Episode 27: The Wood Mouse, Budding Blackthorn And A Redwing Display

Matthew Gudgin (00:31):

We've arrived at High Ash Farm for another episode in the Countryside Podcast with Chris Skinner. Farmer Chris enjoying the Skylarks. Oh, the deer over there. Look at this.

Chris Skinner (00:44):

We've just got out of the farm truck, Matthew, and we're going to visit some of the smaller mammals here at the farm. And I was watching, looking over that way, and there was a pair of kestrels. There they are. They're just over here. And there've been courtship flying and diving around each other and they've just upset some wood pigeons. They've come out of this over winter wild bird seed mix and the kestrels are darting round each other and making some high pitched squeaking. Very excited. They've got lots of nest boxes. One just come back in and flying across the bottom of the field there at great speed. And we are being watched very carefully by three Chinese water deer and they're running off and you can tell them at a distance because every third or fourth stride, I think it's the buck Chinese water deer, kicks his legs up much higher than his back. It's really strange to see one of those introduced species that's absolutely thriving at the farm here. And I can hear a sky lark singing way in the distance as well.

Matthew Gudgin (01:59):

Think I spotted it a few moments ago doing that hovering thing. High up.

Chris Skinner (02:04):

Yes. Anyway, in front of us is a giant field, 10 hectares, 25 acres, and all over the field are patches of sand, which is really unusual and you have to kind of scratch your head, but there's one just there. And if we walk down here, you're walking on a deer track, look very distinctive.

Matthew Gudgin (02:29):

Just looks like someone's walked down here, a person. This is a deer path. 

Chris Skinner (02:35):

Yes it is. It's a deer track. And all over this field are literally hundreds of small mammals. We're just looking right. We now coming up to another patch of sand and this is the work of one of our most commonest rodents in the UK. It's the long tailed field mouse. And last week or the week before we had a, from Anna Holt, I think she's from Briston, so I think she's in Norfolk.

Matthew Gudgin (03:05):

Yes. Anna sent us a photograph of a hole with a collection of twigs and leaves neatly arranged around the mouth of the hole.

Chris Skinner (03:13):

Yes, she did. And yes, last week when we did our podcast as we walked off a field, I saw exactly the same thing. In fact, I've seen it all over the farm. And there's another hole here, another pile of sand. And if we just walk a little bit further. So I'm going to answer Anna's question as best I can because they say in life pictures worth a thousand words. And here is exactly what Anna saw in her garden. She had got a coffee mug next to the photo and lots of little sticks and debris all around the edge of the hole. And I've got a camera down at ground level and this one is an owl's eye view. It's about three feet off the ground pointing directly down at the long tailed field mouses’ entrance holes, there's two there. And the holes

Matthew Gudgin (04:11):

And the holes are just a little more than an inch across aren’t they?

Chris Skinner (04:13):

Yes. A sort of large index finger size. So definitely not a worm. And definitely, definitely a long tail feel almost because I've already examined some of the early videos that I've done here and they're quite extraordinary. Their tail is almost as long as their body. They've got two other names as well, which gets a bit confusing. Long tail field mouse is the common name, Wood mouse as well because they frequent woodland and you'll often see them there. And also kangaroo mice because when I'm videoing, it's not a name I've made up. They're known quite commonly as kangaroo myself. I've got very long, very, very strong hind legs, five toes on the hind paws and four toes on the front feet. And they're very mobile to say the least, nocturnal. So although they're incredibly common, Matthew, they're basically out at night so you don't see them.

(05:18)
 I've seen them right out in the middle of very large arable fields. They'll live out there. They'll dig down just beneath plough depth and then they'll make a cocoon nest rather like a harvest mouse nest. But underground and from early March onwards, they start breeding four, five youngsters in the little underground nest. They're born blind, pink and they don't really start to get any fur until the first week. And then they weaned at about close to three weeks old and then they become completely independent of mum and dad. Greyish not as grey as a house mouse. And the difference is house mice and long tail field mice is that long tail field mice don't have an odour, whereas if you have house mice in your house, there's a very distinctive sort of musty smell and whereas these don't have, so they have no end of predators as you can imagine living out here.

(06:20)
 And a few weeks ago we drove onto this field, we did an nocturnal safari and we saw barn owl hunting them and that was top prey because they're quite large and a really good meal, about three and a half inches from tip of nose to end of body and then almost the same length again as the tail. So it's really long. The tail's just covered in very fine black hairs and the feet on the top side of the feet, tiny white hairs as well. So they're rodents. Incredibly common. Probably the commonest mammal in the United Kingdom.

