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(This
is a very long report but those who came on
the outing will understand that I wanted to
do justice to what we were shown).
The
outing to
Knepp
Castle
proved to be very popular as 27 members
parked at The Bothy to meet Charlie Burrell on
Wednesday morning. He was our host
for the morning and was immediately most
welcoming, though slightly surprised at such
a large gathering! He started by showing us
a large map of the 3,500 acre estate which
had been intensively farmed, ploughed up
year after year and hedges damaged by
chemical spraying. Charlie decided he wanted
to try a new approach and 'put his ideas on
a sheet of A4' in 2001. The result was that
the EU was very interested, also Natural
England
, the Environment
Agency, the RSPB and SWT. The estate
was divided and ring-fenced into three
areas: north of the A272, the main area
around the Castle
and the southern area. His aim was to
return the land to its original wild state,
to bring in animals and allow them to run
free:
Exmoor
ponies, Longhorn
cattle and
Tamworth
pigs, but at the same time it had to be a
commercial exercise. The deer are regularly
culled, the cattle provide beef and the
Tamworths' end product is Serrano ham.
When
I asked how the animals reacted to each
other he said there were difficulties when
he introduced the Tamworths, the Exmoor
ponies took an immediate dislike to the sow
and her piglets and tried to kill them,
there was a great deal of noise, pigs
squealing, horses neighing and then the
cattle came to see what all the fuss was
about! New ideas are not always
straightforward. Then there is the very
large herd of Roe deer, they looked so
beautiful in the morning sun and when a
huge number bounded in front of us as we
moved through the park it was a spectacular
sight.
We
had been standing by the Bothy whilst we
listened to Charlie, surrounded by tall
trees which held Coal, Great and Blue Tits
busily calling above us and a Nuthatch. We
moved off in five cars to go and look at the
western end of the largest lake in the park.
Here we saw a heronry with nests dangerously
low over the water, just two Grey Herons
were seen. Below a pair of Great-crested Grebes
were displaying and there were a small group
of Gadwall on the water and a Tufted
Duck. A Reed Bunting's tuneless song
was heard and then it was spotted amongst
the Reed Mace on the edge of the
lake a few yards away from us. Two
Nuthatches were trying to outcall each other
and two Common
Buzzards circled high in the blue
sky. Charlie pointed out a tall conifer in
which Ravens had nested, they have two pairs
nesting in trees, (an interesting
coincidence following Chris Wright's
comments in his talk on
Tuesday evening: 'soon we shall have
tree nesting Ravens near here'). Before
we left this area we were shown an
eel-trap, below the level of the lake, where
masses of eels were seen in years past.
We
drove out of the estate to get to the
southern block and were led through very
rough ground, heavy clay soil, much rootled
up by the cattle and pigs. We were
encouraged to spread out so that we might
disturb Snipe, at least two were seen and
one which was probably a Jack as it rose
without calling and dropped to the ground
very quickly. The area we were walking
through: wild rose, Blackthorn and Sallow,
was grazed by cattle to just above waist
height. Huge Oaks bounded the fields on
which were a number of Barrie Watson's and
John Crix's Barn Owl A-boxes (that is the
shape 'A') which have proved to be very
successful. Oaks and Sallows are the
requirements for the elusive Purple
Emperor which are found here
and Purple
Hairstreak is probably the commonest
butterfly. We heard Great spotted and
Green Woodpeckers but neither were seen.
Lesser is known to be here but sadly was
neither heard or seen!
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When
asked about an area that seemed a perfect
habitat for Nightingales we were told there
were at least four pairs there and Turtle
Doves too. We came to an place
where the Blackthorn hedges were deeply
thick (home to Brown
Hairstreak butterflies) and went
through to find some large ant-hills. These
are no doubt used by the blue butterflies
which we were told were common in the area
and there was evidence that Badgers
were digging them out to get at the grubs
inside. We even found the tough, white hairs
belonging to Badger nearby, (it's always
nice to prove a point)! We were
entertained by the antics of a Goldcrest and
a Long-tailed Tit
in the same tree as they searched for
food. A small party of Redwings were
seen low down feeding on the ground.
We
had already met four of the distinctive
Longhorn cattle which surveyed us with
interest and then we came on two
Tamworth
sows with two piglets. They are very
attractive ginger pigs with light coloured
hairs emphasising their ears. They were
quite tame and rootled about pushing the
turf up, doing exactly what they are there
for, encouraging seeds to grow in the
disturbed soil. They can grow to an
enormous size which made us think we might
not want to meet them unexpectedly! A
Raven gronked overhead but could not be
seen. There was an old bank running
along the field edge on which Primroses were
showing and Charlie told us that Early
Purple, Marsh and Common Spotted Orchids
grow in profusion on the estate.
Suddenly,
probably the birds of the day were seen -
two Woodlarks flew into rough grass just
ahead of us. We did spend a long time
getting the best views of them in the
telescopes, their plumage was superb,
wonderfully streaked with the creamy
supercilia over the eye and round the
head. We should have noted the short tail
but that was difficult in the vegetation.
They were very obliging and stayed feeding
before we moved on. The 'jchack' call of
Fieldfare was heard and about 40 flew up
into Oak trees ahead of us.
We
were nearly at the end of our tour and added
a party of Long-tailed Tits and Treecreeper
as Charlie was telling us about Ragwort
which they only control when it may affect
neighbours' gardens. It is too vast an area
to hope to get rid of it all anyway.
It
was after
1pm
when we reached the Bothy again. We had been
privileged to be shown part of this vast,
even, formidable estate by the owner. It had
been fascinating to hear what he hoped to
achieve. He did not try to convert us to his
approach but gave us the information in a
relaxed and
easy manner.
There is no doubt we should like to return
perhaps a little later in the year to hear
the Nightingales and Turtle Doves and more!
Thank
you to everyone who supported this impromptu
outing and for the appreciation given to
Charlie Burrell. An outstanding memory!
Brianne
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