Episode 23: Colours Of Winter

Matthew Gudgin (00:29):

It's a wet old morning on High Ash Farm, the rain is falling on the roof of Chris Skinner's pickup truck. And we've come to a lovely part of the farm next to the successional woodland to start another countryside podcast. Hello Chris

Chris Skinner (00:43):

Good morning Matthew. Welcome to a very soggy High Ash Farm. 

Matthew Gudgin:

I'm going to close the window here. 

Matthew Gudgin:

Yes, it's a good idea. Hand breaks on because we're on the side of a hill facing down into one of the valleys of the farm and successional woodland to our right and Fox's Grove, about 30 acres of mature woodland in front. 

Matthew Gudgin (01:06):

And the successional woodland is so-called because it plants itself?

Chris Skinner (01:10):

There's been no human planting in that at all, and it's my pride and my delight, the best area on the farm. It's full of kind of hope. Young trees and many about 20 feet tall. They've all put themselves there and there was a crop of grass there. It was set aside grassland and very tussocky and just left it because I could see the odd oak sapling coming up, which the jays had taken the acorns out there. And then we had some big winds. There's ash trees in front of us and the ash seeds blew off into the woodland from a northerly wind. And then there was a big westerly gale the same year and big clumps of Scott’s Pine on our left, which is on Caistor Park. And it blew the seeds out of the pine cones, very light papery seeds. And they blew over into the middle. 

(02:07)
 Perhaps they went two 300 yards through the air and landed in the tussocky grass and dropped down and germinated. And his five acres, two hectares are the most glorious woodland you could imagine. Anyway, this morning's mission is a little bit different. We're going to be looking at, well, it's probably winter flowers still because we're still in winter, but I like to call them spring because it sort of raises the spirits on a wet day. So if we hop out of the truck, I'm just going to walk over here a little bit with you and we'll start to enjoy some of the delights you might find in spring. And I've brought one of the listeners questions here with me and I'll fold it up for the moment to keep it dry. So …

Matthew Gudgin (02:53):

What about keeping me dry? 

Chris Skinner (02:57):

We'll dry you later in front of a good log fire. 

Matthew Gudgin (03:00):

Sounds good. Streams running well there. 

Chris Skinner (03:08):

Yes, it's pouring down through the farm. This is one of the feeder streams, Matthew, to the River Tass and it's racing away through the farm under some of the bridges there. 

Matthew Gudgin (03:21):

If I got closer to it, we could probably hear it coming through there

Chris Skinner (03:22):

Yes, you can. Just over here though, there's a lovely little waterfall there. 

Matthew Gudgin (03:40):

This is the first rain for a few weeks, isn't it? But actually a lot of the damage of the drought has been undone. 

Chris Skinner (03:45):

Yes. And so the rain here is really very welcomed this morning and it should be wet more or less all day today. So we're getting well into February already. But that's a lovely sound. It's very peaceful. But sometimes when we have heavy rain, this turns into a raging torrent and there's a lovely gravel bottom and it's full of fresh water, shrimp, water voles on each side of the bank as well. Lots of little holes. There's holes over there just on the other side. So lots of small mammals here as well. But I said we're going to be looking at flowers and some of our trees actually come into flower at this time of the year. If we walk back a little bit, this is hazel and it's in flower. It's quite surprising. 

Matthew Gudgin (04:35):

Oh yes, we've got some buds here. 

Chris Skinner (04:39):

You get these catkins here and amazing. I dunno if we can do it this morning because there's been some rain. If I just flick them with my finger, little puffs of pollen will fly off and you'll get male and female parts coming into flower at the same time. So what we've discovered is trees with catkins on things like sweet chestnut, older birch as well, hornbeams, another one they all have catkins on and they've developed much later than flowering trees. So trees that have flowers in. So the catkin bearing trees much later. They have stopped flowering if you like, and they're using wind pollination to do the work for them. But sometimes some of the trees that have catkins are pollinated by insects. And sweet chestnut I mentioned is one of those. But the catkins come into flower now at this time of the year because the trees hazel that we're standing in front of hasn't come into leaf yet. 

