Nature on your farm.

Birdnuts

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

Speaking of Autumn raspberries - we are still getting some raspberries off ours here... I was surprised, given we’re almost in mid November...

Same here - its been so mild recently is like a second spring with the likes of Red Clover, Dandelions etc, putting up new flowers

Fluppen

Lots of raspberries here too, quite a few twins.

imokyrok

NcdJd wrote: »

I've a few different cultivars of cobnuts already including the two you mentioned but the squirrels are more sharper than me when it comes to harvesting anything off them.

I never knew there was a black version of elderflower. Looks fantastic! I've plenty of the native elderflower and can be a scourge around the place but will add two of the black lace to my list. There was a lady that used to come in and pick elderflowerheads and throw me a couple of bottles of elderflower cordial. Lovely stuff very refreshing. I saw something on a program a while back that you can also make Turkish delight out of the flowers.

They are a smaller plant and they don't seem to self seed as easily. Keeping the common elderflower under control is hard but so far I havent had a bird dropped black lace. Mores the pity. The elderflower cordial it produces is a lovely pink colour. Didnt know that about Turkish delight. The berries are lovely in a crumble with another dominant fruit. Pear and elderberry or apple and elderberry eg.

I've havent seen squirrels where I am since its right beside the sea and there aren't many trees for them so hopefully I will get to harvest hazel nuts myself ðŸ˜

imokyrok

gozunda wrote: »

I have early summer fruiting varieties here with some berries still growing and ripening atm.

That and the birds have been having a whale of a time on the crab apple trees.

The crabapples are really hanging around this year! My daughter made a few jars of crabapple and chilli chutney recently. Delicious with cheese.

imokyrok

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

What is the variety of the gooseberry, and where did you get them?

I got gooseberry plants a while back - but they were leathal with thorns. Ended up giving em away

Be very interested in the thornless ones though...

This is the one I've gotten.
https://shop.tullynurseries.ie/Product/View.aspx?Code=GOO001

imokyrok

NcdJd wrote: »

Thanks Forgottenhills, at some stage I'd like to get some Logan berries. I had Autumn fruiting raspberries but found them hit and miss.

I have a couple of Logan berries in my garden for many years but have yet to taste a ripe one. The birds strip them everytime! Worth having for feeding the birds I guess.

NcdJd

imokyrok wrote: »

They are a smaller plant and they don't seem to self seed as easily. Keeping the common elderflower under control is hard but so far I havent had a bird dropped black lace. Mores the pity. The elderflower cordial it produces is a lovely pink colour. Didnt know that about Turkish delight. The berries are lovely in a crumble with another dominant fruit. Pear and elderberry or apple and elderberry eg.

I've havent seen squirrels where I am since its right beside the sea and there aren't many trees for them so hopefully I will get to harvest hazel nuts myself ðŸ˜

You might be able to take a cutting of it. The ordinary elderflower rooted for me when I broke a branch off one and stuck it in the ground to mark a trench going into a ditch. Came back a couple of months later and was surprised to see it growing away!

NcdJd

Danzy wrote: »

Great to hear.
Please put some photos up of the field in bloom.

Flying up.

forgottenhills

NcdJd wrote: »

Flying up.

Great looking planting. How do you keep the birds and other critters away from your crops?

NcdJd

forgottenhills wrote: »

Great looking planting. How do you keep the birds and other critters away from your crops?

Not my crop forgottenhills ( thankfully as I hate the smell of garlic ha ), field out the back of me. He sowed it with a cabbage planter but will be investing in a proper sower and harvester this year as he's put in 40 to 50 acres of it this year. There's a couple of different varieties that's one that's up.

Pigeons don't go near it and the rabbits don't seem to like it, few nibbles here and there.

