It's looking good for this summer

[Paul O]

Compared with 2024, this summer should be very good for wildflowers in our meadow on the hill. Bluebells and Pignut have spread from the bottom corner almost everywhere and have been in flower for a while. Knapweed is about to open its flowers and many other species are visible in the sward.

The badgers that live in this area have dug a new entrance to their sett, creating a mini-cliff of sandy soil. We shall be looking-out for any bees using it.

[Jane W]

Hi Paul. Your meadow looks amazing. So lovely to see such a variety of species. Nice that the badgers are renovating too. I always thought that nice bare loose soil was so valuable for solitary bees and other things but quite a rarity in meadows as it all grows over so quickly. Be interesting to see whether you get anything there this year.

[Paul O]

Thanks for reminding me Jane: since I took that photo, bramble and other plants have started to invade the bare soil, so we shall have to do a bit of hand-weeding on our next visit. Not long after we bought the land 9 years ago we did see some tiny bees using that area, so with luck they may be back.

The Exmoor/Dartmoor pony visits in November/December each year since 2019 have made a great difference to the field. Sadly 2025 may be their last visit because of changing priorities within the RSPB who have been loaning them to us. Fortunately we know someone nearby who may be willing to graze her two horses on this meadow and one of them is a cob who should be able to cope with stringy old grasses, but we shall miss the ponies. One advantage may be that we would be able to have an additional early grazing session around mid-summer, restricted to the areas where grasses are still dominant.