Wildlife Archives - Raby Estates

Big Farmland Bird Count

raby — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 08:10:15 +0000

The Raby Team have taken part in the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) Big Farmland Bird Count.

As part of the initiative, we recorded the bird and species numbers at Raby Home Farm in County Durham and the Estate in Shropshire. The count aims to raise awareness of the important role that farmers play in the conservation of farmland birds and to provide a snapshot of the bird population on UK farms during a specific period. The count also helps to measure the impact of the conservation work that many farmers and shoots carry out, such as providing extra food and habitat for birds.

At Raby Home Farm, we are part of stewardship schemes to encourage birdlife with roughly 100 acres dedicated to feeding birds in the winter months. Alongside this, the cover crops and hedgerows provide suitable habitats.The wider Estate offers several habitats such as farmland, woods, scrubland and wetland, which support a diverse range of birds, from swans to buzzards to pipits.

On a beautiful morning in County Durham, staff and volunteers donned their boots and binoculars to take part in the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust’s Big Farmland Bird Count. Ably assisted by the Estate’s keepers, each team spent half an hour spotting birds across various fields, parks and hedgerow sites in both the Durham and Shropshire Estates. Whilst the event’s main aim was to support GWCT in understanding the species and numbers of birds in the landscape, it was also a great opportunity for different people, from different departments, to get together, get to know one another a little better, have a little bit of fresh air and exercise, and a lot of fun.

The most frequently spotted types of birds were corvids – rooks, crows and jackdaws and gulls – herring gulls, black-headed gulls and common gulls in the main. However, in Durham, the single most identified bird was the Lapwing, a UK priority species, which has suffered declining populations across the country due to changing farming practices since the 1970s. Other birds identified included game birds – mostly pheasants; ubiquitous pigeons and starlings; raptors, including buzzards, a barn owl and a single red kite; herons and other waterfowl, typically teal, shelduck, mallards and moorhens, whilst songbirds, like blue tits, thrushes and various finches, despite their very audible chittering and noisy clamouring in the bushes, were not actually seen in more than ones and twos at most of the sites.

Meanwhile, in Shropshire, despite the poor weather, the Raby Shropshire Team managed to spot a more colourful array in the gloom: greenfinches, goldfinches, linnets and yellowhammers were seen across varied areas of cover crops, wild bird seed mixes, hedgerows and arable land. It was the first time that Raby has taken part in the survey, which will now continue each year to enable us to gather valuable information on the birds present across the Estate and hopefully track the impact of the various Environmental Stewardship and wildlife friendly farming initiatives we have adopted across the land.

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Largest ever peatland project completed in the North Pennines

raby — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 14:13:33 +0000

The North Pennines AONB Partnership is celebrating the completion of its largest and most complex peatland restoration project to date, as part of the Great North Bog initiative.

Raby Estates worked in partnership with the AONB team and a tenant farmer, John Bell, to complete a programme of restoration on Valance Lodge, a landholding in Upper Teesdale. The 96-hectare site was a severely eroded area of blanket bog and, if left unrestored, the damaged peat would have leached carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to further climate change.

Valance Lodge in numbers:

1190 tonnes of stone to build 928 stone dams and 1020 coir rolls used to raise the hydrology and slow the flow of rainwater from the high moors
5,738 bags of moss-rich nurse crop to protect the peat and kickstart revegetation
150 wool rolls used to trial sheep’s wool as a new material for restoration
Over 15km of eroded peat haggs re-profiled
Lime, seed and fertiliser spread over 14 hectares of bare peat
63,000 cottongrass plug plants and 63,000 sphagnum plug plants, planted by hand
90,000 sphagnum clumps harvested, chopped and spread
The North Pennines AONB Partnership has restored an area of peatland four times the size of Newcastle in the last 17 years.

This was the AONB Partnership’s first multi-year project, extending over three years, and was the largest ever in scale. The total budget of £1.2million, came from a funding package of multiple funding sources, bringing together public funding with private sector investment.

The North Pennines AONB Partnership is working with other protected landscapes and peat partnerships in the North of England, collaborating on the Great North Bog coalition.

