Dimiter and I spent the day working at the project plot. We did a hay cut on the meadow area, transplanted some trees and burnt off some brash wood piles (old vines etc) and made a log pile. We had to burn off some material we had stock piled in the summer when we couldn't burn so before we did we had to check the material for hibernating animals. Sure enough there were several Field Voles and also a Spur-thighed Tortoise. The voles ran off but we had to move the Tortoise to another compost area we have. Will certainly create and maintain new composting/ hay pile areas in future (this one was in the wrong place) as they are certainly good bits of habitat.
We worked to dusk and there was Little and Long-eared Owl and Woodcock flying around the plot as it got dark.
Spur-thighed Tortoise- an unfortunate rude awakening but better than being woke up by the fire
Field Vole, there was also Wood Mouse in the area. The reptile matts we put down have got voles and wood mice under them too- there were at least 10 voles last time I checked
Had this micro-moth flying around the Steppe a couple of days ago. I had the LED moth trap on last night but didn't catch a single moth. There are plenty of Silver-Ys flying around during the day and also quite a few butterflies including Clouded Yellow, Red Admiral, Large White and Painted Lady. It was 18 C today and apparently it's been very mild so far with the wild geese characteristic of this region just starting to appear (we had a couple of flocks of White-fronts going over a couple of days ago).
Everywhere on the Steppe there are these mounds which are Steppe Mouse colonies. Would be good to see one of these for a mammal tick. It's a population explosion year so a good time to try and see them- I'll try and do a bit of night exploring if I get the time.
The meadow area on the project plot, before the hay cut. The idea with this area is to create a species rich meadow so we've had to dig out the old vineyard (but kept about 1/3 of the vineyard in the front of the plot) and been cutting back the rough grassland to enable the seed bank to re-germinate (the plot was left unmanaged for several years before we acquired it). The meadow is part of an overall plan to create a large wildlife pond, wild edges, wooded borders, a woodland area, vineyard and garden and also construct a small wooden cabin. We should have water and electricity by next spring (fingers crossed). It's back to the council offices tomorrow to get the planning permission for the water (we did the electricity earlier on in the week).
After the hay cut. Still need to tighten the crop on this and also transplant more of the trees to the wood area. A bit more on this project HERE
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