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La Locherie |
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Going Green
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Nature had taken over La Locherie when we found the abandoned farmstead in 1999. We have tried to squeeze ourselves in without forcing out too much of the wildlife that had made its home here. Since then we have planted more than 630 trees and hedging plants, over half of those since we acquired an adjoining two hectares of meadow and marsh at the end of 2009. We have created a marre de canard or duck pond (minus the ducks), which is significantly bigger than the small pond we created in 2008. The marre is now well established and has become a haven for frogs, toads, dragonflies and a host of water bugs too numerous to mention. We have also added aquatic plants and a variety of shrubs around the safety fence which encloses it. Our latest project, in Spring 2011, has been to build a bridge and jetty out of local green oak.
When we renovated La Locherie, we did have to evict the barn owls from our chimney - after they were fledged - but they have happily relocated to the barn, where they, or their descendants, nest most years. One year they even shared the barn with a pair of nesting kestrels, without any apparent disharmony. We are not sure if the owls live in the barn during the winter but there is plenty of evidence that they perch in the rafters to devour their prey during night-long hunting trips. If you are lucky you might see them at twilight, swooping out of the barn to hunt low over the fields; in summer, you may hear the owlets "hissing" in their nest as they demand food. You will also hear the twit-twoo call of tawny owls and see buzzards soaring high above and sometimes perching on fence-posts.
Other birds frequently seen include kestrels, sparrowhawks, fieldfare, woodpeckers, jays, swallows, wagtails and herons, and our bird feeding station attracts flocks of goldfinches and greenfinches, chaffinches, robins, and great and blue tits; since birds tend to nest close to where they feed, we have added more nest boxes to encourage them to breed here. Animals that have been spotted at La Locherie include the weasel-like stone marten, one (a pair?) of which also shares the barn with the barn owls; another incongruous pairing, since martens are known for feasting on bird eggs. The "ferret" that has been spotted a couple of times crossing the courtyard in winter, once with a white-tipped tail, another time robed all in white was possibly a stone marten. Red squirrels, hares, deer, a family of foxes and of course hundreds of rabbits have also been spotted.
Our existing pond has already seen tadpoles mature to join the colonies of frogs and toads in the garden. We have spotted our first newts too. There are no fish in it because they tend to decimate other water creatures that are moving in, including pond-skaters, water boatmen, damsel flies and dragon flies. We have seen our first dragon fly larvae come to maturity. It is difficult to believe that these menacing looking aliens metamorphose into something so beautiful and graceful.
Our water features are fenced, but young children should be supervised at all time. We have scattered wildflower seeds over various parts of the grounds, including in the two newly-planted areas that we have prematurely started to call The Glade and the Wild Wood. These new woodlands are planted with various combinations of ash, sweet chestnut, silver birch and beech and these should grow to provide habitat for birds - and insects. Watch this space for further developments…
