A Week on the Estate: New Year, Healthy Soil & Big Birdwatch

If you made it to one of our click & collect sessions before Christmas, thanks for your support and it was lovely to say hello. If you love our produce and are in the mood for a bargain, the Massingberd-Mundy Distillery is holding a January Sale HERE. Tristan wants to clear the decks and get creative with new ideas for a new year, so he’s discounting the last few bottles of Botanical Spirit (£14.50 for 50cl, down from £29) and Mulled Winter Berry Gin (£29.50 for 70cl, down from £34.50).

The RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch returns between 27th and 29th January. It’s a useful way to gauge the health of our local and national birdlife so please do participate if you’re able. We’ve been systematically working to improve biodiversity in our corner of the Lincolnshire Wolds, and we’re heartened by how well some of our traditional farmland bird species are recovering.

If you’re out and about on our trails and you see any of our bellwether birds, do let us know. We’re particularly interested in yellowhammers, corn buntings, reed buntings, lapwings, bullfinches, linnets, bramblings and tree sparrows, but anything you don’t typically see in your garden is newsworthy. The tree sparrow is of particular interest as it’s red-listed, its numbers having declined by 90% between 1970 and 2018. Happily, tree sparrows are rallying well on the Estate and there’s a good chance you’ll spot them.

If you’d like to shake off those midwinter blues and experience the Lincolnshire Wolds in their bracing, midwinter glory, we commend our walking trails to you. Click HERE for free, downloadable guides to beautiful Wolds walks ranging from gentle ambles to mighty hikes. If you are visiting the Estate in the near future, please be aware that the Sheepdip Paddock parking area on Brinkhill Road is temporarily closed due to muddy conditions. The walkers’ cabin remains open with complimentary hot drinks and an eco-loo, but the parking area needs to dry out before it’s suitable for cars again. We’ll let you all know when things improve.

Should you require an alternative off-road parking option, you can use the yard at Wood Farm  further south on Brinkhill Road. Once you’ve passed the Hall and the Old School, bear left towards Brinkhill, Spilsby and Harrington and you’ll find the yard on the left after 200m. The postcode for sat-nav is LN11 8QU.

Having said all that, if you’re new to our walks and fancy a quick leg-stretch on a short winter’s day, we recommend Short Walk 1. On this 2.6-mile (4.2km) loop around a small part of South Ormsby Estate, you’ll wander through cattle-forage and arable fields and alongside Calceby Beck and Furze Close Wood. You might see muntjac deer darting across your path and hear the drumming of woodpeckers. Do bring your wellies.

Finally, over Christmas we published ‘A Year on the Estate: 2022 in Review’, a whistle-stop tour of a full year at South Ormsby Estate. If you missed it, you can catch up HERE.

If you’d like to share your views on anything you’ve read here, we’d love to hear from you. Just head to our Facebook page HERE and comment beneath the latest blog post. As ever, thanks for your support.