Meadow Lodge Farm

 Here are a selection of photos of Meadow Lodge Farm taken last June 2020     Everything to the right of the large farm sheds on left of photo belongs to Meadow Lodge Farm.   This photos shows ponds between the two areas of land belong to the farm.     The thin lighter green strip to the left of photo is ours up to the conifers then the land extends across the whole area and leads to another field at far end. (left )

 It was a sunny first day of Big Garden Birdwatch so I decided to pop over to the farm to see what I could observe.  The feeders were all empty as I expected so I re-filled them and waited a short distance away.  It wasnt long before three blue tits and a great tit arrived and took advantage of the new stock of sunflower hearts.   These kept flying to and fro for a while.  I then noticed a chaffinch in the background and a single goldfinch flew down to feast. I expected more to join him but they didnt appear.   However I was pleased with the appearance of several long tailed tits on the suet block.   I put a pile of sunflower hearts on the fence posts to see if anything would come and the great tit and long tailed tits perched on there for a while.   As it was in the sun unlike the feeders it would have made good photos but alas my camera battery died on me but I will know for next time.   Whilst watching the feeders,...

An unexpected sudden flurry of large snowflakes this morning left a dusting of white and  made everything look very wintery and bleak!    It did improve the appearance of the ground by covering  all the mud though!   

  Cox, Spartan and Crispin apple juice made from apples grown at the farm.

 Noticing the sunflower hearts had run out very fast I put my trail cam up to monitor what was using the bird feeders. It was soon obvious that the goldfinches had found the feeders and 200 video clips showed they together with some blue and great tits were enjoying the feast!  A robin, chaffinch and long tailed tit all put in brief appearances but I was pleased to see it wasn't a squirrel  that was devouring the bird food.      NB not much to update, the skip has been removed and vegetation cleared to allow a wire fence to be erected along the front of the garden next to the road. Too muddy to do much really though a bonfire has got rid of a lot of branches and twigs and some unwanted furniture from the house,

 Well it didnt take long for the birds to find the new bird feeders!   Saw the flock of long tailed tits again (seen yesterday), blue tits, great tits and robin all trying them out.    I have seen the robin quite often and he seems quite a friendly little chap hopping amongst the fruit trees near the house and perching for a long time on a branch sticking out of the top of the fire heap!   Walking around the farm there were plenty of fieldfares with a number of redwings amongst them, making a characteristic chatter from the tops of the trees and periodically flying down to consume the fallen apples which provided quite a feast. We noted a wren and dunnock hopping about in the old tree stumps. We also had several sightings of a hare crossing in front of us and a deer disappearing into the distance although too far away to determine size and type. Back in the yard we put up two nest boxes so wonder if they will be occupied this year.  Being fro...