Field & Stream

Flo the falcon on the roam, 90 miles from home and in the mood for love

FLO the Falcon, one of the peregrine chicks that fledged from the Cathedral tower in 2021, has been spotted 90 miles away from home as the crow flies, in Hertford, Hertfordshire.

British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) ringer, Nigel Jones contacted the Cathedral peregrine team to let them know that Flo (named for Florence Nightingale to mark the work of the NHS during the pandemic) had taken up residence on some prime real estate in the centre of the Hertfordshire county town.

Pictures of Flo captured on September 16th by Kevin Garrett and September 17th by Rose Newbold, plus a subsequent sighting by birdwatcher Tracey Burrows, all indicate that Flo has moved onto All Saints Church Tower. She was identified by her orange colour ring with the initials TND.

There were other potential sighting earlier in the year, in May, two miles down the road in the Lee Valley area.

According to local Hertfordshire BTO ringer Barry Trevis, Flo also has a mate and is the right age to start breeding. He has installed a nesting tray on the church to encourage the peregrine pair to settle. So, watch this space – or nest box

Osmund, another of the Cathedral’s falcons was spotted in Guernsey, photo by Carl Jones

– maybe next year Flo the Falcon will lay her first clutch.

Flo’s mate is ringed with a metal ring but does not carry a colour ID ring. The metal rings are somewhat harder to read from afar.

This is not the first time Flo has been in the news. In 2021, her first attempt at fledging on June 6th ended with a crash landing in the Salisbury Museum café gardens. Luckily Kate Barker, one of the museum staff, called in the Cathedral Peregrine team – nature conservation adviser Phil Sheldrake and clerk of works Gary Price – and was on hand to photograph and film Flo’s ‘rescue’. The fledgling was duly returned to the tower balcony to start all over again.

Flo is not the only Cathedral peregrine to have been spotted

Flo in Hertford, Photo by Rose Newbold

‘abroad’ in the last few years. In 2017 Peter (blue ID ring GX), who fledged in 2014, was discovered in a Hampshire quarry where he had established a nest and raised a number of chicks.

In the same year Aveline (blue ID ring SC), who fledged in 2016, was caught on camera by wildlife photographer and blogger Ashley Beolens around 80 miles as the crow flies from Salisbury, in Floodplain Forest Nature Reserve, Old Wolverton near Milton Keynes.

In April this year, Osmund (blue ID ring YK), who fledged in 2020, was spotted on the coast of Guernsey over 100 miles away from his birthplace in Salisbury.

Nigel Jones, who rings the Cathedral falcons, said: “It is great to see the colour ring system working so well. It allows us to discover where the fledglings go and whether they survive. Around 70% of young peregrines die in their first year, so every success story is welcome.”

The peregrines usually settle on the Cathedral’s south tower balcony around March, but are often in evidence during the winter months, just keeping an eye on things. So far, 27 chicks, including a once adopted orphan chick, have fledged from the tower since 2014, when the peregrines returned after an absence of just over 60 years.

Field & Stream ‘Time to maintain hedgerow havens’

by Tria Stebbing

With the sheep happily grazing, it is time to turn our attention to the security and maintenance side of the field. We plan to keep the ewes on autumn grazing in the next village for as long as there is good grass. This gives us time to look carefully at the hedges in our own field.

How boring…but it’s nice work in the wintery sun, and far better to have it sorted before the sheep come back. It is also a great social activity, and so many people stop to ask how to lay hedges.

Him indoors, or in our world ‘him outdoors’, has been working hard laying the hedges on our boundary. Hedgelaying is a craft that has been practised for hundreds of years. It allows the hedge to slowly increase in size and stay healthy, as well as providing a stock barrier and dense habitat for wildlife. If you see a hedge that looks as though it has been plaited or woven at the bottom rather than harshly cut across the top, the chances are that it has been laid. In different parts of the country there are even different styles of laying.

When you lay a hedge, you bend or partially cut through the shrubbery and arch the stems without breaking them so they can be intertwined, forming a dense base from which shoots will form future height.

Pleaching is the term used to describe the partially cut stem, which is laid over. Sap will continue to rise through this small piece and will force the plant to regenerate, shooting new life from its base. This is nature’s own mindfulness, to sit in the sun, pleaching and weaving the ‘liggers’, knowing that you are making a hedge secure, thick and a haven for nature.

Don’t confuse the delicate art of hedge laying with the work of the huge machinery currently flailing the hedgerows next to our roads. These hedges can only be cut back at certain times of the year – flailing is not allowed between 1 March and 31 August to protect nesting birds. It looks barbaric at times, but flailing is necessary to maintain light levels and to prevent the hedges encroaching into the fields or the roadside. Sadly, it’s simply not practical for a farmer to sit basking in the sun laying his hedge by hand, hence those big tractors crawling along with their huge arms spread out – usually when you are in a hurry!

Our sheep also do an amazing job of keeping the hedge back. One, who we call

black nose, is often found on her back legs working her way along the hedgerow picking her way through the leaves. There are other jobs too. The stock fence will need tensioning, because one of the lambs had a fascination for putting her head through it last spring – the grass always being greener on the other side of a fence. The field will be safer for this essential maintenance and when I am walking the perimeter in the dark and mud next spring trying to put the sheep to bed I will at least be confident that they can’t escape… I hope! Insurer moves to support farmers better

Farming insurance specialist Cornish Mutual is extending its range of services to better support farmers in an increasingly challenging climate.

“Farmers are going through a period of extraordinary challenge with the removal of farming subsidies and changes to environmental schemes, alongside pressures of climate change and high input prices,” said managing director Peter Beaumont.

“While the classic insurance response would be to diversify into other sectors we are doing the opposite and instead are increasing our commitment to the farming community.”

He added that results from a recent risk survey carried out by Cornish Mutual highlighted many farmers are deeply concerned about upcoming changes and unsure where to turn for information and advice.

Expanding its services beyond insurance products to help farmers manage risk would therefore assist businesses to build profitability and resilience, increase natural resources and protect people.

Partnerships with technology companies would enable Cornish Mutual to give members access to cutting edge products. An early example is a collaboration with Quanturi to provide members with the HAYTECH probe which can reduce the incidence of haybarn fires and protect hay quality.

Advice provision will also play an important part. The organisation’s new health and safety guide offers free advice and a template for farmers and farm managers to create risk management policies for their businesses.

Those needing more in-depth advice and support can access paid-for services which include farm visits and provision of policies to cover all aspects of health and safety including risk management and recordkeeping.

To find out more visit Cornish Mutual’s website www. cornishmutual.co.uk