Coastal fun at Holme Dunes

Jessica Riederer, Seasonal Education Officer

Sea dipping and Coastal Creations at Holme Beach last week proved to be just as much fun for us Seasonal Education Officers as for the children and adults who joined us.  

Coastal creations began with a scavenger hunt where egg cases from rays and whelks as well as numerous species of marine invertebrate shells were found. After gathering to discuss and celebrate our finds, it was on to creating! We were very impressed that the adults got down in the sand to design their own creations – who says playing in the sand is just for kids? During the sea dipping session, despite a choppy North sea, Jo and her net managed to deliver lots of different species of shrimp, prawn and crab, and even, much to the excitement of the children – a sole. 

Our next Coastal creation session takes place on 26 August at 2pm. Sea dipping takes place on the same day at 4 pm. 

Rapid progress at Hilgay

 Nick Carter, Conservation Officer (Fens)
 

Perimeter ditch inlet

As reported previously on this blog Fen Group has returned to Hilgay to finish off the construction work for the wetland creation site. Progress, in the dry conditions, has been rapid and they are close to finishing off the abstraction system from the River Wissey into perimeter ditch (see photo) and storage lagoon. The 400mm pipe will allow us to abstract quickly when river levels are high during the winter to help wet up the 

 site. 

 

Reed planting cages

 Getting water onto the site will enable the reed plugs that will be planted soon to thrive and establish before the winter sets in. As the site is regularly used by feral geese (Canada, Egyptian and Greylag) we are having to fence the plots where the reed plugs will be planted to discourage grazing. The fencing is a major task with over 150 22x3m plots being established, under Adam Pimble’s supervision.The aim then is to plant 40,000 reed plugs using professional planters with further plugs being planted by corporate volunteers from Environment Agency and Atkins.The work will take about a month and then the planting will move onto a site near Hickling.

Y Junction, meters & penstocks

The plug planting will speed up the natural colonisation of the site which is already happening in some of the wetter areas. It will add to the planting that occurred in 2012 by a Watch group and the reed rhizomes that were shown in an earlier blog growing in the storage lagoon.

Livestock checkers

Lucy Wilshaw, NWT Trainee Grazing Officer

There are currently 27 active volunteer livestock checkers who assist us with checking the herds of Dartmoor and Konik ponies across the county. Checking one herd of ponies can take between one and four hours depending on the site and the number of ponies in the herd, most volunteers check a particular herd once a week. Livestock checkers really enjoy seeing the pony herds’ natural behaviour and interaction with the habitats, they also enjoy seeing the flora and fauna and a good walk!

On Monday, we invited Richard Broad from the Rare Breed Survival Trust to Buxton Heath to run a livestock checkers course specifically for checking conservation grazing equines.  This was a good chance for 14 of our volunteers to improve their checking skills and to meet other volunteers from different reserves and share their experiences.

If you would like to find out more about volunteer livestock checking please have a look on our website where you'll find a role description of what is involved.

Cley Catch-up: 8 August 2013

Barry Madden, Volunteer Bird Guide at NWT Cley Marshes

Avocet chick, photo by Barry Madden

It’s been a successful breeding season for the birds of Cley. During June and July the scrapes were alive with avocet chicks. Everywhere you looked there were freshly hatched broods busily foraging around the shallow margins picking small insects from the water’s surface. Scaled down versions of the adults, complete with small upturned bill, it is amazing how these tiny creatures begin feeding themselves almost as soon as they hatch. They seem quite fearless as they enthusiastically explore their surroundings in their quest for sustenance. The ever vigilant parents stand sentinel close by, ensuring their particular balls of down come to no harm. 

Coots, photo by Barry Madden

Their most frequent targets, posing real or often only imaginary threats, were marauding gulls, marsh harrier, wood pigeon, shelduck and coot; not one was able to get anywhere near the chicks without a spirited and sustained attack. It is testimony to the high quality of management activity across the site that so many of these iconic birds successfully hatched young. The unceasing efforts of the warden and reserves staff have borne fruit; their dedication deserves high praise. In fact I heard some members of the public say just that as they delighted in the antics of a pair of chicks feeding close to Bishop’s Hide. It is very heartening to know the expertise of NWT staff is appreciated by members of the public whose support is so vital to the Trust’s work.

 

Cygnets, photo by Barry Madden

There has been much evidence of other breeding success. A walk around the reserve has often revealed young lapwing and redshank chicks tottering across the wet meadows where grey-lag goslings had formed a crèche off East Bank. Meadow pipits, reed buntings, sedge warblers, reed warblers, and swallows all seem to have fared well, whilst the marsh harriers raised three healthy offspring which have been much enjoyed by the visiting public. 

