Hedgerows

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 The field boundaries in this part of the world tend to be either dry stone walls or hedges. Both types of boundary have their own unique ecosystems but hedges are special. Hedges are better and longer lasting than fences, and as well as providing stock proof boundaries provide a linear habitat for all sorts of wildlife. Many creatures use the protection of hedges to travel and hedges can become wildlife corridors. There is an excellent book by John Wright called "A Natural History of the Hedgerow" which I thoroughly recommend. Hedges can last for hundreds of years if they are properly maintained. A rough guide to the age of a hedge is to count the number of species of hedge component (trees and bushes) along a 30m stretch. If you multiply the total by 100 this will give an approximate age of the hedge. Below is a picture the hedge that lines one of our boundaries in the frost this morning - I reckon this to be at least 400 years old and there is evidence that there was a wall along the same line before the hedge grew up.


The hedgerow in the narrow lane needs to be cut once a year to keep the traffic flowing! Farmers have financial incentives (from government) to delay the cut until after all the birds have finished nesting. We have another bit of hedge on our land that marks the boundary between two fields. We let this hedge grow for a year or so before cutting it back. This hedge too grows along an old wall (which surely came first). The formula gives an age of 600 years for this hedge and the remains of the wall must be older.

Hedgerows provide shelter and nesting for birds and insects. Food for birds, shelter for hedgehogs weasels and stoats, navigation marks for bats etc. Hedgerows are an important part of our rural ecosystem.

Diary
A lovely morning with sunshine and frost today. The long tailed tits are still about and we get daily visits from the pheasants and the squirrels. My camera traps gave a better view of the animal I got a glimpse of in the last blog and thought might be an otter. A closer view makes it clear that I was talking nonsense and what I had seen was actually a polecat. The infra red lighting doesn't help as it washes out the finer markings. Here is the animal again.






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