Autumn 2024
Canterbury Festival
The Canterbury Festival provided a great opportunity for our farms to showcase all the work they do for wildlife, carbon capture, improving soils and water quality in east kent. A farmers panel of Emma Loder Symonds, Chloe Wilcock, Rupert Phillips and Roland Brown joined me in giving an overview of all of your environmental work to an audience of around 100 members of the public. It was very well received and we hope to do it again next year
Summer 2024
​Bioblitz weekend with Rothamsted Research centre
A sunny august weekend saw a team of 6 entomologists from Rothamsted Research centre descend upon the Barham Downs area to collect, record and document the insect life in a selection of the newly created wildflower grasslands. Thanks to Denne Hill Farms, Oink and Udder, Nonington Farms and Hearts Delight Farm, the team netted, trapped and potted an amazing selection of insects including the scarce hornet robberfly, over 130 moth species, great green bush cricket and a host of beetles, grasshoppers, ants and flies
Summer 2024
Evening Orchid Walk
Blessed with a beautiful summer’s evening we were treated to a wander across the flower-filled slopes of the Alkham valley courtesy of Nigel Snape and family at Great Cauldham Farm. Pyramidal orchid, common spotted orchid and a host of wildflowers filled the view before we enjoyed a delicious BBQ put on by Nigel and Ange at Hockley Sole.
Summer 2024
Barn Owl Workshop
Thanks to a fantastic morning put on by Ben Palmer and his team at Godmersham Estate we were all treated to some expert knowledge on all things ’Barn Owl’. Joined by local ornithologist John Buckingham, we enjoyed great up close views of barn owl chicks as part of the barn owl monitoring and ringing project on the estate. We had perfect weather for the walk and a delicious lunch was laid on for lunch, thanks to the estate
Spring 2024
Carabid Beetle and IPM workshop
With welcoming hosts Sacha Davies at Denne Hill Farm and Emma Loder-Symonds at Nonington Farms, we were treated to another session from Dr Kelly Jowett, covering the topic of carabid beetles and their role in controlling crop pests. We toured four different areas of grassland and arable fields where Debbie from FWAG South East had set up pitfall traps to compare the number and type of beetles.. This included an area where some pig rootling trials, courtesy of Oink and Udder’s Large Black pigs, had created some impressive bare ground habitat.
Spring 2024
Dung Beetle and Soil Health Workshop
Early April saw the first of our program of farm walks and workshops get underway with a dung beetle and soil health workshop kindly hosted by Rupert Phillips and team at Shelvin Farm. We were joined by Dr Kelly Jowett from Rothamsted Research Centre, Debbie Reynolds from FWAG South East (Farm Wildlife Advisory Group) and Brandon Mayuga from Affinity Water, with Rupert and research technician Melissa giving us a good run down of the farm’s trials into soil health and composting.
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Winter 2024 - Hedgerow Workshop
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February 2024 saw a great turn out for a morning of hedgerow learning with thanks to Andrew and Harriet who kindly hosted the event at Elmfield Farm Cottages. With a great range of hedgerow types and different aged examples of hedgerow laying, the farm was a great spot to discuss the practice of laying as a way of rejuvenating hedgerows. Dodging the rain, we toured the hedges and hay meadows to return to a welcome lunch and cakes kindly laid on by the farm.
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Farmer group meetings 2023
Our spring and winter round of farmer cluster group meetings, farm walks and workshops covered a range of themes from regenerative farming practices, pasture soil health and a hedgelaying demonstration. A big thanks to Elmsted Court Farm, Nonington Farms and Boyington Court Farm for hosting the events.
Wildflower seeding autumn 2022
The yealy program of native provenance wildflower seeding continued apace in 2022 with 140ha being seeded across 14 farms in the project areas.
Bumble bee Conservation Trust field meeting 2022
Our Barham Downs project hosted a visit from Bumble bee Conservation Trust staff. Their survey found 16 species of bumble bee including brown banded carder and ruderal bumble bee
Green hay spreading 2022
Green hay spreading was undertaken this year in our East Kent Valleys project area, with wildflower hay being collected in a 'cut and collect' machine and then spread on a new site
New small blue colonies in 2022
The 2022 season produced good numbers of small blue across the project area with two new colonies establishing on new wildflower grassland sites
A record season for Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy had a bumper 2022 season in our project area with a total peak count of 534, a three fold increase on the previous record count of 186 in 2021
Kentish milkwort survey 2022
The annual survey of the rare plant, kentish milkwort, undertaken by the Species Recovery Trust, recorded good numbers on it's one remaining colony site in our Stour Valley farmer group area
A good 2022 season for black veined moth
Black veined moth continues to expand its range in the Stour valley area in response to the landscape of newly created grasslands providing more opportunities for dispersal and colonisation. At least two of the newly created wildflower grasslands now support breeding colonies and there are now more colonies of the moth than at any time during the 25 years of monitoring.
Dung Beetle workshop
As part of our winter series of farmer group meetings our East Kent Valleys farmer group hosted a fascinating workshop given by the 'Dung beetles for Farmers' initiative. Despite a cold February day we found several dung beetles on the pastures nearby.
Wildflower seeding autumn 2021
The yealy program of native provenance wildflower seeding continued apace in 2021 with 70ha being seeded across 8 farms in the project areas.
Kent Bat Group surveys 2021
Our second season of bat monitoring is well underway with Kent Bat Group. Eight static detectors placed on farms in our East Kent Valleys project area are busy recording bat passes across a range of species. Last year's survey picked up good numbers of serotine, myotis species and a single greater horseshoe bat amongst the thousands of records!
Man orchids colonising newly created grasslands
Its rewarding to see the breadth of wildflowers colonising some of our 'older' grasslands created in the 1990's, not least scarce species such as man orchid which is benefitting from the new grasslands managed for a 'mid-successional sward' type in our Stour Valley project area
