A Week on the Estate: Rare Birds, Busy Bees & Smart Farming

On a related note, we’ve recently drilled a pea and oat mix which we aim to harvest as home-grown feed to supplement the diets of our Lincolnshire Buff chickens and Norfolk Black turkeys. Our rare-breed birds forage in our gardens and pastures when practicable, but we strictly adhere to official safety measures when avian flu becomes a risk. Growing our own nutritious bird-feed in keeping with our commitment to regenerative farming and minimal food-miles will likely prove a real boon.

In case you missed it, we were thrilled to be among 26 UK farmers featured in Pasture for Life’s series of ‘Biodiversity Case Studies’. We heartily support their commitment to farming in harmony with nature and our Lincoln Red herd is PfL-accredited. To discover more, click HERE. If you joined one of our exclusive Rare Breeds Walks as part of the Lincolnshire Wolds Outdoor Festival, we hope we gave you some inspirational insights into what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. Please do spread the message and help support your local regenerative farmers wherever you live.

Richard Doan from Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust recently took a very helpful walk on the wild side for us and we’re thrilled by his findings. Post-war farming practices took a serious toll on biodiversity, not least when it came to our native, farmland birds. We’ve put time, money and elbow grease into doing better and we’re already seeing some striking improvements. Richard made four morning visits to the Estate in late May and his bird census included 97 yellowhammers, 84 linnets, 12 tree sparrows, 119 skylarks, four yellow wagtails and eight lapwings.

“It was great to see so many red-listed birds – species that have suffered a 50%-75% decline over the last 25 years – thriving at South Ormsby Estate,” said Richard. Other noteworthy sightings include spotted flycatchers, treecreepers, grey partridges, reed buntings, blackcaps, whitethroats and garden warblers. We’ve reached a point where we can stretch the skills of a serious bird-spotter!

We also offer a hat-tip to Phil Hyde of the Lincs Bird Club, who not only led the Estate Open Weekend bird tour but also shared the results of his recent surveys on the Estate. He observed 35 species, including a goldcrest, lesser and greater whitethroats, a reed bunting, yellow and white wagtails and tufted ducks. You can take a look at Phil’s surveys HERE and HERE.

Finally, Lime Tree Avenue is fragrant with wild garlic and the Walled Garden is buzzing and splashing with life. Clint photographed a smooth newt swimming lengths in Miss Anne’s Garden, and he and Kitty have become dab hands at apiculture, looking after beehives that are set to produce an abundance of floral, fragrant, home-grown honey. Well done, team!

We don’t know about you but all this has cheered us right up.

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