Matthew Gudgin (00:30):
Birds in good voice in the farm yard. It's another lunchtime visit to High Ash Farm. Not blazing hot and sunny like last week, but still very pleasant. The rain has gone through and Chris Skinner We're standing here next to your home, aren't we?

Chris Skinner (00:43):
Yes, we certainly are. Yes. We had five millimetres of rain overnight and this time of the year, you know what farmers are like? It's worth about a pound of drop. So that's why I've got a big smile on my face this morning. It is bang on for the hay. That old saying still comes true today after all those centuries, and it's Wet May, Long Hay and it just makes perfect. Oh look, Starling with a huge wireworm hanging out of it's beak. And if we keep still and quiet, it's thinking of coming to the babies.

Matthew Gudgin (01:18):
He's on your roof!

Chris Skinner (01:19):
Which well was

Matthew Gudgin (01:28):
That's a Starling with his mouthful.

Chris Skinner (01:30):
Yes. And the chicks just saw him and he or she, difficult to tell the sexes apart with Starlings was reluctant to visit the babies because it then gives the game away as where it's next generation's coming from.

Matthew Gudgin (01:47):
Because we were here earlier, we saw where they were And they're under one of your pan tiles aren't they?

Chris Skinner (01:51):
Yes. Believe it or not. Well, we might as well start the programme here. I was going straight out on the farm and I suppose one of the commonest questions I get is, what can I do to encourage wildlife? Many people don't have gardens like I do, which is kind of square mile, and so I make my house welcome as well to some of the wildlife that you can comfortably live with. Starlings and sparrows under my roof tiles. I've got three starlings nests right in front of us and they're good old Norfolk pan tiles. No bird deterrence in the gutters to stop them going up under the tiles because I don't mind a little bit of noise at night. It's very soothing and settling. I'm just come in here. I wasn't intending to do this. Just walk in my porch.

Matthew Gudgin (02:41):
We like going off piste. As it were. Very colourful flower display in here.

Chris Skinner (02:45):
Yes, geraniums in full flower. And I like cacti as well. I've collected some that lot there, Optunia albispina and they are very spiny. They're the same age as me. I had them given to me when I was about two years old to look after gracious.

Matthew Gudgin (03:03):
So they're what, 38?

Chris Skinner (03:06):
You've suddenly become a friend, Matthew. They're around 70 years old or just over. Look what I share my house with and don't think I'm a weirdo or anything because it would be easy to think that there is a tiny dish with honey in it. Added every day right from early spring till the end of summer, I feed the ants with a little bit of honey, about half a teaspoon a day. And that's just been topped up. And there's about six or seven ants there. And here in my pelegonium there is the ant nest.

Matthew Gudgin (03:41):
Oh look, there's soil that's been displaced all over here isn't there?

Chris Skinner (03:44):
Yes. And then a special day when you have very hot, humid conditions, the whole porch inside of the windows fills up with queen ants, ants with wings on. They then fly off. I leave the door open and they go out, fly up high. And you have drone male ants also with wings on the local swallows. Think it's heaven on earth here because they're scooping up the ants. But those that mate come back down to the ground. And this is what I love about wildlife. The females bite their own wings off, never fly again. And that's an ant colony out on my lawn or out on the fields anywhere on the farm that it's suitable.

Matthew Gudgin (04:25):
So people will say, oh, we've got flying ants. But no, they're ants.

Chris Skinner (04:29):
That's right.

Matthew Gudgin (04:30):
That have wings just for that short time.

Chris Skinner (04:32):
That's correct. And they live in harmony in these little sort of burrow houses. It's a cocoon of burrows in there in amongst and they don't mind. A bit of soil comes out and they just come out, all the ant hills on the farm open on the same day. It's just miraculous. Look so, so easy to do. And I did say about looking after wildlife is as much not what to do as to what to do kind of thing, if that makes sense. So I don't want to put ant powder down and kill them. I learn so much from them because they live in harmony and I suppose they could teach us a lesson. Just come through here.

Matthew Gudgin (05:13):
I've got my boots on

Chris Skinner (05:14):
That's fine. Come on. This was a form of pigsty.

Matthew Gudgin (05:18):
It's a very smart gentleman's residence though these days.

Chris Skinner (05:23):
It's like the Tardis. It goes on a long way.

Matthew Gudgin (05:26):
We're in Chris's hallway here past the grandfather clock.

Chris Skinner (05:29):
Yes. Yep. There we go.

Matthew Gudgin (05:31):
Down to the living room. Yes. Still got my wellies on. Oh, I don't feel right about this.

Chris Skinner (05:36):
No, it's fine.

Matthew Gudgin (05:38):
Oh, out onto the porch patio. Patio

Chris Skinner (05:41):
And such an easy thing to do when the part of the wall here was rebuilt, it was decrepit and falling down and the local brickie I got told off about a week after I'd done it, he came to inspect his work and I'd drilled holes in between the bricks all over.

Matthew Gudgin (06:01):
You're right a cement there? Yes.

Chris Skinner (06:02):
And he said, what did you do that for? I said, because I like mason bees or bloody things he said, but mason bees are solitary bees. And that's one of the species that's in huge decline right across the UK in fact across Europe. So Norfolk mottos to do different and try and look after them. And I was a former beekeeper till I had children and one of them went a bit too near one of the hives and got peppered. But this is something just about three pounds, so easy to do. You can buy them in a lot of hardware shops. Now it's a little bee house with canes. Matthew, it's only been up a week and most of the canes and there's 75 canes there, mud in the end of them.

Matthew Gudgin (06:49):
Those ones that are filled in at the end, yes, they have now been habited,

Chris Skinner (06:54):
Yes, by mason bee and the female mason bee goes down well down into the cane and because it's a little bit cloudy and it's been drizzly, there's no flying mason bees here at the moment. So they go right down the cane. She takes a, lays an egg down there, then some pollen and nectar and then she goes and gets some mud and seals it off. But she does it four or five times. Now this is unusual for nature because the last one's laid the first ones out next spring and they stay in there all winter as larvae and just, that's what I said, it's so easy. Didn't cost anything virtually. And I just watched them going in and out. And that's the next generation of solitary bees for next year.

Matthew Gudgin (07:41):
Bees in the wall, starlings in the roof, ants in the porch and geese on your lawn.

Chris Skinner (07:47):
On the lawn.

Matthew Gudgin (07:48):
A family of geese,

Chris Skinner (07:49):
The goslings. And I had to buy them in because Guzzymodo and Mildred, they're both over 25 years old now and they just say politely, they're past it. And so I purchased four young goslings, there they are.

Matthew Gudgin (08:04):
Look, oh, they've got their white feathers coming through now.

Chris Skinner (08:06):
Yes, they have the first primary feathers on the wings are there. And basically they're lawnmowers, they're just eating nonstop, all the hours of daylight. And I've made a little run for them because we've got foxes here on the farm and there'd be several things like to have a go at them when they were tiny just out of the eggs. So there was some lesser blackback gulls sitting all around here just eyeing them up. But mum has taken to them and she's a very good foster mum, but

Matthew Gudgin (08:36):
Dad not quite so sure.

Chris Skinner (08:38):
No, but he has improved in the last week she went off to have a swim in the duck pond, jumped over the fence and he got in with them and he sat down and they all looked like quite a happy family. Anyway, look, that's enough of this. We've got some serious wildlife to look out on the farm. We're being serenaded by a blackbird in the background, which is lovely. And there's one out there on the wires over, just over on the meadow there and they're singing away and it's perfectly still a little bit of drizzle in the air. So I dunno what we're doing standing here. Come on. Proper work to do.

Matthew Gudgin (09:28):
Fox's Grove on a damp afternoon and the last of the bluebells as well. It's goodbye for another year to the bluebells. They're just about going over. But we are in amongst this strange alien looking moonscape of yours in Fox's Grove, aren't we?

Chris Skinner (09:46):
Yes, this is the pride and joy of High Ash Farm. Certainly for me, Matthew, it's the badger set which had been here longer than I've been at the farm. They were here as a child and it's pretty much one of the largest sets in East Anglia I've been told. There's been examined and there's well over 60 entrances and some of them like the mound of soil in front of us, that's about 25 tonnes out of that single hole. That's an amazing amount. In fact, there's a French word buley, which we think comes through our languages badger and it just means earth digger. But if you look badger up in the dictionary, in my dictionary anyway, it's relating to that white stripe down the centre of the head as though it's a badge. And so that's we think where the name comes from and of course to badger, somebody as to kind of harass them, which relates back to years ago when we used to do badger baiting and have terriers chasing badges and fighting in cages.

(10:57):
And that's been banned officially since 1992 with a government statute that banned badger baiting and badger hunting and digging badges. But they still have a torrid time. Obviously they're being cold, particularly over in the west country as candidates for carrying TB. And the road casualties for them are very high as well. So if you're driving on any of our modern highways, so I do feel hugely sorry for them and it's quite a risk for me to bring you here and publicise the fact that the badger of set is here. And I've only done it almost by consulting the badgers to see if it's all right. They haven't replied yet, but all over where we're standing, there's cameras and two of the cameras can alert me on my mobile phone at night and I can be here pretty quickly. And so there's a lot of protection here.

(11:58):
And also right behind only right in front of us, there's one of the trail cams and we should be able to enjoy the badgers set at night because badgers are strictly nocturnal with some of the footage. It'll be on High Ash Farm Facebook and reason I've bought you here, it's a busy time of the year for the badgers. If you look at what's left of the bluebells, they're all swept down in one way as though there's been some huge water torrent.

Matthew Gudgin (12:28):
Yeah, it's all flattened to the ground, isn't it?

Chris Skinner (12:31):
Yes. And that's the sow, sow's the female badger. The male is called a boar and she changes her bedding regularly just after she's given birth. She takes her first. Any green growth or any hay on the meadows nearby, she'll carry that in her mouth, take it down in the set. They're fantastic parents. I watch them more or less every night on the cameras and just watch how they behave.

(12:59):
And they're exactly like us. Of course we are mammals and so are badgers. And I've learned to respect and admire the discipline that the sow and the boar have on the cubs. They haven't been allowed out now 12 weeks old until this last week. They've been kept in the set. They're not been allowed out. They'd get boxed ears if they tried it. Now the sow goes off to hunt main diet is worms out on the pastures, and fortunately there's no roads right close to us. So she's pretty safe. Soon as she's out of sight. You know what teenagers are like. You remember being one. We both can. The four cubs come out and sniff around all in a row, and I managed to capture that bit just after she's left. And they are very naughty is the only way to describe it.

Matthew Gudgin (13:51):
It's how they learn though, I presume.

(13:52):
They play fight, they tumble, they jump over each other, they sqwauk, they scream and its bedlam. And that's why if we just walk around the top of this second little bit, it looks like a motorway circuit over there. Look, the mounds are polished because there's so much activity. They practise climbing, they go up that little tree there and there's a fallen tree behind us and they play on there. As soon as there's a sign of mum coming back, they're back down there like they've been scolded. And I just fall in love with them really, so hugely active here and they're protected. So with all I can do to protect them. But because they're in this woodland and their wildlife on this particular farm, and I have taken it on as my job to enhance all the forms of wildlife without discrimination, I love to be able to share it with our audience on the podcast that we do together. So it's a huge privilege to have this massive variety of wildlife.

(15:01):
They're not easily seen badgers, are they? No. And who could blame them? Because as you've already mentioned, the persecution over the years, it's quite astonishing how they've really survived.

Chris Skinner (15:09):
I know. Yes. And of course they were killed for all sorts of reasons. They have been eaten in the past. In Scotland, you've heard of sporrans that's made of badger hair,

Matthew Gudgin (15:19):
Shaving?

Chris Skinner (15:19):
And shaving that's meant to be the best shaving brush of all with badger hair. And you'd froth up. And my father used one as well and it was quite normal back then. So I've taken that Norfolk motto, as I often say, of do different. And instead of persecuting them, because they will eat eggs sell the young birds. They're omnivorous. They, why I admire them is we had a hornet's nest not far from where we're standing last year. And one of the badgers from this set just came in and dug it out. And I think it must have had stings galore. I've seen hornets in action when they get cross and regularly round the ditches on the farm they'll dig out wasps nests. They're quite large animals. They'll also dig out bees, bumblebees nest, close to the ground, nesting birds. They'll take the eggs and the chicks.

Matthew Gudgin (16:12):
So they'll climb these trees,

Chris Skinner (16:13):
They'll climb trees. And one of their favourite diet in the winter months is to eat the snails. The sycamore trees quite smooth bark. And they use their long claws. I mean they are large animals. A large boar badger will be just about a metre long and 12 and a half to 13 kilos. So it's that 26, 27, 28 pounds in weight. So they're pretty hefty. Long hairs on the outside, they're called guard hairs and they can move extremely quickly. As you will see with the video of the cubs that we hoped to put up for this weekend. They just get a shift on, particularly if mum's coming back, you've never seen anything like it. It's like just a puppet show that they've gone back down into one of these many. This is their home, the set. We call it a set. It's been called all sorts of things over the centuries, but we're pretty much settled on that word now.

