Temperatures dropped from the mid 20s to 12 C between Saturday and Sunday and this morning there was a frost too. The wind was very strong on Monday so all in all the last two or three days have been pretty tough going. It was a good excuse to get some work done and I spent the last two days writing the moth and butterfly list of the Azores.
Also did a bit on the garden, did the airfield Sunday morning before the front moved in and also moth trapping Saturday night when it was still warm.
We finally harvested our first crop today which we planted from seed- one radish (below).
Potatoes have gone in (above) and Tomatoes are waiting (below)
The Ponies have been moved around a bit to make more space for some more food growing
Scalloped Hazel - a first for the Old Vicarage from Saturday night
Female Bee Moth
The Airfield is clearly intensive agriculture with huge monocultures and clear signs of large scale herbicide/chemical treatment (below). However just shows that this kind of farming is not necessarily bad for wildlife considering the large populations of farmland birds up there including Corn Buntings, Yellow Wagtails, Skylarks, Grey Partridge etc . In fact to be honest before I moved to the countryside I was led to believe from the conservation literature that it was a complete wasteland of birdless and natureless chemical saturated monocultures. That may be the case in some areas but in the Worminghall area everywhere we have explored has been pretty interesting and there are all sorts of little magic spots and hotspots. As lockdown now begins to be eased , it was interesting to discover the wildlife in regular farmland. Here's the ebird list that we started about a month ago HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment