Devonshire August September 16

The COUNTRYMAN
CHRIS TAYLOR
The COUNTRYMAN
Chris lives in the north Devon
countryside at the confluence of
the Mole and Bray Rivers. Raised
on a farm, with a degree in
Agricultural Zoology, Chris moved
into Farm Management and more
recently into Estate Management
and Consultancy. Over the
past 50 years his passions cover
all aspects of the countryside,
wildlife, conservation,agriculture
and country pursuits.
Photos copyright C. Taylor
Devon from Dusk to Dawn...
Young Swallows
Slow Worm in retreat
Spotted Flycatcher on nest
As I sit down to write this the
countryside looks so different to
when I wrote last. The arable crops,
cut silage and hay fields make a
patchwork of colours which will be
even more pronounced once the
harvest is gathered and fields are
ploughed ready for sowing again
in autumn. The first of the swallows
and house martin's young
have now fledged and
many will be laying
a second clutch. Not
that many years ago
in my small barn a
clutch hatched on the
25 August, the presence
of these agile
and industrious birds
really stretches out
summer to my mind
and, like sighting
the first each spring,
those amassing on the phone
lines in September heralds their
imminent departure. However it
was pointed out to me that hatching
so late may mean that the
young are not sufficiently strong
to make it back to Africa and even
the adults may not have gained
enough energy reserves for that
journey either. This year for some
unexplained reason, the house
martin arrived in numbers in April
and then seemed to disappear,
One
monster
salmon
caught in
the Taw
weighted
61lb (1923)
reappearing at the end of June
and started to nest straight away.
Through July it was possible to
find the spotted red deer calves
with the hinds in small groups,
but as summer progresses they
will be easier to find and by September
the hinds and calves will
be in sizable herds on Exmoor,
up to 100 strong.
The stags have kept
themselves very
much to themselves
through the summer
and whilst the antlers
regrow, they find hot
weather very irritating,
flies pester them
especially when the
delicate velvet that
covers the rapidly
growing antlers gets
damaged or starts to fall off.
The seasons and our weather
not only determines the success
or failure of our breeding birds
and mammals, how the crops
yield for farmers, but close to my
heart, how the fishing will turn
out in our rivers, especially here
in North Devon.
The river Taw which rises on
Dartmoor and it's main tributaries
the Mole and Bray which
rise on Exmoor, are renowned for
the salmon and sea trout fishing.
Recently when doing research on
these rivers, I found records of
salmon caught in the Taw which
weighed 61lbs (that was in 1923).
Highbullen's stretch of the Mole
In the 1930's, salmon over 30lbs
were often caught on rod and line.
Sadly, those days have long
gone. Time doesn't allow me
to expand on this, but there are
many experts who have written
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