(05:45)
 So the pollen can get spread freely on windy days, whichever way the wind's blowing. That's the way the pollen goes. And the clever bit is the female part of the catkin and I'll just see if I can find one there we are just as a little bud just at the end with a bright red tip on it, all feathery. And that is the female part that will catch the pollen from the male catkins and actually fertilise. And here's another one right just there in front of you. Can you see Yes. Little bright, bright blood red. 

Matthew Gudgin (06:20):

So those are the female parts and the male parts are the catkins. 

Chris Skinner (06:23):

That's it. And they produce down produce absolutely masses and masses of pollen, which they have to because it's quite not a very precise process to get pollinated. And those, you can see there's two together. They're the female parts and that will produce a pair of hazelnuts later on. Now we've had a question and I'll let you read this out and there's a photograph to go with it, 

Matthew Gudgin (06:50):

Photograph of something that looks like fungus to me. But anyway, Louise in Manchester is a loyal listener. She says, I don't have social media, but can Chris tell me this? It's a question about this fungi on a tree that I saw in a walk on the National Trust estate at Dunham Massey growing on the branches of a few different trees showed my husband who thought it was a flower and not a mushroom. Can you tell us what it is? Well, sort of an orangy colour, isn't it? To my unshooted eye that looks exactly like a fungus. 

Chris Skinner (07:23):

It is, and it's one of the top 100 in the UK commonest fungi. And many of them just bear in mind there are 10,000 species of fungi growing in the UK. I'm on first name terms with about a hundred of them and after that I get a bit lost and have to look up the subjects. But it's really common. And one of its favourite hosts is in fact Hazel and I brought one along for you in the flesh to see. It's a piece of branch from underneath this tree and it's a jelly fungus and it's sort of, well its name is yellow brain because of all the convolutions all folds on it. And if you just touch it, it's very sort of gelatinous and floppy as well. And it's just growing and it loves this weather, this damp weather, the wetter the better for it. But like all fungi, a breakdown wood and kind of recycle it for others to use later on. But this fungi is a real odd creature. 

Matthew Gudgin (08:35):

Oh, we like the sound of him 

Chris Skinner (08:37):

Because if you look at that picture that's been sent through very carefully, 

Matthew Gudgin (08:43):

Yes, this is Louise’s picture. 

Chris Skinner (08:44):

You can see there's a crust underneath it. 

Matthew Gudgin:

Yes there is. And that is another fungus called a peniophora. And this here's the fungus underneath. It can just see this white scaling underneath this yellow brain that's come out that's a different species and it's a parasite of another fungus. 

Matthew Gudgin (09:07):

It's a fungus on a fungus, 

Chris Skinner (09:08):

Exactly that. It's just extraordinary once you learn about the world of nature. So there we are, you have a yellow brain fungus there and its particular host is hazel and it will also grow on ash. There's lots of ash trees in front of us. Some with ash die back, all the twigs are dropping on the woodland floor. And if we walked in there, it's very muddy at the moment. I forgot to give you your wellies. We would actually see this particular yellow brain fungus. It's one of the jelly species of fungus.  

Matthew Gudgin (09:43):

It’s very bright, almost fluorescent yellow. 

Chris Skinner (09:45):

Exactly. If you saw this in the sunshine, it's almost iridescent. It's really extraordinary colour. And if it starts to dry out, it will go dark orange. And part of the picture that has been sent to as the fungus has started to dry out and it go orange and it can also dehydrate in dry weather. But then when you get rain, it rejuvenates. It's quite an amazing creature and very spectacular. So if you see a piece of wood with something bright yellow growing on it at this time of the year, it's one of those many species of jelly fungus. And this is another one also from under this shrub. 

Matthew Gudgin (10:25):

Oh now, that's a different colour, isn't it? That's a more a fawn sort of colour. 

Chris Skinner (10:28):

It is. It's called jelly ear now. It's changed its name recently. And you can see underneath there's all little folds just like inside the cube. 

Matthew Gudgin (10:38):

That’s a spectacular one there, isn’t it? Look at the size of that.