Lady Haywire

A rather dead thing, but I always move dead things off the road because I hate to think of them being squished
Thought it was a kitten, but it's obviously not.
Consensus on Twitter is cream mink? I never knew they came in pale




Actually we're about 50/50 ferret/mink now. I'm going back for it to get a better pic :pac:

NcdJd

Lady Haywire wrote: »

A rather dead thing, but I always move dead things off the road because I hate to think of them being squished
Thought it was a kitten, but it's obviously not.
Consensus on Twitter is cream mink? I never knew they came in pale




Actually we're about 50/50 ferret/mink now. I'm going back for it to get a better pic :pac:

Was probably playing dead when it saw ya coming.

Capercaillie

Lady Haywire wrote: »

A rather dead thing, but I always move dead things off the road because I hate to think of them being squished
Thought it was a kitten, but it's obviously not.
Consensus on Twitter is cream mink? I never knew they came in pale




Actually we're about 50/50 ferret/mink now. I'm going back for it to get a better pic :pac:

Could be albino mink, could check iris colour to verify.

Lady Haywire

Capercaillie wrote: »

Could be albino mink, could check iris colour to verify.

That was the discussion on Twitter, we had the white minks VS the ferrets. We concluded it was a ferret due to the more pointed face.
Now to figure out where the hell it came/escaped from as they'd be uncommon around here afaik.

Eyes were black too, no pink taint or colouring of the skin, not an albino which was my first thought.

NcdJd

Starlings and sparrows doing their daily therapeutic mud bath thing.

Rows Grower

Lady Haywire wrote: »

That was the discussion on Twitter, we had the white minks VS the ferrets. We concluded it was a ferret due to the more pointed face.
Now to figure out where the hell it came/escaped from as they'd be uncommon around here afaik.

Eyes were black too, no pink taint or colouring of the skin, not an albino which was my first thought.

It's a ferret, probably belonged to some lad out hunting rabbits or could be an ex pet let loose.

imokyrok

I discovered this podcast yesterday and I've been totally glued to it since. So many interviews with people who are fascinating about rewilding etc. https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9yb290c2FuZGFsbC5saWJzeW4uY29tL3Jzcw&ep=14

Birdnuts

imokyrok wrote: »

I discovered this podcast yesterday and I've been totally glued to it since. So many interviews with people who are fascinating about rewilding etc. https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9yb290c2FuZGFsbC5saWJzeW4uY29tL3Jzcw&ep=14

Speaking of - some ambitious plans in the UK

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/dalmatian-pelicans-rewilding-rspb-norfolk-b1724303.html?fbclid=IwAR3Uci-h2xqni67Tr-PpEsA2enX3d06ceqYb9vY0zI4tsZ6uVHsrzTJ-IAM

We could do similar things here if we could get our bogs back off the likes of BNM and Coillte - so many benefits like bringing back Cranes, Bitterns, flood control, improving water quality etc.

NcdJd

Was walking back through the fields this evening and one particular spud field I was walking through there was weird bird noises all around me as I was crossing it. Suspected they were lapwings even though I don't see any during the day. Went on YouTube and delighted to discover that they are. The must fly into the field at night time to roost?

Made my day that they are still about as I haven't seen any during the day for a few years. Spooky listening to them at night.

Sorry these are the sounds I heard might be something of interest to others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sZb5PrF0BA

Base price

Over the past couple of weeks I've heard and seen a flock of Starlings (200+) congregate on the Ash trees on the avenue between the house and yard at about 3-3.30pm most days. They make some noise with their chattering.

NcdJd

Base price wrote: »

Over the past couple of weeks I've heard and seen a flock of Starlings (200+) congregate on the Ash trees on the avenue between the house and yard at about 3-3.30pm most days. They make some noise with their chattering.

They can be a pain sometimes, but they are also fascinating birds. I guess cause they are so many of them people don't appreciate them but I think people would miss them if they were gone.

Base price

NcdJd wrote: »

Was walking back through the fields this evening and one particular spud field I was walking through there was weird bird noises all around me as I was crossing it. Suspected they were lapwings even though I don't see any during the day. Went on YouTube and delighted to discover that they are. The must fly into the field at night time to roost?

