Country diary: Birdsong fills the farm - and suddenly I know what it all is | Andrea Meanwell

Tebay, Cumbria: My experience of doing the daily tasks has been transformed by an app. I'm amazed at what I have around meIt's now been five years since we entered into a Countryside Stewardship environmental agreement on the farm, and fenced off a wide riparian strip alongside the River Lune. There were already quite a few trees in this patch - mainly oak, sycamore and rowan - but the livestock exclusion has allowed some to self-seed and regenerate. One of the rowans is now taller than me.The farmhouse looks out over part of the strip, and we can hear a variety of birdsong coming from it. The gamechanger for recording what species are living there has been the Merlin bird ID app. I downloaded it last week and since then have been making recordings as I do my work on the farm. Continue reading...