Working at scale with multiple sources of support is central to the Great North Bog coalition’s ambitious, landscape-scale approach to upland peatland restoration and conservation. A long-term funding, restoration, and conservation plan across nearly 7000 square kilometres of peatland soils in the Northern Protected Landscapes will store 400million tonnes of carbon and will make a significant contribution to the UK’s climate and carbon sequestration targets.

The Valance Lodge site was the largest area of bare peat on the estate and the restoration work presented logistical challenges for the AONB team, the estate team, and the contractors, JW Bainbridge Contractors Ltd. Most peatland sites are difficult to access with the machinery and materials needed for restoration, but at the size of over 150 football pitches and with challenging terrain, the task was even more difficult. The bulk of the materials were airlifted in by helicopter as much of the site is inaccessible any other way.

Innovative new methods of restoration were used, alongside the tried and tested techniques that the AONB team has successfully used throughout the exposed uplands of the high North Pennines.

Tenant farmer, John Bell, was commissioned to make large rolls from his sheep’s wool, which were used to create dams to slow the flow of water from the high moorland site. John produced 150 one-metre rolls using the wool from his own fell sheep, bound with coir netting. The trial was seeking to establish if the sheep’s wool rolls can replace coir as a suitable material for use in peatland restoration. Permission was granted from the Animal and Plant Health Agency to use the wool in the trials providing it was sourced from sheep grazing the same parcel of land that the bare peat is on.

For the first time, contractors carrying out reprofiling of severely eroded peat haggs or gullies, borrowed turves from well-vegetated areas immediately adjacent to the bare peat. Once in place, these turves stop erosion immediately.

In another trial, a total of 90,000 Sphagnum moss clumps from healthy donor sites elsewhere on the estate were harvested and chopped, then spread across bare peat areas, followed by a mulch of coarser cut vegetation. Revegetation has begun successfully with this method.

Joe Robinson, our Land Agent , said: “We’re very pleased to have been part of this collaborative approach to restore such a large area of land. It’s also extremely positive that this project is part of the wider, pan-Northern collaboration for peatland restoration in the form of the Great North Bog.”

Kate Cartmell Done, Senior Peatland Field Officer for the North Pennines AONB Partnership, said: “This was an immense project to tackle, on a scale we’ve not worked on before. We’ve learned a lot from this project, and we’ve been able to use this experience and knowledge as we begin work on other larger sites across the North Pennines AONB.

“What has been a great success has been the partnership working, with the Raby Estate team, and the shooting tenant from another part of the estate, as well as John Bell, the farmer.

“Having the multi-year project also meant we were able to develop a long-term, working partnership with our brilliant contractors, JW Bainbridge. We’ve all been able to see the restoration work becoming established over the three years we’ve been on site, which really helps to demonstrate the value of this work for nature recovery and helping to tackle climate change.”

Funding for the Valance Lodge restoration came from Defra (including Countryside Stewardship and the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme), Natural England’s Nature for Climate Fund, The National Lottery Heritage Fund via the Tees-Swale programme, the EU LIFE Programme (Pennine PeatLIFE), and private sector support from Morgan Sindall Group.

Graham Edgell, Director of Procurement and Sustainability at Morgan Sindall Group remarked: “We understand the need to play a significant role in reversing habitat loss and improving the condition of our peatlands. Our partnership is an excellent example of a private sector organisation working with the conservation sector to deliver this level of landscape-scale restoration. The results to date have been outstanding and we look forward to further collaboration.”

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An Autumn to Remember

raby — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 09:07:04 +0000

Autumn is a beautiful time to enjoy a visit to Raby. The strong seasonal colours of reds, oranges, yellows and browns can be seen in splendour around our circular waterfall trail at High Force and the Deer Park at Raby Castle. With that slight nip in the air, Autumn is the perfect time to cosy up with a book or wrap up in your favourite scarf and head out for a walk. As the seasons shift there will also be some exciting displays on the wildlife calendar to watch out for across the Park.

