Creating a deer haven in Wiltshire

[Roebuck9]

Hi Sid a fantastic project you are concieving, there is a tremendous amount of information above, all I will add is Roe and Munjac love brambles to eat and lie in for protection when the weather is bad if there is no shelter on your land otherwise they will seek shelter elswhere, out of the wind maybe on your neighbours, land. They also do not like the smell of sheep so keep this in mind if you are keeping the sheep and can give the deer an alternative field or wood to graze while you are alternating the sheep pasture. As has been said deer also like wheat, pheasant feeders to visit. Grey squirels also love the free feed, so keep an eye on the vermin Best of luck and please keep us informed of your progress Bill

 

[starr shot]

Good Morning Sid.
Some good advice above. I have a similar project I have been working on for almost 55 years ! Begun by myself, as a boy, and my late Father on ground in the North of England, 275 acres to be precise. It is of course always on going, always rewarding and extremely enjoyable ! However, if you wish to have it remain YOUR project and passion, and yours and your family's, then I should avoid involving any 'outside' group, organisation, bat-group or whatever busybody organisation they call themselves. You will rapidly lose control and autonomy. I am not speaking from direct personal experience, but know of others who have ! As I type this I am on my ground and beholden to no one for it. T'is mine to play with, make my own mistakes, I have made one or two, and learn from them, that I have found is part of the enjoyment. Seek advice of course, as you have here, but implement yourself.
My intention is not to vilify the many 'groups' out there who's intentions are always 'well meant', I just think you have a wonderful opportunity there Sid. Enjoy it for yourselves.
Just my thoughts, have fun creating your wildlife haven, as I have !

Kind Regards,

'Camodog'.

That’s about the best advice on here especially if you are going to control the wildlife or shoot over it.

 

[Rhodesianjess]

That’s about the best advice on here especially if you are going to control the wildlife or shoot over it.

One estate I worked on involved local organisations to give advice. Big mistake! People wandering around at will, just checking on progress most used excuse. A lot of their members don't like fieldsports, leading to them chucking fenns over hedges, pulling fox snares up and other " helpful" things.
Wishing you all the best, keep your cards close to your chest.

 

[unimog72]

Hi everyone,

Was hoping to get some advice and wisdom on this. I have 150 acres of land in Wiltshire that my family currently farm sheep on. In a few years time I am going to take over it and I want to turn it into a wildlife haven for the roe deer and muntis and also for the wider wildlife (we have the odd skylark and yellowhammer nesting there). I would love any advice on how to encourage deer and wildlife to it and if there is anything to do know to get a headstart. It currently only sustains 4 roe deer at one time.

I have an annotated satellite photo of the land but don't know how to upload a photo. It is 150 acres of rolling large fields. It does lack hedgerows and with the sheep on it there is a lot of large open 'lawn mown' fields'. The only current woodland on it is 1 acre of tall poplars but before lockdown 1.0 we planted a 2 hectare wood in a u shape (my thinking is that roe deer would like the glade in the middle). I have put in a large pond/small lake that gets duck (largely fat ones of the canal that borders the south) and I have slowed the flow in a drainage ditch to encourage wetland animals and hopefully some snipe. I am also planting a wildflower meadow near the new wood to attract insects.

Would love any advice on what roe deer like. If there is any good planting we can do for them, create some habitats, etc.

Many thanks,

Sid

plant lots of hedge rows provide habitat and wildlife will come add oak trees in hedge rows and crab apples every 20 meters leave rough areas plant up field corners with trees try to link up planting to give deer cover to move around i have 2 acres and i have trial cams out allways surprised what i see i put out wind fall apples and salt licks had 50 field fares on the apples lots of owls come for the mice on them even had 3 big fallow bucks come for the salt blocks in the summer if you want free advice give me a call 07980536156 im in wiltshire

 

[Heym SR20]

Start thinking like a long term forester. Yes brambles etc are great cover, but think about long term future. Put in some stands of oak, beech and cherry etc to give good timber in several years time. In the meantime use things like hazle, willow etc to give shorter term cover as well as browse and winter feed.

keep some good meadows, and get the sheep out. Instead use cattle to mow them. Cattle are much better for meadows as they take the good leaf and the bad.

lots of advice on grants etc Woodland Creation Planning Grant

and organisations such as cla or CONFOR can provide lots of advice to members.

 

[Stalker62]

Start thinking like a long term forester.

I met a Forester in Sutherland just as he was coming to the end of his forty year career.
He was telling me how in his final year, he was just harvesting trees that he had planted in his first year.

 

[Heym SR20]

I met a Forester in Sutherland just as he was coming to the end of his forty year career.
He was telling me how in his final year, he was just harvesting trees that he had planted in his first year.

I am married to a forester - most foresters look at a 100 if not 200 year time horizon and cycle, but well managed forest is continually productive with multiple products coming out. Venison and sporting use is just one product that comes in the early years, then fuel wood, post wood etc and then individual large trees.

Surtherland blanket forestry was just there for the tax breaks.

 

[mudman]

all you need is thorn scrub and bramble for cover, which is what most farmland naturally reverts to on its slow transition to woodland. Trees are nice but Roe do not need them. Get rid of the sheep and do nothing else and the deer will arrive without any need to additional expenditure

 

[Sidders243]

Thanks everyone, some really great advice here.

I would love to upload some photos but when I click Insert Image it asks me for a http address?

I have spent the weekend walking the land and planning a planting scheme to provide privacy and cover for the roe to begin with.

Many thanks, Sid

 

[willie_gunn]

Thanks everyone, some really great advice here.

