September - log slog

Corrections

Many thanks to Chris Wren for both his support of this blog and for sharing his extensive knowledge of the natural world. Chris noticed that the female ‘Ruddy Darter’ on the July blog was a female Common Darter as it had yellow lines along its legs. Also the insect on Sneezewort in the same blog post was not a wasp as ‘it didn’t have a wasp waist’ - it seems so obvious when pointed out - and likely to be a sawfly, possibly Tenthredo arcuata. If readers haven’t visited Chris’ blog https://trogtrogblog.blogspot.com/ - a name to delight bird lovers, it’s well worth the time. Chris is a naturalist, bee-keeper and superb wildlife photographer, offering still and moving images of the natural world backed by experience, knowledge and statistics. He also has a fondness for the Sparrowhawks that visit his garden.

1st September

John and Clare worked on some wall clearing and repair on the south boundary. While removing some weed from the big pond, Clare inadvertently scooped up a dragonfly which she manipulated onto the net handle as it needed to dry its wings. There was an ideal opportunity for a photograph. It flew off after a few minutes and resumed its habit of frustrating John’s pursuit of a photograph by being constantly darting about, or in this instant, hawking.

4th September onwards

With the quad bike now a part of the Liddells workforce John set about sawing in the Pit Wood, creating piles of logs both to dry in the log shed and to take home ready for burning this winter.

4th/5th September

The deer are still favouring the stump circle for their food and make frequent appearances on the trail camera. John was intrigued by footage of the doe behaving warily when the buck appears. He has not seen this behaviour before and can think of no reason why the buck should be a threat to the doe. Suggestions?

6th September

John managed to work out a system to connect guttering on the sheds to the bowser; this will mean that there is rainwater available for the shepherd’s hut when needed. Clare split a clump of Purple Loosestrife in the wet area of the Meadow and replanted it on the banks of the big pond. She also pounced on new mint growth and continued Mel’s eradication work.

Adding to the multifarious uses of duct (or duck) tape

13th September

68 sheep arrived to eat off the Top Grazing. Some of them have used posts placed to alert drivers to the presence of protruding bedrock, as back scratchers.

14th September

Friends Chris and Mac visited and Mac’s hat played host to a dragonfly. Frustratingly it was hard to get close enough for a detailed photograph without the probability of scaring it away - the dragonfly not the hat. Later their dog sniffed out a bird carcass, or broken bird as Juno would say. Chris and Mac happened to look up and saw Crow wings in the tree above. Mac thought this might suggest a Peregrine kill although it could have been a female Sparrowhawk. Next day Clare took John to see the wings and noticed below them a twig covered in a black jelly fungus that is known as Witches’ Butter. So raptor or coven. Clare favours the more imaginative explanation.

15th and 22nd September

With little opportunity for stand-up comedy at the moment, Hal has generously offered time to help on Liddells, however he revealed his true motivations in a post-script to his offer: ‘Now a cynic might suggest that this coincides suspiciously with the acquisition of your new four-wheeled friend, and to that I’d say, “Yes, yes it does”.’ So everyone’s a winner. Hal has worked phenomenally hard and helped bring large loads of logs out of the Pit Wood and North-east Strip for drying in the log shed at Liddells and stacking at home, and he has moved dumpy bags of chip to the Top Strip for Clare to top up the path. Much as John and Clare miss Paul, they have to admit that Hal power is more productive that one horse power. The sheep proved to be interested in Hal’s activity and so Hal had a go at shepherding.

A small fraction of the logs carried, stacked and awaiting splitting. (Hal’s next job.)

19th September

Clare bought a broom for the hide. John was proud of his caption choice.

