wildlife down on the farm

the last two days the wildlife have been very evident down on the farm. there has been a large flock of Brent geese – another winter visitor, encamped on the winter wheat. yesterday I waved my arms and walked up the field near them, and they only waddled further away from me, nattering to each other in their gutteral purring voices. today I did move them on a bit, but they just landed again 100 yards further up the field.

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they seem very tame compared to the pink footed geese which shut up if there is a human near, and take off at the slightest movement.

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here they are, refusing to do more than fly out of range, and then settle down again. one was even sitting down. I hope it’s not that the cold weather is making them weaker.

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as we walked down the track back to the wood, two big hares got up and ran off, luckily Tilda didn’t really see them, and she was on the lead anyway. its nice to see them about, though no doubt 50 years ago on a sunny winter afternoon there would have been tens of them rather than two. yesterday a pair of roe deer stood in the wood, in their woolly winter coats, staring out at me; they obviously hadn’t realised that I could see them in there.tildalookingsmaller.jpg

We were walking up-wind of any creatures, so Tilda had a disappointing time – in this photo she was looking at the hedge at the bottom of Cake’s Lane because there was a blackbird in it.

when we got home I was assembling a sheaf of garden leafery and berries to go on the door for Christmas when there was a terrific noise of Brent geese protesting at being turfed off their nice comfy wheat field, and they flew over. I wonder how far they will go. there are plenty of fields of wheat round here.

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2 Comments

  1. There are advantages to living in rural areas. Your town seems isolated. In the Cotswolds and in town around Bath last year, every road seemed like Oxford St in London on a Saturday afternoon. By contrast, your world is calm — actually rural-like.

  2. this morning seemed busy, but yes, you are right, especially in the winter its pretty quiet. on the little road that passes my house we have 2 school buses twice a day (and that’s just the laziness of the drivers taking a short cut, because there is hardly room for the bus on the road) and maybe four or five cars … unless like today – dustbin collection, two collection from my house by couriers, the wood delivery, the people opposite had an electrician in and the people next to them had oil for heating delivered. but the fact that I know which and what the traffic was just shows how little there is normally.
    however. on the main road, half a mile away, there is a constant stream of traffic and there is more every year.

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