4th January 2024

A Week on the Estate: New Year, Storm Henk & Citizen Science

2024 is here! We hope you enjoyed a fine festive season and we wish you a Happy New Year. We were thrilled to see so many of you at St Leonard’s Church for Nine Lessons & Carols on Christmas Eve. We counted over 100 friends in full voice, and it really warmed up this lovely rural church. Many joined us at the Old School for tea and coffee and we tip our cap to Joanne for keeping up with demand. We hope to see you all again.

As we look forward to brighter days to come, Storm Henk has left us all a bit of clearing up to do. While keeping on top of our drainage ditches and maintaining a healthy, cohesive soil biome have paid dividends here, there’s no doubt that nuisance storms bringing high volumes of rain to saturated ground have been the defining story of this winter, wherever you are. At the time of writing, Henk has been displaced by high pressure to give us a calmer but colder week or two. This weekend will bring a temperature range of 0C-4C, a biting northerly breeze and a generally dry but gloomy outlook.

We’re in danger of wearing out the word ‘unprecedented’ when we talk weather, but the current pace of climate change is just that. According to the Met Office, the five warmest years on record for the UK include 2020, 2022 and 2023. June 2023’s average mean temperature of 15.8C beat previous records by 0.9C. September 2023 was the warmest British September full stop, with temperatures above 30C somewhere in the UK for seven consecutive days.

As we’ve all discovered, a warmer climate means more evaporation, more energetic storm systems and more rainfall. 2024 looks set to be another year of broken records, in more ways than one. The year is only four days old but Lincolnshire has already had a typical January’s worth of rainfall. We’ll keep you posted on how we fare, and the positive steps we’re taking to make the outlook a little brighter.

Speaking of brighter outlooks, we asked some key players on the Estate team what they were looking forward to in 2024. Here’s Lincoln Red Herd Manager, Darren MacDonald: “I’m amped for 2024! I’m keen to cultivate a community that thrives on sustainability and innovation. I’m all about nurturing each team member’s unique strengths while fostering an environment that encourages creative problem-solving and pushes the boundaries in what we can achieve in regenerative farming. Here’s to growing together, regenerating the land and having a blast while we do it!”

Here’s South Ormsby Hall’s Housekeeper Jacqui Rhodes: “Happy New Year everybody! After 28 years of housekeeping at the Hall, I’m now enjoying working at the Old Rectory while the Hall undergoes restoration. I feel extremely privileged to help care for the beautiful houses on the estate. The future is exciting and I’m looking forward to helping Jon, Jan and all the wonderful team put South Ormsby Estate well and truly on the map.”

Look out for more nuggets of optimism from our hard-working team throughout January.

Finally, do you know a great tit from a chaffinch? Ever been offered ‘a little of bread and no cheese’ by a yellowhammer? Do you fancy helping us out with a bit of citizen science? We’re looking for bird-lovers to help count our wild birds between Friday 26th and Sunday 28th January.

We’ve timed our local bird survey to coincide with the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch. If you’re game, here’s what we’d love you to do:

– Look out for the ‘wild bird survey’ post on our Facebook page this weekend and comment beneath it to let us know you’re interested.

– Come for a walk on the Estate at any time between 26th and 28th January. Dress for the weather and bring pen, paper and binoculars (if you have them). Don’t forget to enjoy a free brew from the Walkers’ Cabin at Sheepdip Paddock.

– Pick a spot away from traffic and people and spend a quiet hour counting birds. Established hedgerows near arable fields can be useful, but feel free to mix things up.

– Log each unique bird species and count the highest number you see at any one time over one hour.

– Post your results in the comments below the pinned Facebook post. A what.three.words location would be handy, but a general description of where you plotted up would be good enough.

– We’d love to see your pics if you get any good ones.

– We’ll publish the results on our website and social media and credit all our citizen scientists.

We’d love to see lots of bellwether farmland birds like yellowhammers, corn buntings, reed buntings, lapwings, bullfinches, linnets, bramblings and tree sparrows, but please do record every species you see. We’re committed to boosting our wild flora and fauna and you’ll help us see how well we’re doing. Oh, and don’t forget to look up; we have a healthy population of red kites, buzzards and kestrels.

You can pick your route via our walking page HERE. You can find an example of the range of birds you might see courtesy of Phil Hyde HERE. If you haven’t already, do sign up to the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch HERE and make a weekend of it.

We’ll see you out there.

If you’d like to join the conversation, 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.

* Banner image by Martin Fisch via Flickr CC

A Week on the Estate: New Year, Storm Henk & Citizen Science

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