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It is cool to care for nature
Records
The proof of the pudding is in the eating and over the years the
place has been transformed into an environment teeming with life, from insects all
the way through to birds of prey like owls, kestrels, sparrow hawks and buzzards.
I have even seen one skylark!
I regularly spot badgers and foxes, there is much evidence of digging and
the field is it is crisscrossed with wildlife paths and tunnels. Sadly, there
are no hedgehogs present. Badgers eat hedgehogs.
Yes, there is also an increase in rooks, magpies and rats which I occasionally
shoot with great reluctance and little impact on their population.
I fear that rats and cats do more damage to young birds than all the magpies put together.
I once saw a rat take a baby rabbit, much larger than itself, just imagine what
it would do with pheasant, duck or moorhen chicks. Rats are very good swimmers
and can climb trees to get to any nests and they are very difficult to control.
In the summer it is a joy to see swallows, swifts and house martins and at
dusk numerous bats swooping over the meadow which is full of insects, butterflies,
humming with the noise of bees and crickets. It is a great thrill to see large
grass snakes basking in the sun. The difference with 'green' farmland is quite
startling.
Anyone with a patch of land, or orchard, however small, could take part in
this sort of project, linking up with neighbours to the large nature reserves.
The result would be a network along which wildlife can travel and extend their
range. It seems so worthwhile to help preserve our wildlife and beautiful native
wild flowers, not to mention the joy it brings to so many people to be able to
see the birds and the bees.
Here follows a record of creatures great and small spotted on the place: | 
