Trapezoids, Owls and a Tumultuous Tenure

Tadah! and here we are moving towards “Full Fall”








Morning's at Seven; The Hillside's dew-pearled; The snail was on the wing and the lark on the thorn

or rather the other way round - etc. etc.

And that’s what a month of rain can do to the mood of a man and also the general health of a chalk stream.

Here's the stretch of the Upper Dever that was causing so much consternation just over a month ago,

Here’s the latest press on the plight of these special rivers. Monday’s Thunderer to be precise.





Well done everyone, keep it up. The fear of flooding will dominate the press again soon and a wet week in winter will once again be demonised rather than be promoted as a welcome default state in some valleys in the south.

In the village the spring ditch that borders the football pitch and emanates from the field known across the ages as “Spring Bottom remains dry, although good burghers have been busy clearing it out in preparation for it to run once again. If the spring does break it will be the first time since the winter of 2013/14. During my tumultuous tenure as football pitch groundsman that began in 2002 and was terminated in 2012 after the shape of the pitches marked out were betrayed by Google Earth.

From memory the terms "irregular" and "trapezoid" were invoked in the hearing.

I was not however stripped of my Hants FA Groundsman of the Year award 2011, a controversial win, which was judged by the head groundsman at the Madjeski Stadium whose name I forget.




Anyway,

The ditch ran most winters which caused one corner of the pitch to become quite soggy in March and April and I was unable to mark out a pitch. Several seasons an alternative pitch had to be sought to complete the final few fixtures.

Following the pitch marking fiasco I am currently not allowed near football pitch touchlines, although I am aware that all fixtures have been completed at the ground since 2014.

I’ve just been out with the dogs and once again there is a tawny owl hooting away in a tree on the other side of the river. I’d like to think it is the juvenile we hand reared with finest chicken last year but I doubt it. He was a miserable fecker, very grumpy who flew the nest without even a thank you flap of the wings.

We live in an owl rich environs with long eared, short eared, barn and little varieties all present within a mile of our back door. It may be the reason why the old school uniform in the local primary school that both our children attended had a large owl on the front.

For a few years the flat roof of our home was a favourite perch for a Little Owl. A voluble cove, he would regularly wake us up with his screeches and one of us would have to get up and bang the window to move him on. We don’t hear as many little owls around here as we once did.

I’ve seen a few hares this week. We still have a brace on the river bank but the field behind our home is once again playing host to several Leporidae. It’s only five acres in size but hares have always gathered there in numbers each spring to muck about and mate. It’s the only place I have ever seen a parliament of hares, nine or ten of them sitting in a wide circle oblivious to all else around them.

This week I have seen half a dozen via the medium of the bathroom window, which is encouraging.

In cold weather they move away to a sheltered depression in a hundred acre field that borders the road, on a frosty morning it is often possible to pick out a dozen or more hares in the small valley formed by the two shallow paps.

The two grayling fishermen that have visited so far have found it hard going, although two fish over two pound have been caught. The roach are proving to be particularly fickle but there are a few nice fish about on the bottom bends. There are also a few pike pushing double figures which could be fun on the fly once winter sets in. The Pike took a bit of a hammering from Tarka a few years ago so it is good to see a few mature fish about, although not too many.

There is also a sizeable pike in the flight pond.

I have been busting a gut cutting phragmites for a couple of days and it moved a lot of water when it shot out into open water to avoid the swish of my scythe. There are still a few small roach and rudd in the pond that spawn each year and will serve as dainties for Percy Pike, but all the bigger bream, tench and forty-year old carp went the way of the otters some years ago now. On a day for disturbing things I turned up on the tractor this morning and flushed two woodcock from the wood by the pond. We seem to entertain more and more woodcock each winter often when it is cold somewhere else east of here.

Returning to worries about the water. It is great that awareness of an aquifer under pressure is on the increase and also awareness of the role that groundwater plays in day to day life for millions of people.

Individuals, Organisations Associations and Trusts all have a part to play in calling out those who threaten groundwater levels in chalk levels, and it must be made priority number one on the list of “Things to do to protect chalk rivers”. Promoting a more sustainable use of a diminishing groundwater supply in order to help these precious rivers cope with increasingly dry conditions is of equal importance.

Yes the habitat restoration and yes the push for increased biodiversity, but woody debris and faggots in a chalk stream run dry are nothing more than a bonfire waiting to be formed and fired.

Right now, it's all about the groundwater.