Where are the jackdaws and rooks going at dusk? In this month’s nature column, Jane Adams discovers her local corvids are having a noisy sleepover.
The jackdaw has several call notes, commonest is the ‘jickaaw’ (like it is saying jackdaw). Other notes in the same pitch are ‘Kyak’ – ‘Keeyak‘ and an alarm call of ‘Kiiyaar’ image: Jane Adams
Have you noticed how jackdaws and rooks often fly in broken lines across the sky at dusk? Get up high and you might spot hundreds of lines, each one like a spoke in an aerial wheel leading to a central hub. Their winter roost.
If you’re below a ‘spoke’, it can be a noisy affair. I can’t help imagining frustrated parents screaming at their wing-dragging youngsters, imploring them to get a move on.
Home to roost
In reality, this calling whilst flying may just be a way for family groups to stick together as the light fades, and if you follow one of these lines, you’ll be in for a treat.
I live on a ridge. It’s a supple spine of Dorset chalk flecked with oak, beech and elm. Half a mile away is another ridge, and between lies a valley cradling a patchwork of rain-soaked fields. I came across my local rook and jackdaw roost by chance. They’re worth looking out for – though goodness knows how I missed mine for so many years.
A noise you feel inside
From my ridge, I can see black wings converging on a group of tall beech trees across the valley. Silhouetted against a blood-red sky, they resemble black bees buzzing round a towering hive. I can’t hear them properly from this distance, but as I walk down the hill and cross the valley, the sound of yaks and craws increases. By the time I reach their roosting trees, their individual calls have combined into a bellow. A sound that gets right inside you.
There must be hundreds, maybe thousands of birds. But within the chaos of flapping wings and calls, there’s also order. I pick out groups – possibly families – sitting side-by-side on branches. They’re squeezed together, their wings touching, somehow ignoring the surrounding chaos.
As I walk away, there’s the sound of a distant gunshot. The roost takes to the air as one screaming, dislodged entity. It circles, rising and falling in the fading light like a billowing black sheet.
Gradually, it settles back into the trees. Then silence.
By our wildlife guest columnist, Jane Adams – Naturalist. bTB Badger Vaccinator. Nature writer. Photographer. Bee Watcher.
It’s not the greatest idea to include farm stock with your church nativity play, explains Andrew Livingstone.
image by Andrew Livingston
With this being the month of good tidings and general merriment, I will share the tale of the legendary nativity that culminated in faecal matter desecrating the floor of our local church. In a time pre-millennium, as a four-year-old I would pretend to pitch in on our farm. I would run around, tripping over everything while hunting for eggs. Or I would spend an hour or so sitting on the tractor, pretending to plough fields. However, during lambing season, I would actually do my favourite job – feeding the orphan lambs. Our farm in the village of Hooke was unique in the fact that with our Poll Dorset ewes, we could lamb any time of the year.
Famous Christmas birth
Whilst most farms have lambs yearly in the spring, Dorset ewes, including our Polls, can have lambs in the late autumn in the lead up to Christmas.
Rearing lambs around Christmas allows for less competition in the market, allowing for a better price for your produce.
In the lead up to Christmas 1999, our small herd of ewes looked as if they were about to pop, and not from eating too many Christmas puds! All the served ewes got promoted into the spare stable with the chickens to hunker down to survive the cold and sure enough, December was filled with many woolly Christmas lambs. One such lamb, affectionately (and with great original thought) called Woolly, took a shine to me as a young child after we bottle- fed it from birth. The little lamb would follow me around the farm helping with my chores before being locked up at night. Woolly soon became a hit with the village. She was as famous as a lamb could be. People would come from far away after hearing of the birth of the Christmas lamb. With Christmas Day fast approaching someone had the bizarre idea of utilising our little Christmas lambs to take this year’s nativity to the next level.
Christmas Woolly
So on Christmas Eve, with the village packed into the church like Christmas crackers in their box, Woolly made her showbiz debut. Rumours had travelled about the special guest acting in this year’s show, but the nativity started as any normal one would with the standard hymns and readings. However, with the news of shepherds on their way to the stables, the next hymn began.
Poor Mary
The rejoiceful sounds of Silent Night being sung by the congregation were met with the percussion instruments of tiny Shepherd’s hooks as they walked down the church aisle, with the accompaniment of bleating. Oddly, laughter began to reverberate around the church as my little Woolly had her moment of fame. However, the poor Three Wise Men who followed suit weren’t laughing – and had to ask Santa for new trainers that year as they couldn’t quite dodge the trail of excrement left in Woolly’s wake. Meanwhile poor Mary at the front of the church had more than childbirth to contend with as Woolly began to eat her costume. Playing the role of Joseph on the day, I smiled and laughed with the locals of the village at Woolly’s antics. I’m still not sure if this is the traditional message of Christmas, but laughter has been a staple ingredient of our Christmases ever since!