20th September

Clare decided it was time to risk checking on supersedure progress in Hive 1. She was surprised to see capped brood that had obviously been there a while and then delighted to realise why - there was the Scarlet Pimpernel queen quietly going about her business. Either the supersedure larva failed, or a new queen hatched and was dispatched by the reigning monarch. Either way, the colony is in a strong state to go into the winter. Clare also decided to begin the process of removing the remaining honey super from Hive 2, which still had some honey not stolen by robber bees. She added a clearer board under the super. The clearer board has two "tunnels" leading to each end and a centre chamber in which the bees gather when initially leaving the super. The bees pass through the opening in the board and into the escape. The tunnels are soon discovered and the bees quickly stampede into the chamber below created by the deep rim and attracted by the scents of the brood body through the latticed structure of the escape. The idea being that the bees descend to the brood chamber but cannot quickly work out how to get back up again. (Thanks to Thorne bee-keeping suppliers for this explanation.) Or so the theory goes. Clare and bee-buddy Barry have had varying degrees of success with the boards.

21st September

Clare returned early in the morning to see if the clearer board had done its job. There were still quite a few bees in the super however they were quite docile (or tired from a night on the honey), and easily brushed off the frames. Clare then had to remove the clearer board and queen excluder - the bees must be left with syrup to replace the removed honey and the queen must have access to this in case there is insufficient for her in the brood chamber. The bees were not quite so docile during this procedure, presumably annoyed that a) they had been woken early on a cool morning b) they were not best pleased that their honey had disappeared and c) they don’t enjoy puzzles, mazes in particular. Fortunately Clare and her assistant John left with no stings.

Concerned that all the logging activity would deter the deer from visiting the stumps, John moved the trail camera to the main path through the Pit Wood.

22nd September

Clare planted Ragged Robin plugs that she had grown on from seedlings Lesley had kindly donated, Lesley having grown them from seed she had collected.

John and Clare finally got round to adding the capping stones to their wall repair. Apparently one of their land neighbours had thought the stones had been stolen and was pleased to see their return.

26th September

A tick for one of the items that has been on the to-do list for a long time. John repurposed another of the insulators from redundant telegraph poles as an outside door handle for the shepherd’s hut. Clare has discovered that not only do people collect these insulators but that there is a Professor of Telegraphpoleology at the Faculty for insulators, crossarms and dropwires at Frome University, whose garden ornamentation is made entirely from scrap telegraph pole parts. A door handle seems quite unimaginative in comparison. Clare thinks it is splendid.

26th - 29th September

The trailer has needed attention for some time and the log loads this month left the base pretty ropey with logs falling down the gap between the floor and the sides. Clare has noticed bits of trailer base and sides strewn on the ground wherever the quad bike has gone. John set about making the trailer sound again after wondering whether he could propose it as a challenge for The Repair Shop.

Meanwhile Clare made progress on her plan to eradicate as many bramble and nettle roots from the south boundary wall as possible, repairing any stonework as necessary and creating a path on the inside of the wall. She was a bit disconcerted to find stones fallen away from the base at one point where the wall was very high and she was working below, however she was able to dig up some uncut stones from near by to fill the gap and shore the wall up. Working on the outside of the wall she discovered that the medieval cross base had not been hewn as she had thought, but the rectangular hole for the cross had simply (or not so simply) been chiselled out of a large lump of bedrock. The base does not extend through the wall, rather the wall has been built to incorporate the bedrock.

For a while John has sensed there have been more deer than he previously thought on Liddells. The trail camera has confirmed his hunch. As far as John can tell, the deer are all does. John and Clare are delighted to see evidence of the hare again though not so happy to see the squirrels. John has ‘broken’ at least twenty in the last few months. There is clearly more work to be done.

All bottomed out. A bottomless pit of work.

30th September

The firm that were due to fit the wood burner in the shepherd’s hut tomorrow asked if they could do the work today. An excellent way to end the month. John occupied himself with trailer improvements while the stove went in. Clare photographed evidence of more digging, this time in the Orchard. Unfortunately the site would mean miles of footage of wavy grass if the trail camera were to be positioned nearby. Although the weather had turned cold overnight, once the stove was lit the hut warmed up very quickly. One of the workers who installed the stove went the extra mile and finished John’s painting on the trailer while John and Clare enjoyed watching the fire in the stove. Superb service!