Matthew Gudgin (07:01):

And the amount of debris run the holes here attests to how busy and what they get on with.

Chris Skinner (07:05):

Yes, they have. And there's two separate pairs here, only three feet apart probably. And that just shows you the density of long tail field. Most out on this field. There's probably 200 to 300 small rodents here around where we are. There's clay on the top here, and then underneath is sand, which is why we saw the piles of sand as we walked across there. But top prey as well for things like tawny owls, tawn owls generally hunt in woodland. Little owls as well all around this old field are sort of some dead trees, some trees covered in ivy and we've got little owls here as well. And although main diet for a little owl - Athene noctua,  would be earthworms and things like that. They will also when the females have eggs in the nest or incubating and young in the nest, then they will come out early evening and hunt long tail field mice and carry them back. Quite a load for a small owl, quite a large mouse. So this time of the year, if there's not an adequate seed supply, which there is in this particular field, they will eat caterpillars, snails as a favourite diet. So if we just walk over because we're only 25 yards from a hedge and just look at any particular bit and the whole base of the hedge will have thousands of snail shells. Look here now coming up. 

Matthew Gudgin (08:42):

Oh yes, litttered you can see because they're white colour quite clearly.

Chris Skinner (08:44):

And that is the result of having long tail field mice. So I'll bop down on my knees, get down to the bottom of the hedge and we'll just pick any shell up. Look at that. The shell has been nibbled right at the back of it. And the poor hibernating snail, which is somewhere up these tree trunks here, they're very adept at climbing. They go along branches up tree trunks, no problem at all with those sharp little claws at the end of their feet. And a snail is a good evening's meal for a long tail feel. Most or wood mouse, whichever name you like to use. 

Matthew Gudgin:

And there are hundreds of, well, the evidence of hundreds of meals like that isn't there with these mice. 

Chris Skinner:

Yes, because the population here is so high. And then they'll take the, if there's young in the nest and the female is nursing, the male's quite a bit heavier than the female, unless of course she's pregnant and she'll have four or five young in her, then she's nearly half as heavy again as normal and he will take food back for her so she doesn't have to provender herself completely.

(09:55)
 So they work as a pair, which is really lovely to see. 

Weasels are small enough to go down that tiny index size finger hole that we saw. 

Matthew Gudgin:

So that's the risk. 

Chris Skinner:

That's the risk for them. Ground nesting mammals like old ground living mammals are very, very vulnerable to predation. Little owls, tawny owls, particularly in woodland, remember not just, they don't use just field habitats, they will use woodland hedgerows as well. They'll live in there. If we walked over to that hedge, there'll be evidence of the snails along there as well. So it just amuses me how they can vary their diet. Although they're granivores, that means they're really technically seed eaters. They will turn to becoming meat eaters when conditions dictate, particularly when the young are born at the beginning of the year. And then the population builds up particularly mid-summer onwards that you get really large numbers of them.

(10:58)
 These fields aren't disturbed, so they're left almost the year round and they're just reseeded in March, late March, early April. And we only do shallow cultivation, so that doesn't affect the underground nest chambers, although we're running on with low ground pressure tyres. 

Matthew Gudgin:

Yes, but an old fashioned plough would just destroy that habitat. 

Chris Skinner:

That's right. There are lots of old poems about preparing for life ahead of the poor we mousey got ploughed out. It's one of the famous poems, which makes me laugh. Anyway, that's a bit of the life history of the long tail field mouse. And if you like to look at Ash Farm Facebook this weekend, we'll get it posted before the Sunday podcast goes out. We will actually get bird's eye or an owl's eye view of these long tail field mice and their eyes are absolutely right on top of their head. So with the aerial view camera looking down, you see these two bright headlights looking back up at you because most of the predation comes from above and so their eyes have kind of migrated up on top of their head.

(12:14)
 Owls can hunt quite well during the owl of daylight, but because most of the prey of the owl species, particularly tawny, particularly barn owl and little owl is out in the owl of darkness. That's why owls have developed the way they have and they're replaced by when we arrived here, the pair of kestrel hunt these poor mice during the daylight. So it's relentless. I do feel sorry for them, but when you see them at work, they're really amazing little mammals just like us. 

