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Farm News

May 2012

Wheatear sheltering from cold, wet weather

Wheatears suffer in wet cold weather

Migrant birds such as Wheatears will be struggling to find food in this cold and wet weather as the insects they feed on go into hiding.

April 2012

Red Crested Pochard seen at Baston Fen Nature Reserve.

Nature Reserve full of life

Our nature reserve is full of life at this time of year.

December 2011

Rural Enterprise Award

Vine House Farm donate nearly £140,000 to help wildlife

Lucy Watts, Manager at Vine House Farm, presented a cheque for a staggering £136.807 to Chief Executives of The Wildlife Trusts in recognition of the vital work they carry out for wildlife throughout the country.

December 2011

Rural Enterprise Award

Vine House Farm gets another win

The Awards celebrate the people and companies that are growing oureconomy through innovation and hard work, these are the champions of the UKfarming industry . . .

October 2011

Goldfinch on the Droll Yankee Goldfinch Flocker

Garden Bird Feeding Survey Results

Research by the British Trust for Ornithology's garden bird feeding survey showed that the number of different birds visiting the average feeding station has risen from 16 in the 1970s to 23 last winter.

October 2011

Adam Henson presents Silver Lapwing Award to Nicholas Watts of Vine House Farm

Vine House Farm are victorious at the Silver Lapwing Awards 2011

The Silver Lapwing Awards, the Oscars of conservation awards, are about rewarding the very best in wildlife-friendly, environmentally sustainable farming in the UK and Nicholas Watts has won the prestigious Silver Lapwing Award for a second time.

September 2011

Silver Lapwing Award from 2001

Silver Lapwing Award judging commences

Judging for the 2011 Silver Lapwing Award took place at the weekend. Fingers crossed Vine House Farm can win it again.

July 2011

Baby Swallows found at Vine House Farm in the workshop

Looking after Swallows

About the 10th July my wife found a young Swallow on the ground 17 feet below the nest it would have fallen from. I estimated it to be about 8 days old, so with no feathers it must have fallen with quite a bump.

May 2011

Robin with a mealworm

Birds struggle to find worms due to dry weather

Just to remind everyone that if we want to see a lot of birds a lot of birds have to be reared, Robins, the Tit family, Sparrows, Wagtails, Wrens, Dunnocks and Buntings all need insects to feed their young.

March 2011

Yellow Wagtail

Is farming to blame for the decline in farmland birds?

This morning I read an article in the National Farmers Union magazine about the declines in farmland birds. The author was saying that as we are using less chemicals on our farms than we were doing 20 years ago he didn't see why farming should be to blame. Read my views on the subject...

March 2011

Whooper Swans

Whooper Swans still at Baston Fen

We still have a few Whooper Swans feeding on the rape field at Baston Fen. The most I have counted is 14 but there is a different number every day

February 2011

Corn Bunting

Defra report shows decrease in breeding bird species in the UK

Defra have published their Wild Bird Index for 2009 (from 1970) and results indicate a decline in many farmland birds, woodland birds, water and wetland birds, seabirds and wintering waterbirds breeding in the UK.

January 2011

Bewick Swans

Swans visit our fields

During the cold weather in December we have had a few extra Swans visiting our fields and they are still with us.

November 2010

Common Tern with young in June 2010

One in a million

Back in 1996 I did something I often do: put a ring on a young Common Tern chick nesting on my farm so it could be identified in the future. Little did I know all those years back that the very same bird would, incredibly and after flying perhaps 300,000 miles over 14 years, be found by my wife!

September 2010

Healthy Greenfinch at Vine House Farm

Disease causes greenfinch population to fall

Large numbers of greenfinches are dying of a disease called trichomonosis.

August 2010

Adam Henson

BBC Countryfile visit Vine House Farm

On Tuesday 3 August we had BBC Countryfile come and film on the farm. We will make up part of the Countryfile television programme on Sunday 15th August 2010 broadcast on BBC 1 at 6.30pm. Make sure you tune in to see what they got up to.