Spring at Feckenham

Well Spring has really 'sprung' ... this week anyway. 

Yesterday (23rd), the temperature rose to c18 degrees and it was just like a summers day. The warm weather has tempted out our first butterflies of the year. We spotted 8 small tortoiseshell, 3 peacock, 4 male brimstone and a single female (distinctive by its cream rather than bright citrus yellow colouring). 

The reserve is looking good for this time of year and new lush growth is strong with cowslips showing their buds already. The trees are begining to change colour as the buds start to burst. New leaves on some willows are already bright green and the sallow catkins are a sure sign of spring. It won't be too long before our blackthorn is in blossom; hawthorn buds are beginning to burst. 

We counted 20 or so frogs last week in the pool margins and on inspection found significant amounts of spawn. Even yesterday they were still very vocal and I expect to find more spawn in the next few days. 

There were a few chiffchaff singing today and we had common snipe still around last week. Our resident kingfisher has not been seen since early January so who knows what has happened to him. I hope he is okay after the harsh weather. Our little grebes mate has arrived and they are now calling each other on a regular basis.

This worker wasp was buzzing around in the Alders hide where, in the past, we've had some spectacular wasp nests hanging from the roof.


Our hedge work is complete and is looking good. All we need to do is watch to see how it develops over this summer.



So, who got the last quiz question right?  Well done Roger!  It was of course a hazel catkin.  I said it was easy.  Have a look at this one and see if you can identify it.  A clue is that it won't be around just yet but I am expecting it soon. 

Paul, Feckenham Wylde Moor

Looking forward...

Broadmoor Wood will look wonderful soon!!

Birmingham and Solihull conservation volunteers have been carrying out the annual coppicing cycle and removing brambles from alongside the entrance track. The resultant show of bluebells will be excellent.

The first celandines are already out!! In a week or so the marsh marigold will look spectacular in the marshy pool edges. Bluebells are well up already, although the flower spikes aren’t showing yet.


Andy, Broadmoor Wood

Dormice at Hunthouse Wood

Myself, Nick, Joshua, Helen and Gwen (most of us are Worcestershire Wildlife Trust members) undertook a hazelnut search of Hunthouse Woods in November 2010 and found five nuts that had clearly been eaten by dormice. This was the first record of dormice using the woods since 1983.

We decided to set up a dormouse tube study to monitor the size and health of the local population and send this information to the National Dormouse Monitoring Programme (organized by The People’s Trust for Endangered Species). This information will also be used to feed into woodland management plans for Hunthouse with the aid of Nick Benbow, the reserve warden.

So on Sunday morning myself, Helen, Nick, Joshua and Gwen, along with Nick Benbow, his wife and Chloe Elding (a local resident) made up 50 dormouse tubes and installed them in suitable habitat within Hunthouse Wood. It was a crisp sunny day, which illuminated the woodland beautifully, making the work all the more enjoyable. 

We plan to go back to the woodland several times this year to see how many dormice are using the tubes.  We'll keep you updated!

Elizabeth, dormouse volunteer

Feckenham's mystery picture revealed

Coltsfoot

Well the quiz received massive interest and comments from you keen blog readers. The answer is shown below but before you rush to scroll down to see if you were correct, let me tell you what we've been up to on the reserve.



Our Volunteer Taster day was a great sucess with a good number of people attending. The day started with a guided walk around the reserve then a session working on brash clearance and pond digging. Everyone enjoyed their day and subsequently we have had 4 new volunteers come to our Wednesday work parties.

I've been out on the reserve with a group of volunteers from Chaddesley Woods who are helping us to regenerate our old hedge along Moors Lane. This has not been managed since we purchased the reserve in 1981 so it is long past it's best. We are coppicing down to around 48" which will give us a basis for laying at another time when the stumps have put on decent growth. There are many gaps between so we plan to plant with native hawthorn and blackthorn in the autumn to enable the hedge to thicken in the years to come. When thick enough it will create a far better habitat, particularly for birds that like to nest in a thick hedge.