Matthew Gudgin:

Look out for those videos on High Ash Farm Facebook. 

Chris Skinner:

Yes, that's right. Yes. So there we are. You'll be able to watch them and they're done at night as well. So you'll be able to see just how fast they are and they'll be, if you've got a garden almost certain, you'll have wood mice, long tail field mice living in there. And if you get one of these little cameras, you can actually watch 'em doing their kangaroo jumps quite amazing. They can jump sort of 14, 15 inches, nearly 20 centimetres in the air for no reason at all. They're going along and suddenly they'll jump. 

Matthew Gudgin:

That'd be like us jumping 30 feet. 

Chris Skinner:

Exactly. So yeah, very powerful hind legs.

(13:32)
 Sometimes they'll sit up erect and they do look exactly like kangaroos. They've got very large ears as well. Another hole there. And that one's been predated. Look Matthew, it's been dug out with the soil there so that we mousey is no more.

(14:00)

Matthew Gudgin:
 We've been in the car and come about half a mile in the opposite direction and been admiring the blackbird that work. Yes, Matthew we're in male and female, blackbird. Male with his bright yellow beak and the female are kind of duller brown. And they were both out feeding on the edge of one of the horse tracks. And that's a sure sign that there's young in the nest and they're both taking the opportunity to have a look for worms and for mum to stock up on some food as well. And just looking at, we're right next to a large patch of silver birch. We've got a coal tit right beside us. Oh wow. Oh, one of the girls has put up a fat ball feeder. 

Matthew Gudgin:

That's an unofficial bird feeder that's not sanctioned by you, that one is it? 

Chris Skinner:

No, no. We are close to one of the horse livery fields here and some the girls are very keen on the wildlife and it is only six or eight feet from us.

(14:56)
 Another fat ball feeder just there polluted just came in and yeah, so out in the countryside, lots of the girls are picking up the Chris Skinner disease or the habit of feeding the wild birds while they're here grooming their horses. And I notice out on the edge of the track here, they've been grooming, getting the winter coats out of the horses with a good old curry comb we call them. And they leave the fur there. And that's ideal for birds like this. It's a blue tit, it's only six or eight feet from you there comes to collect food to line their nest with. So it's really good insulation and above us, lovely mature silver birch trees. And just as we arrived, I suppose half a dozen a redwing flew into the tree canopy up above us and they'd been feeding out on the pasture and it's getting a bit late for them to head off northeasterly. However, we've got a northeasterly breeze coming this morning. So if they did leave, they'd be flying into the wind and that's quite a hazardous journey at that point. So they'll wait for a southwesterly and then they can leave at any point.

Matthew Gudgin (16:08):

Just pausing for a second, Chris, really there is quite a cacophony of birds, isn't there? 

Chris Skinner (16:14):

Believe it or not, they're redwing singing

Matthew Gudgin (16:16):

..and that's the redwing. And when it's that constant that the forms of background and you don't necessarily notice, but I just thought, oh goodness, there's hundreds.

Chris Skinner (16:27):

It further down. I have heard them singing before, but they won't nest in the UK. They'll fly back across the North Sea and then head northwards up into Scandinavia almost to the tundra. So they've got quite a journey ahead of them. So what they're doing is feasting up on all the soil invertebrates on this close grazed horse pasture here. It's down as good as your lawn is, as short as that anyway. And they're grazing out, feeding out on there, particularly earthworms, lots of protein for them and they're building up the strength. But it is late now. We're soon be heading up for mid-March before too long and yet they're singing away and so amazing they'll perhaps pair up before they actually leave. We might walk down there in a minute and get a closer look at them. But before we do, I brought you to this patch here and it looks very dull and uninteresting and it's blackthorn.

(17:32)
 You can actually look in at the plant trunks, the little trunks about two and a half, three inches thick. And they have a kind of blackish appearance. Normally they do, but there's so much lichen on them. And if you look here, they're absolutely jam packed with buds. Now everybody's been saying the blackthorn's been in flower really early this year because as you drive through the Norfolk countryside, there's lots and lots of white blossom about, that's not blackthorn, it's one of those other plumb species. Marabella plum is one that flies even earlier than Blackthorn. Hawthorne's much later we call Hawthorne May, and that generally comes into flower after it's come into leaf and blackthorn comes into flower before it comes into leaf. And if we stand back a little bit we should, we're just looking into the light, but there is actually some in flower just high up above us. And you see that snow white,

Matthew Gudgin (18:34):

So the early flowers right at the top.

