Episode 19: A Guide To Sparrows

Matthew Gudgin (00:30):

It's a busy morning at High Ash Farm in the farmyard with Chris Skinner in the farm truck, which is a doubling as a bird hide this morning. It's a cold January morning. The farmyard pond is frozen over, but we're just enjoying ourselves, aren't we Chris? Watching those holes on the side of that farm building. 

Chris Skinner (00:48):

Yes. This is a relatively new building at Ash Farm, and when I'd completed it, there's an old pan tile red brick building behind us and I made all the ridge tiles into sparrow boxes and they all got full. And with this new building, as with many modern agricultural buildings, they're meant to be bird proof. So I built separate sparrow boxes inside, and sparrows seem to be taking up a lot of the media news at the moment and becoming a red list species. And these particular ones here at High Ash Farm, a house sparrows passer domesticus. The domestic bird, in other words. And there's people walking about everywhere, people chatting around us just over there. 

The liveries are all doing their horses and cleaning ice out of the water tanks this morning. And the sparrows here, there's 42 nest boxes in a row and I never thought they'd be all occupied and there's no space left whatsoever. They're all occupied and you can see some of the sparrows sitting on their little perches outside the holes here, females and males. And if you look in the very first hole, Matthew, there's a male house sparrows, 

Matthew Gudgin (02:09)

It's peeking out. 

Chris Skinner (02:10)

And we're only what, 15, 20 feet away. 

Matthew Gudgin (02:13):

I think I can see birds in those first three. 

Chris Skinner (02:16):

Yes, yes, they're all occupied. And there's a lady out there, she's sort of sunning herself this morning. We've got a fair sheet of cloud over the top of us, but just as we arrived, I think they were all outside having a chat. And then what I'll do, I'll record some of the sounds in a little while, but all over the farmyard, if I put the boxes out on the farm for house sparrows, none, absolutely none would be occupied. There seems to be a sort of what we call a commensal relationship between sparrows and humans. I think the balance is very much in favour of the sparrows because I don't know what benefits they confer to other than the fact I just love having them here. 

Matthew Gudgin (03:01):

They’re very chattery, aren't they? And they're very garroulus with their neighbours as well. They all stand out on their little perches there. You've got 40 odd in a row there. And really, I mean it seems like they're sort of neighbours talking to each other over the garden fence, doesn't it.

Chris Skinner (03:15):

Yes. You use an interesting word down. I'd say they're gregarious. They actually love being together and if the numbers get down to one or two house sparrows, they kind of give up the ghost and don't breed. So they need to be. They're members of the African Weaver bird family, I suppose. Some of the most untidy nest builders in the world and house sparrows use holes. They have a cousin, a kind of country cousin called the Tree Sparrow, Passer montana, and they're quite scarce now. They're slightly different, slightly smaller than a house sparrow and a lovely chestnut crown on top of the head and a little cheek patch as well, which helps you identify them. And I just love having them here. And you can see just near the carpark over there, there's a row of three oak trees there and each of the oak tree has between 20 and sort of 10 nest boxes on each of them. And believe it or not, they're all occupied as well. So I think if my father came back into existence, he's passed away a few years ago, he'd be saying, you're probably getting near the limit before they start to become a pest. And they certainly were a pest in the post-war years and before that. And I just love having them here, Matthew, and it's filling up the post bag this week. 

Matthew Gudgin (04:37):

Well, lots of people agree with you and really want to encourage sparrows to their properties. John and Veronica, hello to The Prices from Somerset and they've sent a photograph of the sparrow boxes that they've constructed out of plywood with varnish as well and a hinged roof. It's a real des res. And the photograph is to your design that you sent to them quite recently, I think. So what do you think of these efforts?

Chris Skinner (05:03):

Yes, I'm absolutely thrilled. I'm just going to have a look because they've sent one or two pictures through and 

Matthew Gudgin (05:09):

These are the holes. 

Chris Skinner (05:10):

This is absolutely perfect. This is the one we're looking at, which is just above the ladies over there chattering away. You can guess it about horses. Not about sparrows and it's a cracking nest box. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 holes in that. And the only problem that has been made, I recommended quite thick ply and I think it's 18 millimetre ply has been used with a backboard as well. And of course it weighs about what two or three people can lift up. 

Matthew Gudgin (05:39):

Oh yes, 18 mil is quite thick isn’t it?