Here are our top things to look out for this Autumn across the Estate:

Autumn Colours

September, October and November are a beautiful time to experience Raby in its full autumnal glory. Enjoy a walk around the Deer Park at Raby Castle and see the seasonal shift of the leaves as they turn to browns and golds. Or pull on your walking boots and explore our circular route at High Force to experience the bursts of colour on your way to the waterfall, a brilliant contrast against our conifer trees. Pick up a pinecone or a leaf to take home as a keepsake of your visit. After the lightness and brightness of Summer, Autumn really brings the landscape to life through its bold dark colours, nature’s final hurrah before Winter.

Deer Rutting Season

The rutting season, or ‘the rut’ is part of the deer’s annual cycle at Raby. Every Autumn the males compete for the attention of females by putting on an impressive display. People come from miles around to see and hear the incredible clash of antlers and the roar as the males make their challenge. We do please ask visitors not to approach the deer during this time, but you can still see the spectacle from a safe distance so bring your binoculars!

Migration and Hibernation

As the weather turns colder, birds across the Estate will start their migration to warmer climates for the Winter season. Swallows will depart our shores and make their way south, as other birds are gearing up to do the same. In Autumn fieldfare, redwing and bramblings will make their way from the cold climates of Scandinavia and Russia to the relative warmth of the UK. The striking red berries of hawthorn and rowan provide food for these Winter visitors. You might spot squirrels gathering their supplies for the long months ahead too. Keep your eyes peeled along the River Tees and you might be lucky enough to see a salmon journeying in from the Atlantic Ocean making the perilous journey upstream to its spawning grounds.

Stargazing

We are incredibly lucky in the North Pennines to have a large number of Dark Sky Discovery Sites including at Cow Green Reservoir and Low Force Waterfall, ideal locations to see the stars. Our High Force Hotel runs Stargazing Suppers throughout the Autumn months where visitors can enjoy a three-course meal followed by a guided stargazing experience. Visit our What’s On page to see upcoming dates. Or why not download an app for your own evening of discovery? Learning to read the stars is an incredible skill that can aid navigation and tell you more about our universe. Or simply go out to enjoy the peaceful spectacle of the constellations above you. If you’re lucky you may even get to witness the Northern Lights which can occasionally be seen from the North Pennines. Find out where your nearest Dark Sky Discovery Site is.

Halloween

We love Halloween at Raby. This October Half Term The Plotters’ Forest will be ghoulishly dressed for an exciting spooky trail. You might spy our woodland sculptures hiding round a corner so beware of scary spiders and our wicked witch. This year we’re inviting families to bring their carved pumpkins to Raby to be displayed around the gardens, so get your creative hat on! We can’t wait to see your designs. If you’re feeling extra brave, come along to our After Dark event and experience the trail at night.

Water Levels

The rising water levels with increased rainfall during Autumn will add to the spectacular sights of Cauldron Snout and High and Low Force Waterfall. This time of year is when High Force is at its most powerful, flowing with tremendous speed before plunging 21 metres into the pool beneath. If we have had a prolonged period of severe cold, you might even see it freeze!

Fall Flavours

As the weather gets colder we will be phasing out our Summer salads and staples in place of an Autumn palette at High Force Hotel and our Yurt Cafe at Raby Castle. Cosy up with a delicious hot chocolate or pick from our selection of warming dishes. Our Yurt Cafe will be serving a mouth-watering selection of jacket potatoes, quiche and frittatas this year. Vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options are available too, just ask our friendly staff to advise.

Autumn Shopping

Our Stables Shop will be enjoying a refresh this season and will have a beautiful array of new items on display. From books and boardgames to homeware, blankets, local produce and children’s games, there is plenty to browse. If you’re looking to fit in some early festive shopping, we will be launching our Christmas items on Thursday 3rd November 2022 with a special shopping evening with mulled wine and possibly a visit from Father Christmas himself!

We’d love to see your Autumn pictures at Raby.

For Raby Castle please tag us on Facebook at @rabycastle, Twitter at @rabycastle and Instagram at @rabycastleofficial.

For High Force please tag us on Facebook at @HighForceHotelWaterfall, Twitter at @HighForceWater and Instagram @highforcehotelwaterfall.

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The Resurgence of Salmon in the River Tees

raby — Sat, 07 Nov 2020 09:47:08 +0000

The River Tees has a reputation among anglers as some of the best wild Brown Trout water in the North of England. This was proven by the success of the Northern River Masters, held on the Estate in July 2020, which saw 501 Trout caught and released over two days during the competition.

