Nature on your farm.

CHOPS01

Silly question
Would one put up a box when they know they have an owl about or put it up in the hope of attracting them?
Would love yo have em around.

endainoz

CHOPS01 wrote: »

Silly question
Would one put up a box when they know they have an owl about or put it up in the hope of attracting them?
Would love yo have em around.

Well mine is up in the hope they come to roost, I have heard them a couple of times in the area over the last couple of years so hopefully.

Base price

CHOPS01 wrote: »

Silly question
Would one put up a box when they know they have an owl about or put it up in the hope of attracting them?
Would love yo have em around.

I am going to put one up after a friend makes it. I saw a barn owl flying out of the hayshed a couple of weeks ago and I hope to attract it or a family member to it.

Gawddawggonnit

Mightn’t be a bad time to put a few cwt of grains in the spinner and spread it close to hedgerows for the wildlife.

Put out some wheat last week and there wasn’t much interest in it but the batch we put out yesterday is very welcome indeed.

NcdJd

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Mightn’t be a bad time to put a few cwt of grains in the spinner and spread it close to hedgerows for the wildlife.

Put out some wheat last week and there wasn’t much interest in it but the batch we put out yesterday is very welcome indeed.

Fair play to ya GD, never hear tell of anyone broadcasting grain for that purpose. Good to hear.

gozunda

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Mightn’t be a bad time to put a few cwt of grains in the spinner and spread it close to hedgerows for the wildlife.

Put out some wheat last week and there wasn’t much interest in it but the batch we put out yesterday is very welcome indeed.

Only problem is you could be attracting more rats than birds

Birdnuts

gozunda wrote: »

Only problem is you could be attracting more rats than birds

Buzzards, Barn owls etc. should deal with that - rats are only a problem if they get into buildings etc. Keeping them out in the fields is probably the best approach to dealing with them as nature can more easily take its course in that setting.

NcdJd

Found this interesting, The Bride Project in Cork. Some good information about hedgerows.

https://www.thebrideproject.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/BRIDE-Project-Farm-Habitat-Management-Guidlines.pdf

Rows Grower

NcdJd wrote: »

Found this interesting, The Bride Project in Cork. Some good information about hedgerows.

https://www.thebrideproject.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/BRIDE-Project-Farm-Habitat-Management-Guidlines.pdf

Very informative, thanks for posting it.

Birdnuts

NcdJd wrote: »

Found this interesting, The Bride Project in Cork. Some good information about hedgerows.

https://www.thebrideproject.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/BRIDE-Project-Farm-Habitat-Management-Guidlines.pdf

Yeah - have heard good things about it over the past year or so. Can't for the life of my understand why the Department don't base GLAS,REPS schemes on such projects like this as they are proven to actually deliver results and satisfaction all round!!

Capercaillie

Birdnuts wrote: »

Yeah - have heard good things about it over the past year or so. Can't for the life of my understand why the Department don't base GLAS,REPS schemes on such projects like this as they are proven to actually deliver results and satisfaction all round!!

IFA are not in favour of results based schemes like Bride project, they want action based schemes like GLAS. GLAS = getting paid for doing very liitle and with negligible benefits to environment....

junospider

Two barn owls moved into a hole in a beech tree here in early december. Delighted to see them back.

gozunda

Much warmer this week. Birds not eating food we'd put out as plenty of worms & bugs now available. There was even a mosquito on the rear window of the tractor this morning

Pie Man

Have a few mature oak trees on the farm, had always wondered how old they were. Found a website that if you put in the measurement of the circumference of the trunk it will give you a rough age. So the ones in the picture are around 260 years old and there's another one just under 200 years.


image upload site

NcdJd

Pie Man wrote: »

Have a few mature oak trees on the farm, had always wondered how old they were. Found a website that if you put in the measurement of the circumference of the trunk it will give you a rough age. So the ones in the picture are around 260 years old and there's another one just under 200 years.

https://pasteboard.co/JJMlSuY.jpg

What's the website name Pie Man ? Sounds interesting.

Rows Grower

Pie Man wrote: »

Have a few mature oak trees on the farm, had always wondered how old they were. Found a website that if you put in the measurement of the circumference of the trunk it will give you a rough age. So the ones in the picture are around 260 years old and there's another one just under 200 years.

I was able to see the picture in my email notifications but it's gone now. It's amazing when you think how old they are.

There was a farm sold near me a couple of years ago that had a few massive oaks in an open field and the first thing the new owner did was cut them down.

Mimon

Rows Grower wrote: »

I was able to see the picture in my email notifications but it's gone now. It's amazing when you think how old they are.

There was a farm sold near me a couple of years ago that had a few massive oaks in an open field and the first thing the new owner did was cut them down.

Idiots shouldn't be allowed to own land.

Pie Man

NcdJd wrote: »

What's the website name Pie Man ? Sounds interesting.

Here ya go, does others trees aswell. Your ment to take the measurement at chest height.

http://www.tree-guide.com/tree-age-calculator

Base price

I think I saw a female hen harrier this morning flying low enough and flocked by crows and jackdaws - it definitely wasn't a buzzard. I saw a male (easy to identify) last year around the same time of the year.

