Penorchard survey

Spring and summer may be a relatively quiet period for the  volunteers as we cannot carry out our regular blackthorn scrub clearing work (which may otherwise disturb nesting birds and damage the flowering plants) but it does give us time to see the meadows at their best and to carry out flora and fauna surveys. The annual plant survey at Penorchard Meadows has been carried out and initial results show the meadows to be in good condition but this is only our fourth year surveying on the nature reserve.

We still have some management work to carry out, however, and one problem we had to deal with was discovered soon after arriving at the reserve for our first day of recording. Fly-tippers had dumped two dozen car tyres into the drainage ditch running alongside the roadway just outside the reserve boundary. A quick call to Worcestershire County Council that same afternoon and the tyres were collected and safely disposed of within 36 hours.

If you are thinking about visiting Penorchard soon, the next few weeks will see the meadows at their very best. The reserve is open every day but visitors are asked to walk around it following the marked public footpaths.

John, Stourbridge Local Group

Dormouse update

I may not have written a lot about dormice lately but that's not to say we haven't been busy...

 

Grafton Wood – this month James and me checked the tubes in Grafton woods as part of the ongoing investigation (in conjunction with Andy) as to whether dormice are found east of the River Severn (as currently it is assumed they are not present in east Worcestershire). Unfortunately, despite checking 100 tubes, we didn't find any of the furry critters. However,  two tubes contained shredded honeysuckle which is commonly used by dormice to construct nests. A further two tubes contained caches of partially eaten acorns, which is most likely to have been left by woodmice as dormice are not know to store their food. Fortunately further checks are planed this year which may yield more positive results.

Hunthouse Wood – along with Nick, we placed some of the dormouse boxes higher up in the trees to see whether this will encourage the dormice to use them. However, the May check of around 70 boxes and tubes did not reveal any dormice - although several nests of young blue-tits and one rather disgruntled hornet were found! So at least the boxes were providing nesting opportunities for some animals. We'll be carrying out several checks this year so hopefully we'll have more positive results.

Elizabeth

Our interests outside our own reserves often lie somewhere similar - I was lucky enough to spend the Wildlife Trust's 100th birthday last month at the Norfolk Wildlife Trust nature reserve Cley Marshes on the North Norfolk coast.

The day began sunny and warm as I was shown round by warden Bernard Bishop. Bernard, now in his 60s, was born in a house overlooking the marsh and has spent his entire life growing up around this magical place.  He has a wealth of knowledge about the toography and species to be found amongst the reed beds, pools, scrapes and dunes.  

For those who have not visited Cley it is well worth the trip and if you book on a Wednesday you can take a very informative 'walk with the warden'.

On my walk with Bernard we were accompanied by a TV film crew, there for the 100th birthday of the Wildlife Trusts, and I was pleased to do an interview on camera for Look East about WWT and in particular Feckenham WM reserve. Although the site is significantly larger than Feckenham Wylde Moor, our reed management for wildlife habitat is identical. At Cley, however, they also cut reed commercially every year for thatching.

A real bonus was the sighting of the elusive bearded tit. I managed to see both male and female darting through the reeds and was fortunate to catch a photograph of both with this male staying still for just long enough to capture it's distinctive 'beard'.

In all I recorded 75 different bird species over the three days which included black-tailed godwit (still in winter plumage), pintail, little egret, Egyptian goose and red kite.

On the Thursday I took a trip to Blakeney Point to see the common and grey seals. Along the estuary there were common, sandwich, Artic and little tern - all of which breed amongst the dunes. There were also hundreds of Russian dark-bellied brent geese.

During my three days I also saw 8 marsh harriers, including a breeding pair at Holkham where there was also a colony of breeding spoonbill.  All in all a very pleasant and informative trip. I shall be returning soon.

Paul, Feckenham Wylde Moor

The Beauty of the Knapp

Last Sunday, I was at Knapp & Papermill Reserve for the monthly work party. A lovely hot day, it was perfect weather for photography so I snapped a few shots of the gorgeous green winged orchids. They are looking beautiful in Big Meadow at the moment so worth checking out if you have time! 