In last month’s column, Louise Stratton was considering how farming is part of the solution to climate change; this month she muses on how so much of the NFU’s work is about finding that solution.
The NFU is working on solutions primarily through our lobbying work; an example of this occurred last week when Chris Loder, MP for West Dorset, kindly arranged a meeting in his constituency for a group of farmers with Victoria Prentis MP, Minister of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). As with any decision it is so valuable to hear the other point of view. Defra are in the midst of moulding new policy for the agricultural industry, and this was an excellent opportunity for both the farmers and the Minister to hear one another’s viewpoint. We had a hearty discussion on a range of topics – new environmental schemes, the dairy and pig sectors and water regulations.
Having some input
To be able to openly discuss the barriers, and for the farmers to have the opportunity to offer tweaks and alternatives to certain policy issues is so valuable. They are practical people, and it is fundamental that the policy makers hear the actual implications on those whose businesses these decisions impact. We are fortunate that the local MPs and the DEFRA Ministers are willing to have this conversation.
As farming impacts across so many areas, it is imperative that policy for one area doesn’t conflict with another, so our take home message to the Minister was “ensure policy is joined up, using carrots not sticks, and farming will have a positive future.”
How the Piddle Valley affects Poole Harbour’s wildlife Continuing the theme of providing solutions, the big example in Dorset is the work on nutrient reductions into the Poole Harbour catchment.
The Poole Harbour catchment is one of three sub catchments in Dorset. Both the Frome and Piddle rivers, two of the main rivers flowing into the Harbour, are in picturesque rural catchments rising in the Dorset Downs and flowing through the chalklands and across clay and gravel to enter Poole Harbour. Over 75% of the land within the catchment is used for agriculture – cereals are dominant over the chalklands, with much dairy and beef farming in the west and in the lower floodplains.
Poole Harbour is one of the largest and shallowest natural harbours in the world. The harbour is of exceptional ecological value, renowned for its outstanding landscape, wildlife and fisheries and is protected by a multitude of conservation designations, of local and international importance.
A solution for an historic issue
Poole Harbour’s nitrate levels have been building up for many years. The nitrates come from several sources, with agriculture being one of them, but it can take nitrates 30-plus years to filtrate from the top of the catchment to the Harbour itself, so we are dealing with an historic issue as well. Water habitats have a much lower concentration of natural nitrate, so excess nitrates in the Harbour will have an impact on the natural environment. The most visible example is a rapid growth of algae, challenging the habitat and reducing the amount of food for birds and fish. Defra’s initial response was to impose a Water Protection Zone (WPZ) on the whole catchment. The creation of a WPZ in Poole Harbour presents a real threat to the future of farming in the whole of Poole Harbour’s catchment. This approach creates a lack of flexibility for farmers and a loss of control over their business, not an approach any business would relish being forced into. A regulative approach creates no support for farms as they adapt. We’d rather create a joined-up policy, and work on using carrots not sticks.
Leadership in partnering
We believe that there is another option, namely a voluntary scheme to address farming’s contribution to nitrates in the Harbour. The proposed scheme will support farmers to reduce the amount of nitrate being lost from their soil, helping slow, stop, or even reverse the Harbour hypertrophication. The scheme is being driven by a group of farmers from within the catchment, who are passionate about creating a different future for our industry and improving the environment at the same time. Poole Harbour Catchment’s farmers have a unique opportunity to work together, to become leaders in voluntary nutrient management and to show there is a better, alternative solution to simply adding further regulation. The scheme has attracted funding, it has run a small trial in 2021 and in 2022 a pilot scheme will be up and running. It is hugely exciting and the NFU are supporting the farmers with the developments, alongside many different individuals and organisations, making it a brilliant example of partnership working. But sitting at the heart of this, are the farmers. In the New Year I will introduce you to some of our Dorset farmers and what they are doing on their farm. But until then, I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and don’t forget to support our British farmers with what is on your plate on Christmas Day, starting with the turkey! From today we have a useful NFU Turkey Finder to help you purchase your turkey direct from a local producer.
Farmers are working together to improve the habitat and increase quality food production, but we can’t be undermined by lower standard imports, argues James Cossins.
Shutterstock
November is normally one of my least favourite months of the year. The days are getting shorter and, generally, there’s wetter and colder weather arriving. This year, although the days are shorter, the weather has been particularly kind to us farmers. There’s been very little rain and the generally mild temperature has led to cattle being able to stay out grazing for longer without creating an enormous amount of mud. Also most of the autumn arable operations have come to a close. Most of the crops sown have established well and there should be a mass of yellow flowering oilseeds in April to look forward to.