Matthew Gudgin (17:15):
All these mounds and it's quite extensive area, I think up the hill there as well.

Chris Skinner (17:19):
It goes right through there through the shrubbery. There's some rhododendron bushes there and all these, all you can describe it with underneath us, underneath us is a labyrinth of holes. And that's where all this soil comes from. And so it's not just out of one hole. They'll dig 20, 30 yards underground, then they'll come up and bring some soil up and they bring the soil out backwards, which if you're here late evening because they're strictly nocturnal, you can almost get sprayed with the soil. One of the adult badgers will come out backwards, flicking the soil backwards with its feet as it comes. But I just love them to bits and there's so much to learn from. They do have family arguments. In the past, this set here has had a huge upset for some reason and they've moved to another wood as well. So we've got two sets here at the farm.

(18:13):
And something I discovered by accident, because I was filming a rabbit warren quite close to where we are. Badgers will often share their set with rabbits. Sometimes foxes go in. I often see mice going in and out of these holes. And I was filming at a rabbit warren and I noticed one of the holes had been filled in and I was quite concerned about that and looked at carefully and there were badger prints all over the top of the soft sand. And I moved it because I thought somebody had come in and done some mischief and I'd only dug down about 10 inches. I found a dead boar badger. And I carefully looked all around me and I could see a track. It had been brought here by one of the other badgers and they'd had a funeral and I'd never come across anything like that. I was astonished and amazed at the same time. Never seen it. Unfortunately I didn't catch it on camera. But the footprint said it all. And they'd covered up the corpse and obviously it was some kind of funeral that they'd carried out in the hours of darkness.

Matthew Gudgin (19:23):
Well, I'm absolutely staggered. That is incredible. And no sign of them during daylight hours, as Chris has referred to. But beneath our feet, they're there. They probably are aware of us.

Chris Skinner (19:36):
I should think they're aware of us and they come to no harm. They're kind of protected here, particularly by that government act of 1992, especially to protect badgers and I'm grateful for that. But there are still people out here that perhaps might listen to this that would fancy coming to do the mischief. And that's why they're protected by me with the cameras. And this is private woodland, this is their home. And you can understand how you would feel if I came to do you mischief in the middle of the night. So we are learning to appreciate and understand our wildlife. There's still so much more to learn and it's a privilege to have them here.

Matthew Gudgin (20:28):
Is that a skylark Chris?

Chris Skinner (20:30):
Yes, Matthew. And I've just seen three hares running across the field right beside us. Oh, there's one coming down towards us.

Matthew Gudgin (20:39):
Oh yes, I can see yes. Just along the margin of the field. Yes.

Chris Skinner (20:43):
Yeah. And it stopped. It can probably hear my excitment. No, it's still coming down towards us.

Matthew Gudgin (20:49):
Lovely, rich brown colour against the earth. Yeah,

Chris Skinner (20:52):
Perfectly camouflaged. Yeah, that's really unusual. This is what happens at High Ash. The wildlife comes towards

Matthew Gudgin (20:59):
You. They all obey your so, so don't they.

Chris Skinner (21:02):
It doesn't run away. And that's 30 acres of over winter wild bird seed mix drilled at double the seed rate so that you have lots of small grains and it's just emerging. So there's a kind of green hue over the whole field. It's mustard, tritikale and spring wheat in there as well, spring barley. And it's all just emerging. So it's lovely to see that hare. It's still there. Oh, I know what it's doing. It's eating my freshly emerged cereals,

Matthew Gudgin (21:35):
Get off. Get off with you.

Chris Skinner (21:36):
I don't mind. Skylight. I've got a job for you later on as a scarecrow, Matthew. So,

Matthew Gudgin (21:41):
Oh, I don't feel qualified. Terry Howlet sent a note into the podcast saying, dear Chris, I attach a couple of photos taken at West Acre, a section of hedge row around 25 yards in length, covered on one side by a thick blanket of silk spun by these small caterpillars. And there's a photograph and Terry says, I'm not able to identify these. Can you?

Chris Skinner (22:07):
Yes. Straight away. It's quite a common moth species. It's the brown urmin or the brown tailed urmin moth and quite attractive. It's a white fluffy moth and it lays the eggs on its favourite food plant often in this case, Hawthorne or Blackthorn. They're the two commonest ones that will lay its eggs on and the caterpillars, they hatch from the eggs and immediately they do that. They start to spin their own cocoon for protection.