Chris Skinner (10:40):

Yes. And it's a jelly fungus. It's brown, it's favourite host. It's part of the scientific name of it is on elder. There's all sorts of different sizes of it there, but I don't ever eat these. Although some people find jelly ear quite tasty, but it doesn't look, let's put it like this, it doesn't look appetising. Matthew Gudgin (11:19):

I thing the SEPs that you picked earlier in the years, the penny buns, they're much better

Chris Skinner (11:23):

You haven't forgotten that have you. But nevertheless, surprising at this time of the year because fungi are non flowering plants. And yet this is the time of year many of our fungi flower, this is the part of the year that you actually see the visible part. And of course the wood inside here is the part of the host for the fungi where all the roots or the hyphy grow inside the wood and it's there all the year round. But they have a flowering period or a fruiting period from autumn in particular, right through the winter until now. So there we are. There's always something to look and learn when you're out in the countryside. But now we're going to go and see some real flowers. We're coming well into February now, and so it's a great time of year. We'll just visit another part of the farm. So we'll hop back in the truck and see what we can see. 

Matthew Gudgin (12:20):

Fingers crossed for some winter colour. 

Chris Skinner (12:21):

Yes

Matthew Gudgin (12:29):

We've still got rain, but not quite as bad as some parts of the country. So I suppose we are blessed to some degree. Now we talked about the colours coming through and being a very welcome addition this time of the year with the flowers. But I suppose white, bright white is a colour. 

Chris Skinner (12:47):

Yes, of course, Matthew. And just over on our far right, we've come to a different area of the farm. This is quite a steep south facing slope and it's on sandy gravel. And the thing about sands in the countryside, the soil type is it cools down very quickly in the winter, but once you get the sun, and we're getting about 23, 24 minutes a week extra daylight from Sunday to Sunday. So 

Matthew Gudgin:

I don't believe it in this weather. 

Chris Skinner:

No, it is. I know it looks grey and a bit miserable this morning, but that's good. It's what the season should be. And then when spring does come along, you appreciate it that much more. But over in the distance there are quite a large clump of many thousands of snow drops 

Matthew Gudgin (13:36):

Oh yes. Look underneath there. Isn’t that a wonderful beautiful site. 

Chris Skinner:

Absolutely beautiful. Get them all over Norfolk and into Suffolk. One of my favourite places to see them is in the old ruined abbey walls at Walsingham there and cross at Dunwich in Suffolk as well. There's an old monastery there and they grow in the ruins there and there are thousands of them. So they do grow frequently. There's a lot of argument as to whether they're actually natural to the UK countryside or whether they were imported and came in from France. So a lot of controversy still goes on. And of course it's very difficult when you go back into the 15 and 1600s to see what actually happened. 

Matthew Gudgin (14:24):

They don't get much more than six inches off the ground and they know demure. 

Chris Skinner (14:28):

No, they are the way the heads hang down. All many of the glance of species are the same, all part of the snowdrop family. And of course they're really early. Some people call 'em snow pierces, but I think it was Thomas, he was an 18th century poet. He actually called them something, which still makes me smile. He called it vegetable snow. I love it. What a beautiful phrase to use because well, snowy white, yes, they absolutely are. And they're growing of course. So the vegetable snow, and I think that's great. Snow piercer again, as I mentioned is another name for them. And we've got some fantastic displays in the woodland on the other side of the farm and used to go and just walk down and it kind of gladdens the spirits when you see them. And went one morning. And it strange, there'd been some lorry tracks that had driven into the woodland in one of the old shooting rides and then stopped quite close to the centre of the woodland. 

(15:37)
 And there must've been quite a lot of people involved with crates. And what they did is in one night they dug up over a thousand clumps of snow drops, put them in the crates, and then presumably potted them up, which you can do with snow drops and move them whilst they're in flower. And we think they went down to London and were sold. And that's quite a lucrative night's work.. 

Matthew Gudgin:

..and completely illegal.

Chris Skinner:

Yes, of course there was no permission and they must have worked hard how they did it in the dark, I don't know. But it was at this time of the year and nobody was ever caught and traced as a result of it. Just sort of some evidence that they went down to London, on the A11, the lorry was seen. 

Matthew Gudgin:

So now you've put man traps around?

Chris Skinner:

No, no, but we did have cameras there the whole time now just more so for the badges and the deer, which you can enjoy on High Ash Farm Facebook. 

(16:34)
 But I said I'd bring you some colour. They white is a colour, so snowdrops do qualify 

Matthew Gudgin:

And they look really good there. 