Chris Skinner (05:40):

It is quite thick. But that helps with the insulation and it is a real, as you said, a des res and hopefully it's ideal for sparrow. Now to seed it when you have erected it, try and get it at least three metres off the ground so it's away from the local furry pests. 

Matthew Gudgin (05:59):

That’s about 10 foot, isn't it?

Chris Skinner (06:00):

Yes, that's the ideal height. Then if you've got any really soft hay, just stick it into the holes above their little perches there, the nest holes. And that should help seed it because it attracts sparrows. They love sort of scruffy hay hanging out of holes and things. And that, fingers crossed, should seed it for you. 

Matthew Gudgin (06:21):

And here's a note from Susan Young. Hello Susan from Helpston in Cambridgeshire. Dear Chris, I feed the sparrows and do all I can to encourage them. I'm currently spending more than 16 pounds for 20 kilos of seed. It's mainly wheat and some maize flakes and a few sunflower seeds. I can get wheat for eight pounds a kilogramme. Would that be okay for the sparrows please? So getting wheat instead of a mix, 

Chris Skinner (06:47):

Yes, I would certainly recommend a mix. They're quite choosy feeders are sparrows, quite messy feeders as well. So there is now some new varieties of seed mixers coming out by all the main bird seed manufacturers. And there's a new variety coming out called wheat free and it contains some sunflowers, just a few peanuts, but a whole variety of mixed small seeds. I tell you what we're going to do. We've just looked at their nesting sites. I'm just going to start the truck. They're the sparrows all with their heads sticking out of the holes. But I've done something else at the farm that's just moved forwards a little bit. And this is a sparrow hide around this side of the buildings. It looks a strange residence, this 

Matthew Gudgin (07:39):

Ivy clad. 

Chris Skinner (07:41):

It’s completely covered in ivy. Some jack doors.

Matthew Gudgin (07:54):

Garrolous, that lovely gregarious chatter. 

Chris Skinner:

Yes, gregarious, that's the right word for them. And all the way down the hedge here, it's absolutely packed. And that's my sparrow hedge. It's cut every year and so it's lovely and tight and that if a sparrow hawk comes past the sparrows, just drop down in the hedge. And you can see there's a village near Brook called Seething, but this is seething with sparrows. Let's just hop out and I will show you the feeders and how messy sparrows are.

Matthew Gudgin (08:32):

Out into the fresh air. It's very fresh this morning. The sparrows hopping around inside the hedge. 

Chris Skinner (08:42):

Yes, here we are some flew out just in front of us

Matthew Gudgin (08:50):

And this is where you feed the sparrows? 

Chris Skinner (08:52):

Yes. I'll just open the gate. Here we are. And in we go. You can see my mix here. There're two large feeders. Each feeder is a metre tall and each one

Matthew Gudgin:

They look like howitzer shells don't they? 

Chris Skinner:

Each one holds 10 kilos of seed. And you can see I clean the tray out every Saturday morning. 

Matthew Gudgin:

Is that niger seed in there? 

Chris Skinner:

No, this is millet. 

Matthew Gudgin:

Oh, sunflower seeds, 

Chris Skinner:

sunflower seed there. The large black seeds you can see there's pulled out quite a bit of wheat. There's some whole maize there, which that's far too big for the sparrows to eat, but there's also crushed maize in here, 

Matthew Gudgin:

which is big corn, isn't it? 

Chris Skinner:

Yes, corn. That's what you'd call corn in America. So your corn flakes isn't corn from England, it's maize all crushed up there. They're little maize sort of pellets there, but lots of small seeds. So if I just scrape across the top of the seed like that, and then below there now you can see the millet and hemp seed mixed in amongst it. 

(10:04)
 And that's what they like because they can pick that up, swallow it and digest it. Remember birds don't have teeth, so they go out on hedge rows here and actually pick up the grit off the ground close by and that grinds up the seeds for them. But it's such a lovely site. If you stand up high and look across the top of the hedge, grit goes away from us. 

Matthew Gudgin:

Oh yes, there they are. They're little brown heads. 

Chris Skinner:

Yes. So absolutely wonderful. 

Matthew Gudgin:

One or two tits in there as well. But you've got the shelter here, really, it keeps the food lovely and dry

Chris Skinner:

That’s why I’ve done it. It's completely open fronted. And there's some mesh on the door, not to keep birds out, you understand? But each side of us is a horse paddock and horses have very long necks, almost giraffe length. And in the past the horse has reached in into the front of the hide and scoffed some of the feed. 