I also photographed a lovely bee buzzing around the alkanet at the picnic area and was pleased to discover, from the warden Fergus, that it was a tree bumblebee Bombus Hypnorum, a non-native that arrived in Worcestershire in 2008 and nests in trees. A nice spot and worth sending in to the records centre. 

Oh, and I did quite a lot of volunteer work whilst I was there as well. :) 

Kate

Orchards in Martley

We had a great evening on 3^rd May listening to John Edgely give a very informative talk on orchards. It was lovely to see some new faces at Martley, even on such a wet evening! 

It was slightly different from our normal talks as we got some invaluable advice on how to manage orchards. It’s obviously interesting to know what wildlife is associated with orchards but management is key to making sure this valuable wildlife resource isn’t lost through neglect. We picked up a lot of advice about pruning individual trees but John also covered managing the sward to increase the species diversity as well as improving the hedgerows both for biodiversity and for the fruit trees themselves. I know I took away some very useful tips that I will be using when pruning the couple of fruit trees in my garden!

It's all quiet now for a month or so but we'd love to see you at our Moth Night on 7th July or the moth and butterfly day on 8th July, both at Monkwood.

Poppy, Worcester local group

The Fabulous Knapp & Papermill

At very short notice, because of the illness of the advertised speaker, Garth Lowe gave the Malvern Group an interesting talk on our much loved local nature reserve, the Knapp and Papermill at Alfrick.

Garth has lived near the Knapp all his life, and was once the warden, so he knows every inch of it as if it were his own back garden. The Leigh Brook runs through the reserve and floods from time to time, in 2007 so severely that a bridge and the bird hides were swept away and banks needed major repair work. Volunteers regularly help to manage the reserve with whatever maintenance work is needed. Very recently a new study centre has been built near the warden’s house at the entrance, complete with a purpose built bat loft – let's hope it is soon occupied.

Garth regaled us with pictures of the wealth of wildlife he has seen at the Knapp. If you visit you're likely to see many of the common birds - long-tailed tits, nuthatches, treecreepers, great spotted and green woodpeckers, buzzards and perhaps a sparrowhawk. Garth has unfortunately noticed a decline in some species, including marsh tits, bullfinches, pied flycatchers and spotted flycatchers. The kingfishers still nest in the river bank, although the location has changed. The moorhens have gone, probably because of predation by mink. 

The flowers are spectacular, especially during spring in Big Meadow, which is full of hawkbits, oxeye daisies, yellow rattle and several species of orchid. Surprisingly, a Southern Marsh orchid appeared a few years ago and has now hybridised with the common spotted orchids. Butterflies appear on sunny days – holly blue, comma, red and white admiral, speckled wood, to name a few, but the numbers of small tortoiseshell are declining. 

The 70 bird boxes in the reserve are used by birds, bees, hornets and even dormice! There are two badger setts and the ponds are full of frogs, newts and sticklebacks. Otters are present but rarely seen.

The next meeting will be on September 6^th when Patrick Clement will talk about the Magic of Moths.  There's a summer full of events - take a look at our website http://malverngroup.btck.co.uk/

Alison, Malvern Local Group

Bird-ringing at Feckenham

Just before this spell of cold and wet weather set in we were lucky enough to get a morning of bird ringing in at FWM. 

Tony Kelly, who has ringed at the reserve before, set up a number of nets along the path through and on the edge of the reed bed. Nothing particularly interesting but we did manage 15 birds in total over a period of two to three hours: 10 great tits, 2 blue tits, 2 long-tailed tits and 1 chiffchaff (their first of the year). I guess that it was still a little early although we did see reedbuntings that morning and we've had willow warbler, which was earlier than last year. There are also more chiffchaff than at this time last year. 


With this spell of cold and wet weather I don't expect to see or hear our reed and sedge warblers just yet but who knows.


Other new arrivals are our resident little grebes and a pair of tufted ducks. There have been good numbers of bumblebees about on the Sallow and we did have a curlew fly over a couple of weeks ago. Good numbers of early butterflies include peacock, small tortoiseshell and both male and female brimstone.

Hopefully we'll be able to start out butterfly and dragonfly recording soon, providing the weather warms up again. I hope to hear our first cuckoo of the year in the middle of April.

Paul, Feckenham Wylde Moor