Stampede on Ukbms survey

2 dozen cattle on the hoof at the end of Transect!

Saved by the fence

Carried out second Ukbms survey at Budgehill on Sunday 9th April, butterfly count up to 11 from 3. Species consisted of Brimstones , Small and Large Whites, Orange tips and 2 small Tortoiseshells most mainly in Budge hill belt and Budge hill bank sections.Two buzzards and red kite plus a hare also on show.


Third Ukbms survey today proved to be disappointing as not one butterfly decided to show. The only excitement came with the sighting of a Roe deer in Budge hill belt and in section 5 when the cattle came across the cattle crossing ,{first erected 9 April}, and on seeing me approaching altered their course from the hay feeder to greet me in a mini stampede!

WWW @ Sherborne!

Hedge by Sandy Hill Copse

Nicely 'disguised' trap in Clarks Close

There is currently a big initiative at Sherborne to discover more about the local wildlife and its behaviour in the varied Sherborne environments {the Who &Where of local Wildlife}. So with James this wednesday the main task was to survey the humane badger & fox traps which were setup at promising locations to allow the 'GPS tagging' of these larger mammals . Currently the traps aren't primed to trap wildlife, but baited with suitable food aimed at making the wildlife comfortable with the presence of the traps before they are eventually set. Once the foxes&badgers are fitted with 'trackers' their daily behaviours can then be monitored to give an important insight into how they interact with the Sherborne environment. With surprisingly good weather we started the survey at Northfield Barn before moving onto Sandy Hill Copse and Clarks Close. It was good to see the hedges I planted with Mike in the Sandy Hill/ Clarks Copse  area  are looking good and that the rail fence around the top of Clarks close has been completed. The 3 traps in this area all appeared to have been visited as most of the food placed in them had gone. Hopefully the motion cameras located by the traps will reveal which animal had consumed the food.

Speckled wood, Century wood

GWT river bank improvements, Sherborne Brook

We then moved on to Century Wood and again the traps in this area had been visited. Once again the traps were replenished with food, peanuts for the badgers and dry dog food for the foxes. While in this wood we were treated to a sighting of fallow deer, a hare and a speckled wood butterfly. We also saw quite a number of Orange tip butterflies throughout the survey. I have seen this butterfly in a number of locations and on days where the temperatures have been quite low, its obviously one of the more 'hardy' species. The final trap was down in the Water meadows  by the Sherborne Brook close to one of the Otter holts Mike had built some years ago.  While in this area we paid a visit to the Sherborne Brook where the GWT had recently carried out further  river bank improvements and we disturbed a grey heron also interested in the improved fishing opportunities. We saw a couple of red kite flying over the pasture adjacent to Birches & Century wood {probably attracted to the sad demise of a spring lamb} and we observed there was still a small amount of water left in the 'scrape'.  Look forward to seeing what James discovers on the various motion camera cards he extracted on this survey.

Hare and 'Tortoise'!

Small Tortoiseshell, where have the large ones gone!

Wednesday session with NT was cancelled but on Thursday I did help carry out Sherborne's first ukbms butterfly survey, led by Anna {newly appointed environment ranger for Sherborne}, on a Transect {divided into 5 sections, section 1 Budge Hill Belt to section 5 Windrush camp} in the Budge Hill area. Weather was favourable but it was  clearly too early in the season for any significant butterfly numbers to be seen. As it turns out we spotted in section 2 a Small Tortoiseshell and  two Peacocks  in section 5, but no 'Dukes'!. That was it for this survey,  apart from an appearance of a fine looking hare in section 5. and ~6 roe deer in section 1.

Original Revetment work on Sherborne brook, 2013

Mike's tractor trailer full of fascines & stakes, all used!

River risen higher than original fascines 

Some serious repairs and re-tying of fascines

One of the new compartments taking shape on 'land' side of new bank 

Todays session with The Wildlife Trust, ironically was at Sherborne, down in the water meadows by Sherborne Brook. The task led by John, with Alan and George assisting, was to carry out some repairs and to add additional 'compartments' to the river bank work previously completed on a stretch of the Sherborne Brook. Already the existing river work can be seen to be doing its job nicely with river depth and flow increased {which should please the fishing fraternity}. The increase in depth meant that additional fascines needed adding to increase height of artificial bank and repairs to some existing fascines needed by adding and/or re-tying. I joined one of the teams in creating the new compartments which were to be constructed on the 'land side' of the new bank to stimulate new plant growth and speed up the process of establishing the new river bank. In the fairly warm conditions it was good to be working in the cool water, provided the waders remained watertight and you didn't swallow any of the water.  In addition a water vole survey was carried out and provided good evidence that the habitat improvements in this area is helping to increase vole numbers.

Some more detail from NT director Simon Pryor on a better environment, hope to see this for real in my patch!