.

The top image shows the field where I have been watching Hares. It is managed for wildlife and game birds and at first glance it probably does not look like a place in which to spend a lot of quality time. This field is divided into three strips: At the top of the slope a tall “game mix” with a lot of mustard is growing; then there is a strip of mostly borage; and finally the bottom half consists of rough, un-mown grassland. To add to the charm of this field it is also used a dumping area for straw that does not meet the exacting Honeychop quality standards.

So what is to be found here? In February we carried out a bird count at Halls Farm and on this field we saw at least 50 snipe, 22 Lapwing, more than 30 skylark, 20 Yellowhammer, a couple of Corn buntings and a flock of Reed buntings. I counted birds for the British Trust for Ornithology Bird Atlas survey for 3 years, and this field had more birds than any other in Suffolk I have seen.

From the hide in the field this spring  I have been surrounded by Skylarks singing constantly, and Linnets and Goldfinches feeding on the ground. Yellowhammers spend hours feeding around the old bales along with the dozens of Partridges. Breeding Lapwings make constant alarm calls as they try to warn off anything that comes near their nest and young. This includes Hares and Pheasants as well as predators such as Crows. Since mid April there has been a Cuckoo around the field most days. Buzzards can often be seen soaring, and if they come closer the crows and lapwings fly out to mob them and try to drive them away. The real surprise to me is the pair of Shelduck nesting in a burrow in the straw.

And of course the Hares are always in the field, most active in the morning and evening, but also to be seen low down in the grass feeding their young during the day.

Needing to be patient is not a problem whilst waiting for Hares to come close, because this field is full of life and interest. It is an excellent example of how, with intelligent, light touch management, a few hectares in the middle of an intensive farm can become a magnet and haven for wildlife that is struggling to find a place to live.

Amateur Photographer magazine published a two page article on the 3rd May 2014 featuring the Brown Hares at Halls Farm Norton. The article and main image are reproduced here.

Amateur Photographer 3rd May 2014

Brown Hares appreciate the open wheat fields of mid Suffolk where food is plentiful and they can easily sense potential danger. I often see them in late winter and through the spring before the crops start to grow. However, they are too far away to photograph.

Hares are shy and they hear, see and smell very well. At the slightest sign of danger they run, fast. Brown Hares are also unpredictable. I may see a few in a field on one day and none the following day. Getting interesting close up photographs of hares is a challenge.

Fortunately, Brown Hares are most active at dawn and in the evening when the light is best. The run up to the long days of May and June is a good time to photograph them; nights and crops are short and hares have a distracting social life. Photographing hares relies on predicting where they will be and not scaring them when they do come close.  They come to field edges, farm tracks and road edges in the early morning and evening. If it has rained they like to dry off here too.

So how to get close? Hares are used to cars and, given time, will approach a parked car, especially if they have seen it before in the same place. I have taken many hare photos from my car parked at the end of a farm track half a mile from home, but it takes time. Our spaniel knows instantly that we are going hare watching when I pick up my camera on an early summer evening. Hares will come very close provided I am quiet and still, but it can take days to build their confidence.

Local farmers allow me to put up my mobile hide for several days and hares learn to ignore it. I enter the hide an hour before I expect to see anything. A hide with a black carbon coat inside absorbs any smell. However, patience is required as hares are unpredictable and on many days they do not come.

Hares either run (I have many photos of the backs of running hares) or lie down if they hear a shutter but long lenses counter this. Lenses I have most success with are the Canon 800mm f5.6 and 400mm DO f4. The 800 allows me to get images beyond shutter sound distance, the low weight 400 is excellent for fast action. High ISO’s result in sharp images in low light and the 10 FPS Canon 1D IV captures fast action. In the car I use a bean bag and in the hide, a tripod with Manfroto 393 head.

Finally, I always try to have a camera in the car, some of the best opportunities to photograph hares come when least expected.

Arable farming on the heavy clay soils of Mid Suffolk is potentially profitable but there are many potential problems both within farmers control and often out of their control. The uniform green and sometimes yellow blocks of colour that constitute today’s fields are a relatively modern trend; in the recent past invasive plants would have been seen, the effect of fungus, mildew, weather and insect damage would have been be seen. All these had a very negative effect on crop yields. Farmers manage these effects with “inputs” including actions like ploughing and various chemicals. Perhaps the most controversial and misunderstood are the chemical inputs, however if chemical inputs are not used crops yields very soon drop by more than 70% and the quality is similarly effected, practically this is not acceptable.

