May 20, 2005
Scorched earth
(NB - for those looking for the Little Auk / Gyr Falcon image - click here)
The rabbit-proofing continues, as my torn and bloodied hands bear witness. Have you ever tried wrestling with 50 metre lengths of rabbit-netting? It's no fun. Particularly piquant is the way the wire not only tears you to shreds while you're trying to fix it to the existing fence, but also rubs salt (only worse) into the wounds by filling the cuts with the hideous grey galvanising compound the wire is coated with. Needless to say, it stings like hell.
Consolation being that if it's hard for me to deal with, it should prove a considerable obstacle to the bunny-bastards. The bottom park is now almost entirely rabbit-proofed, and the rate of attrition amongst the newly planted saplings seems to have dropped dramatically to next to nothing. That said, the last fortnight's unremitting north-westerlies have scorched all but the most sheltered trees, and the trees that haven't been bunnied are now mere twigs with charred black leaves crisply fluttering in the (oh joy!) gentle south-easterlies.
Fortunately closer inspection reveals that most of them have new leaves sprouting lower down, so all is not lost yet. I've got to get some windproof netting fixed up, which ought to protect them from the worst of the northerlies. And still the top tree park to rabbit and wind-proof... And plant trees. Still, it seems like a mountainous commitment at the moment, but the validation will come in a few years time when it starts to attract some migrants, and hopefully rarities too.
To that end I'm aiming to create a mosaic in the tree parks, with small patches of vegetable cropping and oats interspersed with and sheltered by the trees. I was always hoping to get away from chemical inputs once here, but reality bites and the thought of dealing with thick grassland to open these growing areas up is just too appalling for words. I marked out my first tattie patch last weekend, and sprayed with Roundup. I'm not too proud to use chemicals now. They're a means to an end.
Now, south-easterlies... what could they bring? Only a Chiffchaff in the plantation last night, but it was almost a year ago that the Sardinian Warbler turned up in there on JL's birthday (nice!). What's our first BB of the spring going to be?
(Postscript - having just typed the above, a text arrives on my mobile from JL - a Rosefinch in my bottom park. Okay, it's not a BB, but it's a start!)
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Come back soon!
Posted by Stercorarius at May 20, 2005 11:41 AMEnjoying your blog - from the initials and place names I'm guessing you're living on Whalsay? Do I win five pounds? Been up there birding a couple of autumns in the mid to late nineties - cracking place, with loads of potential.
I'm based in west Cork in Ireland - Spring migration here is just winding down, while you're just getting going by the sound of things! check out Galley Head Birding on the surfbirds blog list.
All the best
Col