Nature on your farm.

Lady Haywire · 31-08-2019 5:01pm #1

As the title says, how is the nature looking on your farm? On the large animal side we have a lot of hare, pheasant, pine marten, fox, & badger.
Littlies are more difficult to measure, but as my visit to the bog this month went, there's plenty of those too.

So fire away, if you're not sure of ID,I'm sure there's loads here to offer suggestions

Elephant Hawk moth caterpillar today

Newt/Mankeeper a fortnight ago.

ganmo · 31-08-2019 7:22pm

Found this lad last week

feartuath · 31-08-2019 10:56pm

Pheasants are plentiful thanks to the feeders that are filled year round.
Wild bird cover holds them as and other smaller birds.
No rabbits since the 8o's.
Wild deer that I could do without but with all the forestry they have plenty of cover ,they come out a night to feast on the grass.
Bats are plenty along with most insects.
Hares are very scarce the past few years I wounder has the buzzard population anything to do with this.
Larsen traps keep the magpie and grey crow numbers down.
Song birds are plentiful with feeders filled 27/7.
Pine Martin also around and the mink have every water hen and young duck killed.

Genghis Cant · 31-08-2019 11:17pm

We have a couple of stands of Rosebay Willowherb here. We leave them grow on every year. There's a particular moth associated with them , very like the elephant hawk moth, called the bedstraw hawk moth. The Willowherb does be crawling with them , around August. Oddly enough none this year for some reason.
We have a low lavender hedge or verge here too. The amount of bees it supports is unreal. A great smell off it too.
Another thing we done here that worked well is this, the neighbour is a tillage farmer , he has 1HA of WBC beside us. We bought phacelia seed when he was sowing it and he stuck them in the mix. It's unbelievable the bees in it the last few weeks. The hives are full of a bluey purple pollen. It would do you good to walk through it on a good day.

Farmer Dan · 31-08-2019 11:18pm

Seen these the other day.
Not sure what they are.

Birdnuts · 01-09-2019 1:02am

Farmer Dan wrote: »

Seen these the other day.
Not sure what they are.

Caterpillars of the Peacock butterfly

80sDiesel · 01-09-2019 7:01pm

A hare and 2 Sparrowhawks which were hunting something on the farm.

Capercaillie · 02-09-2019 5:14pm

In NPWS Corncrake Farm plan. This year had 5 calling male corncrake. Management bascically is provision of early cover plants such as extensive nettle beds, hogweed and iris. Late mowed meadows. Management also assists skylark, meadow pipit, hare. Having breeding chough in nest box and up to 15 birds winter in farm. In winter 400+ barnacle geese graze intermittently on farm along with greylag geese and occasional whooper swans. Flocks of 100+ golden plover winter. Wheatear breed in stone walls, snipe in fen, grasshopper warbler in the nettles. Species rich hay meadows dominated by red clover, yellow rattle and a lot of orchids.

Thargor · 02-09-2019 9:13pm

Capercaillie wrote: »

In NPWS Corncrake Farm plan. This year had 5 calling male corncrake. Management bascically is provision of early cover plants such as extensive nettle beds, hogweed and iris. Late mowed meadows. Management also assists skylark, meadow pipit, hare. Having breeding chough in nest box and up to 15 birds winter in farm. In winter 400+ barnacle geese graze intermittently on farm along with greylag geese and occasional whooper swans. Flocks of 100+ golden plover winter. Wheatear breed in stone walls, snipe in fen, grasshopper warbler in the nettles. Species rich hay meadows dominated by red clover, yellow rattle and a lot of orchids.

Whereabouts is that?

Capercaillie · 02-09-2019 9:28pm

Thargor wrote: »

Whereabouts is that?

