Our resident buzzard caught close up on the wildlife camera.
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Our favourite time of the year
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Learning to fly
A few stretching exercises then the two owlets start their night of flying lessons.
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New wildflowers
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Hedge Woundwort 
Betony 
Meadowsweet 
Hemp-Agrimony 
Gypsywort 
Hedge Bedstraw 
Ground Elder 
Greater Celandine 
Cut-Leaved Crane’s-Bill Nine new appearances so far this year. Some likely from seed we’ve sown but not all.
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Bees are happy today
And this is as close as I’m going to get to them in a T-shirt.
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Hooty check-up time
Seven weeks old and time for John from the Shropshire Barn Owl Group to come and weigh, measure, ring and undertake an expert assessment of our two owlets. One is male, the other female and both are good weights and healthy, though somewhat grumpy for being disturbed in the middle of their sleep.
Thank you John!
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First look at the world outside
The owlets can now jump up and reach the entrance to the nest box to see the wide world for the first time. Not long before they get weighed and measured: more photos to come soon.
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Five weeks old
The two barn owlets are 35 days (five weeks) old and their proper feathers can be seen growing under the warm fluff and they’re developing the familiar heart-shaped face. In another two weeks we hope the owl expert to come and check them over, and we’ll have a chance to see them properly for the first time.
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Different year, different flowers
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The meadow looks different every year. This year the mass of common knapweed on the small hill has been replaced by rosebay willowherb, hedge bedstraw, bird’s-foot trefoil and oxeye daisy with even more bird’s-foot trefoil in the field. The bees will be pleased.
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Bee time
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Our wonderful bee keeper, Sue, has, with help from experts Paul and Rob, installed a strange new bee hive called a top bar hive. Despite its odd looks it didn’t take long to fill with bees who have got very busy harvesting the wildflower nectar in the field to make honey.
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Summertime on the water
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Category: The PondAt last the weather is dry and the pond level is slowly dropping: something that would normally happen in February or March and by now the pond would be at least a foot shallower.
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No hook needed
The croft isn’t just for wildlife. It’s a working field that produces hay, wood, fruit, honey, and fish to eat. We have brown and rainbow trout which we raise in the larger of the two ponds. Yes, the rainbow aren’t native, but they can’t breed, and yes, the trout do feed off the small wildlife but we keep the stock levels low and the pond is large enough to allow a good balance to develop.
The rainbow trout are also a little mad and behave like a cross between dolphins and piranhas, and it doesn’t take much to be able to catch one.