Drilling spring oats early morning at Halls farm

Chemical inputs are a very significant cost both financially and environmentally. As a rough guide a hectare of wheat on heavy soil costs £570 per year in inputs, oilseed rape costs more than £600 per hectare. Over use of inputs is very expensive and does not increase yields, only reduces profits.  Obviously not all environmental damage is caused by inputs but their effect is very significant and is partly responsible for the drop in population of many birds and insects by, in some cases more than 90% in 30 years. Clearly chemical inputs should be used responsibly.

Agricultural sprays are expensive and potentially hazardous to people and the environment, they need to be targeted very carefully. Most farmers use a qualified agronomist to advise them on what and when to spray. The Honeywood family use an independent agronomist to manage their spray program, they only spray when necessary. Halls and Little Haugh farms also have to meet Jordan’s Conservation Grade standards which prevent the use of some of the more potentially hazardous inputs.

Many farmers however use agronomists employed by Agricultural supply companies. This can potentially lead to over use of inputs, for example; the “preventative” use of fungicides to avoid mildew in wet weather, before any mildew is evident. There is an obvious conflict of interest for agronomists employed by Agricultural supply companies.

Inputs can also be misused, examples include; Excessive use of nitrogen fertiliser on field and road verges causing long rank growth crowding out wild flowers and making driving difficult. Often field margins are sprayed with herbicide. Farms receive government payments in part for managing field margins for wildlife.

Field margin and ditch sprayed with herbicide,

90% of the land at Halls Farm and Little Haugh Farm is used for agricultural production or, put simply growing crops. The remaining 10% of the land is actively managed to support wildlife, and for the game birds for the shoot run over the two farms. At first glance 10% for wildlife may not seem a lot however, many farmers with 5% of land out of production consider this very generous and most have a percentage very much lower than this.

Linnet on Groundsel in old stubble field Suffolk, Carduelis cann

Most of the soil in Norton Suffolk is clay based and is excellent cereal growing land; Mid Suffolk is know as the bread basket of England. The land here some of the most intensively farmed in the UK, the attractive Suffolk landscape is all man made. Although wildlife management and shooting may seem at odds the reality is that most woodlands, many hedges and rough areas would have ploughed up long ago but for shooting and hunting, Suffolk wildlife relies heavily on this shooting legacy.

No matter how good the soil is, growing cereals on the same ground every year leads to lower yields, farmers use a “break crop” to counter this.  Break crops include oil seed rape, sugar beet, beans and peas. With modern inputs of fertiliser and sprays to counter invasive plants, fungus disease and insect pests it is possible to grow two or three years of cereals before needing to plant a break crop.

Lapwing at evening roost site, early spring Vanellus vannellus

Halls and Little Haugh Farm follow this break crop cycle, they are unusual in growing much higher acreage of oats instead of wheat. The oats are grown for Jordans cereals on contract and the oat straw is made into Honeychop horse food in the factory at Halls farm. Jordans demand high environmental farming standards that they call “Conservation Grade”; this also benefits the Honeychop horse food.

Without the use of inputs including fertiliser and sprays to manage crop disease and other problems crop production would fall by around 75%. Conservation Grade standards and the Honeywood family try to minimise the environmental impact of these inputs as much as possible. This helps wildlife and also can increase profits by avoiding unnecessary work.

As we move into spring and crops accelerate their growth they must be managed with inputs to maximise yields. Over the coming months I will talk to Steve Honeywood and find out how he tries to balance making a profit by using the right inputs, with at the same time caring for farm’s wildlife and environment.

Cock Pheasant dissplay on spring day. Phasianus colchicus

Brown Hare sitting out another winter storm Lepus europaeus

What a difference a week makes. The topsoil in the fields no longer squirts

water as you walk. Hedges are greener every day and Brimstone and Small

Tortoiseshell butterflies seek out early spring flowers. But the clearest

indicator to me is the Brown Hares; they have reappeared in only the way

hares can. I have seen groups of more than 16 in some fields. Some chasing,

others watching, and patches of fur are dotted about where pairs have been

boxing each other.

