S2:E5 Jim The Gamekeeper

Jim Pitcher, Gamekeeper of The Newt, introduces us to the animals of the estate - some familiar, and others less so.

Jim has worked on the estate for decades, and has watched how it has changed over all those years. He has also seen how the English landscape has changed in those years and shares his insights about wildlife management and countryside traditions.

Come ear to beak with a menagerie of extraordinary birds, hear the thunder of deer hooves and the gentle wisdom of a true countryman.

This May, at The Newt, we are hosting the Great Garden Show. From the ninth to the seventeenth of May, gardeners, growers and curious visitors are invited to join a programme of talks, demonstrations and hands-on workshops exploring everything from trees and ornamentals to edible growing and biodiversity. Leading voices from the gardening world will join our own gardeners to share their knowledge, offering practical tips, fresh ideas and a deeper understanding of the craft of growing.

Before we continue, a quick invitation from The Newt. This May we’re launching The Great Garden Show – a new nine-day celebration of gardening, running from the ninth to the seventeenth of May. Across the estate you’ll find talks with leading horticultural voices, practical workshops, garden tours and hands-on sessions exploring trees, ornamentals, edibles and biodiversity. There’ll also be plenty to enjoy between the programme, from picnics on the lawn to BBQs in the garden to fresh stra

The Newt Podcast is created by the team at The Newt in Somerset and produced by Harry Coade at Sound Matters. If you enjoyed this episode, follow The Newt Podcast to enjoy more walks and talks across the estate, or better still become a Newt Member to visit our estate yourself, stay the night, or shop The Newt online. 

Your 12-month membership also gives you free entry to The Newt's 17 national and international Partner Gardens and inspirational Sister Estates.

Follow us on Instagram @thenewtinsomerset

Transcript

Arthur Cole 1:14

Welcome back to the Newt Podcast. With me, Arthur Cole. Join us for a walk through the estate with our invited guests to the backdrop of the Somerset landscape and its wildlife residence. This week we meet Jim, the gamekeeper of the Newt. Jim is a true countryman who grew up tickling trout and catching rabbits. Over the years, he has turned his attention to conserving the very land the wild creatures rely upon and keeping the ancient traditions of countryside management alive. Jim introduces us to the wild animals on the estate, as well as his companions, the ferrets and his birds of prey. Let's jump straight into it. It's early morning at the beginning of March, and we're out on the estate, and we're joined with the Newt's gamekeeper Jim Pitcher. Jim, good morning.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Morning. That's a lovely morning to be out. Beautiful morning to be out. The sun's just come up. Lovely morning.

Arthur Cole 2:34

So we're standing here down in the lower part of the Deer Park. The sun has risen in the east. We have a silhouette along the skyline of Alfred's Tower and the trees just coming into bud now. There's a warmth in the air. Jim, is this an interesting time for you? I suppose all seasons are interesting.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

All seasons are really interesting. Everything's coming to life, everything's coming into the breeding season. It's great. What have we got right in front of us? So in front of us, so we've just come into the what we call the lower deer part, where at the moment I've got the red deer. So red deer are native to this country. We've got there's actually 60 of them. Out of the 60, as we can see in there, we've got some three stags, and the rest are hinds, and the young young that were born last year. In amongst some of the young here, you'll see some of the young males, they've got little knobbles growing. They're what we call the knoblers, they're just coming up a year old.

Arthur Cole 3:32

Very good. And so red deer species, our native species. Have we introduced these or were they already on the estate?

SPEAKER_01 3:39

They've already no, we introduced these to the estate. So we built the deer park about 10-12 years ago, and we bought 20 in to start with, and we've increased the numbers to what we see now. So are they breeding happily, easily in the estate? Oh, very easy. All deer breed very easily. Very easy. Deer would destroy the habitat basically, because they really do breed well. So they would eat grass, bramble, stingin' nettles, they would chew the bark off of the trees, and if they ring bark a tree, that tree will die. So it's something we really have to monitor carefully.

