Category: Farming and Wildlife

  • Hide Building

    By The Bevis Trust In , | May 12, 2016

    We are busy planking up some of the larch that Nick planted over 30 years ago. It’s great to be able to use our home grown timber on projects such as the new hide.    

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  • Rewilding and More

    By The Bevis Trust In | May 10, 2016

    I attended a conference titled ‘Re-wilding Dorset’ last week. I stayed overnight with Bevis Trust Trustee Kate Hall, whose husband Tim is Farm Manager on the Cranbourne Estate. This estate formerly had a shoot based on farmed gamebirds but recently Lord Cranbourne has decided to switch solely to wild indigenous Grey Partridges. Whatever one’s views…

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  • Beavers

    By The Bevis Trust In | May 9, 2016

    I’m spending far too much time lurking in the bushes by the water with my field-glasses hoping to see a female exposing her nipples. Hang on! It’s not what you’re thinking (those days are well over). The thing is, beavers have their kits about now but for six weeks or so they keep them safely…

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  • A New Beaver Hide

    By The Bevis Trust In | May 9, 2016

    Today has seen the start of the new beaver hide on the lake. The uprights are in place and tomorrow we should get the floor in.

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  • Moorhens

    By The Bevis Trust In , | May 7, 2016

    She’s been laying an egg a day, should be a good brood this year. Let’s hope the legions of egg thieves can keep their paws and beaks to themselves.

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  • Oak Before Ash…

    By The Bevis Trust In , | May 6, 2016

    …in for a splash. Ash before oak, in for a soak. So the old rhyme goes. After the wettest winter anyone can remember perhaps we are due a dry summer. We can only hope that we will continue to enjoy ash trees here but we are already seeing signs of ash dieback (Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, formerly…

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  • Geese

    By The Bevis Trust In , | May 5, 2016

    We now have five tubby little greylag goslings paddling around on the lake. It’s great to see their numbers growing year on year despite the preponderance of Canadas. The beaver fence has made a huge difference to their survivability, foxes now cannot approach with quite as much ease. Drew

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  • Farm Payments and More

    By The Bevis Trust In | May 3, 2016

    We’ve just completed our Single Farm Payment application. Some people think farmers are rolling in it, and who knows, maybe the barley barons in the east are doing very well. Here in Wales, the story is very different. About 15 years or so ago, the farm payments switched from headage payments (paying per head of…

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  • Habitat Creation

    By The Bevis Trust In | May 3, 2016

    Over the weekend we saw the first dipper on the farm. This engaging little bird was not on our species list and the fact that it has now appeared can most likely be due to the beavers creating the type of habitat favoured by the dipper. We have also had a whimbrel passing through recently, though…

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  • April

    By The Bevis Trust In , | April 28, 2016

    30 April 2016 I like April, it’s like a strip tease in reverse. The farm is down to its bare bones after the winter, everything is visible. And then we get a few sunny days and the trees put on their first delicate leaves, like gossamer underwear, with sunlight dappling through them. We lamb in…

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