Belmullet, NW Mayo

Cattlepen · 03-09-2019 8:46pm

Pine Martin, buzzards, badger, fox hawks pheasant. There was one grouse a couple of years ago where ever he came out of. Deer from time to time. Stoats, such a hardy Little animal. You’d have to admire them. Notice dragon flies coming back around and starting to hear crickets again. I’ve stopped topping until this time of year. Think that is helping the insects

Birdnuts · 03-09-2019 8:58pm

Cattlepen wrote: »

Pine Martin, buzzards, badger, fox hawks pheasant. There was one grouse a couple of years ago where ever he came out of. Deer from time to time. Stoats, such a hardy Little animal. You’d have to admire them. Notice dragon flies coming back around and starting to hear crickets again. I’ve stopped tipping until this time of year. Think that is helping the insects

I assume you mean "Grasshoppers"

- crickets are now very rare in this country. Only ever heard one myself during the peak of last summers heat. Used to be much more common pre-1950's according to my late grandmother. Grasshoppers have declined a lot too but if given the chance by maintaining old meadows you will still get them calling - I think we have about 5 species in this country but open to correction on that.Love the Dragonflies too, a couple of species have recently colonised the South and East of the country including the big daddy of them all - THe Emperor DF!!

atlantic mist · 03-09-2019 10:40pm

grey squirrel, white owl, hawk, foxes, hares, badger, field mice, crows, seagulls, 2 pigeons every winter, honey bees

favorite has to be the swallows arriving and leaving the country every spring and autumn, they line up on ever esb line and shed in the place

dodderangler · 03-09-2019 10:43pm

feartuath wrote: »

Pheasants are plentiful thanks to the feeders that are filled year round.
Wild bird cover holds them as and other smaller birds.
No rabbits since the 8o's.
Wild deer that I could do without but with all the forestry they have plenty of cover ,they come out a night to feast on the grass.
Bats are plenty along with most insects.
Hares are very scarce the past few years I wounder has the buzzard population anything to do with this.
Larsen traps keep the magpie and grey crow numbers down.
Song birds are plentiful with feeders filled 27/7.
Pine Martin also around and the mink have every water hen and young duck killed.

Buzzards aren’t really a threat to hares. Buzzards aren’t even good at catching rabbits which are a lot smaller. Even leverets are just as large as a rabbit.
Could have you plenty of foxes around. Sometimes hares will just up and leave an area and head for higher ground or new feeding areas. Hares don’t burrow so they will often be on the move once the leverets are grown.

Danzy · 03-09-2019 10:47pm

Genghis Cant wrote: »

We have a couple of stands of Rosebay Willowherb here. We leave them grow on every year. There's a particular moth associated with them , very like the elephant hawk moth, called the bedstraw hawk moth. The Willowherb does be crawling with them , around August. Oddly enough none this year for some reason.
We have a low lavender hedge or verge here too. The amount of bees it supports is unreal. A great smell off it too.
Another thing we done here that worked well is this, the neighbour is a tillage farmer , he has 1HA of WBC beside us. We bought phacelia seed when he was sowing it and he stuck them in the mix. It's unbelievable the bees in it the last few weeks. The hives are full of a bluey purple pollen. It would do you good to walk through it on a good day.

Got a massive
Kick out of seeing all the phacelia pollen in the brood frames in my hives this year.

dodderangler · 03-09-2019 10:47pm

Not a farmer but the land I hunt on is plentiful with rabbits atm. A lot of rabbits with mixxy though. Plenty of deer about but also a lot of poachers by the looks of it. Discarded body parts during the off season.
Seeing more buzzards about lately also and the mixxy rabbits make for it easier to take them on. So they’re feeding well.
Sparrow hawks and kestrels in good numbers. Bats around too. Few snipe although I thought it quite early for them.
No pine marten but one mink around. Spotted a badger on the hillside last week moving towards a massive dog fox. Plenty of foxes around. Never seen so many.
Good sign that the land is healthy though.

uck51js9zml2yt · 03-09-2019 10:55pm

Had foxes, rabbits, bats and pheasants in the back of the house. There's a den in a copse at the back of my field.

Sparrow hawk reserve also near me but not seen any.
Also seen badgers and birds of prey (not sure what type ) nearby.

