Down by an old brook

To the left the over shaded brook, Birch copse top right

The Oak marks target for clearance, hedge looks good

Been a while but joined the GWT today for a session down on the old Sherborne brook, just down from Gravelpits copse and up from Birch copse. Emma led the smaller than usual team of 5 volunteers to carry out some 'shading' work to improve life for the water voles in this area. Two challenges awaited on the stretch we were to tackle, these being the blackthorn and the need for moving the cut wood to an area in Century wood some distance away. I also was surprised by the steepness of the river bank and the shallow depth of water which hid the very muddy river bottom. Anyway soon got into the swing of things sawing away at the blackthorn and willow. The new gloves  supplied on the day certainly helped protect against the thorns and the weather was surprisingly good. 

Fortunately for me, the initial stretch needing cutting back wasn't too bad and it was good to be back in this water meadow location.  I had to leave early which was fortunate given the state of my fitness after a long break and I missed tackling the really dense overshading further down the brook. Sadly saw no raptors or other wildlife on this occasion but you can't have everything.

Interesting comment from an NE employee to be found in Mark Avery's blog, will Defra or NE ever wake up and  'smell the coffee'.

Introducing G !

Geoffery the new member of the pack

Almost a perfect first 2 weeks introduction to his new home, Geoffery my new rescue English Springer of 20 months. He blotted his copybook yesterday by revealing his passion for chasing birds in particular the local magpies, catching one  before I managed to finally grab his attention and put him back on his lead. He and Ollie are getting on fine albeit a little too energetically first thing in the morning.

Still on a break from volunteering although no bad thing while I am settling in Geoffery and coping with the high temperatures.

lots of meadow browns but not many comma's!

On the local wildlife front had a good couple of days with 2 Comma's, first this year Marble Whites, a bullfinch, green woodpecker and three ravens. This late evening being especially good with my first sighting of one of the fox cubs and  a very young roe deer {didn't see the adult although the grass is pretty long}.

Strangest sighting in June was down in Cornwall, where Geoffery was fostered, near Lostwithiel on the river Fowey. Lying on the far river bank, someway from its usual habitat, was an adult seal.

Newcomers and a sad departure

No volunteering this month, Springwatch 2018 and cancellation preventing usual opportunities. Locally the warm spell with some heavy showers has caused an explosion in plant growth with the emergence of wildlife taking advantage. For the second year fox cubs are on the scene again and their parents have been very active as they cope with the extra mouths. Although the greater spotted woodpeckers have been less visible the green woodpeckers have filled the gap along with the roe deer. An increase in butterflies is a relief with more orange tips than I've seen before plus a few holly blues . No duke of burgundies on the classic Leckhampton hill sites though.

Sadly Toby lost his battle with renal disease at the beginning of the month,  Ollie and I will always miss him and his unique character, the house is much quieter and less interesting in his absence.

Return of Dark Knight 2

Once again Maurice was unable to make what will be the last bat 'visual' count of the season. However Paul the bat expert from 'up in the grim north' was present with Mike leading and the new assistant ranger {Ellie?} in attendance. Paul has been carrying out an audio bat survey in the Northfields barn area and has discovered a number of different bat species resident here. This data along with the audio surveys in the Sherborne roosts and at the 'bat cave' will all contribute to the Springwatch filming of bats later in May. The hope is to capture video and audio {if Paul can arrange it} of bat pups, especially in the Kennel nursery roost.

Stella, Ospreys 'have now left the building'

RIchard Tyler pic, the one I'd wish I'd captured

Given the very changeable weather we have been experiencing it was going to be challenging predicting the number of bats to be found in the various roosts. It was good to see Paul was quite enthusiastic/competitive about this and especially good that he had brought a ladder so we could see into the enclosed loft area in the Bothy {Maurice to note plus picture is available of Mike scaling the ladder!}. Anyway after discussions on the 4 Ospreys which had visited Sherborne finally ended {interesting to note 2 common sandpipers also seen}, we set off to the bat cave to start the count. So once again only lesser horseshoes were observed, 57 in the bat cave,  70-100 in the kennels {we couldn't stay long since some bats started to fly around}, 58 in the Bothy {8 were outside the door of the inner roost and a couple started flying around}, 9 in the cellar making a grand total of 194-214 {200 total last count}. External temperature 20C and internal 7C-9C.

