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| Lovely open bay building on a Claythorpe farm |
This morning, as I was working in the vegetable garden (digging, as seems to be my lot this year!) I could hear the bleat of sheep and lambs. Spring must have sprung, the sheep are lambing.
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| The old railway engine building, Claythorpe |
The sound was definitely coming from the Claythorpe area, so I grabbed my camera and set off. I walked past the likely fields in Claythorpe, but could only see one distant sheep with twins, too far away to photograph.
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| The beautiful old Railway Station building (now a home) at Claythorpe |
Give them a few days and they will soon be relaxed and skipping around, their mamas will be less protective and I may be able to get a little closer.
On the way home I saw these lovely geese and ducks on the Great Eau, I had seen, and heard, the geese fly over our vegetable garden an hour earlier.
It was a funny old day which started off with an early visit from a couple of Wildlife Crimes Officers as they asked for permission to have a look in our woodland. It seems that someone who lives close by, and who has been in trouble before for dealing in wild birds, is being investigated again. I won't go into too much detail, but fair to say it infuriates me that people trap wild birds and then sell them on.
They had a look round and agreed with us that he hadn't been using our woodland this time, which was a relief.
The upside is that one of the officers takes a great interest in plants and has offered to identify my mystery plant for me. He had a look at my photo and couldn't immediately name it, but he will get back to me. I'll let you know when he does.
So, in some ways it was a lovely day - I love seeing the first lambs of the year.
My brother, Ian, has done his account of the happenings on The Owl Wood Blogspot.
Traps with glue?? I feel sick.
ReplyDeleteWe have hunters around here..I utterly despise them.
Jane x
It is a vile trade and the people who want to buy them should be prosecuted too. After the first incident (that we are aware of) we made sure that the lower branches of our trees were removed, to make it very difficult for them to be used in that way. Trouble is, he just moved locations. We thought he had 'reformed'!
DeleteHi Elaine,
ReplyDeleteHope all is calmer now your way...
Hi Green Dragonette, I'm happy to report that all is peaceful now, thank goodness!
DeleteHi Elaine...sounds like your days are very busy. Gardening seems to take over our lives this time of year. I'm also close to buying some Dorper sheep. I hope you can get closer to photograph the new lambs. Also, I might know the name of your mystery flower....
ReplyDeleteHi Meggie, Busy days, similar to yours. I've just been looking at some images for Dorper sheep - will you be getting the black headed ones, or all white? I read a little about them - how they are basically a black sheep - but with a huge white spot covering all but the head!! Fascinating. I found two or three dozen more of those flowers when I went on my lamb hunt - they do look spectacular. I'd love to know what you have found out!
DeleteI think the flower may be a "butterbur". I'll email you the link...just scroll down the page and there is one that looks like your flower... they can be invasive.
DeleteMy dorpers will be the black ones with the huge white spot..haha. I think they will be gentle enough for me to handle.
Hi Meggie, I think you are right about the Butterbur. Thank you! They are located in the ancient woodland across the road, in marshy land next to the Great Eau river.
DeleteI'm so looking forward to seeing your dorpers, I was hoping yours would be the black ones, they look so cute - as though they have been dunked in a bucket of black ink!
The little white lambs in the grass are lovely. Hard to believe the mama's wool will be that white again, when scoured.
ReplyDeleteHi Joanne, Those lambs are wonderful, their little bleats get to me every time - trigger of some sort of inbuilt response to a 'baby', I suppose. Interesting about the wool, I confess I hve never thought about that before!
DeleteEverything looks so lush and green. We still have patches of snow here in Eastern Ontario, but it is going fast. How wonderful to see new lambs - I don't think there is any more definite sign of spring than that.
ReplyDeleteHi Evlyn, Between the lambs, and the masses of daffodils which are all over the place it really does feel as though we are into early spring. I just wish the cloud would shift and we could have a little sunshine to add to the effect!
DeleteI'd love to have my very own engine shed. And an engine to go in it of course.
ReplyDeleteShocking re the trapping of wild birds. You hear about that sort of stuff happening abroad but I had little idea this sort of crime was being commited here. I'll check out Ian's post now...
Hi Chris, Yet another reason why that camera would be very useful! It is a dreadful trade, it horrifies me to think I once had a conversation with him about some wonderful bullfinches which I had spotted in the wood.
DeleteAby station was in Claythorpe (a matter of a few hundred yards, really) and the house which my daughter lives in was the ale house for the railway workers! When I'm in there I often speculate on how many pints got swilled down, how many pay packets got spent on beer...
Some of the mama sheep certainly seem to be keeping an eye on you, as good mama sheep should. Really like the pic of the ducks and geese on the Great Eau. We had a police raid at one of our neighbours a couple of years ago but thankfully it didn't involve animals or birds - just marijuana.
ReplyDeleteHi Jenny, Those mamas are excellent, I was probably three hundred yards or more away from them and they had their eye on me. I don't blame them at all. I was just thankful that Jonny's camera allowed me to zoom in so much!
DeleteThe old engine shed is rather lovely. Rural crimes are hard to detect as what goes on down long, isolated farm tracks is so well hidden. I am glad that nothing was found.
ReplyDeleteHi cuby poet, That old engine shed is a nice, plain, no nonsense building. I rather like it too!
DeleteI hope they catch those people soon. It's horrible trapping wild life to sell them on.
ReplyDeleteHello Molly, It is a terrible trade, thank goodness that one small link in the chain is going to be in trouble for it. A quiet life in the country? Who are they kidding.
DeleteYou live such a beautiful life there.
ReplyDelete