Arthur Cole 4:10

That's a very good point. Of recent times we've been learning about the pressures that deer place upon us. Um I believe there are the species that they're talking about uh in terms of the woodland, uh pressures on woodland, uh, there's more than just the red deer species that are wandering around in the world.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

Yes, there are. So lots of other deer in the country. Fallow deer, which we we again we got about 50 or 60 of those here as well on in the deer park on the estate. Um you've got mudjack, we've got Japanese water deer, we've got seeker deer. Lots of these other deers have been bought to deer parks, they've all escaped and they live wild in the countryside. We mustn't forget the wild roe deer, um which are all around the countryside as well. Yeah. And who are the natural predators of the deer? Well, basically, man, and years ago it would have been wolves. All nature has to have a predator, or else it would just basically destroy its habitat. So who predates these deer now? Well, it's us now.

Arthur Cole 5:09

It's us now, yeah, yeah. And what happens? Uh what's the purpose of us predating these deer?

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Well, it's a food source. Again, it's a food source, so in in the autumn we would be culling some of the younger, younger males, and then through the winter uh we were selecting some of the older, older hinds, the females, and we would be culling those as well. So just to keep the numbers level.

Arthur Cole 5:31

Yeah. But it's very different to what most people would think of as um farming animals for meat, isn't it? I mean, these feel positively wild.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Well they are. We treat our deer and deer and deer park as wild. So no vets, no medication, no, no, we don't we don't handle them at all. We just leave them as a wild animal, a totally wild animal. So um, yeah, yeah. And the deer parts wild, no sprays, no fertilizers, it was a wild environment for them.

Arthur Cole 5:59

It sounds rather closer to I suppose our our earlier days with our those early ancestors who if they were going to eat uh meat, they would have to go out and take the time to hunt it.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Oh, definitely. Everything years ago, whether it was deer, whether it was rabbit wild squirrels, or everything was eaten years ago. Everything evolved round food. It did, and that was it. No supermarkets to go to then. You just you know used to have a warrant, a man called a warrant looking after rabbits and a warren. It was a food source.

Arthur Cole 6:34

You mentioned the wild squirrels there, Jim. We're standing on this track, we've got the deer in the woods looking rather majestic. And then on the other side we have this high fence with wires running along the top of it, uh, and it's popping and and crackling at us. Um quite a different scene this side of the track.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Totally different scene. So in the past times, red squirrels were all around England, they lived everywhere. Sadly, the Victorians brought the grey squirrel over from America, it's bigger and more dominant and carries a squirrel pox. That decimated our red squirrel population in mainland England. We have red squirrels, Brownsea Island, Anglesey, further up in the north of England, where the greys haven't got. So we've actually been culling the greys in these woodlands. Um, a bit of a story to those. We we have a box and we we trap them, we don't shoot or poison. I think I got about 200 and deep freeze at home. I do falconry, keep birds at prey. I've got harris horts, red tailed hawks, naturally catch squirrels in America. So I've I've utilised those, so they're being utilised. But going back over to here to this compound, we have actually got three red squirrels in there now at the moment. Three females. I think if we're successful in keeping the greys out, hopefully in the future we'll have a male and we can start breeding from them.

Arthur Cole 7:49

Yes, three females doesn't sound like a recipe for success for a breeding programme. No, it doesn't, does it? No. So we're about to head up to the Roman villa, and anyone who's listening to this who's been to the Roman villa will have got into the reconstructed villa and they will have seen the animals, the taxidermide animals hanging up in the kitchen area and would have seen a pheasant there. Oh surprise! I used to I I believed that the pheasants were brought over from China back in sort of in large quantities back in I don't know, a couple of hundred years ago, but no, apparently they're around in Roman times. So even though pheasants are part of the managed countryside uh landscape because they're brought in for shoots which are very lucrative for landowners. Jim, would you consider pheasants part of the natural landscape?

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Well, they they've become part of the natural landscape now, haven't they? Um they really have like I just changed the subject as we're going along here. Up in the pine tree on our right, we have got a buzzard nest, and it's a huge, great big nest in the top of the pine tree up there. And we always have a pair of buzzards. I can't see them this morning, sometimes you see them sitting together, but uh they're right up in the top of that tree, and it's lovely to see them, and the crows will be up there chasing them and pestering them. I can't see them this morning.

Arthur Cole 9:17

So buzzards, lovely Latin name, beautio beauty. And buzzards, um, tell us a little bit about their life cycle, please, do you?

