Last weekend UWNR hosted the Wiltshire Mammal Group – the county affiliate of the national British Mammal Society. (Please check this charity out – they do amazing things, as does the local group, who need support and participation – join?). Gareth Harris and Lisa Wade, both friends and champions of UWNR, ran the day – it was a huge success.
The focus of the day was to deploy 43 Dormouse nesting tubes and 11 newly built nesting boxes. I noted in an earlier blog, that in the autumn of 2019, we had visual confirmation of 2 Dormice at UWNR. By deploying more nesting tubes and boxes the hope is that the population not only increases, but disperses further into the Reserve. Male Dormice move slowly into new ground – up to 100 meters each year. Prime habitat, which has been created over the past 5 years, awaits.
Interestingly we carried out this seasonal work early – climate change is pushing spring earlier into the year and it is likely that the Dormice are emerging from torpor earlier, in search of mates and breeding opportunities. (As a footnote here – it could be the case that Climate Change drives this wonderful small mammal to extinction – warm, very wet winters are not what they need to survive & thrive…).
We had to have a fabulous lunch – the highlight, delicious moist doughnuts! Around lunchtime we noticed Gareth gently poking and probing around the edge of the lake. He came back to the barn and reported that there were significant numbers of male toads lolling about in the aquatic vegetation, waiting for the females to arrive. Sure enough, there were vast numbers of male toads – significantly exceeding what I had observed in 2019. Another sign, that the cosmic clock had ticked over into spring.
A day or two before this I had noticed a Heron meticulously stalking the lake edge – in the way, that only they can do. The discovery of the male toads fitted with the arrival of this wonderful avian predator - it feasting.
A knab of toads.
The tone & feel at UWNR has shifted over the past 2 weeks. The birdsong suddenly has taken on the energy, volume and vitality of spring. (Stephen Moss, in his book on Robins, notes that spring bird song occurs earlier and earlier in the year now. Another consequence of Climate Change). Mid-last week, my good friend Pip and I, watched 2 Blackcaps dancing their aerial mating dance, through the coppiced hazel near the stream that dissects UWNR. Male and female we assumed….
With this seasonal change came the completion of autumn and winter (2019 & 2020) tasks. I have hijacked E. O. Wilson’s idea of ½ Earth and incorporate this into the work patterns at UWNR – as soon as any of the signs of spring occur, I halt work and let the flora and fauna have its head. This feels right – UWNR is about them, not us.
Wow we got through a pile of work, from October 2019 on:
1. Shaded woodland pond. The autumn was kick-started with this project. I wrote this blog in late Oct, which gives detail of this project….for more about this, please click on this link:
2. Roadside hedge. I replanted this long hedge, which sits atop its Dorset bund, to provide additional habitat. The previous owner had killed off the original hedge, making a hash of hedge-laying.
3. Change the Barn Owl perches & construct a spring / summer roosting box, in the Barn Owl barn. Rick Lockwood, from the Barn Owl Conservation Trust, advised me to remove the original perches, which had been constructed from re-used bought timber, to something more naturalistic. I selected hazel poles, and once mounted, these were used almost immediately by the Barn Owls. Result! The other thing that Rick suggested, was the construction of a spring / summer day-time roosting box for the adults. For more detail about this, please click on this link:
4. Remove young trees from the Soft Rush marsh. The Soft Rush marsh has developed significantly over the past 3 years – it is now home to wintering snipe, such is its density, which provides thick cover. The removal of saplings, which should never have been planted there, has helped advance the growth of this unique habitat. (These habitats are threatened in the UK).
5. Main woodland - fell maturing trees. The main woodland at UWNR is looking healthier, now that light and air is able to penetrate what was a cloaking canopy. As noted previously, this 5-acre woodland was never thinned and many trees had become diseased. Selective thinning over the past four years has corrected this. I reduced the amount of extracted timber this year, so we have dramatically increased the numbers of woodpiles, brash dead-hedges and standing timber…yet more habitat. For the first time this year I ring-barked trees (too big to safely fell) – they will rot in situ and provide valuable invertebrate habitat.
6. Conservation hedge lay. This has become another annual task at UWNR and this autumn / winter we again carried out this hugely challenging work. The results of this are astounding, producing hedges which are impenetrably dense, wide at the base (up to 15 feet, which is considered ideal) and pyramidal in shape, from top to bottom. Just maybe these prove attractive to the Dormice. They are frequented by a range of bird species.
7. Expand the southern Barn Owl field. We removed a number of ash, riddled with Chalara (ash die back), and by doing so, increased the amount of ground the Barn Owls have to hunt over.
8. Tree thin north and east wood. The goal is to create a mosaiced landscape at UWNR. A key element of this has been to carefully manage the saplings stands, to the north and east of the lake. In time, these areas will become distinct small woodlands, fringed by wilder open grassland. The structure of both these woodlands has now been established, with wide snaking rides dissecting each. They are looking good and will now grow on, at-a-pace.
9. Rotational cutting of all glades & the lake bank. This is an annual task - I cut all the south-facing invertebrate glades, the lake bank and the snake basking glades.
There are a few lovely folk to thank, for all the graft that was expended throughout the autumn of 2019 and the winter of 2019 / 20. They are, in no particular order; Harry, Pip, Patrick, Matt, Rose, Dan, & Jack. Jamie, Dragan and Jeff you were all willing, but not able – your time will come! All the flora and fauna at UWNR thank you!
Last, but way from least, I need to mention (shouting from the rooftops) the amazing work the Wessex Home Education Group (who do the John Muir Award) have done, over the course of the autumn & winter. We upped our game and embarked on completing an iGCSE in Environmental Studies, covering topics like Oceans & Fisheries and Natural Ecosystems & Human Activity. Along the way we have visited an organic farm (thank you to Liz & Hugh at Kenson’s Farm), interviewed Graham ,my fishing skipper from our days in Ireland (thanks Graham), made volcanoes from icing sugar, explored the rock types at UWNR and modelled an oil spill, with cooking oil and a bucket of water! It has been hard work, but we have learnt a lot…..thank you to the lovely people who make up the WHEG!