Chris Skinner (18:36):

Right at the top of the bushes there. 

Matthew Gudgin:

Yeah, it's a gnarled thicket isn't it? 

Chris Skinner:

Yes it is. And that's typical of Blackthorn. Oh, there's some, it's slightly more. They're tall ones there. It never grows more than about four metres tall, about 12 feet tall. But what it does do is sucker, it comes out. And we saw that last week when we were looking at harvest mice nest where I'd planted blackthorn in a new hedge mix. It didn't stay where I planted it. It is come up 15, 20 feet away from the original planting area and it's excellent early pollen and nectar for the bumblebees which are coming out. It's a bit grey and overcast this morning, but normally you'd look at that and they'd be honeybees and bumblebees feasting on the pollen there. Beautiful starlight flowers, five petals and yielding lots and lots of pollen. And it's fearsome. I mean it's impenetrable in there, you couldn't walk in it. It's really, really good. And lots of bird species use blackthorn for nesting in because it forms these thickets and the whole thing is armed with these little spines. Can you see them here? They're really quite fearsome. Look at that. 

Matthew Gudgin (19:54):

Like a 3 inch nail.

Chris Skinner (19:55):

Absolutely. And look, here's another one here that's good. Three and a half inches long one beside it. And once you start to see them, they're positively bristling with spines and spikes.

Matthew Gudgin (20:09):

It's enough to put off any predator of a small bird.

Chris Skinner (20:11):

Absolutely. Things like magpies have a job getting in there. So there we are. We'll just walk down a bit and see if we can get a little bit closer to those redwing. We can still hear them singing.

Matthew Gudgin (20:25):

So where did they spend the rest of the year then?

Chris Skinner (20:28):

In look, here they go. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 going across. 

Matthew Gudgin (20:34):

Well they're all up here in this tree.

Chris Skinner (20:35):

Yes, they were up in this tree and there's still more there. Some are flying in towards the woodland. And some are flying out onto the pasture. And typical. Just as we walk in there, they've stopped singing. But there's some almost above our head, Matthew, size of a song thrush.

Matthew Gudgin (20:55):

And they live in the arctic circle?

Chris Skinner (20:57):

Actually, yes they do. They right up to where the tree line almost finishes and many of them will nest in very low shrubbery scrub land or actually on the ground. And the same with fieldfares as well. Some of our winter visiting Thrushes, most of those have left. I haven't seen a fieldfare for about two weeks now and I was quite surprised to still see the redwing, but that's definitely what they were. When you see a whole group of small thrush like birds like that, it's tempting to think you've become overwhelmed with our resident song thrush. But that's not the case. These are tiny thrush like birds and very distinctive sort of rust coloured feathers under the wings. One flying right across in front of us, giving us a flash of Russet and three or four more following on behind. Really Lovely.

Matthew Gudgin (21:51):

So they're a slightly halting flight

Chris Skinner (21:52):

Yes, they have slightly sort of yes undulating flight as they fly, but they're just building up another one going across now and they form these loose flocks. But once they go on the move they congregate together and you get really large numbers of them, but you still hear them singing in the woodland right behind us. Yes.

Matthew Gudgin (22:15):

That's wonderful to hear them

Chris Skinner (22:16):

Wow. Matthew look still peeling out now a good 10 just come out and some coming across the wood behind us and they're all going down onto the pasture up there to feed. How exciting is that? And they're ready to go. More coming out above our head. Absolutely typical of them. So it's a loose flock. So far we've seen about a hundred and they're landing on the field much higher up there and feeding on the horse pasture. I can actually see some on the ground near the old quarry up there. The whole ground's peppered with them up there. Now look,

Matthew Gudgin (22:53):

But these birds will be in transit, they'll have been somewhere else further west?

Chris Skinner (22:56):

Yes, that's exactly typical of them. They'll come across the North Sea even early October, even late September sometimes. And then they'll land on the east coast and they'll feed on our hawthorne, blackthorn, blackberry still about at that time of the year. And then for some reason they will just move. They will all drift westwards together. Once you get across to the west country across the other side of the pennines, it's more pastoral over there. And that's what they really love, this short grazed grass. There's more livestock on the wetter side of the UK and they therefore can feed on berries if they want to or they can feed on soil invertebrates. So you've got both there. I heard one singing perfectly. We just walked back to the truck. The ground is peppered there. I've got a pair of binoculars for you

Matthew Gudgin (23:52):

I can see them all hopping up and down.