Made my day that they are still about as I haven't seen any during the day for a few years. Spooky listening to them at night.

Sorry these are the sounds I heard might be something of interest to others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sZb5PrF0BA

Lapwings are regular visitors to NCD during the Autumn/Winter. They have been feeding on my place and in and around the garden for years.

There aren't as many to be seen anymore in Longford as there used to be when I was a child.

NcdJd

Base price wrote: »

Lapwings are regular visitors to NCD during the Autumn/Winter. They have been feeding on my place and in and around the garden for years.

There aren't as many to be seen anymore in Longford as there used to be when I was a child.

Had hundreds of them around where I am as well as curlews and plovers but they mostly disappeared when they put in the M1 motorway. There was one field bounding my fields that they used to be in but that got ploughed a couple of years ago so thought they were all gone. Between the call of the curlews and looking at the black & white of the lapwings in flight these are memories that never fade from me.

dodderangler

not a farmer but a hunter and last week I spotted 2 swallows which is strange for this time of year

NcdJd

dodderangler wrote: »

not a farmer but a hunter and last week I spotted 2 swallows which is strange for this time of year

Very strange alright. Always wanted to know if swallows say have a late brood do they stay till the chick's are ready to fly and feed themselves. Think it was Birdnuts that was saying that there is now some that overwinter in Galway Bay?

Hows the shooting season going or are you able to get out ? Feck all pheasant shooting going on here this year. There was loads of pheasants released around the place but don't see many about anymore. Would foxes have got them if they weren't shot ?

dodderangler

NcdJd wrote: »

Very strange alright. Always wanted to know if swallows say have a late brood do they stay till the chick's are ready to fly and feed themselves. Think it was Birdnuts that was saying that there is now some that overwinter in Galway Bay?

Hows the shooting season going or are you able to get out ? Feck all pheasant shooting going on here this year. There was loads of pheasants released around the place but don't see many about anymore. Would foxes have got them if they weren't shot ?

I stopped shooting pheasants 3 year ago. no sport in shooting hand reared birds but a wild pheasant is a tricky bird t hunt. I prefer the rifle and long range rabbits and foxes now. I took a fox month ago that I was after for 3 years and he was 43lb
like a coyote.
but ive shot over 40 this year and pheasant numbers and rabbit numbers are definitely up.
got my deer licence 3 days ago so that's perfect meat provider now

NcdJd

dodderangler wrote: »

I stopped shooting pheasants 3 year ago. no sport in shooting hand reared birds but a wild pheasant is a tricky bird t hunt. I prefer the rifle and long range rabbits and foxes now. I took a fox month ago that I was after for 3 years and he was 43lb
like a coyote.
but ive shot over 40 this year and pheasant numbers and rabbit numbers are definitely up.
got my deer licence 3 days ago so that's perfect meat provider now

Some of the rabbits here are starting to get myxomatosis, saw one of them trying to find its burrow was only a couple of feet from him. Not a fan of them but it's a terrible fecking thing they get. We had must have been 40 of them in a field here, got a guy out to do some night time shooting of them over a couple of nights he got about half of them. The rest just disappeared after a couple of weeks I suspect they got mixy

Venison is a lovely meat.

dodderangler

NcdJd wrote: »

Some of the rabbits here are starting to get myxomatosis, saw one of them trying to find its burrow was only a couple of feet from him. Not a fan of them but it's a terrible fecking thing they get. We had must have been 40 of them in a field here, got a guy out to do some night time shooting of them over a couple of nights he got about half of them. The rest just disappeared after a couple of weeks I suspect they got mixy

Venison is a lovely meat.

I wish it was never invented. horrible way for ana animal to die. sight hearing and smell go. I killed 20 one night without a gun. honestly walked to them

gozunda

Found this odd specimen of Fungus under a hedge the other day.

Pencil provided for scale...

Lady Haywire

A type of witches finger?