January 21st 2008
January 2008 is shaping up to be one of the wettest for a long time, giving few crisp sunny days to wander along the hedgerows on the farm adjacent to our house in Boxford.Yesterday was however one of those few occasions, cold enough to be crisp and sunny enough to almost warrent sunglasses. It was interesting to see the remains of last years autumn harvest still on the trees, evidence of a none too hard winter for the birds and mammals in the neighbourhood.
There were several hawthorn berries still clinging to the still dead twigs, though their colour had lost it's fire long ago. The slightly damp remains of Wild Hops and enormous fluffy clusters of Old Mans Beard, still decorated the hedgerow and surprisingly large amounts of Field Maple 'helicopters' shone golden in the westering sun. That they persisted still was intriguing, given the high winds we have seen of late and the exposed nature of this hedge at the bottom of a long slope across a gigantic, modern arable field.
An intriguing contrast was supplied by the new growth abundantly on view. Buddleia, escaped from nearby gardens, had already burst into leaf, un-noticed before; and all along the field margin Elder was also putting forward it's new leaves though I've barely had time to forget those from 2007. Hazel, always surprisingly early, had a multitude of green-yellow male catkins which will soon be shedding pollen. Snowdrops are of course abundantly in flower now in mid January and the Wild Arum leaves are now fully formed and glossily standing proud in brown oak leaf beds beds.
Spring is certainly showing early this year.
Meanwhile the lake nearby is still high from the recent rain and threatening to overflow again if another deluge comes! But beneath the surface levels of silt continue to alarm. When the level is normal barely 10cms of free water now covers half the lake. Where the main farm drains feed the lake a great stream of brown water brings in more silt. When the flow hits the lake and is slowed down so it cannot carry the mud, this will fall and continue the process of turning the once thriving lake into a marshy wetland.
Bright green new leaves of Brooklime springing up around the margin show that mild winters and early springs can only speed this process up and numerous willow twigs blown in by gales will soon be shooting and rooting to bind the silt together. This is natural progression perhaps but this same lake was once home to a carpet of white Crowfoot flowers in the early summer and rare caddis and mayflies flittered across it's waters braving attack from a myriad of bats in the early evening gloom. The bats atre still there now feasting on innumerable mosquitoes but I can't help but feel sorry that their diet is impoverished. Certainly the invertebrate species count is much poorer now. What should be done? Nothing, some would say, 'Let nature take its course'. Trouble is the lake is artificial, as many farm ponds are, it is just a dammed stream on a boggy patch too wet to plough, but was a once useful store of water. When it was created however nature moved in and it became a refuge for freshwater invertebrates which are now at worst endangered or at best scarce across most of our land. Artificial habitats need artificial management to support our biodiversity goals.
So what can the farmer do? Dredge the lake of course, but money is tight regulations complex and difficult and who knows what a cocktail of chemicals the silt holds? So the lake shrinks and the mossies abound. I wonder how long it has left?
