With the meadow cut, the cover is blown for the voles and mice. There are four herons that patrol the meadow for easy food and the little rodents are thier prey. Herons are successful hunters as they have the ability to stand perfectly still and strike quickly and directly, without any lateral movement. Other carnivourous birds are joining in the feast, there are two kestrels zooming around and red kites and buzzards circling overhead. It must be like a war zone for the mice! Once captured they are devoured and their kidneys and stomachs are regurgitated - we have found these entrails on the tops of some of the round bales where dinner must be served!

Although Bristly Oxtongue isn't on our list of undesireable plants in the meadow, it is known to be invasive and therefore we decided to remove it. The plant seemed to colonate a band of low lying ground wherever we had scarified in the previous autumn. We didn't realise the problem untill it became visible above the grasses and then flowered. Another plant which we all like - the very extraordinary teasel - showed in some abundance infield this year, it normally sticks to the margins but has started to creep in. We decided to take these out whilst doing the Bristly Oxtongue. In all we must have dug up something like 500 plants before the hay cut. If we had left these, the seed would have spread and we could possibly have had a worse problem next year. Plus, these plants are prickly and I can't imagine would be palatable to the horses/cattle that would have to eat them - it would be like crunching into furniture tacks in your salad!

Its great to see a few of the flowers emerge as a result of our sowings last autumn. Self Heal is doing paticularly well at the downstream end of the meadow. I managed to capture what I think is a March Brown butterfly enjoying the nectar from the self-heal flower and hopefully moving pollen from this plant to the next so that we get naturally produced seed, ready to fall onto the soil during the hay cut at the end of August.

As mid-summer approached, four lucky surveyors were deployed to Storm Wildlife’s very own Halford Flood Meadow for a species count. A wildflower seed mix planted in September 2023 is now in full bloom, making June the perfect time for the annual species survey.

To ensure consistency year after year, our surveyors used What3Words to create precise sampling areas, helping us track the meadow’s transformation over time. The Photo Mapp app was invaluable for geolocating plant photos, ensuring accurate records for each quadrat. After the count, PlantNet identified the various species.

This year, there has been 110% increase in species compared to 2023! The meadow now boasts plants such as Ox-eye daisy, crested dogstail, and lesser trefoil. A heat map was created highlighting the most diverse areas, revealing that regions of a slightly higher elevation had the highest species count. We are ever hopeful these numbers will continue to rise next year.

We managed to plant 26 heritage apple trees into two of the three planned orchard areas in the first few weeks of April. The rare apple tree species were supplied by the very knowledgeable and entertaining Andy Howard (pictured). Andy also came to the meadow to advise and demonstrate how to properly plant a fruit tree. Thanks also to family members and Alistair Elliot from the village for helping to plant the trees.

Halford Flood Meadow has certainly played its part in flood alleviation this winter. The river has come over the lowered bank at the upstream end of the meadow eight times since October '23. It will be interesting to see what the river has brought with it - seeds, nutrients, undesirables - probably a combination of all of these. The three acres that were seeded with Emorsgate 08 seed mix is producing a good display of Lesser Celandine at the moment. This yellow early flowering perennial is new to the meadow this year and isn't in the Emorsgate mix. It is noticeably more dominant in the seeded area of the meadow than the non-seeded areas, this is possibly because of the scarifying in the autumn, opening up the soil to allow seeds to germinate that have been lying dormant in the seed bank for a number of years or have been dispersed via flooding from upstream sources. There are also seedlings emerging in the seeded area, at this stage it is difficult to tell exactly what they are, but the area is noticeably richer in species than any other part of the meadow - so very promising signs.

There have been four enquiries to purchase Biodiversity Net Gain units from the meadow and there are 24 units left to sell. These units can be sold to offset developments throughout England but are more financially viable for developments within the boundaries of Stratford District Council and Dunsmore and Feldon.

Will the seedlings that are emerging survive anymore flooding in the meadow? What are the seedlings? How much nutrient has the persistent winter flooding brought into the meadow? How quickly will the units sell? Whatever happens it will be interesting!