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Tuesday 21st January 2020 The afternoon was sunny but very cold, with ground frost still visible in the shadier areas. Nevertheless it was a good turnout with Ranger Mark having seven volunteers to find work for. This turned out to be mainly clearing up and litter-picking, along with some cutting back of side-growth on the corner of the path that leads to Fox Pond. We found a half-buried mound of rubbish near the start of the Meadow Link boardwalk and managed to remove quite a lot of material (mainly clothing), as well as some broken glass and various household implements. We also recovered a kestrel nesting box that had fallen down - we placed a couple of them high up in the trees many years ago but I don't think they were ever used, at least not by kestrels. At last we have water in all the ponds, though they were mostly iced over. Puckles was the fullest it's been since last Spring, and Meadow Pond looked very healthy. The Reserve was surprisingly quiet, with only a few birds seen and heard (blue tits and great tits, wood pigeons, magpies, a couple of crows, a robin, and what could have been a pair of pied wagtails). The flowers most likely to be seen in the Reserve in January are clumps of snowdrops in the woods behind Willow Pond, but this year we've had white dead nettles flowering throughout the winter. Surveys have found that the milder winter weather we've been having in recent years allows late autumn flowers to continue blossoming, but has had less effect on when spring flowers appear. Still, it's worth looking out for violets by the side of the main route into the Reserve and along the bank of the little stream which serves as the Reserve's north-east border - they're sometimes seen as early as February. Tuesday 18th February 2020 Only three volunteers turned up this month - maybe others were put off by all the rain we've been having. In fact it stayed fine throughout the afternoon, with just occasional cold gusts of wind, and even a few bursts of sunshine. Co-ordinating thinigs as usual was Ranger Mark. Our intended task was to repair the Spanish Steps but the width of the step to be replaced was 144 cms and the wood we'd brought with us was only 130 cms long. So instead we replaced one of the edge coverings on the Noak Steps. There was enough time left over to do a litter pick and remove some bottles and bags from deep amongst the blackthorns - rubbish is much easier to see at this time of the year because of the sparse winter undergrowth. However there are still lots of bottles and jars plus paper, cardboard and plastic waste scattered about just inside the Reserve where it borders Bridge Street. Hopefully this will be cleared up at the next work party. Some of the larger jobs get done outside of the work parties either by contractors or by the Ranger with assistance from Countryside services. This includes cutting the central grassy areas, which are full of insects during the summer months, especially grasshoppers and crickets. Also paths were cleared of fallen branches that came down in recent storms. Despite all the heavy rain there's not a lot of ground water to be seen, and even the East Meadow is still for the most part unflooded, but this will probably change after the next spell of showery weather. Behind where the bird-table used to stand can now be seen the log pyramid we built several years ago to provide a habitat for wood-boring insect larvae, especially stag beetles. Perhaps a future project should be to do a thorough examination of the buried logs to see how successful it's been! There was plenty of bird song, but few sightings. We identified blackbird, blue tit, dunnock, goldfinch, long-tailed tit and magpie. We hoped to spot some chaffinches, but none were to be seen. They are still one of the UK's commonest birds, but their numbers have dropped by ~20% over the last seven years. It would be good to confirm that they are still visiting the Reserve, so if you see any please post here to tell us. Some early Spring flowers are now out, most noticeably the wild cherry blossom along the side of Plotland Way, while lower down amongst the grass are patches of violets and red dead nettles. Tuesday 17th November 2020 Finally we have had another work party, our first since February. Ranger Mark was on hand to organise the five volunteers who turned up on a breezy but fairly mild afternoon. Also busy with some heavy equipment cutting back the sidegrowth were Ranger Gary and a couple of helpers. Our task was to clear the accumulation of rubbish which had built up over the years by the fence along the border on the eastern side of the Reserve adjacent to the builder's yard. We removed bottles, plastic bags, car parts, piping, various empty containers, food wrappers, netting, broken tools, and a bin bag full of who knows what. It's possible that the Reserve has never been cleaner! The Autumn rains have filled all the ponds, as well as re-establishing the grassy area by the boardwalk as a very wet meadow with large pools of groundwater visible. Meadow Pond is now fully accessible for the first time for many years, with a muddy path going all the way round. Much of the typha (great reedmace) has been cleared, and hopefully this will make the pond attractive to a wider range of wildlife. A surprising number of fungi are still to be seen in the woods and in the cleared scrubland near the centre of the Reserve. We are overdue for a formal fungal foray - maybe next year? |