Chris Skinner:

They're absolutely beautiful, aren't they? So if we just walk in a little bit on the edge of the wood south facing little bank here in front of us, and you can see some bright, go down on my hands and knees, some bright pink flowers. So to find colour in the winter, you've got to sort of look carefully. And this one is absolutely gorgeous. It's bright pink, it's in full flower. Some of the flowers have already dropped on the ground and it's called red dead nettle. And if it's got dead in the name, although it's a member of the nettle family, it doesn't sting. Unlike small nettles, there's Urtica urens, a species of dwarf nettle that grows there. And my sister told me small metals don't sting and they make me get hold of them. 

(17:29)
 And I found out the hard way they do sting, but red and white dead nettle, they're absent of stings. 

Matthew Gudgin:

There's some more here. 

Chris Skinner:

Yes, look at that. Absolutely beautiful. Yes, once you see them, it's absolutely delightful. So everything's growing away. And of course it's a good time to flower because there's very little competition once you go into April, may and particularly June, everything's wanting to be pollinated. So there's a lot of competition. So if you do get mild winter stay, and of course we're having more and more of those at the moment, that's colder today, it's a good chance they get pollinated and set seed early and that then completes their lifecycle. So really lovely to see. Anyway. So red, red dead net net, a good one to watch out for. And these clumps over here in front of us, they're a similar relation. They're not in flower yet, but within a week they will be. They're white dead nettle and used to pull the little flowers off and they had a little nectar at the bottom of them and you could actually suck the nectar out. 

Matthew Gudgin (18:38):

I’m sinking here. There's some rabbit holes. 

Chris Skinner (18:39):

Yes. Rabbit holes. Yes, yes. Look at that. That one's quite deep. We're actually on the edge of a warren here. And anyway, if we walk in a little bit, just be careful where you put your feet 

Matthew Gudgin (18:58):

In we come into the woods 

Chris Skinner (19:01):

And we're a bit more sheltered here. You can see lots of digging activity there with the rabbits. The ground has actually raised up. 

Matthew Gudgin (19:09):

It looks like someone's formed an escape committee here. 

Chris Skinner (19:14):

And the hole of this area in front of us is of one species of plant. And it's reputed to be the most perfumed of all British wild flowers. And it's the sweet violet, Viola odorator. And I said, I'd bring you some colour and just look down here. I'm going to go down my hands and knees again. Look at this in full flower. Absolutely beautiful, 

Matthew Gudgin (19:44):

Lovely, deep, rich purple 

Chris Skinner (19:45):

Yes it is. Yes. So there are around 13 species of pansy and violet in the UK. 

Matthew Gudgin (19:53):

And these are the wild equivalent of what I might buy in a garden centre. 

Chris Skinner (19:58):

Yes. And this one, the perfume is actually exquisite. Even on cold days like this, it has a perfume and it's so powerful. If you take a sniff, you can pick up the perfume and then if you take another sniff, that perfume seems to have disappeared. And there's a chemical in the perfume, in the scent itself, which actually numbs your sense of smell. So you can't smell it anymore. It used to be used in medicine as well and in cookery and early cookery to flavour dishes as well. And it's a lovely little plant. So it comes into flower really early in February in particular this month and again in next month. And then if it's not successful, it's got some tricks up its sleeve. It reproduces in three ways, firstly, by producing seed from the flowers which we've got here. And secondly, if I just scrape the leaf litter away a bit like this, like that, you can see there's lots of long roots which come out from the base of the plant there go across the ground. I'm following this one, six inches, seven inches, and it's come to another plant and it reproduces vegetatively like that. So spreads. Look at this long root in the air, no root that's coming off it. Soon as it touches the ground, look, tug it there it is firmly on the bottom of that plant. And that's what's happened over here. It's spread over this whole area. It's what, 10 yards from top to bottom and at least 20, 30 yards in length and the whole thing. They're almost all joined together. 

Matthew Gudgin (21:39):

And at this time of the year, this plant is taking advantage. This is its time, isn't it? Because there's so much more light coming through. 