Improving diversity
In the past month there have been many farmer meetings taking place out on the farm or in other venues rather than looking at each other on Zoom It makes a pleasant change to actually meet fellow farmers again.
I am sure that online meetings will still have a place but it is great to get out and about once more.
One such meeting involved our Cranborne Chase Cluster group which is made up of like-minded neighbouring farmers looking to co-operate to improve the diversity of our farms. We join forces to create a better environment for soil, water, air and wildlife habits.
The most recent gathering involved us learning from an advisor how best to manage our soils in order to produce good crops. This involves not destroying the soil structure by poor management involving compaction and poor organic soil content. We were also encouraged to do an earthworm count as a measure of soil health.
Our local agricultural discussion group hosted an interesting evening with our MP Simon Hoare. Simon gave us his thoughts on the future of farming which he thought was positive; although we must accept the need for change in how Government support is implemented, with a greater emphasis on the environment rather than just food production. Simon stressed that, with his involvement in the shaping of the Agricultural Bill, food production was still a key part of farming activities. It seems that some MPs have forgotten that food production was a key part of the UK economy. He said that although some trade deals have been successfully negotiated we must not let food production standards from imported foods undermine the high standards and potentially higher costs of production that we have in this country.
Thank you Simon for the support you give to agriculture and it’s associated industries, as I know you are often in a minority voice within government in keeping the rural voice alive.
Higher prices inevitable
As we look forward to next year we as farmers and growers face many challenges, especially with high input costs such as fuel, fertilisers and feed costs.
We have recently received a milk price increase, which is very welcome, and also cereals remain high, but I fear and believe that food prices in the shops will have to increase without anyone being any better off.
Let’s hope that maybe there will be some normality back next year. Perhaps that is wishful thinking.
Merry Christmas to you all! James
by James Cossins, a fifth generation farmer in the Tarrant Valley.
Breeding stock sales, tracking horses and the glory that is the matchless Honeysuckle – Lucy Procter reflects on November at the Glanvilles Stud.
Here on the stud, we’re still enjoying the dry autumn as we can keep our later foaling mares living out on grass, day and night. As the in-foal mares enter the last three months of their pregnancy, we bring them into individual stables overnight so we can give them more food, as this is when the foal inside them does the majority of its growing. Once winter proper arrives and the land gets wet, the rest of the mares will also come in at night to limit the damage to our paddocks.
Tattersalls December is in November Our focus this month has been preparing Demonstration, a three-year-old French flat-bred filly from a strong German family, to be sold in Newmarket at the Tattersalls December Mares Sales – which is, perversely, usually at the end of November as it was this year!
Breeding stock sales are the start of the whole breeding process; where fillies retiring from racing are sold as broodmare prospects, and in-foal mares change hands as breeders adjust their broodmare bands. Demonstration arrived with us from France just five weeks before the sale, straight out of racing, and she needed plenty of feeding to get more weight on her in a very short space of time. As well as daily turnout, we built her fitness on the horse walker, and the girls spent many hours grooming her to help build muscle and improve the condition of her coat. At the sales earlier this week, the hammer fell at 18,000 guineas (a guinea is £1.05), making a modest profit and keeping everyone happy. But if the Tattersalls sales ring is where the breeding dream begins, the winner’s enclosure for a Group/Grade 1 race is the ultimate destination.
Our girl Honeysuckle
We were all delighted that our TGS-bred wonder-mare, Honeysuckle, managed to reach this ultimate destination for the ninth time on Sunday, when winning the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse in Ireland for the third year on the trot. Including those nine Grade 1 races, at the start of her fourth season under rules, Honeysuckle has 13 wins to her name from 13 runs.
There is little that hasn’t already been written about her and her partnership with her equally indomitable jockey, Rachel Blackmore.
But the really hot news is that Honeysuckle’s win on Sunday makes her record equal to that of Bula’s from the 1970s – 13 consecutive wins from debut under rules.
Indeed, if you include her point- to-point win, which doesn’t count as under rules, she has technically already surpassed his record with 14 wins from debut! How much further can this mare go?
And can her full brother, Last Royal, due to make his seasonal debut soon, after over a year’s absence from the racecourse due to injury, prove himself worthy of her?
Tracking the best of the rest
There are plenty of other TGS- bred runners for the coming season and, as our Racing Post horse tracker shows (right), it is starting to get jolly busy out there on the racecourse.