Lady Haywire · 05-09-2019 7:24pm

Was mooching about the lower fields today & see lots of badger activity in the old cow poops. Also a fox the other morning on the front meadow so better watch my hens :pac:

feartuath · 05-09-2019 10:10pm

dodderangler wrote: »

feartuath wrote: »

Pheasants are plentiful thanks to the feeders that are filled year round.
Wild bird cover holds them as and other smaller birds.
No rabbits since the 8o's.
Wild deer that I could do without but with all the forestry they have plenty of cover ,they come out a night
Bats are plenty along with most insects.
Hares are very scarce the past few years I wounder has the buzzard population anything to do with this.
Larsen traps keep the magpie and grey crow numbers down.
Song birds are plentiful with feeders filled 27/7.
Pine Martin also around and the mink have every water hen and young duck killed.

Buzzards aren’t really a threat to hares. Buzzards aren’t even good at catching rabbits which are a lot smaller. Even leverets are just as large as a rabbit.
Could have you plenty of foxes around. Sometimes hares will just up and leave an area and head for higher ground or new feeding areas. Hares don’t burrow so they will often be on the move once the leverets are grown.

Foxes are under control in this valley so are the lurched community with the transit Van's.
Buzzards have been seen eating the carcase of foxes who have lost their tails
I am just curious where the hares have disappeared to.
They have gone with the increase of buzzards which had been noted by many herem
I was 6 last year in the skies at once last summer.
On a brighter note 7 swallowed nests around the house this year and more up in the yard.
There are still chicks in one nest whether they will fly or not remains to be seen.

Ard_MC · 05-09-2019 10:12pm

Lady Haywire wrote: »

Was mooching about the lower fields today & see lots of badger activity in the old cow poops. Also a fox the other morning on the front meadow so better watch my hens :pac:

Mr fox got 4 of my hens 2 weeks ago! So back to the run for the rest!

feartuath · 05-09-2019 10:17pm

Ard_MC wrote: »

Lady Haywire wrote: »

Was mooching about the lower fields today & see lots of badger activity in the old cow poops. Also a fox the other morning on the front meadow so better watch my hens :pac:

Mr fox got 4 of my hens 2 weeks ago! So back to the run for the rest!

As I posted earlier this year in another thread winny and ruby my elderly mothers hens were taken also.
Although with no rabbits or hares around here you have to admit the fox has to eat also.

Lime Tree Farm · 05-09-2019 10:47pm

Shield bug on Raspberry.jpg
Saw this one today, a gardener's nightmare, vine weevil grubs.

Common Blue Butterfly.jpg
My first time getting a close up of the Blue

Lime Tree Farm · 05-09-2019 10:50pm

Hedgehog evening in May.jpg
Spotted him again in June, as he was out on the public road, I managed to turn him around to head back into the field.

Leveret.jpg
Spotted this little fellow, while tidying up an area which had been reclaimed last February. He sat there motionless.

SmartinMartin · 05-09-2019 11:09pm

Huge amounts of deer here. I also discovered we have jaybirds, didn't even know they were in Ireland.
This lad outside my kitchen window this evening :

Buford T. Justice XIX · 06-09-2019 9:42pm

https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/1169690813481279488?s=19

dodderangler · 07-09-2019 2:03pm

SmartinMartin wrote: »

Huge amounts of deer here. I also discovered we have jaybirds, didn't even know they were in Ireland.
This lad outside my kitchen window this evening :

Lovely six point stag.

Waffletraktor · 10-09-2019 5:54pm

Bit of a story to this....
Neighbouring farm has our old game keeper on for a shoot, and they leave out various species of birds for rich toffs to come and vapourise them with shotguns on driven shoots. They use dug out ponds store drain water/springs for ducks but don't feed them too much, so one of the lads was a bit sneaky and tipped out a few loads of cleaner screenings beside on of ours to attract some(long story but keeper has a court order of baring access to our farm) that would be hard to re-attract them.
This pond is fed by drains rather than stream/spring and is a bit low, so decided to drop out a few loads of water as nothing else better to do as caught up on cults waiting a few weeks to go drill.

Lady Haywire · 10-09-2019 6:22pm

Very sneaky, I approve!

Waffletraktor · 10-09-2019 6:31pm

Lady Haywire wrote: »

Very sneaky, I approve!

Wouldn't expect them all to be there next winter as no wild adults to guide them but the base reality is in 6 months most would have been shot/at and wounded and carcass dumped in a hole in the woods as no market for game birds anymore.

