• May Day on the Farm.

  By The Bevis Trust In Beavers, Countryside, Farming and Wildlife, Native Species, Rewilding, Uncategorized, Wetlands | May 5, 2017

  Spring has been slow, which is how we like it. Birds are nesting everywhere. The wrens in the Bevis Shed are nesting in the motor of the sawmill so we cannot mill any planks. An immaculate pair of bullfinches are busy shredding fruit buds in the orchard, which is not so good. I watched at…

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• Beaver Watching

  By The Bevis Trust In Beavers, Countryside, Farming and Wildlife, Native Species, Rewilding, Uncategorized | April 19, 2017

  Nick has built a lovely new bench down at Skinny Dipping pond. It gives a gorgeous view of the pond and the valley. In the next couple of weeks beavers will start to become very active in the later daylight hours, usually from around 19.00. It’s the time we love the best, just sitting, watching…

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• Predator Control

  By The Bevis Trust In Countryside, Farming and Wildlife, Native Species, Rewilding | April 10, 2017

  I’ve just returned from New Zealand where there has been a major crisis in wildlife management ever since mammalian predators were introduced in Victorian times. Rats, stoats, weasels, ferrets, cats, hedgehogs, possums, rabbits, hares, pigs, goats and deer all either predate native wildlife or wreck the habitat. Efforts have been made to control their numbers,…

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• In Like a Lion…

  By The Bevis Trust In Countryside, Farming and Wildlife, Rewilding, Wetlands | March 20, 2017

  …out like a lamb, or so they say about March. We are almost into the last week of the month and it’s still feeling very lion-like and the forecast is only set to get colder and wetter through the week. It’s making the reinstatement work very difficult at Ricketts Mill. A few dry days last…

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• New Ponds and Frogs

  By The Bevis Trust In Countryside, Farming and Wildlife, Rewilding, Uncategorized | March 13, 2017

  Really gratifying to see new tadpoles hatching in one of the ponds we have recently made. Toads are doing well here too but it’s saddening to see how many are being killed on the road every night. The herons too are taking their toll. They kill them but then find them unpalatable so it’s a…

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• Visits and Events

  By The Bevis Trust In Countryside, Farming and Wildlife, Uncategorized | February 16, 2017

  Yesterday we hosted a group of interested folks from both NRW and Carmarthen Council. Organised by Craig at JCR Planning, it was a great opportunity to talk to people about the work we are doing at Ricketts Mill and the broader beaver project. Over the past couple of weeks we have also attended the PONT…

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• The Good Guys

  By The Bevis Trust In Countryside, Farming and Wildlife, Uncategorized | February 1, 2017

  Western Power Distribution – what can I say? Their amazing guys have been working to get the old power lines down today in appalling conditions. A real heroic effort. And what a difference it’s made. Already the view is much improved but much more importantly, wildfowl and other birds visiting the lakes are now much…

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• Natural Resources Policy

  By The Bevis Trust In Countryside, Farming and Wildlife, Uncategorized | January 23, 2017

  Last week Jo and I attended the Natural Resources Policy Consultation Engagement Event in Cardiff. The title is certainly a mouthful and it was with some trepidation that we traveled to the capital, fearing perhaps some jargon laden attempt at schmoozing the environmental ‘stakeholders’. We could not have been more wrong, yes, of course there was a…

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• Progress Down at t’Mill

  By The Bevis Trust In Countryside, Farming and Wildlife, Uncategorized | January 18, 2017

  We have been making great progress down at Ricketts Mill. Steve has been pulling back the banks of the former trout lake to create shallow areas and we have been planting some of these with reeds. Reed planting is on hold for a while because of avian flu. We are planting up the exposed earth…

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• Establishing Wetlands

  By The Bevis Trust In Countryside, Farming and Wildlife, Uncategorized | December 16, 2016

  We have been very busy down at Ricketts Mill. The plan is to turn the old trout farm into a focal point for the Trust’s activities where students and land managers can come to get first-hand experience of management techniques. The existing lake was built for trout fishing and drops sheer at the banks to…

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