(10:59)

Matthew Gudgin:

They like their cornflakes in the morning.

Chris Skinner:

Absolutely. So I've put a little mesh over the front of the hide. So that's what sparrow's like. So they can come in and sort of help yourself as and when you want. And they generally have two big feeds a day, one about half past nine, nine o'clock in the morning and one about two in the afternoon. 

Matthew Gudgin:

I think they're impatient for us to leave actually. 

Chris Skinner:

I can hear them either swearing or just approving of what we're doing. Oh, just look at them down there, over the top of the hedge. 

Matthew Gudgin:

Dozens of them. Look at that. It's amazing sight. It's a lovely broad edge. 

Chris Skinner:

Absolutely. Just flying off down there, crazily flying about, which is what they do at this time of the year. They're gone onto the other hedge onto the next paddock. There you are. That's a real treat. And sort of sparrow kneecaps my father said I'd have unless I ate my greens at lunchtime. There's more coming in right over the top of us

Matthew Gudgin (11:55):

Only a few feet away here, just down in lower part of the hedge. Look at them all standing there waiting for us to go. You're going to have to wait for one more email because Carl, hello Carl Eglington in Lowerstoft. We had sparrows nesting in each corner of the back of our house last year and the neighbour's house nesting just under roof tiles, they were doing really well till magpies kept helping themselves till the young, another neighbours said to put fat balls out so the magpies would use them instead. Would this help? What do you think says Carl? 

Chris Skinner (12:26):

Oh, interesting question. Diversionary feeding can work. In other words, you're feeding a bird to keep it away from eating something else by making it very easy. Magpies will eat fat balls, but they'll pick the whole fat ball off and then secrete it somewhere and then come back for another one. So the best way is to provide our previous questioners have with a nest box and that's magpie proof. So the little hole size is just right. The magpie can't perch outside the box because there's not enough room for them and that means there's safe haven for the sparrows to bring up their young and they can bring two occasionally three broods off in a year. So if you have got them breeding close to you in your area, then look after them. Red list species just means they're declined by 50% or more in the last few years and that's a colossal number when you think of the sparrow population in the United Kingdom in the 1970s when recording numbers first started, then vast numbers have gone missing and we don't want those to drop anymore. But you're being serenaded by a flock of High Ash Sparrows

Matthew Gudgin (13:59):

It's a grey old day, but much drier than of late. And Chris here on High Ash Farm in so many other places, the land needs a bit of respite from the rain, doesn't it? 

Chris Skinner (14:08):

Yes, it's just been continuous, but nevertheless it was sorely needed. I know a lot of people will be scratching their heads with that comment, but it's been so dry over two previous years. Our average rainfall has been much lower over each 12 month period and so it's helped to recharge the aquifer. And there's an old clay pond. We're actually on top of a hill here, Matthew. We're standing on clay and the pond is full as I've ever seen it in years and years and years. So the water table is replenished, which is exactly what we want

Matthew Gudgin (14:44):

Is that in that fringe of woodland clay? 

Chris Skinner (14:46):

It's a little bit further down. We'll be driving past it in a minute en route because it's a cold morning. I've decided to be very kind to you and pop you in one of the bird hides. I know you're a bit of a lightweight, but on our way I just thought we'd walk out into the over winter wild bird seed mix here. There's wheat, barley, triticale, all sorts of small seeds.

Matthew Gudgin:

Teasels

Chris Skinner:

Teasels, that's the teasel walk that's still there and the teasles are now in front of us. Matthew, you're not going to believe this, just a few hundred yards away, over a thousand pigeons. 

Matthew Gudgin:

Well, I can see about half a dozen, maybe 10 and a few jack doors. 

Chris Skinner:

Let's just walk out and see what we can see because 

Matthew Gudgin:

How many did you say there are? 

Chris Skinner:

There's over a thousand feeding here and they're just down in the crop. 

(15:38)
 They can't see us, but Skinner knows that they're here. 

Matthew Gudgin:

There's a big field here. 

