A Week on the Estate: Lakeside Life, Fabulous Fungi & Beautiful Beef
At the time of writing, we’ve been enjoying a short spell of cold, calm weather and a brace of sunny afternoons in which to enjoy late snowdrops and early bumblebees. Meteorological spring arrives this weekend and the outgoing, northerly cold front will be replaced by a somewhat milder south-westerly system. We’re pleased to say that there are no disruptive storms in the short-range forecast; we’re all due a long rest from wet and wild weather.
What a busy month the Saturday Club have had! It began with sprucing-up hedgerows and picking litter (a sadly routine job) then attention turned to the parkland. The team enjoyed more than a few mindful moments taking part in both the Big Garden Birdwatch and the Big Farmland Bird Count.
A stormy winter has given us lots of fallen branches, and these were tidied and used to create shelter and habitats for wildlife. On their travels, the team found plenty of evidence of biodiversity, including weird and wonderful fungi, small flowers nobody had seen before and lots of woodlice under a rotting log. Spring is emphatically in the offing wherever we look.
Out in the fields, Louis Bray from the Lincoln Red team took pics and video of Pied Piper Darren MacDonald leading the herd a merry but very orderly dance. Our native-breed cattle have learned to associate Darren’s brightly coloured jacket with a treat of haylage at the end of a pleasant amble between paddocks.
If you happen to see him out and about with the Reds, listen out for the conversation between Darren and the cattle. When Darren calls, the herd listens and sometimes answers back. To see and hear this teamwork, browse the videos on our Facebook page HERE.
Closer to home, it’s all go at the Lake as our waterfowl pair up; it’s only a matter of time before we hear the pitter patter of tiny webbed feet. Last year, we gave South Ormsby Hall’s Lake a generation’s worth of TLC. We restored the depth from 10cm to 2m and removed 10,000 tons of silt which we’ll be using as organic fertiliser across our arable land.
This hefty job, alongside our wildlife-friendly farming practices, will make the Lake a magnet for all sorts of wildlife. Canada geese, greylag geese, mute swans, tufted ducks, herons and kingfishers are just a few of the residents and visitors we’ve snapped lately. Fingers crossed the latter will discover our kingfisher tunnels this season.
