Baddesley Clinton - Part One

I spent an afternoon earlier this week at the National Trust property of Baddesley Clinton - a moated manor house mainly built in the fifteenth century which has beautiful gardens and a woodland walk.












Baddesley Clinton was the home of the Ferrers family for 500 years. I didn't go inside the house today but its well worth a visit containing coats of arms in stained glass, priestholes and lots of carved oak.













After looking round the Courtyard I walked through the woods and past the fishpools and lake.

One of the fishpools or stewponds which provided medieval households with fish





The Great Pool - I spent several minutes in one spot watching a flock of Long-tailed Tits and a goldcrest which was hovering and catching insects in a manner reminiscent of a Spotted Flycatcher or Hummingbird!





The walled garden was full of summer colour and butterflies











I always try and visit Baddesley in September as there is an absolutely stunning dahlia bed. This year it looked particularly beautiful. Hope you like dahlias because there's a lot of photos!































Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly






House and Moat



And when you leave the House and Gardens there are a few Scarecrows waiting to say Goodbye







I took far too many photos to put in one post so I will do a follow-up soon showing a superb collection of sporting theme Scarecrows in the Vegetable Garden and some of the butterflies seen in the Walled Garden.

Please help Stop the Badger Cull

Sadly today the Badger Trust lost its of Court of Appeal Challenge to Government proposals to cull thousands of badgers in an attempt to stem bovine TB.

This means that within weeks pilot culls could start in parts of Somerset and Gloucestershire where thousands of badgers could be killed (or maimed - how do you shoot a moving badger and kill it outright?). Many healthy badgers will be killed - the Randomised Badger Culling Trials (RBCT) showed that even in bTB hotspots less than 1 in 7 badgers were infected with bTB.

Most independent scientific opinion suggests that the cull is unlikely to work and will probably make matters worse due to the "perturbation" effect.

I have already done several posts on this theme so won't repeat all of my arguments against culling but will just say that, in my view, this is a political decision and not one based on science.

After all we have already had a 10 year badger cull between 1997 and 2007 costing about £50 million pounds and overseen by the Independent Steering Group. The present Government if it presses ahead with the cull would seem to go against the ISG's comment in its findings and recommendations that

"Given its high costs and low benefits we therefore conclude that badger culling is unlikely to contribute usefully to the control of cattle TB in Britain and recommend that TB control efforts focus on measures other than badger culling".


It would be far better if we tackled bTB by improving biosecurity, cattle testing and animal husbandry accompanied by a vaccination programme for badgers and making efforts to persuade the EU to accept cattle vaccination - it would appear that a cattle vaccination which differentiates between cows that are infected with TB and those that have been vaccinated is being developed.

If you feel strongly about this matter please visit

www.justdosomething.org.uk

where there is a link to a new Government e-petition created recently by Dr Brian May against badger culling. If you have a few minutes more there is a very good short video featuring people such as Sir David Attenborough and Simon King giving their views on the culling.

If enough people sign this petition we may be able to stop this awful and unnecessary killing of badgers that have yet again been made scapegoats. Every signature matters. Remember the Government back down after the "Save our Forests" campaign?!!

A Beautiful Yellow Moth

There were another couple of new moth species for the year found after trapping on Saturday night.

First of all this beautiful sulphur yellow Brimstone Moth - a species illustrating that moths can be just as lovely as butterflies! Its only the second time I've caught this moth - although this specimen had alighted on the nearby kitchen window and wasn't actually in the trap itself.



Secondly, an Autumnal Rustic moth. What a lovely name and another species I don't trap very often. It led me a merry dance round the kitchen as I tried to take a photo ending up on a Doctor Who dalek mug. Its now been retrapped and released!

I think its a rather dapper looking moth and I love the anvil shaped mark.



Many moth species have varying colour forms and here's a mustardy yellow Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing.



Finally, the inevitable query! Again a worn moth - this could be a Vine's Rustic or Uncertain or Rustic or even some other species!



I did examine 4 of the Copper Underwings very closely as they showed possible features of Svensson's Copper Underwing. I am pretty sure they were all Copper so the search continues!

As always if any of the above id's are incorrect please let me know.


Summary of Moths Trapped Saturday, 8th September

8.00 p.m. until dawn. Minimum Temperature 8.1 degrees centigrade
15w Actinic Skinner Trap

2107 Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba) x 17

2134 Square-spot Rustic (Xestia xanthographa) x 1

2109 Lesser Yellow Underwing (Noctua comes) x 2

1937 Willow Beauty (Peribatodes rhomboidaria) x 2

1906 Brimstone Moth (Opisthograptis luteolata) x 1 NFY

2353 Flounced Rustic (Luperina testacea) x 8

2110 Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing (Noctua fimbriata) x 1

2297 Copper Underwing (Amphipyra pyramidea) x 16

2117 Autumnal Rustic (Eugnorisma glareosa) x 1 NFY

2303 Straw Underwing (Thalpophila matura) x 1

0998 Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana) x 1

2293 Marbled Beauty (Cryphia domestica) x 1

A New Water Feature in the Garden

Brian's been keen on adding a waterfall feature to the rockery behind the pond for years. Earlier this year once he'd ascertained that the solar panel and pump which came with a garden fountain would power a waterfall, the fountain was put away and he began work on constructing a waterfall.

First job (after weeding the rockery)in the middle of July was to dismantle some of the rocks and try out different waterfall designs.



The hardcore was laid and then it was time to start constructing the actual waterfall.



This stone frog/toad will have a part to play in the final design!



Here it is nearly finished. The constant rain over the summer caused a lot of problems and it took ages for the cement to dry out.



Once the cement had finally dried it had to be coated with a non-toxic sealant to make sure no chemicals leaked into the pond and affected the pH of the water as we didn't want to damage the aquatic life already in the pond especially the common newts!



There was another long wait until the sealant had dried but finally at the end of August we were able to "switch on" the waterfall.







The final task was to start replanting the rockery. We bought some succulents and heathers and moved some primulas that were planted elsewhere in the garden.



The waterfall is proving a huge success with birds even more so than the pond! The little pools that form, whether the waterfall is working or not, are like a series of mini birdbaths. There were eleven goldfinches bathing and drinking in there this morning and last weekend we saw a young willow warbler.




Hopefully, it will blend in more with the existing rockery as the stones weather and we add more plants.