Chris Skinner (23:56):

Wow.

Matthew Gudgin (23:57):

Just go and have a look through the binoculars that these redwing, this is an unscheduled

Chris Skinner (24:02):

That's right

Matthew Gudgin (24:05):

Thing to talk about today, but very welcome nonetheless.

Chris Skinner (24:12):

I'll just have a quick look and wow. Oh beautiful. You can see the pale eye stripe as well, just on the ridge there, the whole ground. Oh, and they've just gone across to the left, Matthew. 

Matthew Gudgin:

I've got 'em. Yep, got them. 

Chris Skinner:

The whole ground is peppered with them way over a hundred. It's swarming now.

Matthew Gudgin (24:35):

Yes. You see the markings a lot better.

Chris Skinner (24:39):

Yes, they're quite powerful ones. Many people wonder quite what to get. Still more arriving and coming in now going to land in with them. So it is quite a large flock. As I said, they'll congregate together. They won't leave without each other. And some are quite close right by the hedge here, quite close to some blackbirds just where those mole hills are. And there's some there just landing more coming in the wind and wow, look at this,

Matthew Gudgin (25:11):

Something's put them up there.

Chris Skinner (25:12):

Yes, some have gone and gone back into the trees. So there's sparrow hawks flying around kestrals and the whole woodland next to us has exploded with wood pigeons and jackdaws all left the woodland. So the sky is full of birds at the moment and the redwing new exactly what to do and took to the air. But that's when you're out visiting the countryside anywhere in the United Kingdom and you can suddenly see things. There's always a surprise, always something to entertain you and just lovely time of year.

Matthew Gudgin (26:05):

Pigeons on the roof of your big shed.

Chris Skinner (26:07):

Yes, Matthew, this is the mid-morning stop for them. They've been feeding out. These are feral pigeons. Some people call them street peckers and they're related to rock doves and stock doves and of course our wood pigeon, they're all members of the same family and they sort of have a preen now mid-morning they've had an early morning feed and there's a couple of hundred, they leave Norwich city centre and they come here, feed up on the fields and then they'll go back to the city to roost at night. So they go on this roof, some of the roofs south facing and it gets quite warm and they seem to like that.

Matthew Gudgin (26:53):

So do I. Thank you for all your questions and letters and notes and emails. It is wonderful to hear from you and Carl Berrisford who heard your recent comments about yew trees and particularly their role in Churchyards down the centuries to keep away livestock. He says, Carl says, I'd always understood they were grown in churchyards as well because they absorbed the putrifaction of decay from the underlying soil and to prevent the area from smelling.

Chris Skinner (27:27):

Yes, that's a commonly believed thought, but it's been left behind because the yew trees a really, really slow growing. And to do that the roots would have to reach the new grave site and that might not happen for 10, 15, 20 years. And by that time any purification is long since gone. So primarily yew trees were sites of old pagan worship. And it's subsequent to that because the site became kind of sacred if you like, that churches started to be built on the site. Yew trees were worshipped way back then in prehistoric times. And so there was this relationship between the yew tree and sacred sites. So subsequently, because the sites were religious and had religious connotations, churches started to be built on the site where the yew trees were. So it's very traditional to have the two linked together churches and yew trees. And it was in much later centuries that it was found that yews were poisonous to livestock. So the local churches all fenced in there, sort of sacred acre we like to call it. And the yew tree formed very much part of that, but it would only be coincidental that it's in churchyards to soak up any noxious smells from those in their graves.

Matthew Gudgin (29:01):

Now greetings to Wester Campsey Farm in Scotland in Angus. Brian Hill writes and he's really enjoying the podcast and he says, our neighbours are just seeing the first lapwings on our doorstep, but sadly not actually on our farm. We're going to leave our grazed off forage crop untouched until June to see if that encourages any other species not regularly seen here. And we'd love to plant more bird friendly margins. And he asks advice about getting the seeds.

Chris Skinner (29:35):

Yes, excellent. There's seeds available all over the country and what I'll do is I'll get your address and then post you a seed catalogue as well. So that's really, really great news and I'll get that posted to your first class post.

Matthew Gudgin (29:54):

He's been making sparrow boxes as well to your design I think.