Some of these racehorses we are following with particular interest as we are still breeding from their dams. Any good performances on the track from them will help improve the sales potential of their younger siblings.
Could one of these TGS-bred racehorses scale the heights to glory and be our next Grade 1 winner?
Since retiring in 2018, top five- star horse Happy Times has lived on the outskirts of Gillingham with the Berry family. Frances ‘Mouse’ Berry, who cared for him during his eventing career, and groomed for him at the London 2012 Olympics, shared with us how the now-20-year-old Oldenberg gelding is adapting to retirement. “He now enjoys a varied life, including being introduced to hacking quietly, rather than with a view to fitness. By taking him out with no pressure, I am introducing Happy to the idea that his role has changed. He makes the 10 minutes trip back to Sam Griffith’ s yard at Symphony Farm most weeks where he’s schooled to keep him supple and to ensure his mind is settled.” Having always had a life of routine, Mouse says it’s important to keep everything as similar as possible for him. “He no longer jumps as there is no need to. He always jumped with so much velocity and enthusiasm that it would be easy for him to pick up an injury. He loves his time in the field with his pony companions, Bluebell (Happy’s ‘wife’), Enya and Donk.” Since his retirement, Happy has successfully shown in veteran classes ridden by Sarah Gwilliam, coming second at Royal Windsor and winning the Gillingham and Shaftesbury and Frome Cheese shows this summer.
“He still loves a crowd and enjoys showing off in the ring. His signature move is a flying change; asked for or not!
This winter he will do some dressage with Hayley Lippiatt, and hopefully return to the show ring next summer. He’s certainly not thinking of putting his hooves up yet! Keeping Happy fit and well is very rewarding and his long term soundness is a tribute to Sam’s management.
He’s fed on Saracen Horse Feeds, he has regular physiotherapy and acupuncture and is still cared for buy the same team of vets and farrier as he was when competing.”
In 2016 Happy was inducted into the Eventing Hall of Fame. He loved cross-country and had total confidence in Sam – and vice versa. Together they were known for making the most enormous and technical courses around the world look easy. “He’s retired, but he is still very much the superstar with all that know and love him.”
The Happy facts:
Happy Times.
Born in 1999.
Sire – Heraldik
Owned by Dinah Posford, Juliet Donald and Sam Griffiths.
Ridden by Sam Griffiths.
1,711 British Eventing Points. Completed:
27 3* (now 4*)
13 4*(now 5*)
3rd at Badminton, and twice 3rd at Burghley.
Represented Australia at the 2012 London Olympic Games
The CPRE feels Dorset Council’s summary of responses to the consultation on the Draft Local Plan raises more questions than it answers, says Rupert Hardy, Chair of the North Dorset branch.
The view towards Ball Hill, Plush, in Dorset AONB image – Rupert Hardy
Dorset Council (DC) recently published a summary of responses to the consultation on the Draft Local Plan. Dorset CPRE is undertaking analysis of the responses and what they purport to show.
A community response
Firstly, the recently published summary of responses to the draft Local Plan (LP) has revealed overwhelming opposition to Dorset Council’s housing strategy, disguised as a misleadingly low number of responses. This was achieved by recording the submission of each town and parish council as a single response and by incorrect categorisation of many of their responses.
A search for answers to the question DEV1: Do you agree with the suggested approach and what it is trying to achieve? suggests only 460 responses, of whom 72% disagree.
Although this shows a rejection, it is highly misleading in number. Amongst the responses are the names of Town and Parish Council Clerks, who represent over 108,000 residents between them.
Sorting the data
As statutory consultees, the views of Town and Parish Councils should be easily accessible; but the alphabetical listing of responses by first name, rather than surname, makes this more difficult. Discovering the true scale opposition to the LP is further complicated by the fact that responses are recorded in the name of individuals, rather than their organisations. Who would know that the Dorset CPRE response can only be found under the name of Chairman Peter Bowyer, or Jo Witherden – the Planning Consultant who put together our submission to the Draft Local Plan? All of this seems like an effort to hide the reality, or at best it is a poor collation.
Town by town
CPRE also found numerous examples of respondents who had comments to make on housing policy, but their comments have been recorded elsewhere. Places such as Wimborne Minster and Weymouth are unable to support the LP, but have confined their comments, understandably, to their own town.
CPRE identified the representatives of a further 124,000 residents of Dorset towns and villages, who do not agree with the housing proposals. Dorset CPRE will be requesting a meeting with the chairs of Dorset Council’s Planning Committees to outline their case that Dorset Council should claim exceptional circumstances to reduce the number of planned homes, following the example of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council.
