Here at the Empire Farm, we do our best to encourage wildlife, and we are part of the DEFRA Organic Entry Level Scheme for Environmental Stewardship. We have an environmental management plan for the farm, and over the next few years we plan to carry out some major schemes, including orchard and woodland tree-planting. Every year we plant winter cover crops for birds including masses of sunflowers, to provide protection and food for wildlife. Aimed predominantly at encouraging pheasant and partridge, these seeds are also of benefit to many other species of bird. We are also thickening up our hedgerows, to provide more cover for birds and small mammals. Nectar mixes are planted along some margins to encourage insects.

In autumn 2006, we created a new 0.5 acre lake in one of our fields. While the diggers were on site, we took the opportunity to deepen our existing ponds which were beginning to silt up quite badly. In autumn 2007 the surrounding meadow was seeded with a wildflower meadow mix.

The banks of the new lake are now established with vegetation and the invertebrate life has increased greatly. In 2008, 6 species of dragonfly and damselfly were spotted, as well as diving beetles, back swimmers, pond skaters and fresh water molluscs. The shallow water margins teem with small fish such as stickleback, and a pair of kingfishers have been seen fishing here. During 2007 and 2008 the ponds were visited by a black swan and a little egret. In 2009 a cormorant came visiting, but we were not really impressed with all the fish it caught! In March 2010 we were delighted to discover at least 70 mating toads together with some frogs. The pond is now alive with tadpodes, so many that the water's edge looks almost black at times. The vegetation has grown with plenty of arrowhead and hornwort.

The front field is a wonderful park-style pasture which has several veteran oak trees.

These magnificent trees are a really special feature of the farm.

Conservation

The farm has long supported wildlife, as indicated by the names of the fields - Kestrel, Little Kestrel, Heron, Duck, and Snipe. The farm is regularly patrolled by a fox and badger family, so we do have to be careful to lock up our geese and chickens every evening. But we prefer to tolerate them, when practical, rather than see them simply as pests and eliminate them. In 2009 Alison Rymell of the Volunteer and Farming Alliance surveyed the birds in summer, walking round the farm at dawn on several mornings. She heard or saw 46 species of bird, including a number of species on the UK red list, for example linnet, skylark and starling. Full details of the survey appear in our blog.

Ponds

The farm has four small ponds as well as the new one. They are populated by wild mallard with regular visits from two grey herons.

On one area of boggy meadow we have a small migratory population of snipe, and we are doing our best to preserve this special habitat.

Birds of Prey

There is a resident population of buzzards - they are almost always soaring overhead, their screeches ringing out over the valley floor. They fly down and perch on trees in the hedge whenever the tractor is out, looking for voles scared by the machinery, so we often get very good views of these beautiful birds of prey. One one remarkable harvest day in 2007, we counted 12 buzzards in just one field. There are kestrels, too, breeding in one of the large oak trees. Barn owls are fairly regular visitors and can often be seen at dusk, hunting in eerie silence along the rough margins around the fields. That is a really special treat.

Deer

Roe deer are on our land all year round, and are most often seen just before dark, but sometimes right in the middle of the day. We will typically see between 2 and 5 deer, but 2006 was quite special, as we have had two does with twins. Twin fawns are not common, and two sets of twins is particularly unusual.

A muntjac deer was seen for the first time in September 2007. This is a small deer, that at first glance can be mistaken for a fox.