Chris Skinner (21:45):

Yes of course. There's no leaves. And I did mention it's got three ways of distributing itself, rejuvenating itself if you like the first one by seed we've always mentioned. The second one is by these long roots called stolons. And the third one is this. Then all grows up with stinging nettles and blue bells coming to flower. And the violets are only very diminutive down in the woodland floor. They get covered up, but the plant still produces flowers down there. But the flowers don't open. They self pollinate. They have pollen in sometimes they have a little bit of nectar in as well. And they produce seed in there which pops open and the seeds then drop on the woodland floor. And that's a special process called cleistogamy and a flower that flowers, but it never opens. 

Matthew Gudgin (22:40):

What's that? It's Cly 

Chris Skinner (22:42):

Cleistogamy. Yes, yes. Wow. So they're just amazing. So I just love all the things that I share on my farm. I think some of them are more adaptable than I am and cleverer in many ways as well. So that's why I kind of almost worship the countryside learning so much that it just makes you feel very dwarfed by the part of nature sometimes. 

Matthew Gudgin (23:13):

Every species of animal creature, birds, all the plants, they all have their own way of doing the same thing, which is surviving. 

Chris Skinner (23:22):

Exactly. And look over there, I haven't seen that. Just I've got wet knees. Now this a twig on the ground covered in pink spots. Looks like me when I was a teenager. That's called coral spot. And it's a diminutive little pink fungus on beach twigs there they all are 

Matthew Gudgin (23:44):

Are so named for the colour. 

Chris Skinner (23:47):

Yes. Pink coral spot and it's doing its job breaking down this dead twig that's on the woodland floor. There it is. Twig all broken and dead and sending it back to lovely leaf mould on the woodland floor. That's what fungi do. And then other plants grow up from this lovely woodland soil here. So there you are. We all learn something every day. So cleistogamy  new word, good one for Scrabble. If you can pop that one in. 

Matthew Gudgin (24:19):

You see, you knew that this was a useful podcast when it aids the Scrabble.

Back in the farmyard now. And we're heading towards your home here, Chris, does that mean I'm going to be allowed inside out the rain? 

Chris Skinner (24:39):

I think I might make us both a coffee. We've been suffering for our art form this morning. And so I think, we'll, as long as you trust me with my cooking abilities in we go, this is Heaven. It's the name of my house. I didn't name it. The builders and the plasterers sat on this step and had a panoramic view of Norwich in front of us and the sun was shining and looked over all the woodland here. And more than one person, including the electrician who wired it all out for me said ‘This is heaven’. And that's how it got its name. 

Matthew Gudgin (25:27):

I'll take these shoes off. They're a bit muddy.

Chris Skinner (25:29):

Yes. 

Matthew Gudgin (25:31):

And you'll see now I've got odd socks. 

Chris Skinner (25:33):

I'm not having you. So you have how odd, right. I'm just going to put the kettle on 

Matthew Gudgin (25:42):

And we're going to look at those questions. 

Chris Skinner (25:44):

Yes. Just give that a minute or two to boil. 

Matthew Gudgin (25:56):

Oh, that's a lovely cup of tea, Chris. Well done. 

Chris Skinner (25:59):

Thank you very much. Yes. 

Matthew Gudgin (26:01):

I think we found your talent now. 

Chris Skinner (26:03):

Yes. I had a nickname he used to do cooking years ago and still do. And it was called Alfred back then. So because King Alfred burnt the cakes, didn't he? And there we are. But anyway, I've improved a lot since then. So I've got a coffee, you've got a cup of tea and we’re sitting in my living room, there's a big fireplace here with a log burner going and two little fans on top of the log burner, which power themselves, very clever. And it's throwing the warm air out. And I designed the chimney stack when the builders were building it, about 12 bags of vermiculite insulation arrived to put around the chimney to insulate the whole chimney stack about eight feet wide, big beam over the top. And I said, what are you doing with that? He said, we're going to insulate your chimney. And I said, no you're not. 

(26:58)
 You're going to fill that with concrete. And they looked at me and shrugged their shoulders. Well, whatever he said, you're paying. So the whole of that in there is solid concrete. And that log burner heats up that concrete as the heat goes up the chimney and two days later you put your hand on the chimney breast. It's still warm and it is like a huge night storage radiator. Learned about those because my father bought some for the farmhouse two downstairs and they had big sort of concrete blocks in there with air in the concrete. And that used to last during the daylight. So I copied that and then you'll see a little fan above the ceiling here because the ceilings are quite high. They're about eight feet up and I can turn that little switch on in my kitchen and take the warm air out of here and transfer it through into the kitchen.  