Chris Skinner:

It is a big field. It's 30 acres and you can see oh up there, go there, go look at that. You can actually see him hear the wings and they're nearly straight down again and you can see they're not really worried about us and they're circling around and coming down and it's like that all over this field and lots of farmers, when I started doing this over winter wild bird seed mix about nearly 20 years ago now, leaving fields unharvested, they got very, very cross with me saying ‘Attracting pigeons and feeding vermin on your farm you’re are a deserter Skinner’. And actually after a year or two it went very quiet because the pigeons all came here and that meant they weren't feeding on my neighbour's rape fields and suddenly they went very quiet. 

(16:37)

Matthew Gudgin:
 
You went a zero to hero. 

Chris Skinner:

Yes. It's such a strange thing. Now this we're just coming into an interesting time of year, Matthew. It's called the hungry gap and most of the seeds out on fields have all been eaten and consumed and that means there's no fresh seeds until everything starts flowering going in the spring and producing seed for 2024. And that's not going to happen for some time. So providing crops like this helps to feed the birds over the winter. And don't just think there's pigeons here. There's flocks of linens, gold finches, all sorts of different species of birds out there and probably a lot of small mammals as well. Hares and deer out here. 

Matthew Gudgin:

What is there still to eat then in this mix? So there's still ears aren't there here?

Chris Skinner:

It's absolutely full of seeds. Ears of corn. They're my ears actually. You're looking at, yeah. So look here, this is a pod plant. This is called fodder radish. Very white crunchy pods will crunch one open for you and when you look inside little tiny pink seeds, there they are. And rather like mustard, they're very, very hot to eat. Yeah. Do you want to try one and just crunch it up with your teeth? I don't 

Matthew Gudgin (17:57):

I don't want to take the meal out of some bird's mouth, but I will 

Chris Skinner (17:59):

Go on try that and I'll try the other one. And you should see after a second or two, it's very peppery. Yeah. 

Matthew Gudgin (18:06):

Oh yeah

Chris Skinner (18:06):

Yeah, got that. Yeah. Yep. So that's called fodder radish. And the beauty of it is the seeds are contained in a paper light pod, which is about three four centimetres long here. They are very crunchy and waterproof and the birds actually perch on those because it's quite a rigid plant and get the seed out.

Matthew Gudgin (18:28):

Oh, there's Lots of it still here, isn't 

Chris Skinner (18:29):

Oh, there's masses of it. Then got the cereal component. And this was a mistake that's turned out to be absolutely brilliant. I accidentally with the mix of spring barley, spring wheat and what I thought was spring triticale  I actually planted some winter triticale, which is a cross between wheat and rye and just look down here. And that's what the pigeons are feeding on. There's a complete air of cereals, almost looks as though you could even after all that rain, it's not sprouted. And that's each one of those little grains stone aside. And there must be 20, there are two rows of 10 and I can actually get one of the seeds out like that. There you are. That's a triticale seed and perfect nutrition for our birds. So they've, all the pigeons have disappeared down into the crop again.

Matthew Gudgin (19:21):

But if we walk forward another 10 yards, it'd be up again.

Chris Skinner (19:23):

Well, you'd see hares in here and there's lots of small mammals as well. 

Matthew Gudgin (19:28):

And there was some sand dug up just here behind us

Chris Skinner (19:30):

Yes, because that's right. We're just on the crest of the hill between the sand and the clay. We've actually standing on clay here at the moment and 10 yards away there's sand. And that's typical of High Ash Farm and how the glacier has left all the soil types over on the other side of the valley you can see outcrops of sand. It's really unusual. And between us in the hill on the other side of the valley, a big gouge out and that's where water ran underneath the ice sheets down to the local river valley and then through out into the North Sea. But just look at that. Now, I said I'm going to be kind to you. We're going to hop back in the truck, drive past that little pond that's brimming full and I'm going to pop you in a hide and we're going to see some different birds to those house sparrows. We're going to visit one of the woodland hides here at High Ash Farm. So back in the truck. I've got to keep you warm. 

Matthew Gudgin (20:27):

I'm still getting some flavour from the fodder radish. 

Chris Skinner (20:29):

Yeah, it is quite pungent. Yeah 

Matthew Gudgin (20:32):

They always said come to Chris for a hearty breakfast, 

Chris Skinner (20:36):

One fodder radish seed. 

Matthew Gudgin (20:39):

That'll keep me going for the rest of the day

Chris Skinner (20:46):

Off we go

Matthew Gudgin (21:02):

So Chris, is the bird hide centrally heated? 

