Valais Blacknose Sheep

Well! Can you believe what’s going on? It seems we suddenly have a whole new vocabulary – lockdown, sheltering in place, social distancing..etc. It’s all a bit of a shock isn’t it? I don’t know about you but I’m finding it better to keep away from social media and to stop constantly listening to the news.

So I thought as I’m lucky enough to live in this lovely place, I’d share some stuff from my local rambles. I might share some old photos as well, seeing as I haven’t been here for a while. And I might even share some other stuff….I’ll see.

Down the road is a field that is more often than not, flooded. Geese and seagulls love it, occasionally an oyster catcher drops by, and quite often the lapwings feed there:

fullsizeoutput_13bc — Lapwings on a local piece of wetland

There’s a flock of lapwings always gliding around a bit further away at the top of the hill – such a lovely sound they make when they’re together in the air. I guess these are the same ones come down for lunch – but who knows? They may not be. A group of lapwings is actually called a Deceit – A Deceit of Lapwings. I looked it up – it comes from the birds’ use of diversionary tactics when they have young in the nest. There’s even a poem called ‘A Deceit of Lapwings’ by David Underdown (https://www.davidunderdown.co.uk/a-deceit-of-lapwings).

I love lapwings, I love the way they swoop and ‘rollercoaster’ in the sky and when they’re on the ground they’re so funny and proud with their crested heads bobbing about. And their song which you can hear on the RSPB website is very distinctive, they are sometimes known as peewits because of their call. (https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/lapwing/).

Lapwings are on the red list – their numbers were noticed to have declined significantly in the early 1900s due to their eggs being collected for food. The Lapwing Act in 1926 helped them to recover a bit but by the 1940s changes in farming practices caused them to decline again. Cultivation of arable land adds to nesting failures and crop growth shortens the nesting season.

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To be honest we didn’t actually see any Lapwings today on our walk, except in the far distance swooping over their usual field. We did see yellowhammers, skylarks, and a buzzard. It was a good day for a stroll – no wind. It’s windy here on most days so its lovely to be able to get out without being blown along or dodging falling branches!

There are plenty of lambs about now of course, we have some in the field next door, six black and white lambs born to Zwartble ewes:

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Today we walked past these amazing rams:

DSCN6324 — I think these might be Valais Blacknose sheep originating from the Swiss mountains. I’ve no idea why they are wearing coats though – maybe to keep their fleeces clean?

We saw some miniature Shetland ponies, including this little one, separated from her friends because she has laminitis – caused by eating too much and getting too fat!

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We caused a good deal of excitement walking past a field of horses – they came running over obviously expecting a snack – sadly we only brought chocolate flapjacks along and we’d already eaten them!

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Not so many Spring flowers to be seen here yet – but we spotted some Lesser Celandine, a type of buttercup. It grows anywhere but you shouldn’t think that because of that you can ignore it – its really important for early feeding for many insects and an important source of pollen and nectar. I spotted three bumble bees buzzing around today looking for food so these plants might be common but they are important.