I would love to upload some photos but when I click Insert Image it asks me for a http address?

I have spent the weekend walking the land and planning a planting scheme to provide privacy and cover for the roe to begin with.

Many thanks, Sid

Sid

When you are typing in your reply and click on the "Insert Image" icon (or press CTRL+P) it should open a pop up box.

At the top of the pop up box there should be two options shown via images, one for "URL link", the other "Upload Image".

If you click on the Upload Image icon it should let you Drop an image, or click on it to allow you to browse your computer to find the image.

The above is how it appears on a Windows laptop, anyway!

Edit: I am assuming here that there are no restrictions on new members posting images (i.e. number of posts)

 

[Sidders243]

OK have worked out the old photo upload technique. Here is an overview of the acres. The red line is the border. The two yellow blobs are a copse and the wood we have planted. As you can see it is pretty open land but I am going to do some serious planting.

Here are some drone shots taken at the beginning of summer to give an idea of the flow to the land. It might not be that clear but there are nice shallow valleys running through the land.

This is the pond. We have planted a scrubby copse just above it and there is a ten metre margin around the pond and along the drainage ditch below it. This weekend I planted willow cuttings along the ditch.

Another shot from above. Really shows the stark openness of the land. The new wood is just below this photo and that is a chicory strip at the bottom.

This is the eastern side of the property. You can see we have been Mob Grazing the sheep on herbal ley and in the left hand corner is the poplar wood and a patch of scrub we have left next to it.

The new wood planted beginning of the year on the Western side of the property. Planted in a U shape to create a glade in the middle.

 

[willie_gunn]

Many thank for the photos - it does look like some very promising ground.

I am sure there will be lots of educated ideas as to what to do!

From my perspective when I look to the South of your boundary there are some nice strips of woodland. I would be thinking of effectively extending those on your ground to both link up with the new U-shaped wood on the one hand, and the strip of woodland that comes South from the top of the land (and to the right of the flight pond valley) on the other. That will encourage both muntjac and roe to use those as travel routes, whereas at the moment there looks to be quite a lot of open ground before you hit the hedgeline boundary to the South.

 

[Sidders243]

Thanks Willie, that south border is in fact the canal. The good news is that the other side is a nature reserve so we are getting good birdlife from there.

This is my current plan, although I have done this staring at a screen and need to actually head down there and picture it in the flesh:



The only opposition I face is my finances (!) and my parents really love the open flow of the land. The blue next to the U wood will be a pollen rich meadow and the blue strip to the right is the chicory strip which we need to re drill.

I had Wiltshire Wildlife Trust come to look at the pond and ditch and the lady thought we could widen the ditch at the bottom before the canal and create a marshy reedbed. Only problem is we are on quick draining sandy soil. I have also stuck some willow cuttings along the ditch.

Anyway, lots of fun planning this. The variations are endless!

 

[Heym SR20]

Looks very like a bit of ground I look after in Fife. Was open grazing but now has little bits of woodland. Looks to be good cover on neighbouring ground etc. One key is to work with your neighbours as deer move and wander. We were comfortably taking 3 or 4 deer a year odd 160 acres, but there is Forestry land within a few miles where there is an ongoing funded cull - this has sucked all the local deer away (shoot in woods, create vacuum, shoot deer, create vacuum and repeat), so haven't seen anything, let alone taken anything for the last 18 months.

Think carefully about tree species - and think winter food for deer. Things like acorns, hazzle nuts etc are protein rich and really keep any ruminant going through the winter - the additional protein allows them to digest and make use of poor winter forage.

On the other piece of ground I look after we have a well established Oak woodland (probably now 50 years old) along with a good patch of hazzle thicket with larch and ash and in other parts we have lots of Rowan, crab apple and a few big old apple trees. In the winter the deer love these and the whole place becomes a sanctury. I leave that wood totally untouched - and only take deer on the margins. And the woodland is now providing good timber - we have two furniture makers who pretty much source all their raw materials from the farm, it supports a fire wood business, and we have about 10 acres of good mature larch that will be coming out over the next couple of years - quite a bit is destined for a local boat builder. The rest is going for larch cladding and fencing.

 

[captain ken]

From my experience no matter how much you grow crops to attract roe if there are sheep around forget deer they hate the smell of sheep

 

[teyhan1]

An idea of what a Roe deer and Muntjac heaven looks like.

 

[Sidders243]

Teyhan1 that looks like epic country. Have you got any photos of what it looks like on the ground? Love the scrubby woodland pasture in the middle.

Would love to hear more about the land.

 

[teyhan1]

It’s just typical Dorset. Wiltshire isn’t too shabby though.
Smaller woodlands connected by native hedging.
Avoid stock fencing but if you must use it then stay away from barbed wire on the top. Just use normal HT wire.
Rough unkempt areas are what Roe really like. Plough a number of 1/2 - 1 acre plots and then just leave them to go wild.

 

[Sidders243]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. Some invaluable nuggets. I'm going to have work around the sheep grazing for now but will keep you all posted.

 

[222parsons]

I'm doing this too albeit a much smaller 30 acre block intertwined with two streams. Thick hedges and dense cover is a must for most wildlife. Avoid permanent electric fences, deer hate them as much as sheep. You can run sheep near deer but they don't cohabit so expect the deer to keep moving away from sheep. Being territorial they won't leave the area they just wont be found near sheep and likely slow to return once the sheep are moved on.

I've got Roe now resident after a few months (they were near but just avoided me because of electric and sheep).

Good luck.