Chris Skinner (21:06):

I'm afraid not only when we are sitting in it and you need a good breakfast, Matthew. And that's called central heating. Anyway, look at this. It's some evergreen component. This is Fox's Grove. We've been in this woodland several times before, but there's one or two secrets in here hidden away. And one of them is a bird hide and we are quite close to it, but you actually can't see it.

Matthew Gudgin (21:39):

So well hidden. It's a deer over there, Chris.

Chris Skinner (21:40):

It is. Oh, Look at that. Two, just what, 20 yards from us, a male muntjac behind with a little antlers, really dark brown fur at this time of the year, one of the introduced species, look at that, well spotted and a rabbit running across just

Matthew Gudgin (22:01):

I saw the tail

Chris Skinner (22:03):

The scut going away. 

Matthew Gudgin (22:04):

The muntjck aren't bothered with us at all. They're just, they're walking away. 

Chris Skinner (22:07):

This is what happens at this time of the year. And the animals and the birds start to get hungry and they lose some of that initial fear that they have of humanity. But they're very wise to move away. Many are shot around the countryside at this time of the year. They're regarded as a pest species. Now they introduced species, of course, I think the Duke of Bedford introduced them to Woburn

Matthew Gudgin (22:35):

Poor old Duke of Bedford. He always gets your ire, doesn’t he.

Chris Skinner (22:38):

He does, yes. But it's all part of the tapestry of the countryside. Just here 

Matthew Gudgin (22:46):

We're clearly woodland birds. You can hear them

Chris Skinner (22:49):

Yes. Right here are hired secreted away. So we'll just go in as quietly as we can. So we get inside 

Matthew Gudgin (23:04):

And then we come, carpeted interior for the soundproofing I think rather for my comfort. Yes. And we'll sit on the bench and in front of us some windows and already birds. 

Chris Skinner (23:16):

Yes. Yeah, we've come in. It's typical of the cold weather, Matthew. So we've just got to sit. I was going to say we're going to have to sit and wait for the first bird storm. Three glorious blue tits. Yes, one of the smaller members of the tit family and a great tit as well. It's not a film through that glass. So we're actually watching real wildlife just three feet away from us 

Matthew Gudgin (23:43):

Shows how hungry they are that they've not minded us going through this territory. Within seconds. They're on the feeders

Chris Skinner (23:50):

They're on the feeders. And so they will have had an early feed. We're now mid-morning and many birds will have fed already and this coming back for a second feed. So what I've done here is magnetised this area of woodland for birds by providing feed all the air round. The hide is about eight feet wide and six feet wide. And just outside the windows, which are one-way glass. And there is a camera hole in the centre of one of the holes. And you can see it's much brighter looking through that hole. So some of the light is excluded for us looking out, but 90% of the light on the outside looking in. So we're, as far as outside's concerned, we're sitting in pitch black for those birds so they can't see us. Although you're sitting there with some questions for us to answer again in a little while and flashing those around. And you're not meant to be a bird scarer, Matthew. 

Matthew Gudgin (24:53):

Well, I'm always amazed with how in the pristine condition these birds are in. But then as you always explain, the birds have to be in pristine conditions in these wintery weather times that else they would just die, wouldn't they? 

Chris Skinner (25:09):

When you shut your house doors in the evening and turn the heating up and curl up in a warm bed, these birds are out in this without doubt. And that's why evergreen component and plants like ivy are so important at this time of year, particularly in deciduous woodlands, which this one mainly is. There's holly in the distance there, I can see a nice large holly tree. There's also bramble forming an understory and some box here planted by shooters years ago in these old shooting rides. And box is quite surprising because it's a British native, which many people don't realise. One of the simpivarum species Boxxus simpivarum and there's lots of it here at High Ash Farm. So there is overnight cover for them and any old trees as well. I leave those standing full of woodpecker holes. So they're kind of natural nest sites for some of the birds in the future. So we do have to sit here a short while because undoubtedly we will have sort of put some of more the shyer birds off and they will have flown away. And it's good that the blue tits, great tits are already back here feeding. And we'll be looking for some of the woodland specialists if we sit here a short while. 

Matthew Gudgin (26:29):

Who else could be around? 