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Well, a buzzard, uh they got to me, they got a pretty face. It's about their life cycle, they got a lovely, pretty, quiet face on them. Um, so buzzards they they will nest for life. We got a pair here that have been there for many, many years. Um, so this time of year you would see the male displaying to the female, he would be flying high, and he would do stooping down in various stages displaying to the female, and they would be fighting over their territory with other buzzards now as well. So they're territorial at this time of year, so they would have their nest now. They will be probably laying eggs anytime now. My female red-tailed hawks that they would have been laying their eggs about now, which is an American version of our common buzzard, and then in a few months' time they would have their chicks, and then the cycle goes on. The chicks would would fledge from the nest probably after about three months. They would stay with their parents for a little while until the winter time, and then the parents would probably try to drive them away because they need to keep their territory with their food supply, and they wouldn't want any other buzzards and chicks near their food supply.

Arthur Cole 10:28

So they drive the children away from their nests, away from their homelands, yes, and tell them to go and strike out on their territory.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Strike out on their own. Unless there's a good food source, which they would obviously leave them alone, but they would normally try to drive them away from their territory.

Arthur Cole 10:44

And when you say food source, what are we talking about? What do buzzards eat?

SPEAKER_01 10:48

They would eat worms and mice and voles and rats, young rabbits, um, small squirrels, anything they can get hold of. Roadkill, they're very they're not a great hunting bird, a common buzzard. Roadkill. Most birds of prey will take the easiest way out of things. Um they sit on a post and just drop down on something that's just moving underneath them or something dead. Um they won't burn up energy unless they have to, because they don't know where the next meal is coming from.

Arthur Cole 11:14

We've got a few birds of wild birds of prey flying around. We've seen the buzzard with that very distinctive wing tip. They have lovely broad wings, lovely broad wings on them. Um, and as you say, a beautiful face. Tell me about the other large bird of prey that we see frequently catching thermals above us with the white markings on its leaves, but an overall red colour to it.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

So that would be the red kite, which are slowly moving more and more into this area. They've moved down from the middle of the country down to this area. Um, very distinctive. They got quite a they're not actually a biggish bird, they're not a great hunting bird at all. Um, they got like a long, more pointed wing than a buzzard, a fork tail, and you'll just see them soaring around. Um, and the buzzards will normally be having an attacking them to keep them away from their territory. So um that that's um one of the birds here. Uh, we also got uh a pair of we've just gone past where we got some little owls down in the bottom deer park. I quite often see a little owl down there. Up in the woods, we got the tawny owl, and then up where we are here up the top, we got some barn owl nest boxes. We have actually got barn owls up here, and they do actually go in the dovecot up here.

Arthur Cole 12:24

Right, so that dovecote that we're looking out, um, looking out to the south, and we've got the Roman villa on one side of us, and we've got the dovecote on the other. Um, but no doves in our dovecoat because birds in Britain have been facing pretty tough time last few years, haven't they, Jim? Anyone who's keeping poultry is keeping their birds undercover at the moment. Can you tell us a little bit about this?

SPEAKER_01 12:50

It's so sad that we've got this this bird flu which seems to appear every winter and it's decimating obviously some of the seabirds, some swans. Um, I haven't actually seen any of our what I would call our small birds suffering from it, but definitely, you know, the swans, geese, and lots of the seabirds. So, but we've had to keep the chickens in away from everything that that's around like.

Arthur Cole 13:13

You're not just in charge of um the deer, which are quite a wild population, you're in charge of um the other animals on the estate as well. Tell us a little bit about that, Jim.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Yes, I got various other animals I'm looking after. Later on, we can go and visit the great bustard birds, which is um a bird that we um made extinct in the country in the 1830s. So I do those, I got my own birds of prey to look after, obviously, the the chickens and the geese. Ugh, gosh, lots of things. Alright, let's get into this gate. I'll just do this gate. Before we go through the gate, I will explain about on our right hand side we've got a heap of soil leaning up to the deer fence. Yes, what's that? And that's a temporary deer leap. Um, so obviously, sometimes a deer do get out if a gate is left open, and this deer leap is there. So normally, if one or two get out, they get out and then they want to get back in again. So they can run up that saw and they can jump back down in. And also in the rutting time, which is normally about October time when all the testosterone in the males really worked up over the over the breeding season. Um, if we have any deer out, they would want to get in, male or the female to get together. So it's a temporary one. We're gonna have to build a better one than what we've got.