Doctors room ghost · 10-09-2019 6:32pm

Foxes are fierce plenty this year.
I’m meeting an awful lot of them in my travels

keepalive213 · 11-09-2019 9:51am

I notice rabbits making a comeback this year, I haven't seen any here really since they all became infected.
I've lately seen wild geese grazing and a few cranes in the last while and the odd stoat flashing from ditch to ditch.
Corncrake has taken a big hit here in deepest darkest mayo this year.
A few days ago I found a large dead otter outside a field gate with no obvious marks on him. The next morning the side was eaten out of him but I don't know by what, maybe a fox.

Lime Tree Farm · 11-09-2019 11:03am

Waffletraktor wrote: »

Wouldn't expect them all to be there next winter as no wild adults to guide them but the base reality is in 6 months most would have been shot/at and wounded and carcass dumped in a hole in the woods as no market for game birds anymore.

Maybe all is not lost if you live near where migratory ducks return in the Sept. Heard that my grandmother placed wild duck eggs in among the domestic duck eggs to hatch All were raised together until the Autumn when the migrant wild ducks returned to their winter feeding ground. They flew past in noisy flying formation to the nearby river. The young wild ducks in the yard heard them, flew off, and joined them never to be seen again.

dodderangler · 11-09-2019 12:06pm

Doctors room ghost wrote: »

Foxes are fierce plenty this year.
I’m meeting an awful lot of them in my travels

I know it’s a farm thread but I’ve taken more in 3 weeks than I did all of the summer. Missed one the other evening

grassroot1 · 11-09-2019 12:16pm

A local farm was sold in the spring the new owner has cleared every ditch and is filling in every gripe. How is this possible under BPS regulations?
17 fields into a 130 acre desert FN CRIMINAL:mad:

dodderangler · 11-09-2019 12:39pm

grassroot1 wrote: »

A local farm was sold in the spring the new owner has cleared every ditch and is filling in every gripe. How is this possible under BPS regulations?
17 fields into a 130 acre desert FN CRIMINAL:mad:

Similar happened last year up in bohernabreena. New land owner bulldozed ditches flat killing everything in its path. Rabbits, foxes badgers etc. feeding for wild birds gone too. Habitats destroyed. For basically land for sheep to graze but it was fine the way it was.

Say my name · 11-09-2019 1:03pm

dodderangler wrote: »

Similar happened last year up in bohernabreena. New land owner bulldozed ditches flat killing everything in its path. Rabbits, foxes badgers etc. feeding for wild birds gone too. Habitats destroyed. For basically land for sheep to graze but it was fine the way it was.

I think it's a generation thing.
The older people see waste. The younger generation see blackberries and goldfinches.

I see it happening locally too and the person doing it nearly lost their life when the Tellus survey plane flew over. They were asking me was it a Google earth plane..
I explained what it was and also informed them about the EU land monitoring satellite that goes over every day.

Some are getting such a low sfp they just don't care. There's the leaving your own stamp on this world and bringing a bit of pride to that individual before they shuffle off, when someone buys a new property, element too.

Say my name · 11-09-2019 1:16pm

grassroot1 wrote: »

A local farm was sold in the spring the new owner has cleared every ditch and is filling in every gripe. How is this possible under BPS regulations?
17 fields into a 130 acre desert FN CRIMINAL:mad:

Spud growers don't like small fields.
They don't look well on drone footage on social media.

If it's the same farm I'm thinking about it was one hell of a grass growing farm.
It was more suited to grass than tillage.

Doctors room ghost · 11-09-2019 1:21pm

Lime Tree Farm wrote: »

Maybe all is not lost if you live near where migratory ducks return in the Sept. Heard that my grandmother placed wild duck eggs in among the domestic duck eggs to hatch All were raised together until the Autumn when the migrant wild ducks returned to their winter feeding ground. They flew past in noisy flying formation to the nearby river. The young wild ducks in the yard heard them, flew off, and joined them never to be seen again.

