May Day  

 Warm weather, blue skies and sunshine heralded the start of a busy month on the farm. The antics of a pied wagtail are the topic of conversation in the farmyard. For several days now it has kept attacking its reflection in the rear mirror on the JCB, even resorting to “running” at it and hitting the glass quite hard! The machine is used every day, but the wagtail is around when it returns to the shed. It must think the reflection is an intruder to its territory.

2 – Escaped from sheep and lambs today to walk part of the Salter’s Road, an old cross border route that passes briefly through the top of the valley. Walked southwards from Low Blakehope. A wonderful experience of space and solitude, hill tops and skies. Peace spoilt by six trail bikes. Their narrow wheels have made an awful mess in places. Sadly the bikes are legally entitled to use the route because in the late 1700s it was designated as a “road immemorial”.

Saw curlews, peewits and skylarks too numerous to count and, unusually, several other walkers. Fresh mint and watercress in the Shank burn. On the way home looked at some old boundary stones between Ingram and Prendwick farms. Each has Roman numerals on the top, (we saw X1V-XIX, 14 – 19) a “P” on one face and an “I” on the other, the initials of the farms. The stones marked the boundaries in the days before fences. 

3 – A hang glider landed accidentally amongst the sheep in the Dene Field as Johnny was doing the evening round. Most apologetic, he was, not that it was a problem. Blamed the air currents in Fawdon Dene for blowing him off course!

5 – Walked the in-bye ewes and lambs up from two Bottom fields to sheep pens for “dosing” with worm drench. Those fields now shut off for silage. Noticed the water avens coming into flower again at the White Bridge. Pleased they have survived last year’s major engineering works. Our next-door-neighbours, the Shells, finished sowing our Big Field away to grass. Hopefully it will give a late cut of silage.

6 – Rashery Field sown to barley. Son Ross, “rolling in” behind the tractor and combination drill (this breaks down the soil to a fine tilth and sows the seed at the same time), cleverly made detours around six peewit nests. Well camouflaged, the nests are impossible to spot from a tractor unless the bird is sitting. Peewit chicks hatched on Wether Hill.

Sightings this week include a badger on the farmhouse drive at Brandon, a roe deer on Ewe Hill and our farmyard squirrel. A pair of sandpipers and a dipper flew downriver at Ingram Bridge. Bird nuts in the garden still much enjoyed by “the regulars” - great spotted woodpeckers, goldfinches, great tits, blue tits, house sparrows, greenfinches and chaffinches. A wrens and pied wagtail are nesting in the clematis at the farmhouse. A neighbour reported house martins investigating nest sites in the porch. Another has a “tame” pheasant which feeds out of the hand.

8 – Grey wagtail at Ingram Bridge. Contrary to its name it is a colourful bird with yellow breast and a blue-grey back. Particularly likes being near rushing water.

10 – Walked the dogs early morning. Rescued a mug of tadpoles (I’d drunk my tea!) from Tadpole Corner. Drying up with no rain. Tipped them into the pond and disturbed a moorhen with chicks. We made the pond in the mid 1980s. Surrounded by trees it is an undisturbed haven on the farm.

Cows and calves turned out of the shed today. First taste of freedom-and grass-for five months. Lovely to watch them, galloping and cavorting, then heads down to eat.

12 – Blackbird in the barn feeding a well-feathered fledgling. Saw only one, out of the nest. Didn’t like to look more closely for others.

Two men from the RSPB arrived to ring sandpipers and dippers on the river. They put a fine net “fence” across the water, but hadn’t had any luck when Johnny met them. The tally last year was three sandpipers and two dippers.

Two lambs born on the hill this morning.

13 – Adder seen basking on the hill. Identified by very distinctive zig-zag markings down its back. Their bite is poisonous but this usually only happens if disturbed or trodden on. Best given a wide berth.

14 – Jimmy Givens, retired National Park head warden, told Johnny that 11 years ago today, 1993, two inches of rain fell at Brandon and, at the other end of the valley, eight inches of snow fell at Blakehope!  Nothing like that this year but we do need some rain.

Saw cuckoo flowers today, but still no one has heard the cuckoo.

15 – A purple carpet of bluebells has appeared on the end of Fawdon Hill. Very visible from the valley road and much admired by locals and visitors alike.  

Moles are busy digging in the newly sown field of grass. Jim will set traps.

National Park and North Tyneside Search and Rescue teams are holding a joint exercise on the hill this weekend. Dramatic scenario involving peregrine egg hunters, an abandoned car and an injured hiker!

