January 25th, 2021

restored from 09/01/2020

​It’s only week two of January & we’re off on a flying start to 2020 at Berrycroft Hub!
We were probably just a little too excited when our new BTO bird feeders arrived. Sally-Ann now has them hanging in the Hub’s garden area giving it a definite Springwatch style vibe as our 2020 garden bird monitoring begins.
We’ve also been hosting a couple of film crews as Ancient Craft - James Dilley has been in the limelight again. (As usual we are sworn to secrecy until official release dates).
There’s been some Bronze Age art work going on in the indoor classroom with a session on pen & ink drawing. These looked fantastic finished in their frames & ready to hang!
Keeping on the prehistory theme we’ve been doing more field walking on our Mesolithic site beside the Hub & have found plenty of flint flakes, cores & blades. These are all being recorded & it’s exciting to think people have been knapping flints on this exact spot since the last ice age!
Our farmland bird project has also started in earnest for 2020 with two new owl boxes installed & plenty of barn owl activity being recorded. We have three pairs of barn owls all hunting on our field margins at present & it’s been wonderful to watch them. The short-eared owls are back again for their winter with us & we’ve been regularly seeing our tawny owls that live in the wood near the Hub too. Plenty of little owl screeching was recorded just before Christmas but they’ve gone quiet now. We know they are active & finding plenty to eat by all the pellets under their tree hole.
On the subject of birds, our much loved & somewhat mischievous resident jackdaw, Harry, has amassed a large collection of Christmas cracker toys & is guarding them like Smaug the dragon. Touch them at your peril!
Similar to us, Harry is not a great fan of these early dark mornings & has taken to sulking when the lights turn on & the kettle starts to sing. We have all been left in no doubt that our rattling around getting breakfast ready is definitely disturbing his lie-in.