Arthur Cole 14:24

So right, Jim, where are we on to now?

SPEAKER_01 14:30

So, yes, so now we've come up to the top deer park. Um, this is where I've got the fallow deer, plus there are two red deer calves that were born last year that are still up in this top deer park. So hopefully, we've got about 50-60 fallow deer in in this in this top deer park. Hopefully, we will see some out of those. We've got um three big bucks, and the rest of the does, the females, and the calves, which we call fawns when they're born last year.

Arthur Cole 14:57

Okay, so Jim, we're driving through the top field, the deer park, and we're approaching a watering hole.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Yes, so this is a field called Upper Kingston, and in the corner of this field we dug a lovely pond which has actually got some frogs spawn in it at the moment. When I have the red deer up here, they absolutely live coming in this pond and go swimming. It's really great to see them swimming and wallowing in that water.

Arthur Cole 15:25

This is some of our fallow deer, it's the fallow deer making it out across across the field. So, Jim, there's quite a variance in the pigmentation going on. We've got almost alabaster complete white for two or three of those days. You've then got this light greyness with more accentuated white spots on the back, and then an overall much darker animal with uh a black almost like a black top to them with those spots. What's going on with the pigmentation vegetables?

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Well, the reason we got the dark ones is because a few years ago, like I said, living in the wild, you do have the deer living in the wild, the fallow deer living wild. We had a black butt get in here. Um, and he had a bit of fun in the rutting time, and we've ended up with some dark ones basically. But the the proper colour is actually the brown and white spots. That's that's that's a you know a fallow.

Arthur Cole 16:20

So neither too light, neither too dark, no, just right.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Just right, yeah.

Arthur Cole 16:26

Looking very similar to a sort of the Bambi, the classic Bambi impression.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Yeah, yeah.

Arthur Cole 16:33

And when they run away, they have their those white bottoms with the black tail that um flicks away like that. They're the only deer with a long tail, aren't they? So, yeah, yeah. They really remind if anyone's been out to Africa and seen Thompson's gazelles, that's a sight very reminiscent of that. Of them, yeah, yeah. We've got some deer fencing here, and behind that we've got druid tree, that magnificent 350-year-old beech tree in there. Is this deer fence protecting druid tree?

SPEAKER_01 17:06

It is protecting the druid tree. Um so obviously, we've also planted some young trees in there. Uh, we wouldn't want the deer getting because obviously they would they would totally destroy that. And the druid tree's got some lovely branches hanging down on the ground, which the deer would be chewing those, and that would be ruining them. And I've just looking towards a druid tree here, and I can see in this uh this um I imagine this would be uh it's not a black porn. Um we've got a pigeon nest, very flat structure, nothing special, just a few sticks flat, and that's it. They plant themselves on top of it like quite a messy nest. Yeah, messy nest, yeah, messy nest, yeah, yeah, nothing special. When I was young, I always wanted to be outside. I started shooting when I was about five, six years old with air guns and and I was just trapping things. I lived in the country, so I just that's what I did fishing. I uh where I lived, we had a little river uh, and um I only saw the farmer a couple weeks ago who owns the farm, where I used to go down there and he could remember me going down in the stream, tickling the trout. He said you were expert at trickling and catching trout. Uh when I left school, I actually went to work for John Lewis's Leckford Estates in Hampshire. I trained there as a water bailiff gamekeeper. Fantastic job. I learned all about breeding trout, looking after the river test. I learned how to build bridges on a punt. I used to help out on the farms on the estate there, they had orchards there. Uh just generally being outside. I stayed there for a few years, uh, loved that job, came back home, and then I actually came back and worked for an agricultural contractor, so I did everything you can think of on farm. I looked after cows, machinery-wise, did everything on farms. I did actually lay some hedges and build some stone walls. It's something that was a contractor we did years ago. The farmer say, Can you lay a hedge for us or take a hedge out or whatever? I can remember many years ago there used to be the showering company, they used to have hundreds of acres of orchards. Um they had diseases and they could get concentrate cheaper, and we bulldozed out hundreds of acres of orchards. So did all of those kinds of things. Um, and I also worked for the previous owners here, the Hophouse family, um, did lots of things for them, built things, did things for them, and then when Kirzbecker bought it, um I was I was still here working, and I'm still here now.

