 Wildlife
Report 2005
There have been many changes in
our agricultural and horticultural businesses
with the introduction of the Single Farm Payment
and a re-designed website. Langmead Farms continue
to improve the bio-diversity on all of our farms
especially on the 800 acres of organically farmed
land. All the farms will now have 6 metre field
margins which act as wildlife corridors which
means we will have at least 12 kilometres of additional
managed habitat. Improved management of the hedges
and copses is on-going and the recently constructed
beetle banks will give more diversity and where
they are planted across the fields, they are designed
to prevent erosion, particularly at Petworth.
So the outlook is very positive for the development
of all the wildlife and wild plants on our farms.
The following is a summary of the
last year’s activities:-
Birds
 At
the top of the food chain of course we have the
raptors and kestrels who continue to nest at Ferry
Farm in a nest box. We also have barn owls nesting
in 2 barns at Petworth. There has been a big increase
in the amount of common buzzards on the farms
and we also see more peregrine falcons which are
probably the ones that nest in the tower of Chichester
Cathedral. Some short-eared owls have over-wintered
on the specially prepared habitat adjoining Pagham
Harbour. It is pleasing to note that most of the
common farmland birds are now holding their own
including skylarks and we are hoping to encourage
more yellow hammers and corn buntings.
Butterflies
2005 has been a good year for butterflies,
probably due to the exceptionally dry weather
and there are now 20 different species some of
which have been seen in abundance such as the
Meadow Brown and the Red Admiral.
Dragonflies and Damsel Flies
The ditch bordering Pagham Harbour
has been particularly productive and 11 species
have been observed during the season, with exceptional
views of the Giant Emperor Dragonfly witnessed
in July.
 Mammals
Roe deer are now regularly seen
on all our farms and on the golf courses and in
gardens. Most of which seem to have twins and
a herd of 10 have been seen at Home Farm Selsey
during the summer, no doubt feeding on early morning
lettuce. Rabbit populations continue to fluctuate
with myxomatosis taking a heavy toll in September
and October of this year. Hares are still scarce
mainly due to the amount of predation by foxes.
There should be a good increase in the voles and
other small mammals making use of the 6 metre
field boundaries.
Watervoles
To encourage watervoles on our farms
we now cut, on a bi-annual basis, the banks of
the rifes and ditches where they occur. In other
words, one bank is cut one year and the opposite
bank the following year. This gives more opportunity
for the watervoles to avoid predators, particularly
the mink and it is pleasing to report that the
West Sussex County Council have been putting a
lot of effort into catching mink and this has
given a chance for the watervoles to establish
themselves over the last 3 to 4 years.
Hunston Copse
This is the largest wood still being
coppiced on the Chichester Plain. Once again the
wild flowers in the copse in March and April were
delightful with the bluebells flowering above
the white wood anemones and the yellow celandines.
Access to this copse is available via the footpath
from Hunston Church and a permissive path remains
open through the middle of the copse. Further
work is being carried out by volunteers and students
on the coppicing and construction of beetle banks
with this work continuing through the winter.
We also installed a replacement kestrel box and
boxes for blue tits and great tits. Regrettably
the earlier ones were vandalised. A lot of elder
has been removed and these areas have been re-planted
with hazel.
 Access
Langmead Farms maintains at
least 3.85 kilometres of footpaths on our farms
some of which are also bridleways and we encourage
all country lovers to use these paths whenever
possible. As we are growing edible crops we request
that all dogs are kept on a lead.
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