Matthew Gudgin (22:40):
Terry's photo is quite extraordinary, isn't it? But a large section of hedge there just completely covered in cobwebs.

Chris Skinner (22:48):
It looks like a Halloween shot and somebody's gone a bit mad with the spray can all over the hedge. And the hedge is pretty much defoliated and that's what they do. But they spin this cocoon over themselves because obviously they're very tasty meals. And each cocoon will have between 50 and a hundred little caterpillars in. It's an attractive moth. It's snow white and it's got a kind of brown tail. And if the moth gets a bit agitated, it raises the tail up. It looks like a miniature stubby paintbrush coming out. And it's a beautiful white, fluffy urmin moth. But right in front of his Matthew, I brought us to Notre Dame Wood. Oh my word. I hadn't seen this. We'd come for another reason.

Matthew Gudgin (23:34):
Oh, a swarm. A swarm

Chris Skinner (23:36):
 Look at that.

Matthew Gudgin (23:37):
It's the time of year, isn't it?

Chris Skinner (23:39):
Yes There's bee colonies on the farm here. They're honeybees. And what's happening is talk about getting distracted. They're worker bees there and there'll be a queen in there from the old hive wherever it's come from. And the worker bees suddenly change jobs and become scout bees. And they're looking for a empty hive, a woodpeckers hole, a hollow tree. And then the whole lot will leave there. They're right in the top of this hedge.

Matthew Gudgin (24:11):
So it's a ball of bees, like a football size,

Chris Skinner (24:13):
At least a football size, isn't it?

Matthew Gudgin (24:15):
The top of the hedge there. And that's just a solid bee. Yes. All bees all the way through.

Chris Skinner (24:21):
Yes. And they're all hanging on. The queen will be there and they're waiting for one of the worker bees. It's become a scout bee as I explained, and it will come back to that swarm and it will do a waggle dance in a very special way. And that waggle dance tells everybody where to fly to. Amazing. It's one of the wonders of nature what we just stumbled upon,

Matthew Gudgin (24:44):
Because sometimes it happens where there are a lot of people and someone will come and arrive with a cardboard box and remove them.

Chris Skinner (24:49):
Yes. I did learn the hard way because I started becoming a beekeeper long time ago. I'd done a course on a apiculture at Norfolk Agricultural College and put an advert in the local paper - swarms wanted. I went to a little village quite near Cantley. It was called Limpenhoe. And I had my cardboard box and the beekeeper at college. Mr. Riches told me, you don't need to wear anything because they're always very good humoured swarms because they've all filled up with honey and they're in a good mood. Just put the box underneath the swarm and give it a sharp tap and the bees will drop into the wood box and they're yours. Take them. I put them outside your hive, they'll all climb in. What I didn't know is the storm had been there a week and they'd eaten all the honey in their honey stomachs and they were rather not in a good mood, especially when I tapped them into the box full of confidence, bare arms. An hour later I was in hospital, I had over 50 stings and I learned to respect honeybees after that. Fresh swarms. Fine, you can do that. But not in cold weather. You don't do that sort of. But that's an amazing site. Sorry, I got distracted.

Matthew Gudgin (26:10):
There's bees flying all over the place now.

Chris Skinner (26:12):
There are. You're safe. Don't worry. If you get stung, I'll take the blame.

Matthew Gudgin (26:17):
I dunno how that deal would work actually.

Chris Skinner (26:19):
Right. Okay.

Matthew Gudgin (26:21):
Oh, then here we are with some cobwebs.

Chris Skinner (26:23):
Yes, the very cobwebs we were talking about.

Matthew Gudgin (26:28):
 Oh good. Look,

Chris Skinner (26:29):
This is spindle. It's a very common native plant and it's unusual because this is all new growth on it. And look where the moths laid its eggs. This will be the spindle ermin. That's another species that also has its eggs. Look under there. Perfect. Oh look,

Matthew Gudgin (26:48):
Covering that, lots webbing caterpillars. Little wriggling caterpillars

Chris Skinner (26:52):
They're less than five millimetres long. The larger cobwebs. Let's have a look here. What are you backing off for? Gudginn? You're a little bit nervous.

Matthew Gudgin (27:06):
It's these bees flying around. We are only about 2 feet away from them.