Arthur Cole 20:22

What was the first thing that you you really got paid for when it came down to wild animals? When when did that first paycheck come in, which made you realise, goodness, I'm doing something that I love in a surroundings that I love with the wild animals, and here I am and I'm putting food on the table.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

Um I suppose obviously where we lived not far from here, if I was able to shoot a few rabbits, I could sell a few rabbits, bit of pocket money. Yes. So that that's where that started, like. So um bit of pocket money for the some rabbits. And it worked on from there. So yeah, yeah.

Arthur Cole 21:00

For anyone out there who thinks that they might leave the cities to pursue a life of being a gamekeeper, what does a normal day look like for a gamekeeper in some sense?

SPEAKER_01 21:13

It's changed dramatically now. So obviously, a gamekeeper years ago, you bred the pheasants for shooting. That's what it was. Like I said, when I worked for John Lewis's, that's that's what we did. We had big shoots there. Like if I go back to when I worked there, just up the road from the John Lewis's place, it was a place called the Hawk Conservancy. And I went there one day and I saw these people training these birds. And for me, shooting things for years, I thought, fantastic, let's get a bird to do it. So I bought my first red-tailed hawk, um, and I trained her all on my own, and we went out hawking together, catching rabbits. Great, and I've done that for over 40 years. I've been doing that. So I transferred over to that side of it from the gamekeeping of rearing things to shoot to actually having something that would go and hunt something. And looking after nature now, because without nature, birds of prey and owls wouldn't have anything to catch. We look and look after the habitat, basically. So I've transferred from shooting everything to looking after everything. Poach a turned gamekeeper. I think that does happen. I think in Africa, lots of these people used to be poaching things, they now look after it.

Arthur Cole 22:30

That's what you do. So we're coming into spring now, and could you just take us through a full year, the four seasons of gamekeeping?

SPEAKER_01 22:41

Well, again, it's changed so much now. So it used to be used to have your pheasants rearing all your pheasants ready for the shooting in the autumn. And then in the river, obviously working on river test, um, we had the fishing seasons as well there. So again, we had our own hatchery there, so we would we would the water was pumped from a well deep down up, and it would filter through the through the eggs, and we would milk the trout and everything there, and then they would obviously hatch, and we would then take them from that hatchery as they got older into the what we called stews. So we'd have a small stew for the smallest trout, and then a bigger one for the bigger one, so we would be feeding them in the stews for a few years before we released them into the river. That was the main thing that I did then. The seasons have changed so much now because we're not doing shooting here now or anything. So my job now is looking after the squirrels, the deer, the birds of prey, which are my own, and then the great bustard birds, which I believe we're going to go and see soon.

Arthur Cole 23:38

Well, I think that's a lovely step for us to go down and have a look at your bustards. Go and have a look at the bustards. Let's jump into the car and head on down to the bustard yet. So, Jim, we've just arrived in the centre. Of the South Avenue that frames Hudson House with the horizon to the south. And there are lots of different tree species in here. It was originally planted, set out in 1687, with elms being the probably the oldest tree that would still be here. But for Dutch Elm disease, and as a result, there are no elms in here. But you've also worked on this, haven't you? Yes, I have.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

So obviously the elm trees were all cut down and all burnt up, and I can remember that one of the first things I had to do, I would stand up on the south side there with a like what we call a range pole, a red and white pole, and the estate manager at the time would stand in front of the front door there, and I had to line these poles up in a dead centre of this this this um avenue. And no mobile phones then, so he had a big white flag, and he would wave the flag to the right or to the left to where to line me up all the way down through. Uh and that lined up the centre of this avenue, ready to plant the trees on each side.

Arthur Cole 25:06

I mean, it's for our listeners, what is that? That's about half a mile.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

Well, about half a mile, I believe it's about half a mile, like that. So I did a lot of walking up and down, lining these range poles up at the time. Yeah.

Arthur Cole 25:22

So, Jim, we've just arrived at the Great Bustards enclosure, and we're doing a bit of work in here.

