Wildlife Report - April, May & June 2007

After a mild winter we get summer in April followed by almost eight weeks of rain which has been detrimental to wildlife and farming.

Birds

The nesting season appeared to get off to a good start but unfortunately many of the ground nesters such as Grey partridge and Pheasant have not done well and they have been heavily predated. Many of the song birds have found feeding young extremely difficult and there appear to be far fewer young tits and other song birds around. In spite of this we have had good results with nesting Barn Owls and Kestrels. Barn Owls have successfully reared young at Selsey and Petworth in our boxes and the Kestrels have reared three at a secret location. The rarest bird on our farms was a migrant Red-Backed Shrike. These have not nested in the UK for the last twenty years.  

Butterflies

Again, these have been affected by the wet weather and overcast skies. Some of the more common species have been seen on fine days including a good hatch of Meadow Browns in late June. Unfortunately, we had high hopes of a good breeding summer but I think that the weather has ruined their chances. 

Trees and Hedgerows

To date we have not had any serious wind damage to the trees and hedges that have been planted in the last ten years. The continued wet weather should help them to put on good growth this year and we will continue to monitor and manage the cutting to minimise any damage to the hedgerow trees. 

Access

Langmead Farms maintains at least 3.8kms of footpath on our farms, some of which are also bridleways, and we encourage all country lovers to use these footpaths whenever possible. As we are growing edible crops, we request that all dogs be kept on leads. Your co-operation is appreciated.