30 Touches of Nature

The month of June is fast approaching and it's a great time to get outdoors and enjoy nature - it's good for your health and wellbeing.  Why not take up the 30DaysWild challenge?  Here Norfolk Widlife Trust's Head of People and Wildlife, David North explains how going wild in June can make you feel good.

'One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.'  (William Shakespeare)
 

 There is much talk today of the benefits of ‘mindfulness’ as a way of coping with the seemingly ever-increasing stresses and strains of modern life. But ‘wildfulness’, simply spending time in nature, can also bring great rewards.

Bar-tailed godwits by David North

I was lucky enough over the recent Bank Holiday weekend to spend time walking on the Norfolk coast beneath the wild, eroding cliffs of Mundesley. It was a windy day, windy enough to blow your troubles away, and as the waves crashed against seaweed-encrusted, wooden groins masses of bubbly sea foam was flying into the air then bouncing along the beach in foaming masses. In my book, time spent walking along our wonderful Norfolk coast, with its diverse wild landscapes of sand, sea, shingle, mud and marsh, is never wasted.  A walk along the shore is a great place to gain a sense of perspective, to see things both literally and metaphorically in a new light.  And as with any walk in wild places there are always surprises: on this walk winging their way through the flying foam came a small flock of bar-tailed godwits.  They rested briefly on the beach, just long enough to see some were in full ‘red’ breeding plumage and others, perhaps non-breeders or younger birds, still winter grey. With them flew one, extremely smart, black and white spangled, grey plover. What a delight. Today Mundesley beach, next stop, perhaps the Arctic circle! 
 
Spending quiet time in nature, sitting or walking, listening and looking, without rushing or getting distracted by thoughts of jobs I need to do, not only helps me see details in the landscape and natural world that I would otherwise miss, it also helps me make sense of my life.  How often do we simply give ourselves time to ‘tune-in’ to the sounds, smells and textures of nature around us? But at least for me this time is vital: vital to health, happiness and sanity.

Perhaps you need an excuse to simply spend a few moments outside allowing yourself to connect to nature around you?  Well the good news is the Wildlife Trusts are offering the perfect excuse.  It’s free, like the wild world around us, and it’s called 30 Days Wild.
 
The aim is to get as many people as possible to do one small thing – one Random Act of Wildness – which could be as simple as going outside on a clear night and spending a couple of minutes star gazing, find a wild space in a lunchtime and sitting quietly for five minutes tuning in to the living things around us that we share this world with, or getting up early and listening to bird song, really listening so that all your attention is attuned to what you are hearing. It’s happening in June but if you visit the website now, we will send you a pack (by email or post) full of ideas for Random Acts of Wildness to try out in June.  These small actions – walking for a minute barefoot though grass on a dewy morning, taking time to touch the rough bark of a tree, following a bee or butterfly for a minute and observing its life – may sound trivial, but give it 30 days and I suspect you will be surprised at the power that spending time connecting to nature has to change the way you feel.  It should of course come with a health and happiness warning. After 30 days you may well have formed a lifetime habit!

Explore the boundaries between land, sea, sky, earth and nature. In doing so you may begin to discover your own connection to the timeless cycles of nature which in reality, without or without our conscious awareness, we are all participants in.  Is that wildness inside us or outside? Are we part of nature or separate from it?

If ‘one touch of nature makes the whole world kin’ just think what 30 touches can do for you!   To join in visit www.wildlifetrusts.org/30dayswild  You are never too old or too young to enjoy the nature around you and if you are a family and would like to interest your children in wildlife then taking part in 30DaysWild is a great way to start. 

Do you want some help in reconnecting with nature?
The Wildlife Trusts have a saying, ‘All our lives are better when they are a little bit wild’ and have developed hundreds of ‘Random Acts of Wildness’ which are easy and free to do and can help you engage with nature wherever you are. For details visit 30 Days Wild.
 
The Wildlife Trusts believe that people are part of nature; everything we value ultimately comes from it and everything we do has an impact on it. We believe that each year, there should be more wildlife and more wild places, and people should become closer to nature.

Exploring layers of history in the Norfolk Claylands

January may not be abundant with wildflowers but there is plenty to discover on a winter's walk as Helen Baczkowska, Conservation Officer with Norfolk Wildlife Trust records in her Claylands Diary for January.
 
Although I am an enthusiast of wild flowers, January walks are strangely a joy; for once I am not distracted by the delights of stitchwort or speedwell, by trying to sort greater from lesser bird’s foot trefoil.  Instead, I can look out on landscapes, study bare trees and cold winter ponds with a different eye.