SPEAKER_01 25:29

Yes, we're um dividing some pens up for them to make a little bit more space. So the Busters we got here now, like I said about the bustards earlier on, it's a species we shot and um made them extinct in the 1800s, 1830 something, I believe it was. Um it's it's habitat loss as well. Um it's so sad because it's it is they are one of the largest flying birds in the world. Um apparently they can outrun a fox as well. Um they are a very, very large bird. So we're doing this project here. We've got three males and three females. Um they came from Spain. Um, we've had them for a few years now. Last year, I was very lucky. We actually had some eggs last year. So at the moment, I have got some males in a separate pen. The end of this month, beginning of next month, I will be pairing the males up with the females. The males will then be doing a fantastic display to the females, so hopefully the females will fancy them and they will do their business, and then we will have some eggs. Like I said, last year I had some eggs. Um, I had I think it was six eggs to start with. Sadly, I incubated them, and sadly, I only had one chick out of the six eggs. Um, we then let the females recycle again and lay again, and I had one more female lay, and we she parent-reared her chick. So I had actually two chicks, one I one I reared and one mummy reared. So great bonus, and I believe I was more or less the only person in the country that actually read bred Great Bustards last year.

Arthur Cole 27:13

We're now standing in front of the pens of the Great Bustards. The Great Bustard pens look out to Camelot. It's quite a good view, actually. Fantastic view, huh?

SPEAKER_01 27:24

Very like sunshine and view.

Arthur Cole 27:26

And it's so it's south facing, isn't it? Well, it gets a good amount of sun on these pens, but there's been bamboo planted into the pens. There is netting over the top, and what looks like shade netting as well. So uh, I guess that's what you put in in the summer to give them a bit of shade as well. And um, Brutus has come up to say hello. He's he certainly has. He's got a marvellous way of dancing.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Um and is he what he's fixated on you, Jim? They do know me. Normally, when strangers go in there, they're very flighty or or and that, but they they do all animals get to know you, don't they? Basically, so especially of course I provide the food. So the food at the moment I would be giving them grasshoppers and crickets. Um obviously they got a few few pellets as well, meal worms. So in the wild they would eat all sorts of seeds. Again, any insects they would eat as well, like vegetation.

Arthur Cole 28:26

So Ruth's got a marvellous noise, isn't he? So Jim, I've been out in Africa and I've seen secretary birds, I've seen Huglins bustard, but I've never seen a great bustard before. That was a real treat. How do you feel about looking after these great big birds? Quite a weight of responsibility. It is.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

Um I didn't realise how much of responsibility it was until I started hand rearing a chick, and then I thought, my god, this is a lot of money, this bird, it's very rare. Um, and I've got to do my best to get this, keep this going. Um, real privilege to looking after them in general.

Arthur Cole 29:24

Does anyone come out who's been doing this and offer you support and advice on these rare and unusual birds? Yes, I have.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

The people we got them off in Spain, Rafal, um, he's been out here a couple times and helped me and given me advice. Um, and a few years later now I'm I'm starting to understand them more and know how to treat them and look after them. Um, I've learnt a lot from him. Obviously, I can learn a lot more and I'm always willing to learn more about them.

Arthur Cole 29:53

So, probably one of the larger wild birds, um, if we can call our bustards wilds, they are in pens, but I mean they're certainly not a domesticated turkey or something. We're about to go off and see your birds of prey. Tell me, what can we expect when we get to yours, Jim?

SPEAKER_01 30:14

So I've actually got four red-tailed hawks, which are an American bird. I've got one Harris Hawk, again, that's an American bird. Um, I've got a little kestrel, which is a European kestrel, which is native to England, and I've got three little owls. The little owls, actually, they're non-native as well. They um they originated from Europe, and I believe Victor's bought them over here as well. So um the red-tailed hawks, I got a 33-year-old female, two 17-year-old males, and a three-year-old female.

Arthur Cole 30:42

Is that not the people who've got llamas or something?

SPEAKER_01 30:45

No.

Arthur Cole 30:45

Or did they have ostriches in there?

SPEAKER_01 30:46

No.

unknown 30:47

No.

Arthur Cole 30:47

Sure, someone around here had something exchanged like that. So, Jim, we've just arrived down at your house, and before we go in, we're leaning on your gate into your orchard, and there's some really lovely old-looking apple trees here, Jim.

SPEAKER_01 31:05

This orchard actually belonged to my house about a hundred years ago, and and the people before me sold it, and I've been lucky enough to be able to buy it back again. So it it's come back to me, come back home again.

