As much as I want to let the Ewe and lambs out in the fields, I look at the lambs, they are so small I worry that they wont survive a prolonged wet spell. The weather forecasts are all over the place, I cant say that I trust them very much. Every time the Ewe hears or sees us she calls out letting us know she is there, it would help her if another Ewe had lambed and was in the stable with her. Well I didn’t count them until about 5.pm today and one other Ewes was missing. It did not take long to find her, she was in the area I would have expected her to be, there she was with her new born healthy Ewe lamb. I will have to check them a bit more than once a day.
The way that the Dove is poking about in the nest, the eggs may well have hatched, they definitely are ugly ducklings until they are mature. We do get a lot of them on the farm. Nature does takes its course, by the Sparrow Hawk taking them. We often see him taking one, not a pleasant sight, but that’s nature.
A couple of years ago a pair Sparrow Hawks nested in the loft above the Holiday Cottages, it got in through a Barn Owl Hole entrance, that we left open for the Barn Owls, when we converted a barn. When the chicks started to leave the nest, they would move about, above the bedroom ceilings, I reckon it was one hell of a noise, all though every person who occupied the cottage found it fascinating and really enjoyed the experience. They only took up residence for one year.
For some reason we don’t get any Barn Owls on the Farm, They tend to like rough, pasture that the Voles like, there is then a plentiful larder for them. As you have seen on the Badger cams, we do have some rough land that we do not manage, so there are plenty of Voles. But the Barn Owls still don’t come. We do get other types of Owls including the Tawney.
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