Little grebe

The sun has come out and it's been very warm; it felt like spring was already here and just to make a point our coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara - cough dispeller) is in full flower. It was exactly a month later in mid-March last year!


We have 14 Canada geese on the main pool - it's a shame because they can't stop arguing which spoils the peace and quiet somewhat. They have paired up and hopefully they will move on to nest elsewhere, we just don't have the room. Our coots are back and re-asserting their ownership of the pool and we have a single little grebe who is waiting for a mate. 

Now onto the quiz. I'm afraid that no-one got it right. It was in fact the great reedmace (bullrush) Typha latifolia. So, due to the great success of the mystery pic, here is another one. Now this one is really easy...! 
 

What's this?

Paul, Feckenham Wylde Moor

February in Chance

Snowdrop

The volunteers have worked so effectively that the major job planned for this year was completed last month.  This left us last week's and next month's work parties to concentrate on clearing the paths.  Bramble grows very rapidly here and soon leaves some paths so overgrown that they become impassable without a good cut back each year.

The next few weeks should see the wood looking at its best and now is the time to meet and chat to the walkers who come up from Kinver to see the spring bulbs; the snowdrops are probably at their best now, daffodil and bluebell shoots are showing well and suggesting that this might be a good bluebell year.

The woodland birds continue to call and I should have had a great photo of the buzzard had I not had the close up lens on the camera at the time!

  

Catkins at Chance

There wasn't room for all the snowdrop photos here so why not visit our Flickr page www.flickr.com/photos/worcestershirewildlifetrust

Roger, Chance Wood

Woodland Work at Smite

Hedge planting

Blue skies and sunshine beamed down on the Tuesday Roving Volunteers as they visited Lower Smite Farm last week to start the last phase of planting our new wood – 400 oak trees. Tree planting has been steady throughout the winter and alongside the tree planting in the new wood, the Farm volunteers have been planting new hedgerows and gap filling the hedges planted last year. Everything has come on apace and we are on target for completion of this work.

Copse clearance

Today we took up work started last autumn on the clearance of the copse behind the barn.  Armed with chainsaw, bow saws and loppers, we set to work on the remaining trees marked for felling. It is amazing how much this clearance work has opened up the copse and let in much-needed light.   

The next task is to put up more bird boxes before the nesting season begins in earnest.

Heather, Lower Smite Farm

Feckenham update

Following our winter brown hairstreak egg count, and still wallowing in the sucess of our first 14 eggs last year, we were slightly disappointed to find just 7 this time. All of these were on the new short suckers that had grown since we cleared the area two years ago. We think that the reduced number is due to a significant amount of 'fresh' lichen growing in the crevices where the eggs are laid on the blackthorn this winter after what was a relatively damp 2010. We will be doing quite a lot of work to rectify this by coppicing the old blackthorn in the same area where the new eggs were found as well as on the other side of the reserve, to see if this encourages more egg laying. This work will be done in August before the new laying season begins. New suckers won't have grown until next year or the year after but we do need to manage this on a rotation basis for the benefit of the butterflies now we have them on site.We also hope to locate an 'assebly' tree this year.

Work on pollarding our big old 'crack' willows is well under way and although this will change our skyline they really did need attention. Many had split already and were leaning on other trees with some overhanging branches that would inevitably come down in strong winds. The work will ensure that these trees do not disappear. We have left some excellent owl and bat habitat together with the old woodpecker holes. Last Wednesday we had an excellent sighting of a rather scruffy tawny owl. It came out of a crack in one of the old ash trees and flew within a few feet of us at shoulder height along the ditch line. 

Finally, I've noticed that there are no comments on the blog.  So, here is something to stimulate your brain cells. What is this photograph of? There are no prizes but it will prove that someone out there is reading....!

Paul, Feckenham Wylde Moor