But Cley is not all about birds. Largely thanks to the glorious warm weather of the last month it has been insects that have taken centre stage. 

The wealth of wild flowers covering the nature reserve provides breeding and feeding opportunities for a multitude of butterflies, moths, bees and other 6-legged creatures. At times the south facing beach slope has been awash with colourful 6-spot burnet moths, common blues and gatekeepers. The cessation of winter bulldozing of the shingle has allowed a very interesting plant community to develop all along this area, especially close to the beach car park. Here at times the myriad thistles, trefoils and grasses have been covered with dancing butterflies. 

Silver Y Moth, photo by Barry Madden

Today a sprinkling of migrant silver Y moths were busy flitting from flower to flower; their ability to hover hummingbird-like enabling them to drink deeply from various tubular flowers that others were unable to exploit. Successful breeding of several species is evidenced by small armies of caterpillars busy munching away on their chosen food plant. The larvae of peacock and cinnabar moth are on display for anyone wishing to look closely at ragwort and nettles, and I was lucky to see a painted lady caterpillar wriggle across the path in front of me. 

So much life, and it’s not there by accident. Sympathetic management based on decades of experience allows the reserve to flourish all year round. Much of this activity takes place away from the public gaze, or in the early hours and is therefore not always obvious. It is all geared to providing wildlife the best possible habitat and people the best opportunity of observing what decides to call Cley Marshes home.

Why not pay a visit and take a look for yourself?

New volunteers at Hickling Broad

Angela Collins, Volunteer Coordinator

Most of my working days are spent at my desk in our Norwich Head Office, but I do like to take the opportunity to get out and meet volunteers when I can.  So I was very pleased to attend an induction morning for some new nature reserve volunteers at NWT Hickling Broad.  Hickling already has a strong team of reliable volunteers who help look after the reserve, but they are keen to expand the team as there is lots of work to be done.

New NWT volunteers: Laura, Sally and Terry with
Adam Pimble, assistant warden

At the start of the day, the new recruits – Sally, Laura and Terry – and I were given an introduction to Hickling by the assistant warden, Adam Pimble and guidance regarding health and safety. An existing long term volunteer, Alan, talked about his volunteering and the wildlife you can get to see as a volunteer when on parts of the nature reserve not normally open to the public. 

We went out on the nature reserve, starting with the office and workshops, but then the best bit: a buggy ride driven by John Wheeler, Assistant in the Upper Thurne, around some areas which are not currently open to the public. We looked at the new flood defence works, which Adam explained will help improve the conditions of the site for wildlife. Bumping along the track, with butterflies, damselflies and dragonflies flittering by was beautiful, and showed what a truly special place Hickling is. 

We found the Konik ponies, which help keep the vegetation down in a more natural way than mechanical cutting ever could. As well as manual labour, the nature reserve volunteers also help monitor the condition of the ponies on a daily basis. Adam explained how the ones we were looking at were at their heaviest weight now, as expected, because of the good grazing available and that this will provide for them over the winter when conditions are more difficult. These ponies were new to Hickling. It was important that we keep a safe distance from the conservation ponies, they are not for petting and they are actively  discouraged from approaching humans.

It was good to meet some of the Hickling team and our new volunteers. I hope Sally, Laura and Terry all enjoy their volunteering at Hickling Broad and being part of such a superb team.

If you are interesting in volunteering with Norfolk Wildlife Trust, please have a look on our website: www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk/volunteer  

May and June at Upton Broad and Marshes

Nigel Robson, Volunteer Bird Recorder for NWT and Mark Crossfield, NWT assistant warden for Bure and Ant

During May and June the birdlife at NWT Upton Broad and Marshes was characterised by continuing spring passage and breeding.

A wheatear was noted on 4th May and lesser whitethroats on 4th and 6th. The last few golden plovers passed through in the first week, but whimbrel numbers remained high with 42 on 4th and the last being noted on 25th. At the river lagoons two wood sandpipers stayed from 5th until 10th, whilst ringed plovers (max. three on 11th), dunlins (max. 13 on 11th), greenshanks (max. two on several days) and common sandpipers (max. two on 25th) were the waders regularly seen on passage. A pair of little ringed plovers occupied the area and a pair of avocets visited occasionally. Meanwhile the lapwings, redshanks and oystercatchers were breeding in the suitably-wet grazing marshes.

