Hello Reader,
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We hope this finds you well, and enjoying the Spring. At Wild Finca it is turning into a good one. A pair of Swallows have already fledged their first brood, RB Shrikes are calling from the tops of trees, lets hope they stay this year, and last week we had a very rare visitor…
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This newsletter will be more like a blog, so excuse the length…
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A couple of weeks ago Roan was asking Luke about vultures, specifically the Black, or Cinereous Vulture. Luke dug out some bird books and showed him the birds, remarking on their size, the largest wingspan (spanning 3 metres) , and the heaviest ( up to 14kg!) Bird of Prey in Europe. We had one fly over Wild Finca about 3 years ago, then saw another a few weeks later in the Picos, but nothing since, despite returning in some parts of Spain, in Asturias they’re somewhat of a rarity.
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Roll on Friday. Luke was working away on his laptop inside, whilst Katie and the boys played on the trampoline, when they spotted some Griffon Vultures land in our top field, but without binoculars they weren’t able to work out what the other thing amongst the vultures was, so they rung Luke who headed to the window armed with binoculars to confirm the large brown thing was a Cinereous Vulture! And it was ringed, although we were unable to read the number, the blue ring suggests it is from a reintroduction project in La Rioja, several hundred kilometres east of us! Amazing.
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Serendipitous that Roan’s queries regarding Cinereous vultures resulted in the real thing just a few weeks later!

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Spring is our favourite time of year here, with the migrant birds arriving, and a myriad of flowers blooming, whilst the undergrowth is alive with invertebrates. This Spring has been HOT, last week it hit 34 celsius for several days.
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It is also the most crucial time of year for many birds, they need a copious amount of food to recover from migrations, get into breeding condition, and of course raise chicks. Invertebrates have just a few months to get active, complete their life cycles and lay eggs etc. for their populations to continue. Reptiles, and mammals too, all use this usually bountiful time, with good weather to hopefully continue to survive and thrive.
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That’s why, if we can, we need to help as much as possible, but that can also mean by not doing anything, being more hands off.
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With an ever warming climate, Asturias is adapting in many ways. 50 years ago it would have been unheard of to have a May with little rain, and temperatures over 30c. Now it is becoming the new normal, and some people exploit this. One way locally here, is by cutting a hay harvest. It means that if conditions allow, it may mean a second harvest can be taken in late Summer. Great for winter supplies if you need it, but not so great for nature.
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We cut hay from one field at Wild Finca, and with those bales we use them throughout winter to bale graze. Encouraging our cattle and horses into scrubby areas to feed on the hay whilst trampling, and opening up new spots, to encourage an ever changing mosaic. We only cut hay in late Summer. This does not produce the most nutritious hay for our animals, but it allows the flora to bloom and set seed, and it allows the other species that call the meadow home to go through their life cycle. We also leave a swathe of the meadow standing, so any residents can hopefully flee into it, this standing haylage we then graze down in early Autumn.
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As many of you will know, due to our size we are all about making small actions count. Be it here at Wild Finca, or encouraging others. No Mow May in the UK has taken off, and people are spotting Orchids popping up in even the most urban of lawns for example!
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With the lanes full of the to’ing and fro’ing of tractors making hay whilst the sun shone, it made us think. As we are all unfortunately fully aware, there is a decline in nature, globally.
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May is peak breeding season. As the flowers bloom, pollinators are on the wing to search for supplies, birds are on their tail looking to feed their hungry chicks. It’s an interconnected chain, that we as humans are very much part of. Then the field gate swings open, in rolls a tractor and within an hour the Spring meadow is wilting on the ground, no food for the pollinators, no insects for the birds.
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Luke described it as if you were about to have a dinner party, your guests were on the way, you went to lay the food out 10 minutes before they arrive and found the fridge is empty, and the shops are all closed. But this does not result in disappointed visitors, it results in starving chicks, or no energy to find a mate, a famine at the most crucial time.
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Agriwilding is seeing yourself as part of nature. Every action of yours has an impact, be it positive or negative. Luke mentioned the hay cut as an example on a social media post that was pointing out the declines in swallows, invertebrates and some other species, but was lambasted. The response from the poster, ´It’s worldwide (the decline in biodiversity) and has about zero to do with an occasional early harvest somewhere.’
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This attitude is why we are seeing what we are seeing. Looking at other things to blame, of which there are many, and not looking at what we can do ourselves. The problem is, ´an occasional early harvest somewhere´ is not occasional any longer, if a percentage of the local population do it, as they do here, that has a drastic effect on local populations, which indeed matter.
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At Wild Finca we are very aware our actions will not save European species from extinction, we know that an under threat forest in Papua New Guinea will not receive any benefit from what we are doing at Wild Finca. But what we are completely aware of, and two quotes we stand by, and feel most people can align with.
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The first from Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield. "Tend to the garden you can touch” - Focusing your energy on what is immediately in front of you and within your control, rather than becoming overwhelmed by distant, unchangeable, or massive global problems.
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And taking this on board, is not defeatist, because another favourite of ours from the late great Jane Goodall: “I like to envision the whole world as a jigsaw puzzle... If you look at the whole picture, it is overwhelming and terrifying, but if you work on your little part of the jigsaw and know that people all over the world are working on their little bits, that's what will give you hope.”
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We are working on our bit of the puzzle, you’re working on yours, and so are lots of other people, if you’ve read this far thank you.
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Until next time, from our wild corner to yours,
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Luke, Katie, Roan and Albus