Matthew Gudgin (27:58):

So these are the benefits of designing stuff on your own. Home from home, especially for your needs

Chris Skinner (28:03):

Yes. Years of experience. Anyway, we've got some question in front of us, but Matthew, if you just look out at the view, we're high up one of the second highest spots of the county in Norfolk. And we look down overnight, it's a bit grey and drizzly, but just in the distance there's a black building. It's just hidden up behind one of the trees there. And it did have sails on in the early 1900s or more or less in the centre of Norwich. And it's on Eleanor Road. 

Matthew Gudgin (28:32):

This corresponds to a note we've had from David Cutting and he's been regularly listening to the podcast. He says, I knew Chris when he was 19 back when High Ash was a dairy farm. I used to work for Woodrow’s on Eleanor Road and used to bring the animal feed in Norwich. I knew Chris and his father, I'm now 84. I've seen Chris at the farm when I went to see the wildlife, he'd always be around for a chat. It's a lovely place and it's nice to hear his voice. So I don't have a car, I have a scooter and it's a bit too far to travel these days, but it's nice still to hear about the farm. 

Chris Skinner (29:08):

Yes. And what a memory used to go up once a week if the lorry was late delivering. My father would have turkey food, chicken food, pig food delivered every week. And the most bulky food was perhaps sugar beet pulnuts from Woodrows right in the centre of Norwich there on Eleanor Road. And then flake maze as well, which we call Koshitosh. It looked exactly like Kellogg's corn flakes, other corn flake makes are available, but it was squashed out flat and bran as well. And then dairy nuts full of fish meal. And it had a particular smell, it wasn't unpleasant, but that gave the high protein content for the animals to fatten up here or to produce the milk. And it was all mixed and blended in that big black mill. You can see almost in the centre of Norwich there. And yes, I used to go there regularly and fill the back of the car up when I was very young and then later became a customer. And then they used to deliver the food here for my pigs, which I kept. And we're actually in a former pigsty Matthew. Really it is. The old divisions are still there all the way down the wall, the garden wall, there's one there and another one just there behind us. And that divided up the pig pens, which are all 10 feet exactly wide and 20 feet across, they were quite large pig sty. Still is. I know what you're going to say. 

Matthew Gudgin (30:38):

Well thanks very much for that question and let's move on to a note from Richard Woolsey who says, ‘Hi Chris. I've recently been hearing this very subtle bird calling in the very early evenings. I live on the edge of Delamere forest, which is in Cheshire. So let's have a listen to the sound that's been sent in. This is what Richard heard and Richard goes on to say, I've Googled the sound, the pattern seems right for Snipe, but the tone is different. Hope you can hear it as well as the owl right at the end. So what do you think? 

Chris Skinner (31:15):

Right. I listened very carefully and a big smile came over my face. I would've loved it to have been a snipe Gallinago gallinago, one of those little birds. It doesn't make a sound by calling like a lot of birds do or singing. It has a tail. And on the outside of the tail of the snipe are two very stiff feathers that stick out. And the snipe when it's doing its sort of ceremonial or trying to attract a female, flies up in the air and then kind of flies down to the ground at great speed and spreads its tail. And these little outer tail feathers vibrate and called drumming. And that's the sound that our correspondent thought that he could hear because if you play it to Google, Google will think that's a snipe. But it's the wrong time of year and on the edge of forest, it's unlikely to be that. 

(32:13)
 And it is way too early for snipe to be drumming. So listen carefully, there's an owl at the end which gives the clue away. The owl is a male tawny owl. And earlier on, just a few seconds before the owl makes its traditional sound, which we know the owl was warbling and it sounds exactly like a snipe drumming I must admit, but it's a male tawny owl. He's serenading his lady friend by going, it's a bit like that. And whereas a snipe drumming goes like that, so very distinctive different sounds, but without a doubt it's a male tawny owl actually wooing his lady 

Matthew Gudgin (32:57):

On last week's edition of the Countryside Podcast, we were out and about in nighttime hours, our evening safari. And Julian Halesworth says he really enjoyed the programme, but when we got to the barn owl that we saw, and we were most astonished to see a barn owl hovering above the fields doing some nighttime hunting, he says he was a bit surprised or perhaps he missed something about the barn owl. As Julian says, he has seen this happen quite often in the past. 

Chris Skinner (33:27):

Yes, and I see barn owls hovering on a regular basis when they're generally the hovering, if they spot prey in some long tussocky grass underneath them, they will hover just for a few seconds and then pop their wings upright above their head and drop down. But this barn owl was hovering for a really protracted length of time. It was 10, 20, 30 seconds at a time without moving. We had trouble identifying it as a barn owl because when it was hovering its head was facing downwards and we were head onto the barn owl, so it looked like a thin wedge. And all I could see was the tail wavering from side to side to keep the bird absolutely stationary. So it was using the wind instead of moving forwards. It was flying against the wind but not moving an inch. And I'd never seen a barn owl hovering for that length of time. Then it moved to another site and repeated it, and it's only when it flew over to the next little hunting spot that we could see the white underneath because it looked to all intents and purposes exactly like a kestrel. 

Matthew Gudgin (34:39):

Steven lives in the broadland area of Norfolk at Acle and he sent in a photograph, he says ‘Hello Chris. And Matthew Friday was sunny here in Acle and it brought our first butterfly of the year, a butterfly having a sunbathe. Not seen a brimstone yet though. Have you seen any butterflies on High Ash this year? And there's the photograph.’ Oh my goodness. That is an early sighting, isn't it? 

Chris Skinner (35:04):

Yes. and I was quite shocked to see this. I had expected a peacock butterfly, perhaps a brimstone, although our correspondence seems to know that a brimstone sort of rather sulphur yellow in colour and the females are paler, but it's nonetheless it's a red admiral butterfly, which is basically a migrant species comes up from southern France. We've had some northerly winds recently and it looks a little bit worse for wear, so what I think has happened is it's hibernated here over the winter months and there's increasing evidence as our winters get warmer that migrant butterflies are surviving things like painted ladies and certainly this one, the Red Admiral, again, all our butterfly species, the more spectacular they are. They got these very flamboyant names. So monarch, sort of red ddmiral, peacock have all got these lovely names. And the brimstone, which we are watching hope for every day now, is one of the first butterflies to come out of hibernation is called brimstone because of the sulphur colour on the top of the male wings. And it really looks like flying sulphur brimstone. And we think that's, well, it's the colour of butter and we think brimstones gave them general name for butter flies butterfly. 

Matthew Gudgin (36:27):

In talking about similar sort of colour, we've had some images pictures sent from Joseph and Catherine who live in Northumberland Hedley on the hill is where we find these pictures of yellow hammers. So thank you for sending those in. What do you think? There's a lovely bright spot of colour in there. 

Chris Skinner (36:45):

Yes, they're all males there. There's four or five males on the picture. It's on some quite tight, dense shrubbery there. And it's a lovely site and I hope again in the next week or two, the yellow hammers are now flocking here at High Ash Farm to get you in my yellow hammer hide. And so we can have a really close view of the males each week that goes past the males become more and more yellow and that's the bit that's attractive for the females. So now they start to flock up and choose a mate so that they'll pair up and form their own territory in the next few weeks. 

Matthew Gudgin (37:20):

We're almost done for this week's countryside podcast. If you'd like to send Chris a message, question, comment, anything you'd like, chris@countrysidepodcast.co.uk. And there's also a rather nice poster that people have been putting on their walls. And thank you to Christopher Truman who sends a note saying, here's a photograph of Chris's wonderful countryside podcast poster, which is now adorning the wall on the market Drayton Library Notice board where Chris and Rat will be noticed by everyone. 

Chris Skinner (37:56):

Well done. And thank you very much for spreading the word, hope you enjoy our little visit for Winter flowers this week, and we're finishing off in the warmth and it is an absolute delight to share the countryside at this time of year. 

Matthew Gudgin (38:12):

I know you are busy on the farm, so you can get off, do what you need to do and I'll just stay here in front of the fire. 

Chris Skinner (38:17):

You want another cup of tea then? 

Matthew Gudgin (38:18):

Oh yes. Any biscuits? 

Chris Skinner (38:20):

Oh now, that's pushing the boat out.