CELEBRATING CHANGE

                               

If like me you love the Autumn, then the arrival of thousands of geese from the high Arctic is as exciting as the coming of spring. These barnacle geese nest in far off Greenland and when we were last on Islay, the arrival of some 35,000 was a spectacular experience. 

Their nesting in the Arctic has to start before all the snow has melted because it takes several weeks for them to lay eggs and incubate to hatching and they need to crack on so the chicks can grow enough to survive the long journey to Scotland. Their long development in the

egg gives time for that rather magical transformation from icy winter to Arctic summer.

The tops of these towering cliffs above our remote camp is where they nest, safe from the Arctic foxes, but when the chicks have to jump from their nests and survive the hundred foot fall, truth becomes stranger than fiction. It's a long way down!

I was lucky to be filming beside their nests in the 80's, having enjoyed their winter company in the Hebrides ever since I left school. A taste for Islay malt came later!

 

So since childhood, the wildest places have drawn me north with friends to marvel at the spectacle of seasonal change.

These inspiring pink-footed goose flights were shared with my wife Sue and Michael and Penny in Norfolk. Their happy yapping [my friends too] as they leave their roosts at dawn is as wonderful as the skeins, pencilled across the colourful skies.

However, there’s a tinge of sadness in the air when summer leaves us, our swallows and ospreys too as they set off for those exotic far off lands, swallows to South Africa and ospreys to West Africa.

As they leave behind our Dorset skies, sadness turns to joy, for our woodland gardens glow with glorious colours, as if reflecting the warmth of the summer sun.

And having embraced the changing seasons, our little patch becomes even more colourful than Springtime.

I'm writing this in November as the rains are falling almost every day, but the occasional frosty dawn hints that winter is coming and as the sun has come out, it seems like a good time to share the delights of a walk around our two acre wildlife patch with a little camera and celebrate our good fortune in calling this home.

During our forty four years here, we've concentrated on providing as much welcoming and varied wildlife habitat as possible, particularly for wetland species. 

And by digging six ponds and a marsh, we are sequestering carbon, trying to do our bit for the planet's climate crisis. It's our attempt at creating a little nature reserve and by adding plants, we attract some special creatures while enjoying shovel fulls of health and happiness.

The ponds contain lots of wildlife of course, including native fish such as rudd which delight in sun bathing as they show off their golden flanks and blood red fins. 

Shoals of minnows spawn in the streams and attract regular kingfisher visits, sometimes using our conservatory door for a plunging perch.

An otter provided us with the privilege of its presence three weeks ago while trying to catch our beautiful rudd ... and ducks, so they're a mixed blessing. 

... and grass snakes adorn the ponds while hunting our frogs and small fish.

Buzzards nest just behind the cottage and hunt the frogs too, and with all this water, our trees grow at an alarming rate and give the impression our little home is sinking!

When we moved in, there was heathland on the hill behind us, but now there are tall birches and forty foot high oaks that the buzzards have recently enjoyed as sun bathing perches, so as the season changes, we delight in a glorious kaleidoscope of colour.

 

We've planted lots of acers so we can enjoy their seasonal changes, and their rapid growth is the sort that our government treasury can only dream of.

And if you believe that we only plant trees for our grandchildren, then this beech tree proves it's a lie. Only thirty or so years ago, we dug a small hole for a six foot pot plant and now it stands nearly fifty feet tall, and I think you'll agree, it's autumn colour is beautiful.

In its shade grow several clerodenrums, covered in a canopy of white flowers beloved by hummingbird hawk-moths in late summer ... 

... and when the flower petals fell off, these 'Christmas decoration' seed-heads have glowed since early November. They look good enough to eat but I failed to find out if they're edible, for us or the birds.

Lots of other fruits are edible of course, and our local blackbirds and migrants thrushes from Europe have already been enjoying the feast.

There are so many berries this Autumn that if you believe that 'old wives tale', it's going to be a cold winter.

However, judging from this mild weather recently, it's allowed many of our most colourful, insect friendly plants to keep flowering until mid November, including salvia amistad, our gaura 'whirling butterflies', [and it was], and that bee magnet, verbena bonariensis.

The iris in the ponds are still flowering, even if  knocked into the water by the welcome rain. The fallen apples have been welcomed by many birds, along with daily visits from a hungry fox, the white tipped tail encouraging us to call it 'Tipp-Ex'. Sorry.

With the nights drawing in and misty dawns being a regular feature, our spiders efforts to catch a meal are clearly visible ... 

... and we've left a lot of the teasel heads so our goldfinches can enjoy the seeds.

It's December 1st today, so winter is officially here, though the weather is still warmish in sunny Dorset. Even so, we might add another log to the fire in our snug and wish you all a really happy Christmas and a rewarding and hopefully more peaceful year ahead. There's lots of bad stuff out there, so I try to avoid reading the news and instead, Sue and I keep our eyes to the skies because that is where there's lots of GOOD news.

Once very rare, red kites circle over our garden on many days and two pairs of ospreys are now nesting nearby and raising lots of young ...

and amazingly, we've seen an adult white-tailed eagle circling over our garden, once in April and again just three weeks ago. They have even nested and raised young in Dorset this year, and that's the first time since birds learnt to fly - well almost! They're BIG aren't they.

Further north, the geese have finished fleeing the Arctic ice and every day, they're filling our skies with their wild music.

We might even 'enjoy' a proper winter and that will certainly be a chance to welcome our seasonal changes, safe in the knowledge that all is well with the world when it's still turning.

And we've enjoyed a really good year with friends and wildlife.