Chris Skinner (29:57):

Yes. So right in front of us, Matthew

Matthew Gudgin (30:03):

Champion the Wonder Horse

Chris Skinner (30:04):

Nearly. I've made one this week. We've had a few wet days and I've just gone into the farm workshop here and with some leftover timber I've made an eight hole sparrow nest box. But the ninth one is actually for a starling and the hole size is a little bit bigger, so I'll have to put a notice on the bottom of that with an arrow on it saying starlings only. But we've just got up to 90 sparrow nest boxes and they're all occupied and so this extra 9 or 10 should take me to a hundred nest boxes. So there we are, easy to make. It only took less than two hours and it's perfect and that'll go up on one of the buildings down the farmyard.

Matthew Gudgin (30:49):

Now Phil Olson is a regular listener, caught up with most of the podcasts that you've done, Chris. He said last year I was walking the Long Mind Hills in Shropshire and videoing my hikes as I do. I came across a bird kill, obviously I disturbed the bird so it flew off. Are you able to identify it from the video please?

Chris Skinner (31:09):

Yes. I've had a quick look at the video and I have about one second to identify the bird as it flew off. It also gave a call as it flew away, which was helpful. It's a hen harrier a male hen harrier. 

Matthew Gudgin (31:26):

That’s quite rare.

Chris Skinner (31:26):

That's quite a sight to see that they were called hen Harriers because in the 17th and 18th centuries they were quite common and they preyed on poultry in people's kept poultry at the end of the garden and some free range chickens just wandering round and they would often kill those and prey on them. And then they became quite scarce. They were heavily, heavily persecuted and they're only just beginning to regain some of their former territories and that's what you saw. So there we are. That's a brilliant little site to actually see what was happening and it flew away at great speed and I just managed to gather enough information from it to actually identify it firmly as a male hen harrier.

Matthew Gudgin (32:17):

And just one last message from Ronan. Hello Ronan. In Norwich we installed a bird box not far from our bedroom window and a blue tit looks interested in it and always has a look. They visited inside several times but never made a nest. So are they coming to the window frame and they're knocking at the window? Any ideas why?

Chris Skinner (32:38):

Yes, they're not looking for a nest box or anything and it is not impossible to tell the difference between a female blue tit and the male blue tit. It's almost certainly the male. And congratulations, your windows must be quite clean. The male blue tit be sitting on the window sill and it's seen its own reflection and there's nothing more annoying in life than having another male on your territory when you've just set up a pair with the local female. So what it's doing, it's seen a male reflecting in the window and it's not having it. So it's going to spend all the time it possibly can to peck at it and trying to shift it out of the way. So that's basically what's happening. If you've got a freshly glazed window, then blue tits, if you've used putty linseed putty, a particularly partial to the linseed portion, the oil in the putty, and they will peck all the putty away around the window, but perhaps not. So best bet is at this time of the year, blue tits are all pairing up and it's just not going to have another male in its territory. Simple as that.

Matthew Gudgin (33:52):

Thank you Ronan. And I know Ronan is a big fan of Rat

Matthew Gudgin (33:56):

Your terrier because he addresses his letter to Rat.

Chris Skinner (33:59):

He does, of course. And quite rightly so. He's star of the farm here. I've just popped him in the truck and he's waiting to go out and do some work and he'll be with us on next week podcasts. So he is going to accompany us. Let's hope he's well-behaved.

Matthew Gudgin (34:17):

Any questions, comments, and they find their way straight to Chris by email and the address, chris@countrysidepodcast.co.uk  and spring is galloping away now. I think we're noticing the difference virtually day by day.

Chris Skinner (34:33):

Yes. It's almost the peak week to week daylight, daily gain. Now in the course of a week it's about 27 minutes extra daylight, roughly split morning and evening. So as my mum would say, the nights are really pulling out. You could have tea by daylight, that was at five o'clock in the evening. And once we get to middle of March about the 20th, the Equinox, the vernal equinox there, and then halfway between the shortest day and the longest day, that's the exact point of maximum weekly daylight gain close to 30 minutes a week. And after that it tails off till June the 21st. And I can hear one of my bantams singing in the background there. Here she is. She's walking across the yard to see us and she's just giving us a little goodbye chorus. You right Chuck. 

Matthew Gudgin:

See you next week, Chris. 

Chris Skinner:

Right. See you then.