Otters, Otters everywhere – and some here in Torbay!
In my last blog I said that I thought a mink was eating some of the carp in the lakes. I was wrong it turned out to be otters of which I have never seen in the wild before. I went up to check the ponds at about dawn one morning to chase off the cormorant that had been hanging around and to my surprise there where two others two otters happily swimming around in the middle lake when they saw me they didn’t hang round long. It was amazing to see them but having just restocked with fish I could off done without them being there. Apparently they have an 8 mile hunting range, so as we are no more than 2 miles from the sea in one direction and about 1 mile from the river teign estuary in another we are well within reach of them.
On the farm the cattle are mostly turned out from the barn onto grass now and as I write we have had a heifer calf. It’s nice not having to feed and bed them up for a change after a long winter. We are also ploughing a field for spring barley at the moment but will we will need a bit of rain before we sow it as it’s too try at the moment and for the first time in quite a few years I am planting some potatoes so it will be interesting to see how they do.
I have been very busy getting ready for the coming holiday season the bell tents are now ready to let and the new yurt is also complete and looks great.