 

Yellow wagtail, photo by Mark Crossfield

A drake garganey was seen on 5th and 13th. Shovelers, gadwalls, tufted ducks, pochards and a pair of teal were present as potential breeders. One pair of shelducks had eight small ducklings on 25th but these were not found subsequently. The usual few pairs of Egyptian geese were breeding and, perhaps less welcome, there were many greylags following last year’s influx.  Other breeding birds in the reserve included two pairs of yellow wagtails and single pairs of hobby and marsh harrier. A bittern booming just outside the reserve boundary on 5th may have been an un-mated male, but it was a hopeful indication that the reedbed within the reserve, currently being improved to attract bitterns in time for the 2014 breeding season, has a fair chance of early success.

Perhaps affected by the late spring, some passage continued into June. On 5th, a male red-backed shrike was found in the marshland bushes, and three ringed plovers and two common sandpipers were at the lagoons. The pair of avocets put in an appearance on 6th, along with two little gulls, by which time a redshank was seen to have chicks. A curlew was present on 17th and three green sandpipers on 24th.

In the fen carrs, one or more woodcocks roded overhead throughout the month at twilight, and a single Turtle Dove, rarely found in the reserve nowadays, was “purring” on 20th. From reeds just outside the reserve boundary a male bearded tit was calling on 30th, possibly indicating breeding. It is hoped that this species, like the bittern, will also benefit from the modifications to the reserve reedbed. Cuckoos could be heard throughout the month, and one on 23nd was seen to have a small tracking aerial attached. It had been tagged under the BTO cuckoo tagging project and would have been either “Nelson” or “Ken” as both were transmitting their presence in the area at the time. Two others cuckoos seen on 24th were not tagged.
 

Leucistic swift, photo by Mark Crossfield

Two abnormally-plumaged birds occurred and were photographed in flight by Mark Crossfield. A leucistic swift was overhead on 19th May, and an albinistic starling was amongst the flock on the marshes on 9th June.

Starling, photo by Mark Crossfield

August Wildlife: Bats

Nick Acheson, NWT Volunteer

When my grandmother – now in her nineties – was a girl in North Norfolk, she would cycle home from evening tennis matches with her racket on her head to protect herself from bats getting tangled in her hair. For bats, she tells me, are well known for getting tangled in your hair.

Long eared bat, photo by Mark Ollett

In response I tell her that she is bonkers. On the one hand, any fool, bat expert or otherwise, can see that riding a bike along a dark Matlaske lane with one hand holding a tennis racket is reckless. (Really, was there no Health and Safety in the 1920s?) But on the other hand, straying back to the facts, it’s not possible for a British bat to get tangled in anyone’s hair because all of our native species have an incredible talent called echolocation.

They need echolocation because they fly at night and, as the old adage has it, in addition to getting tangled in the hair of innocent tennis players, bats are blind. Wrong again! You can’t be as blind as a bat because they aren’t. In fact in low levels of light (such as moonlight, or riding your bike home along a dark Norfolk lane) bats can see better than we can. However, vision isn’t British bats’ principal way of finding their way around the world at night: it’s echolocation. Bats can map their environment in great detail through the use of sound. As they fly they constantly emit tiny clicks, too high-pitched for us to hear, and the echoes from these clicks allow them to create a 3D mind-map of everything around them. So subtle is their echolocation that it enables them to catch hundreds of minute midges to eat each night.

So a bat can catch hundreds of midges by sound in complete darkness and it’s really going to get tangled in your hair grandma?

Wherever you live in Norfolk, there will be bats around you and these bats need your help. Most gardens are visited by common pipistrelles and near woods or big trees there may be brown long-eared bats and noctules. Near water there might be soprano pipistrelles or Daubenton’s bats too. Along with another half dozen scarcer species, these bats have all greatly declined in the Norfolk landscape in the past century. Our relentless tidying up, spraying and developing of the countryside has left little room for the rough meadows, the hollow trees, the undisturbed woods and the crumbling old barns which bats need. In our over-manicured Norfolk landscape, life for a bat is hard.

The good news is that there is plenty you can do to help bats in Norfolk. You could keep your garden pesticide free and plant scented flowers which will encourage insects right through the spring and summer. You could put up bat boxes and make sure that roof developments leave plenty of cracks for bats to use. You could make a pond in your garden and ensure cats – which just love killing bats – can’t reach exit holes from bat roosts. As a first step, perhaps you could learn more about these fascinating, beautiful animals and their bizarre lifestyles by attending one of the many nocturnal bat walks run by conservation NGOs all over the county. Yes, it’s time to put aside superstition and embrace your inner bat-lover.

Just don’t forget your tennis racket.

Find out more about bats and all of Norfolk’s wonderful wildlife on the Norfolk Wildlife Trust website: www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk