The lead up to summer at Hill Court Farm

April and May have been busy, but very productive months for the Hill Court Farm Volunteer Work Party.

In April we spent a day at the main viewing point on the reserve, which is close to the scrape.  Our task was to collect willow on site and weave a screen to remove visitors from the birds’ eye line and prevent them ‘going up’.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable day as we had a brilliant view of the birds on the water as we worked.  We spotted coots, Canadian geese, mute swans, lapwing, little egrets and shelduck among others and at one point a skylark flew directly above our heads.   I’m pleased to say our screen does seem to be doing its job and we can look forward to completing the other side of the viewing point at a later date.

In May we returned to a woodland pond we have been busy creating over the period of two or three years now.  When we began the task the wooded area was pretty much just a smelly, boggy, tangled mess and it took quite some time just to clear a way in and decide where best to locate our pond.  By September 2013 we had managed to dig the pond out and we just had to hope that we had chosen the right spot and that it would fill with water.  Returning to it, we weren't quite sure what to expect as the wood had completely flooded in all the rain earlier in the year, but we were absolutely delighted by what we found.  Our pond was filled nicely with water and already it was teeming with life.  We spotted water beetles & smaller water fleas whirling about in the water, plus skaters skimming around on top.  In the earth mound next to the pond we found a female smooth newt.  We also spotted larvae in the water, and are hopeful that the pond will soon attract damselflies and dragonflies.

Our task for the day was to expand the pond and clear a wildlife corridor between it and a close by water channel.   Digging out the new pond was hard going, but we now have a smaller satellite pond that we’ll join up to the bigger one once it has filled and naturalised a little.  We also used some dead wood we had to clear away to create a log pile which we hope will provide a nice habitat for hibernating amphibians.

As we worked we were serenaded by a cuckoo and all around the yellow flags were flowering.  All in all it was a beautiful setting for a day’s work.

If all this sounds like something you’d like to get involved in, we are always happy to welcome new volunteers to the team.  We meet once a month on the last Saturday of each month (except December).  Whether you could spare just one Saturday every few months or would like to become a more regular volunteer, we would be delighted to have you along.  You don’t need any particular wildlife knowledge and tools for each task are provided.  For more information contact Naomi on Naomi@worcestershirewildlifetrust.org or 01905 754919.

June’s work party will be this Saturday 28 June and we plan to do some seed collecting and spreading to benefit the meadows on the reserve, which in turn will benefit our pollinators.

Sara, Hill Court Farm

Spring arrives early at Feckenham Wylde Moor

Now that Spring has arrived and the weather has become warmer there is quite a lot of activity on the reserve.

On the pool we have pairs of little grebe, tufted duck, coot, mallard, canada geese and this splendid pair of Grey Lag geese.

The tufted probably won't stay to breed as the coot that 'owns' the pool is constantly chasing them away. The issue seems to be that the tufted ducks want to make a nest where the coot usually does and he isn't having any of it. I doubt that the grey lag will stay either and the canada geese don't look like nesting again this year which to be perfectly honest is a bit of a bonus. We have had up to 14 on site and whilst they do a good job in grazing the pool banks they make a lot of noise and mess! Reed buntings are around and looking for nest sites in the tussocky areas left of the pool. I also put up six Common Snipe last week from the same area.

We were treated to a sighting of this female roe deer. She spent some time grazing the new growth to the left of the main hide, where we had random patch cut last year.

Our frogs are also getting together and we watched them leisurely swimming up and down the pool margins. No sign of our toads yet but hopefully we will have the same large numbers as we did last year which was a record for the reserve.

Not only has the wildlife been busy, my volunteers have too. We have been creating raised paths where the existing paths have become very boggy with deep mud which makes walking round very difficult. We have piled willow brash from pollards on top of dead sedge and then another layer of this on top. Hopefully it will make a difference but I suspect that once the cattle come back in they won't take long to trash it. We have also experimented with putting down logs and sedge around one of the kissing gates, again in the hope that it will raise the path above the mud.

It's a shame that our paths get so boggy but it is a wetland reserve and so we should not be surprised.

We have once again an excellent show of coltsfoot in front of the main hide and by the time you read this the first cowslips will be in flower and hopefully our next spring plant will be the lady's smock which for me is a certainty that spring has arrived and with it the orange tip butterfly.

With the warm weather I would not be surprised to see some warblers arriving and it won't be long before the cuckoo returns.

Paul, Feckenham reserve manager

New work party at Hollybed

Sunday 3rd was our Taster Day at Hollybed Reserve. We had a strong turnout in beautiful weather and got to work putting up bird nest boxes. Our new volunteers managed the smaller ones really well but the huge owl boxes tested even the most experienced of us. By lunchtime we had them all in place.

After lunch we did a tour of the reserve led by myself, the volunteer reserve manager and I described our plans for our future development of the reserve and explained some of the work we have already completed.

We spent the rest of the afternoon coppicing an area overgrown by blackthorn trees to let more light into an area on the edge of the reserve.

A big thank you to all the volunteers who took part in the day, including many who have already completed valuable survey work and know the reserve quite well. Please come back and join us for our next day at Hollybed in Sunday December 1st when we will be planting new fruit trees in the old orchard.

Andrew, Hollybed reserve manager

Birdsong at Chance

It's been a while since I described what has been happening in Chance Wood.  We've continued to work on rhododendron and sycamore control and eaten plenty of cake!

This January we've taken the plunge and started to repair the fence along the public footpath; every previous attempt to make temporary repairs has soon resulted in the wire being cut and little messages written on the posts to the effect that the wood should be open for mountain biking!  We've put off attempting more serious repairs until we've been able to gather enough material to make the new fence more difficult to dismantle.  John's masterpiece of posts, wire and woven dead-hedge looks pretty substantial but only time will tell if it will stand up to a determined attack.

Our Reserves Officer, Andy, joined us this month and checked the wood for any dangers, particularly in the form of dangerous trees over-hanging the pathways.  There is a little non-urgent work that we have now got planned for later this year.  As is often the case Andy commented that although Chance Wood is a small reserve it has a great variety of substantial trees, it's always worth taking the time to stand back to admire them.

Yesterday, after the rain, the wood was full of birdsong.  In particular two of the larger oaks held a flock of over 100 redwings making enough noise to fill the wood, then going silent before they changed trees, a process that was repeated several times.

There were good numbers of the normal woodland birds; blue, great, coal and long-tailed tits, nuthatches, a treecreeper, great spotted woodpeckers, goldcrests and a pair of colourful bullfinches. Blackbirds and robins were joined by mistle and song thrush, it was good to see a flock of 50 starlings just outside the wood and a number of chaffinches, which had a pretty bad year last year.

The snowdrops are appearing again in small groups and we look to see what effect the mild winter will have had.

Roger, Chance Wood

Birds of Upton Warren book

The Birds of Upton Warren was a great success but has now sold out. If you haven't got your copy and are still interested in getting hold of one, they're now available on CD for £10. Check out http://www.worcswildlifetrust.co.uk/index.php?section=places%3Areserves&page=moreinfo&reserveid=365 for details.

Thanks
Phil, Upton Warren