Chris Skinner (26:30):

Oh, anybody? Yes. We've already seen those deer and they're the two muntjack deer that we saw are certainly woodland species, but specialist woodland birds, things like great spotted woodpecker, lesser spot woodpecker and green woodpecker with unlikely to be green woodpecker on the feeders. But the other two species are quite frequent visitors and one of my favourites is the nut hatch. And then watching the woodland floor because we're sitting quite high up in the hide, we've got a good panoramic view of quite an area of woodland and you can be suddenly eyes caught by a bird that just looks like the leaf litter and that would be a woodcock as well, which spend the daytime out in the woodlands here. So there we are. We're just going to sit and be quiet for a short while and then let the woodland settle back to what it was before. Two large humans walked into their territory, but those tits don't mind at all. The great tit coming in there is lovely, that lovely yellow lemon breast. 

(27:41)
 One of the passer species, I'm just looking. Oh, that's a male great tit. You can tell the male great tit. They've got a very wide black stripe down the centre of the breast and those white cheeks and a female has almost a little pencil line down her chest. So you can actually tell the sexes apart. Blue tits, which has lots feeding in front of us now they're nearly impossible to identify the male and female. So we've got a mixture of fat balls on the left, then peanut feeder, then a grain feeder and that's no ordinary feeder. Again, it's a Skinner special, it's a metre tall and 150 millimetres diameter. It holds 10 kilos and the one on the right is just pure black sunflowers as well. So a lot of food there and I recharge the feeders once a week and empties the farm bank account. Don't tell my son. 

Matthew Gudgin (28:53):

Let's talk about some of the questions that have come in Chris, while we're waiting to see if any other bird species visit us here at the bird hide. And hello to Tony and Jane Clark who enjoy listening to the podcast. And Chris, they say, ‘I thought the hint of spring may be of interest to you both. There's a photograph here of Mahonia and they say the Mahonia always provides pollen for those who may need food at this time of year while the snow drops are about two weeks later than normal they say. So they're waiting for their snow drops. 

Chris Skinner (29:30):

Yes, and snow drops out in this area of woodland. We visited them about two to three weeks ago, Matthew on one of the podcasts and the Mahonia as well. We've got some growing quite close to us in the woodland. I dunno quite how it arrived here, but we have an evergreen hedge at the farm, which is absolutely lovely. And at this time of the year, the Mahonia comes into full flower. And about two weeks ago it was right at the end of December, there was two queen bumblebees. It was a warmish day and they'd come out just to recharge themselves and that was a lovely site. So it does provide some extra pollen and nectar on warm winter days for those that like to venture. And Matthew, just out of interest, it's an unusual visitor. 

Matthew Gudgin:

Who is that? 

Chris Skinner:

That's a coal tit, one of the smaller members of the tit family jet black head, but a white stripe right over the centre of the head and it was sort of contemplating whether to come to the feeder. I think the birds are a little bit nervous at the moment. The numbers have dropped away in the last couple of minutes because there might be a goshawk or a sparrow hawk in this area of woodland and that makes those birds very shy. They don't want to be breakfast. There it is again. It just popped in and flew away Again.

Matthew Gudgin (30:56):

Looks smaller than the blue tit

Chris Skinner (30:56):

It is slightly smaller, roughly an equal size, but a very petite bird, a whole nesting bird rather like blue tits and great tits. So it will use crevices in trees and eats a lot of insects as well at this time of the year. And you can attract it in your garden by putting up peanuts as long as their feeders are sort of near a shrubbery so the birds don't have to fly the gauntlet or walk the plank, whatever you like to call it, to get to a feeder. If it's near some dense shrubbery, that's always a huge help so that you can still see the feeders, but the birds feel quite safe. And you always know when you've got coal tits in the area because they have a very distinct swear word if you go into their territory, it's called a perchew like that. And it sounds almost like somebody sneezing to some extent. But I always smile when I hear that because I know somewhere in the nearby shrubbery there's a coal tit swearing at me quite rightly so. 

Matthew Gudgin (32:01):

Now out and about on the farm as you are every day, right throughout the week you come across walkers and you've been strong arming people into listening to the podcast because Corby sent a note to say, my friend and I were walking last week on the farm. We met you in the woods and you told us about the podcast. Well I just wanted to say I absolutely love it. Keep up the good work so there's another satisfied customer. Corby. 

Chris Skinner (32:24):

Yes, thank you very much indeed. Yes, I meet lots of people and I've just had some little posters done, I think Anna Perrott and Sophie Little who are running Soundyard who produced this podcast for us. They've designed a little poster with a picture of me and Rat’s on the front of it, and that will be on display around the farm as well. 

