Farm Notes #2 - Summer Evenings, Birds and Badgers

I stroll through the fields of our farm. It’s the end of the day and the sun is starting to set. The fields glow in the warm summer evening light.

The grass is long and has a distinctive smell, the smell of summer. Small moths rise from the long grass with almost every step I take. High in the sky, barn swallows twitter while catching their last insects of the day. My dog Blanca follows behind me on the path I have just created through the long grass, which is waving in the soft evening breeze.

Here and there, the ground is scratched open. At night, badgers come out in search of worms; they can eat hundreds of them in a single night. The drier it gets, the deeper they have to dig. The shrubs and trees I planted earlier this spring are struggling a bit in the summer heat.

For years and years, we have been planting trees and shrubs at the edges of our fields. It has become a yearly event. When we came to live here, nearly 20 years ago, the yard and fields were bare, apart from the big oak trees that divide the pieces of land and some holly in between. The edges of the fields were brown from spraying herbicide to keep them ‘tidy’.

Now the place is lush and green and a haven for all sorts of birds. The shrubs give them shelter, good spots to build their nests and provide food.

Bird Song

In spring and early summer, there was birdsong all around.

Using an app*, we identified the songs and calls of blackbirds, yellowhammers, chiffchaffs, finches, goldfinches, greenfinches, blackcaps, great tits, blue tits, wood pigeons, tree pipits, icterine warblers, marsh warblers, a golden oriole, robins, gardenwarblers, wrens, song thrushes, lesser whitethroats, white wagtails, yellow wagtails, barn swallows, hawfinches, house sparrows, redstarts, dunnocks, great spotted woodpeckers, nuthatches, short-toed treecreepers, spotted flycatchers, linnets, magpies, jays and crows.

But now, in midsummer, much of the birdsong has faded.

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'On hot summer days, supper is mostly late, after all the work on the farm is done and the horses are tended.'

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Tomato, Bread + Basil Salad

Dusk is setting in when I return to the farmhouse.

In the kitchen, I make a quick and light supper that fits the weather and time of day: I cut some tomatoes and a couple of slices of rustic bread, thinly slice a red onion, and make a quick dressing of balsamic vinegar, olive oil and garlic, seasoning it with salt and pepper. I mix everything together in a bowl, adding a couple of handfuls of torn basil leaves. (Full recipe: Tomato, Bread + Basil Salad )

On hot summer days, supper is mostly late, after all the work on the farm is done and the horses are tended.

When the dishes are washed, I step outside again. The summer air is still warm after the sun has long set. The twittering of barn swallows has given way to the chirping of crickets. I am sure the badgers will return to our field tonight.

*Listening to the Farm

My mother is a keen birdwatcher, but even though I grew up with her watching and listening to birds, I can only identify the most common ones. Earlier this year, we started using an app to find out which birds were living around the farm.

Merlin Bird ID is developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the free app can identify birds from their songs and calls. Simply make a recording with your phone and Merlin helps you identify what you've heard.

It has changed the way we listen to the farm. Birds that were once just part of the background now have names — blackcaps, tree pipits, spotted flycatchers, yellow wagtails and many more.

There isn't much birdsong left now that summer is in full swing. The chorus will return in early spring, so perhaps this is a tip to keep for later.

And no, this post isn't sponsored and the app is completely
free. I just thought it was a good tip to share!