Birdnuts

Base price wrote: »

I think I saw a female hen harrier this morning flying low enough and flocked by crows and jackdaws - it definitely wasn't a buzzard. I saw a male (easy to identify) last year around the same time of the year.

Hen Harriers are rather odd in that for every male bird, there appears to be several females in any given population. Something to do with them being polygamous in certain areas in which they occur



PS: Happy over the last few days to see our 2 pairs of regular Herons pairing up again and bringing sticks to their nest site on some scrubby pines along our road frontage.:)

blue5000

Spotted this Vixen when I was feeding this evening, getting dark so not the sharpest photo I ever took.

forgottenhills

blue5000 wrote: »

Spotted this Vixen when I was feeding this evening, getting dark so not the sharpest photo I ever took.

I find it hard to ever get close to a fox in rural Ireland unless by accident. Whereas in suburban Dublin they are everywhere after dark and they allow you to almost walk past them there. Modern bins seem to be impossible to break into, so you would have to assume that people are deliberately feeding them to support such a population.

blue5000

forgottenhills wrote: »

I find it hard to ever get close to a fox in rural Ireland unless by accident. Whereas in suburban Dublin they are everywhere after dark and they allow you to almost walk past them there. Modern bins seem to be impossible to break into, so you would have to assume that people are deliberately feeding them to support such a population.

We would have them coming in near the yard in winter time. I presume looking for rats as we don't lay poison anymore since a barn owl and buzzards came around the place. I presume there's still a few rats in Dublin?:D

forgottenhills

blue5000 wrote: »

We would have them coming in near the yard in winter time. I presume looking for rats as we don't lay poison anymore since a barn owl and buzzards came around the place. I presume there's still a few rats in Dublin?:D

Possibly but the rats are in the sewers and the foxes are in the gardens and on the street. Fast food places don't seem to be the culprit either as the foxes are to be seen in areas away from food outlets. I can only assume they are being fed.

Stationmaster

blue5000 wrote: »

Spotted this Vixen when I was feeding this evening, getting dark so not the sharpest photo I ever took.

Out of interest, how do you know it's a vixen? I've a few coming in to our place. Thanks.

blue5000

Heard her barking, I think it's the vixens that do the barking during the mating season. Open to correction though if anybody else knows more as I could be wrong.

forgottenhills

As a matter of interest what farmers on here have actually seen the following reclusive animals on their farms or close by?

• stoats
• pine martens
• badgers (live ones)
• otters
• lizards
• pygmy shrew

Growing up on a farm I only saw a lizard once, a stoat once, otters once or twice but never saw a live badger or a pine marten either dead or alive. I saw a couple of dead shrews as well (mistakenly referred to as field mice).

Birdnuts

forgottenhills wrote: »

As a matter of interest what farmers on here have actually seen the following reclusive animals on their farms or close by?

• stoats
• pine martens
• badgers (live ones)
• otters
• lizards
• pygmy shrew

Growing up on a farm I only saw a lizard once, a stoat once, otters once or twice but never saw a live badger or a pine marten either dead or alive. I saw a couple of dead shrews as well (mistakenly referred to as field mice).

On my place in North Mayo we have alot of Pine Martens and our shoreline is used by a large dog Otter and at least 2 females. Signs of some badger activity too. Only seen a stoat twice in the last decades and only one Lizard. Good few Pgmy shrews about and you can hear them in long grass making a racket on warm summer nights.

Lady Haywire

forgottenhills wrote: »

As a matter of interest what farmers on here have actually seen the following reclusive animals on their farms or close by?

• stoats
• pine martens
• badgers (live ones)
• otters
• lizards
• pygmy shrew

Growing up on a farm I only saw a lizard once, a stoat once, otters once or twice but never saw a live badger or a pine marten either dead or alive. I saw a couple of dead shrews as well (mistakenly referred to as field mice).

Only ever seen a couple of stoats, elusive little shíts. Pine Martens were more common a few years back, had one reared 3 kits beside us. Met two badgers having a rip roaring fight, one chasing the other down the lane once, that was fun. Have them on outfarm too, found their sett last summer when fencing & often see signs of them digging under cow dung here on our lower fields.
There had been 3 otters in the lake beside us, seem to have moved on, was fun in the kayak, they'd be playing & whistling to each other & if you whistled at them they'd get all confused If I didn't paddle but let the kayak float I could get close to them too.
Lizard or newt? Seen plenty of newts, always on the bog.
Shrews are everywhere, I've rescued more than I can count from the cats. Nasty bite to them, little feckers!

Stationmaster

In east clare we have loads of pine martens, a good few badgers (although not as many as years gone by as they've been culled a good bit) a few otters, plenty of newts and our place is full of shrews. Red squirrels are another animal that I would never have seen ever growing up but I have seen a good bit over the last 2/3 years as well as buzzards and barn owls.

I don't think I've ever seen a stoat.