Brown Hare morning light in early spring meadow, Lepus europaeus

Although they can be seen during the day they usually appear as “brown

lumps” or quietly eating. Early morning and evening are still the best times

to watch spring hares, they are much more active, very often in pairs and

sometimes in larger groups. This is the time I see them boxing. Fights last

only a few seconds after a short fast chase, often clouds of fur are thrown

into the air.

Brown Hares in a morning chase Lepus europaeus

However, pursuing a social life does not mean hares are any less shy,

watching and trying to photograph them closely is a challenge. March hares

still prefer open fields where they can see any potential danger in plenty

of time. I try to predict where they will meet. I set up a mobile hide the

day before I plan to photograph, but the meeting points change from day to

day, one day a bare field, the next a crop of winter wheat.

The photographs show; life in the last of the wet weather, a male and female

interacting and boxing and individuals picked out by the special light found

at the beginning and end of the day.

Brown Hares boxing in the sun on the skyline, Lepus europaeus

Brown Hare fur fight in the sun Lepus europaeus

Brown Hares boxing on the skyline, Lepus europaeus

Brown Hare pair fight and flying Lepus europaeus

Brown Hare pair, above and below Lepus europaeus

Birds. Many of them are small, brown, fly around (fast), are shy, and change their feathers between seasons and as they get older. Often it is difficult to identify them and counting them can be a real challenge. Most of the information on our bird population comes from thousands of volunteers identifying and counting the birds in their gardens and local area.

The Bird Atlas is the result of the most comprehensive UK bird population survey and was published a few months ago by the British Trust for Ornithology. Between 2007 and 2011 local volunteers counted the birds in 1 Km squares for 2 hours, 4 times a year. I counted the birds in 8 squares over the 4 years in my part of Suffolk, and my results are included in the BTO Bird Atlas. My squares covered arable farmland, villages, some woodland and grassland.

To be blunt, trying to count birds on intensively farmed arable land was often a waste of time. An hours walking producing just a handful of birds. By far the best results were from the villages. It is here that I was able to fill my notebook with different species and significant numbers.

There is sometimes tension between game shooting and nature conservation. However, much of the habitat needed for game birds is the same as that needed for wild birds and other wildlife. One of the main reasons there are still woods and rough wild areas in the countryside is that landowners manage them for game birds. At the start of February the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust is asking farmers to count the birds on a part of their land for 30 minutes http://www.gwct.org.uk/farming/big-farmland-bird-count/ .

I will be helping Steve Honeywood survey the birds on his farm. It will be interesting to see if the results are better than I saw when counting for the BTO Bird Atlas on intensive farmland. I will give you the results when we have them.

Buzzard flying with an apple. Halls Farm Norton

At the end of last winter and running into spring it was not unusual to see Barn owls hunting in daylight. One afternoon I saw four Barn owls and a Short-eared owl hunting at the same time in one of the hay meadows at Halls farm. From a selfish bird watching and photographic perspective it was excellent. However, for the owls it was very bad news. In 2012 Barn owl numbers recovered to levels not seen in Suffolk since the 1930s. Last winter the Barn owls were hunting in day-light because they did not have enough food, many were too thin to breed last year and more died of starvation.

This winter is different, Suffolk Barn owls are much more difficult to see. But, they are still here. I have been watching them in several places, they are coming out to hunt usually just around sunset. The good news this year is that they are not out for long, the Barn owls I have seen are catching voles and mice within a minute or two of starting to hunt. Within 20 minutes they have caught enough and go back to a roosting or nesting site and disappear. At Micklemere near Ixworth last week the owl I was watching caught 3 voles in 10 minutes and went back to its box, much to the annoyance of a pair of Magpies who were finding it harder to get food.

The Halls farm Barn owls are still living in the old Heston Bales at the Back of the large open straw barn. At this time of year they are trying put on weight before starting to lay eggs in the spring. If they continue to catch rodents at the rate they are now they should have a successful breeding year.

I have also seen Barn owls near the nest boxes on Halls Farm and Little Haugh Farm but not as often as last year. This is good news and could mean a good breeding year but not so good for photography!