Chris Skinner (27:08):
Don't worry about it. You got your hat on or not? No, no. Look here. This one's about three days old and the caterpillar's are double the size and they're forming this sort of webbing.

Matthew Gudgin (27:22):
This candy floss is really

Chris Skinner (27:22):
It does look like candy floss, but it's actually not

Matthew Gudgin (27:25):
Really a cobweb at all. It's really thicker than that.

Chris Skinner (27:27):
Yes it is. And they're in there and as they're going out, look, they're defoliated all the tips of the shoots. So in a week's time, where's, what's their 20 little nests? Oh, look at that one.

(27:40):
Oh, perfect. Look in there. The whole lot is crawling with them. 50 in there. So there we are. And that's what you're seeing at this time of the year. So when you see these come back here, Matthew, you keep moving away. You keep seeing these in the Norfolk countryside and different moths, several species form this sort of meshing at this time of the year. So thank you very much for the photograph. They say picture says a thousand words, but here you've got the real thing with the spindle arm in here and perfectly all sort of protected by their own webbing. So the birds don't eat them because the birds, the beaks get sort of hung up with all this webbing, even with these freshly emerged ones, the birds open their beak and get 'em mouth full of this webbing and just look over there. Cor, I'm being distracted. Left, right and centre. Two hares just grazing on the cereals as they come through. It keeps running a few yards and then stopping another little bare patch appears in my precious fields. And I don't mind all in a good course. Absolutely.

Matthew Gudgin (28:53):
So the answer to the question is these?

Chris Skinner (28:55):
The bufftail moth, or brown tail moth, we should probably call it on the hedgerows with Hawthorne and Blackthorn. And this is a spindle ermin, they're different species. They're both white and fluffy, but really beautiful moths. And if you look on High Ash Farm Facebook, the tree creepers we saw last week, one of those tree creepers, the male or the female brought a ermin moth back to feed the young on. And you can see the camouflaged tree creeper and it looks as though it's carrying something large and white like a flag in its speak. And that's an ermin moth. You couldn't make it up.

Matthew Gudgin (29:34):
Well, we better leave those bees in peace. Oh, and there goes a pheasant as well.

Chris Skinner (29:43):
It's all happening here, isn't it? It is.

Matthew Gudgin (29:45):
Do you write the script for this?

Chris Skinner (29:46):
No, I don't. That's purely as it happened. I promise you. I did not know that swarm was there. That's a promise.

Matthew Gudgin (30:06):
Well, after all that excitement we've repaired to Chris's farm truck.

Chris Skinner (30:10):
Well you have Yes. I'm quite happy to be outside and answered. This is what questions.

Matthew Gudgin (30:15):
Yeah, lots more emails. And here's one from an avid listener. As Jess calls herself an informative, atmospheric and addictive you are apparently Chris,

Chris Skinner (30:29):
That's me all over

Matthew Gudgin (30:30):
Public health warning.

Chris Skinner (30:31):
That's my new aftershave called tester who works a treat.

Matthew Gudgin (30:34):
Jess sends a video and says, this wood pigeon was in my garden in London. Do you know what the movement on its chest signifies?

Chris Skinner (30:44):
Yes. You've got a male wood pigeon and he's displaying to a female must be nearby the best and easiest time to see what's happening is if in London you've got feral pigeons and the males puff their necks up hugely and that impresses the female. But on the necks of pigeons, including stock doves and collar doves, wood pigeons as well, as well as our feral pigeons, there are iridescent neck feathers and they're on display when the male pigeon puffs himself up like that to make himself look bigger and more manly just like me. And it works a treat. So there we are. That's what that is. A male wood pigeon courtship displaying. If the females nearby, they will both land on the ground and they bow at each other. It's a lovely sight to see. Well done.

Matthew Gudgin (31:38):
More video footage sent in by Rose Shepherd who says, dear Chris, you mentioned Goldcrests this week. My sister lives in Shipton in Norfolk and recently filmed these little birds outside her front window. Can you confirm if they're gold crests or not?

Chris Skinner (31:55):
Yes. I had to check carefully because there are two species of gold crest and fire crest, which equally qualify for Britain's smallest birds. And what you've got there are gold crests. Well done. It's a fantastic little video and it demonstrates beautifully the gold crest, that sort of dark yellow stripe right down the centre of these dimuative little birds. And they're beautiful and they migrate across the North sea as well. So in cold weather on the near continent, they'll come across and all see these tiny little birds much smaller than our wren.