Dorset’s Green Pastures Under Threat From Developers Secondly we analysed the responses relating to the
AONB. Some 56% of Dorset is designated as Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), more than any other county in England. Much of the housing proposed in the draft LP will be built either in or very close to AONB land, changing forever the county’s unique landscape and rich biodiversity. Research carried out by CPRE, the Countryside Charity, reveals that housing that has been approved in AONBs nationally, since 2017/18, is overwhelmingly large executive homes, with only 16% affordable housing. Dorset is one of the main authorities regularly surrendering green fields as opposed to brownfield sites.
Adverse impacts on AONB
Natural England and a number of neighbouring authorities are highly critical of the Dorset plan. For example, “Natural England considers there is limited scope for major new development within the Dorset AONB above that already allocated.” With reference to development at Blandford Forum, they state that “The scale and location of the development will inevitably result in residual adverse impacts on the Cranborne Chase AONB.” By contrast, numerous developers’ submissions propose reducing the current protection of AONBs. Wyatt Homes suggests “these sites should not be excluded simply because the village is within the AONB”.
Persimmon Grainger admit that part of the proposed Dorchester development would have an impact on the setting of the AONB, but promise to minimize any “specific, evidenced reports” by tree planting. Dorset Council admits that the public interest test used to justify the release of AONB for major development is necessary to meet its excess housing target and Cllr David Walsh concedes it is ‘likely’ that protected areas will be affected by development. This means that town and parish councils who believe themselves protected from development are enjoying a false sense of security.
Town and parish councils who responded to the Dorset Draft Local Plan represent 287,000 voters.
Of these, 88% do not agree with the draft LP, which proposes over 4,500 homes in or within 250m of an AONB.
Dorset CPRE now calls for Dorset Council to acknowledge the overwhelming public opposition to the Local Plan and to accept that its findings put at risk the special areas of Dorset’s countryside. Accordingly, we believe it is now timely to revisit the whole Plan, especially in the light of recent statements by Michael Gove, who clearly signalled a shift towards greater recognition of AONBs as meriting special consideration in future development plans.
This month Wayne is featuring two exceptionally beautiful books by illustrator/artists Angela Harding and Susan Ogilvy.
Angela Harding, you may remember, illustrated the memorable covers of Raynor Winn’s books Wild Silence and the Salt Path. The second illustrator is Somerset-based artist Susan Ogilvy, who has produced an exquisitely illustrated, one-of-a-kind celebration of the hidden beauty of nature and the ingenuity of birds, ‘Nests’.
A beautifully illustrated guide to nature through the seasons by much-loved printmaker Angela Harding. The cover of this stunning book has an exclusive triptych printed on the reverse – a perfect collector’s item, and wonderful gift. This stunning work, the first book that is solely dedicated to Angela’s art, is a celebration of her beautiful prints, and a glimpse into her detailed and meticulous process. A Year Unfolding is a journey through Angela’s year in nature, watching the seasons unfold in front of her from her studio in Rutland, and giving the reader detail into how nature transforms and evolves over the course of the year. A Year Unfolding also tells the stories behind some of Angela’s most popular images, giving context to Angela’s celebrated work, as well as new art created specifically for the book. The beautiful illustrations and evocative imagery of the prose make this the perfect book for nature and art lovers everywhere.
Susan Ogilvy started painting bird nests by accident. Tidying her garden after a storm, she found a chaffinch nest – a sodden lump on the grass. She placed it indoors on a newspaper, and over the next few hours, as the water drained out, the sodden lump blossomed into a mossy jewel. She was amazed, dropping everything to make a painting of the nest at exact life size. It was the start of an obsession; Ogilvy has since painted more than fifty bird nests, each time marvelling at its ingenious construction. Every species of bird has its own vernacular, but sources its materials – twigs, roots, grasses, reeds, leaves, moss, lichen, hair, feathers and cobwebs, less usually, mattress stuffing and string – according to availability. Ogilvy would, of course, never disturb nesting birds; she relies upon serendipity, which is why all her nests have either been abandoned after fulfilling their purpose, or displaced by winds. This wondrous book is all the more special for its rarity. Few modern books exist specifically on the subject of bird nests; the most recent among the author’s reference works was published in 1932. Exquisitely designed and packaged, Nests will be an essential addition to the libraries of all nature lovers.
Sherborne’s independent bookshop Winstone’s has won the ‘British Book Awards South West Bookseller of the Year’ four times and was winner of the ‘Independent Bookseller of the Year’ national award in 2016. Owner Wayne Winstone is one of the three judges for this year’s Costa Prize for Fiction. This year Wayne was selected as one of the top 100 people in the Book Trade’s ‘Most Influential Figures’ listing.
