Devonshire's East Devon digital magazine November December 2018

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