Category: Conservation

  • Progress

    By The Bevis Trust In | May 20, 2016

    The beaver hide is coming along nicely… A turf roof and waney-edged larch boards should go on in the next few days.

    Read More...

  • New Woodlands

    By The Bevis Trust In | May 19, 2016

    We have some steep north facing slopes on the farm that are gradually being taken over by encroaching bracken. Azulox has been phased out for spraying bracken and the slopes are too steep for machinery. Even with heavy grazing or hoof pressure there is no realistic cost-efficient way of controlling the bracken and we are…

    Read More...

  • Willow casts a critical eye over the new hide

    By The Bevis Trust In , | May 17, 2016

    Willow casts a critical eye over the new hide.

    Read More...

  • Eggs!

    By The Bevis Trust In | May 16, 2016

    At this time of year all the birds are busy nesting. The males are singing their hearts out proclaiming their territories and everyone is busy building nests and incubating eggs. Yesterday some geese took off heading towards the lake, and one of them shed a tiny white fluffy feather. As the feather drifted down, a…

    Read More...

  • 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…

    Read More...

  • 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…

    Read More...

  • 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.

    Read More...

  • 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.

    Read More...

  • 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…

    Read More...

  • 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

    Read More...