Wowed by a Heron Sighting

Big news this morning. I've just seen a heron. There's a stream that runs through the farmyard and I'd done the hens, got them up, fed them, watered them and I was just walking over to have a look at the cows and the calves and this heron just rose up from the banks around the stream and it flew sort of away from me and then did a circle and all I could see were these really long legs, these long thin legs and this enormous wingspan and it sort of did a bit of a circuit and then flew away over the field but yeah that was unexpected and I just stood in the yard going wow wow oh wow because it was yeah just an awesome sight and I always think that herons are sort of symbolic of something. I think they're supposed to be messengers.

I used to see quite a lot of them at one point but that's the first one I've seen in a long time and I don't think I've ever seen one so close up. That was just incredible. So I shall be on the lookout because often what happens is birds come back to the same spot at least for a while so that would probably have been, I don't know, half eight-ish. They often come back at a similar time.

Last year I saw a kingfisher for quite a long period and that used to sit on the bridge on the arch as the stream goes under the bridge and I got to know sort of the time that it might be there and I used to creep about trying to see it and I saw it quite a few times but the best sighting was one day we were coming down the lane and we'd had to go the long way around. I think there must have been a bit of a flood at the other end of the lane so we'd driven the long way around and the kingfisher was just sat at the side of the lane on a branch of a tree and I stopped and it just sat there and I just looked at it and yeah that was that was really incredible. That was very close up it was literally a couple of feet away from me so yeah and then it flew it flew ahead of us in the car and that was quite spectacular as well. I think I seem to remember and I'm sure Chris would tell you that as we drove down the lane when I first spotted it I just went kingfisher kingfisher kingfisher because I was just so excited to see it. It's just there's such beautiful birds and such an amazing sight so yeah first today seeing the heron.

The calves are all fine. I judged the hay for the cows because they don't seem to like the hay that is near them they want the hay that's further away from them so I got the fork and just chucked that about a bit so they've got a pile of hay in front of them. These cows are quite shy and they're not handled a great deal. A lot of the time they're out in the field so they do their own thing but yeah I try and stroke them a little bit as much as they'll let me so they all had a teeny weeny stroke on their face this morning. I don't think they're keen but yeah it was like well I've judged your hay so I'll give you a little bit of a stroke today but yeah they are very funny and very shy very reserved.

The calves are doing fine and nutmeg and toffee are getting quite big and they'll be oh maybe three weeks old now and the other one that was born a couple of days ago I think it's a she that one's still quite black. Sometimes they're born black and then they get licked and cleaned up and the next time you see them they've changed colour. The first time that happened I thought I was seeing things because um I'd taken pictures in the morning and this calf was black and then when I came back it was a different colour and I was thinking was this the same one and but yeah they can change colour but this one does seem to be uma black calf. So they are part Wagyu and part Stabilizer. So this has obviously got more of the Wagyu colouring which is black.

I haven't come up with a name yet, I keep thinking what shall I call it. I was waiting to see whether it changed colour but yeah I need to think. I've kind of gone a bit down the food line, Toffee Nutmeg. So yeah I just need to think of a suitable name for this one. So yeah that's all my news from the farm this morning. I've got a few errands to go and run now so I'm going to go and do that and when I get home I shall publish this. Thanks for listening, bye for now.