 Notable highlights were sharing our garden with a family of robins, [I spent many enjoyable months winning their trust], and even more enjoyable was sharing with lots of loving friends who came to enjoy a meal, cooked by our ace chef Sue. We have enjoyed a rewarding year and are very lucky, so thank you all for your company and for sharing my ramble around our lovely little patch of rural England. 

And while celebrating the changing seasons, keep faith that these dark days will grow longer soon and the summer sun will return ...

Happy days ... and thank you all!

 

                          CREATING FISHING MAGIC

Fifty one years ago, a wonderful and peaceful estate in rural Dorset dug two fishing lakes and ever since those halcyon days, they have provided many magical days for thousands of happy anglers.

The lakes nestle in the valley of the little River Crane near Edmondsham and soon after the lakes were created, the Wimborne and District Angling Club negotiated a lease from the estate and this spring fed river and it’s crystal clear water has created a rich haven for fish, with rainbow trout stocked into the top lake and a wide variety in the larger lake below, including roach, perch, tench, bream and carp. The club have provided the lakes with tender loving care ever since and by way of reward, the members have enjoyed many years of enjoyable fishing.

Ancient carp, ancient tackle, ancient angler, plus Dan, a guest for a special charity day to support the Angling Trust, guided while stalking carp by Chris Yates. And Dan wasn't alone in finding that just to be sat there surrounded by the rich and varied wildlife and bird song was more than enough, though the fishing was so good at times that he missed the colourful kingfishers and a passing peregrine as they decorated the day.

Inevitably, nature and the passing seasons filled the top lake with silt and weed, so in 2018 we sought the help of the crucian godfather Peter Rolfe to ensure we made the best of a golden opportunity to create a dedicated tench and crucian carp fishery.

The lake was drained down and luckily the club bailiff Nick Lawrie is a creative genius with a dredger. 

The job required a big investment in hired dredgers and man power but it wasn’t long before a dry crater of mud was transformed into a beautiful traditional fishery.

 

The club stocked with lots of plump tench along with little crucians from the EA’s Calverton Fish Farm. Fishing magic followed.

The Angling Trust’s CEO Jamie Cook came to celebrate the lakes opening and enjoyed some very rewarding fishing with Chris Yates and Hugh Miles.

The stocked tench grew on well and were soon providing some exciting battles as they tried to bury themselves in the prolific weed.

The tench bred prolifically, the crucians too and they teased us with those classical, tentative bites.

Meanwhile, the lower lake, named Julia’s to honour the estate’s ‘guardian angel' was rapidly becoming so shallow and lily suffocated that our club had to act. 

So our star operator, Nick Lawrie set to work to create some magic again with the largest ‘long-arm’ excavator he could manoeuvre around the banks without it becoming a submarine.

The lakes had never been excavated since their creation in 1974, so there was an awful lot of silt! Where to put it all? Undaunted, Nick and his assistant Jamie created a temporary storage area with hay bales to ensure that no mud could leach into the River Crane. Many hours and days of hard labour followed.

 

 

 

As the lake was full of fish, we couldn’t drain down the water, so it was to be a ‘wet dredge’, very wet, and the ‘corral’ soon became rather full - and treacherous!

 

Fortunately, we didn’t damage or catch any fish in the bucket, but we searched diligently for the numerous swan mussels because they siphon impurities from the water and keep it healthy. 

Our chairman Mike Hirsh saved a total of one hundred and eleven and after the dredging was complete, he carefully returned them to the areas from which they had been rescued.

 

Mike and Nick were the first to admit that we were only scratching the surface when it came to clearing all the silt from the lake, but I think you’ll agree that these ‘before and after’pics of disabled swims no's One and Two show what Nick has achieved to make each peg fishable.

... and the fourth platform before and after dredging.

Other dredged swims up the lake show that all twenty three pegs are a lot more ‘fisherman friendly’ and they also provide new feeding opportunities for the fish. Better still, the extensive weed beds that remain will provide lots of food and vital cover for our precious carp, tench, roach and bream.

By the time we had finished, the silt storage area was full up.

 

Since they were created fifty years ago, the lakes have produced crucian carp to 1lb7ozs, roach to much the same weight, tench to nearly five pounds, a monster club record perch a while back of 4lb10ozs, bream to seven pounds [allegedly!] and carp to a little over twenty pounds. So the rich water can certainly grow fish on to a good size and this recent dredging will surely give the lakes the chance to fulfil their potential once again.

Not quite a double so not particularly big, but when stalked in the edge on a freelined ball of paste, it was certainly exciting. And even after just a few days since the dredge and our tidy up was complete, members have been catching plenty of fish, including tackle testing carp and some plump tench. Even I was lucky enough to bag a few. 

Maintenance of our fisheries is an ongoing task and luckily for us members, the Wimborne Club management are very persistent in insuring our fisheries are in tip top condition.

This in turn allows us to enjoy the magic, excitement and relaxation that fishing provides and while trying to catch, I suggest you keep your 'eyes to the skies' because those graceful red kites drift past the lakes every day. What beautiful birds.

What was even more rewarding last year, Chris Wild and I were enjoying catching tench when we were stunned by a white-tailed eagle that drifted past us over the lakes. They’re BIG! 

The eagles are radio tagged so scientsts can track each birds' travels and this very same eagle was also circling over our Corfe Mullen garden only four weeks ago. Happy days.

I’ve been lucky to be a member of our club for over forty years, so I hope to see you at Julia’s lake or the lovely River Stour at Wimborne before I finally peg out!

But before then, I’d better get out there and catch a few of those elusive beauties from Julia's. I hope you enjoy your fishing too.