Tower and Town, November 2023

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Nature Notes

David White: A force for nature

The idea that farmers aren’t interested in their local wildlife is a thing of the past: programmes such as ‘Countryfile’ amply demonstrate this and our Wiltshire farmers have recently got together to give nature a helping hand.

David White farms at Berwick Bassett, where his great grandfather Fred White settled in 1909, converted from managing livestock into growing corn. In an almost unbroken tradition, David took over the farm in 1968 at the tender age of 20 and now that his active involvement in wildlife preservation has taken wing he is busier than ever.

David was one of the 45 farmers who got together and formed the Marlborough Downs Nature Improvement Area in 2012. Since then it has gone from strength to strength and the conservation initiatives have continued and diversified: Butterfly and Bat walks, David’s annual Dawn Chorus walk, an ‘Owl Prowl’ from a tractor trailer and much more. He tends to get up with the sun (4.00 a.m. in the summer months) and has usually taken a few striking pictures of the Avebury stones or a pair of boxing hares before most of us have had breakfast.

Back in 2007 his land appeared to be fairly devoid of wildlife so he decided it was time to start creating better habitats. Set-aside, field margins, game strips, management of grazing land on and below the Ridgeway, including bare patches created for nesting lapwings.. the list goes on.

Fifteen dewponds were made or refurbished and hedge and tree planting drew in volunteers from the public. Highland cattle were introduced to create a clumpy sward, providing good habitat for nesting voles and mice, and this in turn began to attract his favourite avian species: birds of prey. Buzzards, kites, kestrels and sparrowhawks are now regularly seen along the skyline, and short-eared owls and harriers are occasional visitors. For tree sparrows (down to two pairs in 2012) nest boxes were installed and giant bird feeders loaded with millet seeds alongside wild bird strips. Now an overwintering flock of 300+ birds constitutes one of the largest colonies in the U.K.

The acquisition of a camera with a zoom lens alerted David to the variety and beauty of his local landscape and wildlife, and it started him on a secondary career as a photographer, which has won him awards and often takes him abroad. A recent exhibition of his work in Avebury featured a foray into Astro photography and landscaping images using a drone.

No doubting it, David White is ‘a force for nature’.

David White’s photo of Short-eared Owls in the snow.

Robin Nelson