Matthew Gudgin (32:35):
Now Chris is listening in North Yorkshire at Masham they make very good pork sausages in that neck of the woods.

Chris Skinner (32:41):
 Well you would know that. Yes, of course I have to go on my bike if I go anywhere.

Matthew Gudgin (32:46):
Well Chris says, you talked about cranes bill and stalks bill the plants last week mentioning their names because of their resemblance to birds' bills. Both of the species of bird are very rare in this country. So were they a common bird when these plants were first christened?

Chris Skinner (33:05):
Good question. Absolutely brilliant. Certainly with cranes, there's a lot of evidence that they were quite common in this country. We are gradually reintroducing them and somebody in Norfolk is breeding them in broadland as well. But in both cases, crane spill and storks spill, their name has been translated up from a European word where they are common on the near continent and over further down in Europe, in central Europe in particular, where both birds are quite common. And what has happened is we've learned the name in another language and then translated it. And of course it's very, the seed pods from both species are very representative of the bills of both those birds cranes and stalks. So unfortunately it comes from the continent.

Matthew Gudgin (33:56):
Tamsin, who is our Tasmanian correspondent, she was over here recently, I think she came to the farm, didn't she?

Chris Skinner (34:02):
She certainly did, yes.

Matthew Gudgin (34:04):
And so she says, I've just returned and I'm looking through all our photographs and we have two burning bird related questions. Is the nut hatch that we photographed returning to its own nest, it seems rather a big nesting hole for a bird this size. And if not, what is it up to? It's spent a busy few moments having a good look at this hole.

Chris Skinner (34:24):
Yes. And we have nut hatches nesting on the farm. Now if you look very carefully at the photograph which Tamsin sent us, there's quite a large hole. It's a green woodpeckers hole. Should be there somewhere.

Matthew Gudgin (34:39):
Here we are. Yes, there we are. Yes, that is it.

Chris Skinner (34:41):
Now when you look inside the hole, you will see there's a slight change of colour and it's mud and it's chosen a green woodpecker's nest hole, an old one that's not used about 75 mil diameter, three inches in old money and woodpeckers, their scientific name is sita uropinus, literally the plastering bird. And what they do, they gather mud and make the hole exactly the right size for male and female nut to go through. And that's what's happened there. So the hole looks absolutely huge and it would be predated by stoats or weasels or grey squirrels in particular will go in. And so it's plastered the hole to the right size. How clever is that? Well done.

Matthew Gudgin (35:30):
Also, Tamsin send us a photograph of some of your male mallards. The mallard ducks, around seven of them we encountered. She says they mostly stuck together and flew off when we disturbed them on the path landing together again on the water nearby. But the question is, why would so many males be together like this? They're not a gang of juvenile duck delinquent.

Chris Skinner (35:52):
 No, no, they're adults. What's happening? The females are all incubating or not interested in the males anymore and they're got all their charges around them. Usually the young ducklings out on ponds there and the males suddenly become redundant. Now you've heard of a stag do a stag party, I expect. And a year ago I was taken by surprise on one of the meadows on the farm. There were five red deer stags on there and I was completely shocked. They were in amongst the horses and they just jumped clean over the top of the fence and carried on wherever they wanted to go. And often at this time of the year, males redundant, so to speak, they were congregate together. And what you're seeing is a kind of stag do with the mallard ducks if you like. And that's exactly what's happened.

Matthew Gudgin (36:40):
Thanks Tamsin for that question or two questions. And also thank you for the recent gifts as well. There was a little bit of Tasmanian whiskey that we sampled.

Chris Skinner (36:49):
Yes, we a royal we

Matthew Gudgin (36:53):
We enjoyed it.

Chris Skinner (36:54):
Yes. Thank you, Tamsen. You are so generous. And to come for the second time from all that way from Tasmania, I'm not sure whether I'm worth it or not, but warm greetings from rather cloudy Norfolk this morning. And a big thank you to all the questions that were received this week.

Matthew Gudgin (37:13):
And a quick mention for Joseph and Catherine, Hedley on the Hill Northumberland, your photos of the Northern Lights over the last week. Quite spectacular. Look at that for a lovely colour,

Chris Skinner (37:25):
Absolutely stunning greens, blues, purples, and all the colours that you can imagine lit up the Norfolk sky, particularly in this part of the world.

Matthew Gudgin (37:35):
Your emails to the podcast and the address chris@countrysidepodcast.co.uk.