Spring marches on

It's been a few weeks since I wrote the last blog for Lambriggan Court but we have been so busy with all our guests over the Easter period and since that I have just been unable to find the time. I decided this morning after clearing breakfast that I would sit down and catch up with all that has been happening . The two new suites were finished just in time for our Easter guests and it was lovely to see the surprise and delight on their faces when they saw The Lemon Suite and The Furniss Suite for the first time. It really was worth all the extra effort to create these very special, beautiful rooms.
The weather forecast for this weekend was absolutely awful but so far we seem to have escaped it here at Lambriggan Court. The sun is shining through the kitchen window and the grasses and Cornish Palms are blowing in a balmy breeze. A few clouds but generally a beautiful blue sky. I can just hear the surf pounding the beach over the hill in Perranporth.
There are some new sounds in the dawn chorus at the moment. A Greater Spotted Woodpecker can be heard tapping away at the telegraph post down in the field. They usually inhabit woodlands and parks and old trees but I imagine that to a Greater Spotted Woodpecker a telegraph pole will suffice. I do hope it misses the wires! The GSW is quite distinctive by a large white shoulder patch that catches the eye. There are 180 species of Woodpeckers, of which only three are British and gained their English name because of the habit of some species tapping and pecking noisely on tree trunks with their beaks.
The other noisy morning visitors at the moment are the Canadian Geese flying overhead in their V-shape formation signaling that Spring has arrived.
Wandering into our newly planted walnut orchard have been the Red Deer -eyeing up the new shoots. This has meant extra work for us to put fences around the saplings to protect them or we would lose the whole orchard to the deer.The Red Deer is one of the largest deer species and the European Red Deer tend to have reddish/brown summer coats. Only the stags have antlers which start growing in the Spring and are shed each year , usually at the end of Winter. Stunning animals to look at but unfortunately could create total devastation in our orchard.
This morning there was a moorhen on the top lake who soon moved her newly-hatched brood to the lower lake away from one of the male swans. Moorhens are from the coot family and are only about 13 inches in length. Both parents incubate their eggs and then feed their young on insects which they find by picking through water reeds. The eggs usually hatch over a period of 2-3 days and then the young will swim off with one of the adults. As they mature their diet expands to include vegetation, insects and worms. They have multiple broods each year as they lose many young to foxes and other predators (including swans!).
Elsewhere at Lambriggan Court the hedges are budding, the gunnera (like giant rhubarb) have sprouted after hibernating for the Winter, the cherry trees are in full bloom and there is a carpet of primroses and wild violets. The Mallard ducks are splashing around in the fountain in the courtyard , four pairs of owls are now nesting and four baby wallabies are entertaining our guests. We have established that at least one of the grey wallabies is carrying a white baby or 'joey'.
However the most exciting 'happening' this week is discovering that one of the rare goose eggs we put in the incubator is definitely alive and kicking and if all goes well a hatching is due on Tuesday or Wednesday this week. Nene geese (pronounced nay-nay) - a native of Hawaii and a couple of the other nearby islands were brought to the brink of extinction in the early 1940's. Sir Peter Scott - the renowned naturalist was given special permission to take 6 pairs from the wild and initiate a captive breeding programme. This continues today as the nene geese are still very much on the endangered species list. We are keeping our fingers crossed that all goes well in the next few days . I shall keep you informed.
Meanwhile the chickens are on the move up to their new home in the orchard minus the cockerel
that was lost to a fox a few weeks ago!