Matthew Gudgin (32:47):

The poster apparently is on display currently….

Chris Skinner (32:50):

Matthew!! Nut hatch. Oh, look at that. Sorry to interrupt, but nature doesn't hang about. No, that was on the fat balls for about five seconds. So I fisted you on the leg to stop you talking and I think it will be back. But beautiful bird not related to the woodpeckers, although it looks like a miniature woodpecker about the size of the, that was it. Again, 

Matthew Gudgin (33:17):

Just a fleeting glimpse, 

Chris Skinner (33:18):

A lovely glimpse of there it is. Wow. Upside down. And again, just beauty took a peanut just like that. That's one of the woodland bird specialists sitter you us there. There it is. Look at that, that that's a different one, believe it or not. That's female. Very sleek, very sleek, sort of a battleship grey blue on the back. And that dagger like beak as well. You would think with a short tail that it is a small woodpecker, but it's unusual. It can go up trees, down trees, smooth bark trees, no problem at all. Nut hatch because they put nuts in little crevices and kind of hatch into them or hack in. It was originally we think nut hack and it's now nut hatch is the name. Beautiful birds. And they will use the old nest holes of woodpeckers here at High Ash Farm. And they're I think unique among British birds in that they gather mud or cement. So it's also called the plastering bird as well. And they make the nest hole the right size for them to go in and out because a lot of woodpecker holes, particularly great spot woodpeckers are about two inches across there. It's again female this time 

Matthew Gudgin (34:37):

Very sharp long beak. Two tone with that light blue and sort of peach colour underneath

Chris Skinner (34:41):

Yes. And I thought you were going to say two toes for a minute now. Woodpeckers have two toes facing forwards and two toes facing backwards. One of the toes has migrated round with the woodpecker species as a condition called zygodactyl, a really strange name. But nut hatches have standard feet, which is three toes facing forwards and one toe facing backwards, which is miraculous because they can go up trees, down, trees sideways on trees. Whereas woodpeckers generally start at the bottom of a tree and work their way up head first. So there we are. Beautiful, beautiful woodland bird. 

Matthew Gudgin (35:21):

Here's a note from Noel and Jennifer, the Bishops who live in Fletcher, Vermont in the United States and they say, Good day, Sir, to you Chris. That's nice, isn't it? Had an enjoyable moment on the New Year's Day podcast when Rat Chris's dog was barking, caused our terrible terrier Fritz, he was also a bit chihuahua, to bark as well. Happy New Year they say. He said, Rat has got fans all over the world.

Chris Skinner (35:48):

You're telling me. I think he's got more fans than I have and rightly so. But he got me out in the middle of the night and cornered a fox in the farm shrubbery and I had to go out barefoot to try and retrieve him into the house. I was freezing cold and wet feet. So I did have some choice words with the little varmit when I got him back into the house. But we're great friends again now. 

Matthew Gudgin (36:14):

Well thank you for all the messages. Those are just a few of them and we read them all though, but not always time to have them actually as part of the podcast. But keep the questions coming in and any comments you may have, chris@countrysidepodcast.co.uk and well still mainly blue tits and the coal tits still here. And the nut patch 

Chris Skinner (36:38):

Look two wrens just on that tree trunk over there chasing it. They just flew off on the tree just behind us. Two little troglidites, a little tail pointed up, appeared on our smallest British coinage, which I can remember back in the 1950s, the Farthing. And just look at this feed. And there suddenly the bird life on the feeders has exploded with all the tit species coming in, almost as though somebody's turned a switch on the feeders and they've just illuminated with all these glorious small birds. So this is a woodland hide and it's a real delight to share this with you and all our podcast listeners. Oh coal tit. It just arrived lovely. Oh goodness. They arriving six at a time.

Matthew Gudgin (37:29):

We're only a few feet away. There's this one-way glass and it's so magical. It is like a spell that's broken when we open that door and go out into the real world. 

Chris Skinner (37:39):

Yes it is. Yes. And it's lovely and warm in here. So I thought I'll be kind to you on this podcast visit. Welcome to High Ash Farm and enjoy winter, whatever's left of it. Maybe some snow next week. Look at that little coal tit. Oh and in that nut hatch, side by side, dunno which way to look sometimes. Wonderful.