On a walk through the heart of the Claylands Living Landscape, my brother, an archaeologist, slowed us down by lightly kicking at molehills. One revealed the treasure he sought – a thin, curved blade of flint I would not have looked twice at.  The chipped edge he showed me was human made, one of the thousand upon thousand Mesolithic flint tools discarded across these lands.  Most, he explained, were found on dry sandy soils, the reasons uncertain, yet how, he asked, had they recognised these places?  For an ecologist, this one question begs many more about how the vegetation of Britain developed as the last glaciers retreated to the north and as herds of large herbivores, from prehistoric bison, to deer and ponies, spread out across the cold steppe grasslands and scrub.

Gorse by David North

   

One thing I could certainly say is that even today, the patches of sandy soils left on the edge of the ice sheets can be easily distinguished amongst the ground up chalky clay of South Norfolk; earlier walking over the County Wildlife Site at Wood Green, we had crossed an area of gorse and fine grasses, visible even in winter.  In summer, heath bedstraw and heath speedwell grow here, although most of the common is clay, with meadow vetchling, meadow buttercup, cowslip and black knapweed.

Nearby Fritton Common is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, with orchids and ponds were great crested newts breed, but in the bleakness of January, my attention was drawn to the almost straight rows of oak trees, most noticeable on the western boundary.  Some of these are huge old trees, the largest in the south-west corner showing signs of pollarding – a way that small wood was once produced by cutting and re-cutting above the height of grazing stock. Collecting small wood from pollards was often the right of the commoners, whereas the timber trees themselves were the property of the lord of the manor. 

Old oak tree by Brian Beckett

In the centuries when barns and houses and especially warships were built on oak frames, these trees were valuable, their management and planting central to a farm’s income and survival; it is likely that the amount of oak across many English counties is not a virtue of ecology, so much a legacy of old economies and the insatiable need for timber for ships.  Today, being winter bare, these trees make curious shapes, with a large, gnarled trunks and many holes; invertebrates inhabit the crevices and barbestelle bats, which are have been recorded hunting over the common, no doubt find a roost in the cracks and fissured bark.

The lines of pollards continue south of Fritton Common, along a sinuous path, known locally as Snake Lane.  Hedges in the Claylands are often tall, with mature trees and a flora suggesting these are old fragments of woodland. The wide hedges of Snake Lane indicate long generations of woodland management, with pollards of oak and field maple; between them the pale slender trunks of hazel show signs of past coppicing.  Like pollarding, this produced small wood for hurdles and tool handles by cutting and re-cutting, but this time at ground level; the re-grown trees have many stems and a distinctive stump or “stool”.  A few hornbeam grow here too, their bark smooth and twisted into long creases, their timber once famed for its hardness.

Returning home, across Morningthorpe Common, a whisper makes me look up.  With a sound like the lightest of summer breezes in tall trees, a flock of fieldfares is heading to roost.  I have spotted a lot of these large, grey-backed thrushes over the past week, no doubt forced briefly south by cold weather. 

Fieldfare by Elizabeth Dack

 
By the end of our walk, dusk is wintry, grey and damp; warmth and hot tea beckon, but so do more days of walking the quiet, hidden tracks of the Claylands, exploring the endless, inseparable layering of human and natural history.

Bat and moth evening with Norfolk Wildlife Services

Barry Madden, NWT volunteer

Smokey lines of straggly cloud silhouetted against an horizon of red and orange pastel hues; ragged streams of gulls silently and purposefully moving westwards towards their roost on the mud wastes of the Wash; shadow forms of rabbits hopping across the open grassland in the quickening dusk; and the fetid smell of rotting flesh emanating from stinkhorn fungi attracting flies to carry its spores to pastures new. 

Just a few impressions from an evening spent with NWT colleagues at the Mars Foods factory in King's Lynn helping to run a bat and moth evening for staff. First off we were given a tour of the site, extending over several acres, by Dave a most enthusiastic champion of all things wild and natural. He is working hard to develop the whole area into a wildlife haven and our job was to help spread some of this joy to other employees of the company.

But first some context. Mars Foods occupies a site on the Hardwick Industrial Estate in Kings Lynn, an industrial complex like many others scattered around our county and on first impressions the very antithesis of a wildlife friendly landscape. But let's look a bit closer. Behind the facade of iron fencing, beyond the tarmac car parks full of our expensive tin cans and rows of utilitarian warehouses lies another hidden world. A world that cannot be seen from the road; a world that by its very nature and because of its very location can remain largely undisturbed and peaceful. And it is here that enlightened staff, with advice and guidance from Norfolk Wildlife Services (NWS), are giving nature a helping hand, shaping what already exists into something better; creating something new from neglected tracts of otherwise sterile space. 
 
The space in question comprises small areas of mixed woodland and bramble scrub, tall boundary hedging and a large tract of open grassland some of which is being left un-mown to encourage wild flowers to flourish. The northern edge of the site is bordered by a small river, itself edged with mature trees, offering another dimension for wildlife to thrive. Log piles have been deposited in sheltered nooks, a pond has been dug, nest boxes positioned and a walkway created so that staff have somewhere to stroll during their breaks. It really is very simple, but so very effective.

Our primary concern this evening was to guide a small party of staff members on a bat hunt around the more wooded parts of the site. To this end we furnished each participant with a bat detector device that picks up the echo location calls of bats and converts them to electrical output that we humans can hear. Each species of bat emits signals at a particular frequency and by setting the dial on the bat detector to frequencies favoured by the common, more likely, inhabitants of the area their chatter can easily be picked up. It wasn't long before we were picking up the chipping calls of pipistrelles hunting around the top of a high hedge. At least three of these tiny winged mammals were present hunting mosquitoes and other flying insects of the night. On more than one occasion we were able to listen to the so called ‘terminal  buzz’, a series of increasingly rapid signals made as the bat zeros in on its prey. These emissions, very much akin to someone blowing a raspberry, are proof that ample food is present here and the bats were feeding well.
 
On one occasion we also picked up the slower more rhythmic call of a noctule bat, a much larger species sadly in steep decline over much of the country nowadays. Its presence here is therefore all the more welcome.

On then to the moth trap which tonight seemed to provide an irresistible lure for numerous crane flies that festooned the dew laden grass. Moths were few at this season and unfortunately we didn't have time to wait for the main emergence. However both large and lesser yellow underwings appeared as well as a few square spot rustics and a snout. A small taste late in the year of what the site could produce. Further trapping events are planned and will certainly produce many more species.

A most enjoyable and informative evening. The management and staff of Mars Foods must be congratulated for their excellent efforts in sympathetically managing this site for the benefit of people and wildlife. It doesn't take much you know; just an appreciation of the positive impact working with nature can bring to the workplace, a realisation that we are part of the natural world and not aliens within. Most importantly the boundless energy of committed individuals such as Dave to make it happen. NWT and NWS are proud to be part of this activity.

NWS can help your company too. For further details visit their page on this website.


Read Barry's own blog at http://easternbushchat.blogspot.co.uk 

End of the season at Weeting Heath

Matt Twydell, Weeting Heath Summer Warden
 
It is now the end of the season here at NWT Weeting Heath and unfortunately the end of my summer contract here, I have enjoyed my time here at Weeting Heath and the season has flown by. The dropping temperatures and leaves are the starting signs of autumn and winter, other signs on the reserve are the appearance of several fungi that have been sprouting up at Weeting. 

This year has been a good year for the main attraction at Weeting Heath, the stone curlew. Five pairs nested on Weeting Heath this year producing five chicks that fledged from in front of the hides which is the highest for several years.

Three of the fledged chicks came from one pair which managed to have two broods this year. This pair consists of an unringed female and a ringed male which we call Upper Right Black, due to the ring combination including a black ring on its upper right leg (original name I know!). The ringing of stone curlews is part of the Stone Curlew Recovery Project and has been going since the 80s, it gives us an insight and important data into where the stone curlews breed, potential survival rates and where they overwinter from year to year.

 
What makes Upper Right Black interesting is that we have been told potentially this bird was first ringed as a chick in 1990! Making this bird the oldest recorded bird in the project at an age of 23! This bird was part of a pair which successfully reared and fledged three chicks this year. Below is a video I took on my phone earlier in the season showing Upper Right Black with two of its chicks and on the right a close up picture of one of his chicks we ringed this year, lets hope his chick will make it to 23 as well and be back at Weeting Heath in 2037!

Stone curlews normally depart at the end of September or start of October to overwinter in southern Spain or northern Africa such as Morocco (something I know I would like to do). There has been one or two records of stone curlews overwintering in this country when whether conditions are mild enough. So potentially if Upper Right Black has been flying to southern Spain for the last 23 years, it means he has flown roughly a staggering 55,000 miles in its life time, which is twice the circumference of the Earth at the equator!

Other interesting wildlife seen this year include two cranes flying over the reserve in June, which means that 95 species of bird were recorded at Weeting Heath this year. A clouded yellow butterfly was also recorded on the reserve which brought the total number of species for this year to 24. Bats were also recorded for the first time this year at Weeting Heath through the free Norfolk Bat Survey, which anyone can take part in. The results showed that at least eight species of bat use the reserve including brown long-eared, noctule and 
Daubenton's.


Spiked speedwell flowered early this year at the end of June rather than July and August due to the warm weather, with over 550 flowering plants counted.

So the season has now ended and the reserve is now all shut until next March, hopefully you will come visit next year where you might get to see old Upper Right Black celebrating his 24th year.

Cheers

If you like stone curlews then you should put a ring on it...

