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watervole
© Darin Smith |
| Features from Wildlife magazine |
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Round the reserves
Month by month - wildlife to look out for...
May
The bluebell carpet at Priors Wood will still be flourishing at
the beginning of this month. Migrant birds such as willow warbler
and garden warbler can be heard singing from the windblown areas
to the south of the site and views of buzzards circling overhead
can be enjoyed from the large bluebell glade. Brimstone butterflies
can be found flying along the edge of the woodland clearings and
at Brown's Folly the bramble-laden ride will be a haven for
foraging insects. This area is especially important for bats that
live within the wood and sharp-eyed visitors can see pipistrelle,
brown long-eared and noctule bats hunting in this area at dusk.
June
Up along the Mendip Hills Dolebury Warren and Hellenge Hill will
be coming into their best. The sun-drenched slopes of the south
facing ramparts and amphitheatre exhibit some of the fiercest conditions
found in the area and plants found here need to have special adaptations
to survive. Carline thistle, biting stonecrop and honewort can be
found in along the areas of dry thin soils.
July
At Folly Farm this month, the moth population is at its most obvious
with plenty of day flying and nocturnal species to be seen. If the
weather has been good with warm continental weather moving in from
the south then migrants such as silver Y or rush veneer could be
found flushed from the grass. Lady's bedstraw will also attract
humming bird-hawk moths as they go in search of nectar. At Tickenham
Ridge a total of 486 different species have been found over a number
years of recording, with a peak occurring during this month. Many
of these are rare or uncommon but linking them all is their attractive
names, mainly named by Victorian entomologists: watch out for buff-tip,
brown scallop, clouded magpie, double lobed, ear, fern, ghost, grass
emerald, maiden's blush or satin lutestring.
August
Generally a quiet time for song birds it is worth spending a little
while having a look around Chew Valley Lake to see the start of
the autumn migration. From Herriot's Bridge or Heron's
Green a patient observer could be rewarded with views of returning
common or green sandpipers. Little egrets may be seen, their brilliant
white plumage looking pristine against the green colours of high
summer. Towards the end of the month the drop in water level will
expose large areas of mud and waders such as ringed plover, dunlin
or even wood sandpipers will add to existing numbers.
Reserves update
Hurray for Ratty!
One of our most recent success stories is the
return of watervole to Lawrence Weston Moor. For some time we've
been working to restore their favoured habitat, hoping they would
one day return to the site. The signs were promising since we knew
that water voles were using ditches in the area, even if it was
on the other side of the M5. Many of the ditches on Lawrence Weston
Moor had not been cleaned out for some time. Scrub grew along the
banks, blocking out light and stifling aquatic plants until eventually
the ditches dried out and all signs of watervoles disappeared.
In 2004 with the support of Defra and Bristol
City Council, we began work to restore the ditches which are an
important wildlife habitat. However, in order to favour water voles
we need to take care to ensure that do things carefully by making
sure that the ditches had one very steep bank where water voles
could establish burrows. The opposite bank needed a very shallow
slope, where a wide margin of rush and aquatic plants could develop,
perfect as cover and a source of food.
We'd like to extend special thanks to the
team at Lower Severn Drainage Board who actually carried out the
restoration and did an excellent job on a difficult site.This approach
seems to have paid dividends and this winter the longest ever stretch
of ditch has been restored.
Return of a native
The native black poplar is one of Britain's rarest and most
endangered native trees. It was once widely distributed in lowland
river valleys but is now scarce and scattered. For these reasons,
the species has recently been included in the UK Biodiversity Action
Plan. None of these giant trees grow on our nature reserves but
following extensive research and investigation, the possibility
of re-introducing this species was considered to a former haunt
at to Clapton Moor. During December 2005 saplings were planted in
two locations on the site. Although they may look insignificant
at the moment in years to come it will be impossible to miss two
fine examples of this majestic species.
Folly Farm
For the second year running large areas of scrub and secondary woodland
have been cleared within the SSSI here. As usual this has been a
joint effort involving a number of volunteer groups and staff members.
Most of the work was completed by the Folly Farm Volunteer Group
(who visit the site every Thursday) and our own Estate's Team.
An old woodland craft...
Last winter a third and final coppice coupe was
established on Weston Moor and a first coupe was cut at Weston Big
Wood. Coppicing is a simple process that was traditionally used
as a sustainable way to grow wood for hurdle making, charcoal production
and firewood. When a native broadleaf tree such as oak, ash or willow
is cut down it will re-grow with multiple shoots from a single stump.
An area or 'coupe' can then be harvested each year once
the shoots reached the desired thickness. One of the by-products
of this once common and widely used technique was the benefit to
wildlife. By maintaining a range of different growth stages coppicing
creates a more diverse range of habitats within a woodland.
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