Arthur Cole 31:16

Oh, that's great.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

Lovely lot of you've got Bramley apple trees, all sorts of eating apple trees in there. And then it looks like you've got a little wildlife pond in there. I've got a wildlife pond there. Um, it's got it did get a bit overgrown. I don't want to get it too manicured, but it's a wildlife pond. Rather, not too many sting in the holes, but we'll get it looking nice.

Arthur Cole 31:34

Probably a home for the hedgehogs. I know the hedgehogs in in this area of Somerset are actually doing all right in our village, which is Yarlington. Just the other night I walked my son down the road, and it was just gone dark about 6:30 in the evening, and we heard the snuffling, and we put the torch on, and there was a lovely big, healthy looking hedgehog.

SPEAKER_01 31:57

So, yes, we would have those here. I do have um I have wild little owls here. I also have the barn owl coming through and sitting in these trees at night. So lovely little area. Right, we'll head off towards my garden.

Arthur Cole 32:13

Here we are, look. My wildlife garden. Lovely! So we're standing at the top of Jim's garden. We've got a pond, we've got what looks like a Japanese Acer that'll be coming out into Bud. There's a hedge and then fields beyond and a view right the way across Somerset and down, I imagine, into Dorset there.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

No, actually, believe it or not, that way is um Blackdown Hills and Exmore. So right into the distance, I can see X-More and the Honorton transmitter at night shines up right in front of me. Yelverton the air base. To our left, we we obviously have we've got um Cabre Castle and Sigwells, and that's Dorset that way. So, yes, that's it, yeah. Lovely, right? You've got a lot of bird feeders out here, Jim. Yep, I love all my birds, obviously, big birds and little birds and feathered birds. So obviously I keep ferrets. Oh, okay. Again, there we go. So hey, ferrets. I use ferrets for catching rabbits. Rabbits to feed birds with and myself.

Arthur Cole 33:20

So what have we got? How many have we got in here?

SPEAKER_01 33:22

There should be five in there.

Arthur Cole 33:24

And if they um they give you a little nibble that you take a finger to.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

Fairly good. They are fairly good because I I I bring them up to the newt for children to look at, so they are fairly good. Um obviously they can bite like all ferrets, but mine aren't too aren't too bad, so. So you've got two are those two albinos? Yeah, two albinos. Should be, yeah. Um these are all the females in here, and then I've got the males in a separate pen because obviously springs round the corner. And I don't want any any more baby ferrets at the moment, so. This is a female red-tailed hawk, she's 33. Um, I don't take her out or handle her anymore now. She's free in there just to fly around. She has actually got cataracts on her eyes, so she's very old and so when you say 33, what, 33 bird years.

Arthur Cole 34:11

What are 33 bird years?

SPEAKER_01 34:13

Oh, over a hundred human years for certain.

Arthur Cole 34:15

Oh, so the actual 33 years?

SPEAKER_01 34:17

She's actually 33 years old, yeah.

Arthur Cole 34:19

Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:20

Yeah, she is that one. Oh right. This is a little male. So who have we got it? This is a little male red-tailed hawk there, um called Typhoon.

Arthur Cole 34:31

Right, he's got it right, old co uh called to him. And who's that making that one?

SPEAKER_01 34:38

You will see them in the westerns. They used to have the American films. Yeah. They would use that screechy noise. That's the the bird you would you would hear.

Arthur Cole 34:52

So, Jim, after decades of working on the land, with the land, with the animals, what would you hope the next 40 years will bring for the English countryside?

SPEAKER_01 35:06

I would hope the English countryside could go back to what it was 40, 50 years ago. Not the big prairie fields, uh more of the hedgerows growing, uh a little bit more for wildlife as well. Let's not go forward too much more and start destroying it. Let's let's go back 40 years or possibly 60 years, because probably 40 years ago we were starting to take out hedgerows, drain fields, which I've been guilty of myself doing, but that's what we were told to do by the governments at the time. So let's go back 60, 80 years to what it used to be like.

Arthur Cole 35:43

Jim Pitcher, gamekeeper of the Newt, and so much more. Thank you for being on the Newt podcast. You're welcome. More than welcome. Thank you for listening. Subscribe and tune in for more episodes from the estate every month. See you next time.