“Breeding comes out in the eye of a cat” is a saying here.
You can’t beat nature

Doctors room ghost · 11-09-2019 1:22pm

dodderangler wrote: »

I know it’s a farm thread but I’ve taken more in 3 weeks than I did all of the summer. Missed one the other evening

Yeah all around us is riddled with foxes and healthy looking ones at that.
Never seen them as plenty

Capercaillie · 11-09-2019 1:23pm

grassroot1 wrote: »

A local farm was sold in the spring the new owner has cleared every ditch and is filling in every gripe. How is this possible under BPS regulations?
17 fields into a 130 acre desert FN CRIMINAL:mad:

Tis ok, Origin Green says Irish agriculture is sustainable.......

grassroot1 · 11-09-2019 1:42pm

Capercaillie wrote: »

Tis ok, Origin Green says Irish agriculture is sustainable.......

He bought the land, he can do what he wants, he is not anserable to me but it breaks my heart to look at fields we played in as kids gone forever. All for a miserable couple of perches of extra land.
If one more gimp tells me we as farmers are custodians of the land I will swing for them.
It must be possible to farm in a way that wildlife,livestock and farm families can co-exist.

Say my name · 11-09-2019 3:05pm

Anyone see the clip on big week on the farm this year with the nature/environmental expert walking on the farm.

Background on the farm. It's over a thousand acres with big fields with tillage, spuds and 100 acres of grass. If I remember correctly.

Anyways Ella was asking the expert what he thought of the farm.
He wasn't terribly impressed and showed it and just said it's a typical large tillage farm in Ireland with more needing to be done. The host farmer was beside him didn't know where to look.

Where some see pride in large fields and monocultures, others see devastation and disgust.

Say my name · 11-09-2019 4:38pm

Spear thistles...

If anyone is looking for a few seeds..Send me on a pm.

Have these in a field where they're not interfering with the productivity of said field.
There's been about 15 - 20 goldfinches feeding on these since they went to seed.

forgottenhills · 11-09-2019 5:34pm

Do any farmers on here ever come across the Irish lizard, either on their land or on bogs you work etc? And not to be confused with newts which typically are to be found in and around ponds.

Genghis Cant · 11-09-2019 5:59pm

forgottenhills wrote: »

Do any farmers on here ever come across the Irish lizard, either on their land or on bogs you work etc? And not to be confused with newts which typically are to be found in and around ponds.

Spotted one this year in the polytunnel. Lying up sunning himself one of the nice days we got during the summer.

Limestone Cowboy · 11-09-2019 6:48pm

Place is full of foxes, badgers, hares and goats around here. Not a goes by that you wouldn't encounter a few of them. The terrain around here probably suits them.

Danzy · 11-09-2019 8:54pm

forgottenhills wrote: »

Do any farmers on here ever come across the Irish lizard, either on their land or on bogs you work etc? And not to be confused with newts which typically are to be found in and around ponds.

Yes but a long time ago

ganmo · 11-09-2019 9:01pm

Danzy wrote: »

Yes but a long time ago

Same

Thargor · 11-09-2019 10:05pm

Havent seen a lizard or a newt in 20 years, I saw a frog or toad the other day on the Bray Cliff Walk and that was the first in many years aswell. Ive noticed a lot of dead hedgehogs on the road this year.

Base price · 11-09-2019 10:24pm

We have plenty of foxes, hare, buzzards, a pair of swans and signets on the lake as well as wild duck, water hens, comorants and a pair of grey herons. We have a family of stoats and occasionally I see the odd pine martin and mink. Rabbits disappeared here a few years ago probably due to the rhd virus but I'm seeing a few around near the headland/hedges. I haven't seen any hedgehogs or badgers around here in years. We have plenty of bats and the odd barn owl. Other than that there are lots of different types of dickie birds living in and around the yard.

Dinzee Conlee · 11-09-2019 11:04pm

Base price wrote: »

We have plenty of foxes, hare, buzzards, a pair of swans and signets on the lake as well as wild duck, water hens, comorants and a pair of grey herons. We have a family of stoats and occasionally I see the odd pine martin and mink. Rabbits disappeared here a few years ago probably due to the rhd virus but I'm seeing a few around near the headland/hedges. I haven't seen any hedgehogs or badgers around here in years. We have plenty of bats and the odd barn owl. Other than that there are lots of different types of dickie birds living in and around the yard.

I have fecking bats in the garage - anyone any ideas on how to convince them to leave?

Nature on your farm.

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