New sightings this week include yellowhammers, goosanders and a stonechat. The hen pheasant, for days discreetly observed sitting on her nest in the wood has hatched two chicks. Thankfully she quickly departed the nest site. It was very close to the road.

18 – The start of several busy days working with hill sheep. The ewes and lambs are “gathered” and brought in to the sheep pens. The lambs are castrated, “cutting” we call it, marked and dosed. The ewes get a dose as well. Most of this work is done in the pens at Ingram Hill cottage as opposed to the pens at the farm. Until the 1950s this small cottage was home to the hill shepherd. Did the twin lambs off both hills today. They are still in fields and quite easy to bring in.

4p.m. Gathered the back of the hill. Jim, John and neighbour Dave do the “Backside” on quads. I do the “Heather Shank” on foot with my three dogs, Sky, Alf and puppy Mac. So much nicer to work without noisy bikes! The hill is divided into hefts or cuts. The sheep instinctively know where they belong because they were born and bred there. Sheep gathered into new hill field, quite close to the pens. Left there for time being.   

19 – 6a.m. Gathered the “Glitters” and “Turf Knowe”, the front of the hill. The edge of the “Glitters” is a scree slope. I work my dogs from the road, up the hill, while Johnny and Jim work the top. Four ewes tried to pull a crafty one, slipping round the corner, in the opposite direction to the gather. Sky got them. That’s sheep for you! 

“Glitters” ewes to farm pens. “Turf Knowe” ewes to hill cottage field. A team of nine on the “assembly line” today, four Wilsons, four neighbours and a friend!

20 – 7a.m. Brought “Backside” and “Heather Shank” sheep down to the cottage. They definitely did not want to go in the pens. Broke away once but we got them. Hard work for the dogs, especially when lambs start running in all directions. Took coffee for seven up the hill at 11a.m.

Picked four tiny peewit chicks off the road on Brandon Banks and popped them over the fence into the field. Parent birds overhead, calling anxiously.

Our neighbours, Jane and Adrian, heard the cuckoo today near Ingram Bridge. At last!

21 – 5.30a.m. Still raining after a heavy fall last night. Good for the land but not for gathering. Sheep often not keen to move and damp to handle. Postponed the gather of Wether Hill until tomorrow, weather permitting.

22 – 6a.m. Lovely sunny morning. Walked my part, up Middle Dean and then onto the top of the hill. Saw lots of primroses, violets and tormentil. Sheep, about 500 or so, plus lambs, behaved reasonably well, until the pens. On this occasion we admitted defeat, at least until after breakfast.  

Looked the in-bye sheep on the quad. Concede it’s quicker than walking. Mule ewe stuck on her back on the Haugh, legs sticking up in the air, not a sight we ever like to see. So pleased I got to her in time. They can die in a matter of hours. Turned her right way up and off she went. The fleeces are very thick and woolly at this time of year. After rain they seem to get itchy and try to scratch which is when they get stuck.  

23 – Moved the four big pet lambs to new outdoor quarters in the paddock. They are now weaned off milk and eating dry food and grass.

26 – Brought in the mule ewe hoggs (last year’s female lambs) and the tups (rams) for clipping tomorrow. They are housed overnight in sheds to keep them dry.

27 – Shearers arrived just before 8a.m. We hire in New Zealanders to clip the sheep. Based locally from the end of May until August they contract clip on farms north and south of the border. Today’s team was three shearing and two “rolling up” or packing the wool. 

The shorn fleece is gathered up, folded loosely into a bundle and packed into a big open-topped sack called a “wool pack”.  Once the pack is full, it is stitched up and labelled, and lifted by the JCB to another part of the shed. When the season’s clipping is over the packs are taken by lorry to the mill at Galashiels in Scotland. Today it took just a little over two hours to shear 180 sheep.  

30 – Quite by chance discovered a pair of barn owls had nested successfully in an ash tree at the edge of the Big Field. Great news. Sister-in-law Pat had thrown a stone up at the tree in an attempt to dislodge the dogs’ toy. Much to her surprise out flew two owls! She could hear chicks but we don’t know how many.

31 – Nice sunny afternoon for the church fete at Brandon farmhouse. Thanks to a good crowd of locals and visitors, well-stocked stalls, and the usual, excellent, home made tea, it raised £1900.

Sightings this past week include brown hares, lots, and a roe deer. Hawthorn blossom is the best it’s been for several years. Lovely scent. The laburnum at the church is a striking cascade of yellow flowers, making up for last year when it didn’t flower at all. Sage, wild thyme and foxgloves are flowering near Peggy Bell’s Bridge.