1. This Apple orchard, which contains Bramley, Discovery and Egremont Russet varieties, provides a good nesting site for small birds such as Blackbirds, song and missel Thrush, Chaffinch, Gold and Greenfinch

  2. The ALDER SHELTER BELT in the orchard is to protect fruit from wind damage and is an important habitat for wildlife and predatory insects. Such as TYPHLODROMUS PYRI and TYDAEUS MITES these insects eat fruit tree red spider mites and rust mite. This reduces the neccesity for insecticides. Seeds in the small cones provide food in winter for tumbling birds such as Tits, Redpolls, and Siskins.The ALDER helps organic farming because it has nodules in its root system that hold natural nitrates, thus feeding the crops from natural resources. Alder wood is used for turnery and is sometimes made into tableware – condiments, salad bowls etc.

 

  1. The Raspberry and Tayberry plantation which is part of the PYO field.

  2. Strawberries: Planted in may 1999. They will crop this summer for the first time.

  1. The lake is a refuge for many species of flora and fauna giving a food chain for breeding frogs, toads and newts. Dragon and Damselflies live in the water for up to three years before becoming colourful flying insects predating on flies from the hedgerows on the farm. As you walk round the lake, different birds can be seen depending on the season. In summer swallows and martins will skim the water for insects to feed to the young in and around the farm and Abbey areas. In winter we may get a visit from Tufted Ducks and Teal (Britain’s smallest wild duck) Mallard, Swans, Moorhens and Coot stay all year round as do the water Voles that live in the bank of the lake.

  2. You will have noticed that the trail does not take you all the way round the waters edge. We would ask you not to enter the closed off eastside as wildlife needs a conservation area to live in and breed without disturbance from human beings.

  1. Viewpoint of the ruins of Hayles Abbey.

  1. As you bear right at the hut through the small copse, tree species are worth looking at. Notice the different shapes of the leaves and growth habitat of the branches.

  2. On your right, a newly planted Orchard in 1991. The varieties in the orchard are Cox Orange Pippin, Jonogold, Ida Red, Egrement Russet and Red Pippin. We have left a large Bramley Apple tree preserved from the old original orchard as part of our farming heritage. It is 120 years old.

  3. Leaving the viewpoint, cross the stream and on your right see the old apple stumps from a former orchard pushed into the corner, these are a very important habitat for wildlife. Mosses and fungi grow on them as they decompose. It is a home for Hedgehogs, Stoats, Weasels, Foxes and Rabbits.

  4. Here we have a Badgers set living just behind the tractor shed. A useful friend on a fruit farm because they enjoy digging out wasp nests and feeding on them.

  5. Follow the trail to the farm buildings and stop at the gate where farm machinery is stored and in the open building a nest box for the Barn Owl can be seen, one of the 200 in the country erected by former members of the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group to encourage this superb bird to live on farms to help control unwanted rodents.

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