Matt Twydell, Weeting Heath Summer Warden

So like the line from that song (I really shouldn’t admit to knowing it!) we decided to ring the chick outside the hide last week. Fortunately the weather was favourable, as the chick - as you can see from the photo - is quite big now. This chick is one of the two from the video I took on the last blog. The chicks are rung in conjunction with the RSPB, for monitoring purposes.

The plan was  simple, several of us were to position ourselves in the hides directing Tim from the RSPB as to where the chick was. Usually stone curlew chicks, like other ground nesting birds, will “hit the ground” and keep completely still, relying on camouflage to hide from predators.

This one, however, decided to be a “runner”, and as soon as Tim got close, it went off like the road runner (meep meep), and this made for quite comical few minutes watching Tim chase the bird from the hide!

It  was back in May that we found the scrape and the mottled camouflaged eggs.

It was quite amazing to get up close to a stone curlew, from my normal view point through a scope. Seeing their huge eyes up close, was particularity interesting.

 The whole process of recording weight - which was 336g for this chick - and other data as well as fixing the rings only takes around 10 minutes. So disturbance to the bird is minimal, and the parents who watch from a distance returned within 10 minutes of us leaving the chick in the undergrowth.

So keep your eyes out for this chick and this ring combination from the hides!

This chick has now fledged and been kicked out by its parents. This pair will hopefully decide to re-lay over the next week, and fingers crossed we shall have another set of chicks in July.

The pair of stone curlews who lost both of their chicks early on in May, have successfully brooded two more, and they have been viewable from the West hide the past few days.

Stone curlews have a varied diet of invertebrates. I have witnessed them eating big worms and running around trying to snap butterflies from the air. But the other day I saw a peculiar sight, when one parent tried to eat and then feed a chick a young mole, needless to say the chick had trouble finishing its meal!

Other Wildlife news at Weeting Heath

 

A pair of spotted flycatchers have nested in one of the pine trees not far from the Visitor Centre. They have been more active snapping moths and flies out of the air this last week so probably have hungry chicks to feed.

We also had  two common cranes fly over the centre last week, which was quite exciting as these are the first I have seen in this country, heading in the direction of Lakenheath.

Living on site, I often see bats at night flying around the visitor centre. I was curious as to what species we had here. So I decided to take part in the Norfolk Bat Survey. Anyone can take part, you can find more details on http://www.batsurvey.org/.

I picked up the equipment and set it up over three days, the memory card was then sent to be analysed. The results showed that I recorded an amazing 10 species of bat at Weeting Heath, these were common pipistrelle, soprano pipistrelle, noctule, barbastelle, brown long-eared, Daubentons, serotine, leislers, and low confidence of whiskered and nathusius pipistrelle.

The bats will be mostly feeding on moths, here at Weeting Heath over 300 species of moth have been recorded, including these from the latest moth trap.

It’s amazing what species are around us that we don’t know about.

Butterflies and damselflies have also been abundant in the last few weeks, with 15 species being recorded including the first meadow browns, large skippers and ringlets being seen.

Careful clearing around the bat hibernaculum

Eilish Rothney, Trinity Broads Warden

In 2002 a bespoke hibernaculum was built for Daubenton's bats on the site of the Essex & Suffolk Water Treatment Works at Ormesby St Michael. Daubenton's bats are also known as the 'water bat', fishing insects from the water's surface with their large feet or tail. 

A total of eight species of bat have been recorded on the Trinity Broads and a number of different bats have used the roost over the years including Daubenton's, Pipistrelles and Natterers. There are three species of Pipstrelle and they are our smallest bats – weighing less than a £1 coin! Natterers are medium sized, feeding on a variety of invertebrates including spiders; they like roosting in crevices.

By 2013 the hibernaculum / roost was getting rather overgrown with brambles and a number of alder were potentially obstructing the flight path the bats use to enter the roost. Brambles can be dangerous for bats as they can become entangled or damage their wings – we needed to do some clearance work! The difficulty was timing this work. To disturb the bats whilst they are in the deep torpor of hibernation could endanger them, but if we left it until the warmer spring weather when they would be more active and less vulnerable, we risked there being birds nesting. Consulting with licensed bat experts we drew up a plan:

Photos: Mick Finnemore and Eilish Rothney

• First check the Hibernaculum to see if bats were present
• Clearance work would be done with a crack team of volunteers working very quietly with hand tools
• Materials would be carried away some distance to be burned so no noise or smoke would affect the Hibernaculum
• Block the entrance to reduce noise and stop any smoke entering

The work was carried out in early March and I am so proud of my Herculean team who completed the bramble cutting within the day.  Result – hopefully safe happy bats with good access to their roost and good flight paths to the broad and surrounding feeding areas.