Devonshire's East Devon digital magazine November December 2018
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Th e C O U N T R Y M A N<br />
Short eared owl<br />
CHRIS TAYLOR<br />
The COUNTRYMAN<br />
Chris lives with his wife, Brianne,<br />
in north <strong>Devon</strong> at the confluence<br />
of the Mole and Bray Rivers.<br />
Raised on a farm, with a degree in<br />
Agricultural Zoology, Chris moved<br />
into Farm Management and more<br />
recently into Estate Management<br />
and Consultancy. Over the past<br />
50 years his passions cover all<br />
aspects of the countryside, wildlife,<br />
conservation,agriculture and<br />
country pursuits.<br />
Photos copyright C. Taylor<br />
Our changing seasons<br />
Blackberry<br />
Chicory<br />
Cornflower<br />
What do the months of<br />
<strong>November</strong> and <strong>December</strong><br />
hold in store this year? Summer<br />
seemed to continue well into<br />
October and the normal September<br />
storms waited until mid-October<br />
to descend on us. Whilst writing in<br />
mid-October, with the temperature<br />
at 17 degrees C at 9.00 AM,<br />
storm Callum is overhead. Could<br />
it possibly be snowing hard in<br />
some 6 weeks time, as back in<br />
2010? Our weather doesn’t seem<br />
to hold the seasonal patterns I<br />
recall over my lifetime. I only<br />
wish. As a great farming friend<br />
once told me when I entered farm<br />
management, keep a detailed<br />
diary of all the dates of harvest,<br />
sowing, fertilizer applications and<br />
weather and ground conditions<br />
etc., etc. I did, but frustratingly,<br />
I never wrote down with any<br />
regularity what the wildlife was<br />
up to. The distinctive call of the<br />
arrival of the Brent geese was<br />
always around 17th October when<br />
farming down in Sussex. This was<br />
like clockwork and was recorded<br />
and eagerly awaited, heralding<br />
in autumn.<br />
before their long migration<br />
south. Thumbing through my<br />
more recent diaries, I notice<br />
that from mid-October I have<br />
we will not see them until we get<br />
into <strong>November</strong>, especially if our<br />
more northern regions have as<br />
many rowan and hawthorn berries<br />
You can see that Christmas approaches!<br />
Ragged The harvest Robin<br />
I always record the first swallows<br />
to arrive and the last to leave.<br />
Unusually, I saw none in October<br />
this year. The odd few would<br />
normally be around to now<br />
normally seen the first few<br />
migrants from Scandinavia,<br />
members of the thrush<br />
family: redwings and fieldfares<br />
but none yet. I think it fair to say<br />
as we have this year. There is much<br />
folk lore about such bountiful<br />
quantities of wild fruit and how<br />
we are in for a hard winter. If<br />
there is an element of truth to<br />
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