Spring Watch at CFL!
By Esther Smith
It does feel as though we are still in the depths of winter here at Crag House Farm, the home of Caring For Life. With freezing temperatures and occasional snow flurries, winter is very much around. Yet spring is on the way! Snowdrops have been through for several weeks in our sensory gardens and will soon be popping up all over the place.
The most obvious sign that spring is on the way are seen in the huge population of wild birds which have made the Farm their home. The hours of daylight have been lengthening for some time and the birds are well aware of this. Although they have faced some severe weather and will no doubt face more, the hedgerows are full of the sound of bird song.
There seems to be a great deal of excited chatter amongst the tree sparrows, in the various colonies of these little birds on site. They are speeding around through the hedges and trees and dashing into holes in the barn walls and nest boxes, zooming in like tiny missiles.
The birds clearly know spring is coming and are busy investigating nest sites, pairing up and sorting out territory. We have tried to care for them through the severe weather, sometimes filling the seed feeders on a daily basis, when the snow was deep and the ground frozen. We have been privileged to see reed buntings visiting our bird tables, as well as yellow hammers and of course the tree sparrows and many other birds.
On the fields there have been flocks of redwings, and cheeky bullfinches have been lighting up our wild plum trees with their glorious colour, whilst they busily steal the little buds, which will make our crop somewhat smaller in the summer!
We are so privileged to have Crag House Farm as the heart and the home of CFL. There are so many things of beauty to see every day. But for many of those who are newly in our care, their eyes are closed to such beauty. Their eyes are down and their spirits are down. Through gentle nurturing, loving compassion and consistent support, they gradually begin to look up, laugh and enjoy the world around them.
This is one reason we run our annual Spring Watch competition. The encouragement of prizes for the first person to see a certain bird or butterfly nudges people to look up and around them, to listen and to begin to see the wonder of all that God has made.
We have a prize for the first person to spot the snowdrops or to find the frogspawn in our ponds; to hear the curlew or see the first swallow back at the Farm.
As we watch the birds and other creatures, we can gently speak to people of the God who loves them and who made all of creation; the God who knows if a single sparrow falls. Gradually, very gradually, eyes become wide open to the fullness of God’s love in Christ.
