Hope for the Lappinch

Exciting news – the test wader splash pit is full to the brim! The 6 inches of standing water in our test pit suggest that the winter water table is clearly high enough to support a wader scrape, no doubt helped by the thick layer of clay underneath our land. While we probably won’t start digging the new wader splash until the coming autumn, it’s exciting to know that our wader scrape plans should hold water…  

While taking the attached picture, a quick scan of our neighbouring ground (wonderful rough grassland), showed a flock of starlings, a few grazing Canada geese and several lapwings who have presumably remained from the larger flock seen yesterday. 

A hare even lolloped into view – the first we have seen in the area and especially timely on Valentine’s Day given the historical associations of hares with love in European folklore.     

All this in the next door field and less than 100 yards away. Meanwhile our fields of ‘improved’ pasture remain a thick green carpet of lush Cheshire rye grass (aka ‘green concrete’) with not a farmland bird or hare in sight…  

Note in the photo the contrast between our field (foreground), dark green, vs the neighbour’s field (over the hedge), yellow green and heaving with wildlife.

We may not be expert ecologists or farmers but don’t think it is rocket science to work out what we need to do if want to make our fields more hospitable for wildlife…