Whilst wild Brown Trout are a regular sight on the Tees, another species of fish showing a resurgence is the Atlantic Salmon. Salmon are a
magnificent fish that are born in fresh water and migrate large distances out to sea, returning to the exact same stream that they were born in years later to restart the cycle.

Salmon have always been present in the River Tees but numbers had declined over recent decades, as they have throughout the world, due to commercial overfishing at sea, predation and rising sea temperatures. Other factors that have added to the decline of salmon in the Tees are industrial and agricultural pollution, The Tees Barrage and the construction of Cow Green Reservoir in the late 1960s, which reduced the availability of gravel essential for their spawning grounds. The Tees, however, is now a ‘healthy’ river that has been the focus of many environmental measures designed to protect and support the habitats and improve water quality.

The number of fish in rivers is generally measured by catch records or by fish counters. There is a fish counter in the Tees Barrage which provides some data but only covers part of the river and counters are notoriously temperamental meaning that some fish pass uncounted. With regards to catch records, fishermen generally like to catch fish and so will tend not to fish a river if they don’t believe they stand a chance of catching anything.

It has been said by anglers that there aren’t any Salmon in The Tees, this brought rise to an idea of a Salmon Angling Weekend which was supported by the Tees Rivers Trust and organised by Fly Fishing Yorkshire. 120 anglers descended on the River for the last weekend in October 2019 actively targeting Salmon. Whilst the numbers of fish caught were low, it was exciting to prove that there are indeed Salmon in the River Tees and the anglers certainly enjoyed the hospitality of the High Force Hotel which was used as a base for the competition.

This Salmon fishing season (which runs from 1st February to 31st October) has seen reports of Salmon being caught all along the Tees with a number of fish being landed on the Raby Estate water in Upper Teesdale, the largest of which weighed 15lbs.

No one knows why a Salmon will take a fly or lure, given that they do not feed in fresh water and only return to spawn, so to catch a Salmon is an incredibly exciting experience and this is why anglers spend a lot of time and money travelling the world to try and do so. The recent activity has proved beyond doubt that Salmon are back in the River Tees and anyone wishing to fish the Raby water can do so, in season, by purchasing a day ticket or season pass through the website.

Will Witchell, Rural Surveyor

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Keep a safe distance from the baby deer

raby — Tue, 21 May 2019 19:14:53 +0000

During May, June and July, our female deer give birth and although it is very exciting to see babies around the park we always remind our visitors to respect their privacy and keep a safe distance.

If you see a baby deer in the park do not approach it, even if it appears to be on its own. Its mother won’t be too far away and you could be putting the calf and yourself at risk by going too close.

There are a couple of important reasons why mothers and babies should be left alone. Mothers can become aggressive when protecting their young and we would encourage parents to make sure their children are aware of the potential danger so that they don’t approach the young calves.

Another reason for giving the babies plenty of privacy is that their mothers may not return to feed them if they smell human scent near the calf.

Dogs should be kept on a short lead at all times during May, June and July.

If you have any questions about the deer and their young during your visit our staff will be more than happy to help. Just ask one of our team.

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Raby’s Longhorn Cattle

raby — Fri, 05 Apr 2019 12:43:01 +0000

There has been a Longhorn herd at the castle since the 1970s. Over the years our cattle have won numerous trophies at various agricultural shows and we have had a number of Breed Champions at the prestigious Great Yorkshire Show.

The herd was established and managed for many years by the late Peter Boylett whose hard work and dedication as farm manager at Raby Estates helped to create one of the country’s premier Longhorn herds here at the castle.

Longhorn cattle originate from the north of England and are well known for their easy-going temperament, hardiness and longevity.

Last summer we welcomed the arrival of a new bull, Raby Southfield Puma to our herd of Longhorn cattle at Raby Castle.

People tell us that they enjoy seeing the Longhorn cattle grazing in the castle grounds over the summer months. They are a welcome seasonal spectacle along with the deer in Raby Park and we feel they enrich the experience for our visitors.

Look out for the Longhorns when you’re visiting the castle this season.

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