Blogs

As spring approaches and the local amateur wildlife photographers start dusting off their cameras, the requests to come and photograph on the land start to come in.

A break in the weather has given us the opportunity to get out in the fields and try to get some jobs ticked off the list.

Our yearlings are lambing well, apart from the occasional large single. We designed the lambing shed so we did not have far to go to reach a bonding pen, which helps immensely with reluctant first time mums.

It is often said many lessons can be learned from history. Maybe modern life lures us into a false sense of security, or maybe man just has far to large an ego, but it seems like we have a tendency to ignore these lessons, usually to our detriment.

I think I tempted fate by mentioning the ’Beast from the East’ in my last column.

What a month February turned out to be. Mother nature put on quite the show, kicking off with rain, then the cold with extremely sharp and hard frosts, then came some snow and to finish we had a mix of strong winds and sunshine.

February fatigue is setting in and the novelty of our well-oiled winter routine has worn off – turnout cannot come fast enough.

The talking point in Wales right now is the shock announcement of whole territory Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs) by Welsh Government.

With spring happily just round the corner, we will be so glad to see the end of one of the wettest and coldest winter I can remember – and I am now 63 and as far as I am aware do not suffer from memory loss.

It seems to be the time of year for surveys. I have done the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch and the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust Big Farmland Bird Count, noting that bird numbers are down.