Couldn't resist another dig at the ineptitude of NE {DEFRA lead} with this RSPB blog on brood management, 'chance would be a fine thing'  if hen harriers could speak !

Birds plus a big burn!

Osprey Stella at Sherborne

Stella surveying Broadwater for possible lunch

Resident mute swan flying towards mate by boathouse

This thursday turned out to be a good 'birding' day despite the gloomy cloudy weather on offer. Locally I enjoyed seeing a number of playful long tailed tits dodging in and out of my apple and pear trees plus a brief appearance of a tiny gold crest nestled in one of my shrubs. On the morning walk with the dogs we came across a green woodpecker and a yellow hammer. In spite of the weather I decided to take a trip to Sherborne's Broadwater to hopefully see the widely advertised Osprey. Over the years an Osprey has been reported in the Sherborne area but not for long before it resumes its journey to its nesting site on one of the Welsh or Rutland water reserves. This year it seems to have decided to stay for at least a week. On arriving at Sherborne I cautiously followed the Sherborne brook from the 'kennels access'  and was lucky enough to see an egret, swallows, grey wagtail and a female bullfinch. Quite close to the upper weir the Osprey made a dramatic appearance before settling in one of the tall oak trees on the far bank opposite North park. It made another flight towards the boat house before I lost sight of it. At the same time a red kite flew by followed by the entrance of the local shepherd on quad bike with tractor & trailer. I decided to make a slow retreat back to the car since I judged the Osprey may stay clear of the activities taking place. Later I learnt I'd missed an opportunity to see a second Osprey arrive at the Broadwater but I'm not complaining having seen my first Osprey in the 'wild'.

Spent today with the GWT at Greystones with Emma leading a large contingent of volunteers. We headed for the 'burn' site where a healthy amount of brash in an adjoining field needed to be collected, cut and placed ready for burning. After a slow start a healthy bonfire was created and the sizeable amount of brash was slowly consumed.

Coln 'LWD' capers and a second 'Dark knight' ?

Good starting point , 11century Saxon church Coln Rogers

Modest dwelling of our host, Coln Rogers

Emma points out earlier  Coln river bank improvements

Team 2, Deflectors with fascine/stakes and LWD with 'metal rod fix'

Completed deflectors in even faster moving river

Team 1 starting build point on river Coln

Fascine construction taking shape downstream of bridge, Team 1

Joined GWT today for my first visit to Coln Rogers to carry out some LWD { large wooded debris } and fascine deflector construction on  the river Coln to improve river flow in support of healthy fish stock.  The site upstream of Coln Rogers  and close to Coln St Denis is strong competition for 'scenic wonder' to last weeks site at Brassey. It was a pretty large team and required Richard, John and Emma {plus 2 who I didn't know} from GWT to organise us all. The first job was to ensure the fascines, metal rods, stakes and assorted tools were transported to the various locations on the river Coln where we would be building the Deflectors. There was a 3 main areas of working, hence 3 teams. One concentrated upstream by the bridge to construct a Deflector/bank reshaper using stakes and fascines, the second was positioned downstream of this to construct further deflectors using LWD and fascines on the opposite bank and the third placed further downstream {past a second bridge} carrying out some 'unshading' and pleaching work {another deflector approach}.  Yet again the weather was kind but we had to be even more careful than last week because of the deep, fast moving river conditions. Fortunately no-one was swept away, whilst I was there, and with rapidly dwindling material supplies some significant work was achieved.

Spent Wednesday helping out on the March bat count at Sherborne with Mike and Paul { an expert from ' way up North'}. Paul has been providing some high tech gadgets which have helped identify different bat species/data in the various roosts around Sherborne, all contributing to the BBC spring watch etc. programme of work. Unfortunately our number one Dark knight, Maurice, couldn't make the session so Paul's attendance was helpful for  number of reasons. Interestingly the audio recording gear he setup has shown more bat species have been visiting 'our' lesser horseshoe bat dominated roosts than I/we realised eg. pipistrelles, natterers, whiskered and long eared brown. They are probably small in number but difficult to spot as they squeeze into crevices and hide in out of the way places. The March 'observable' count was 177 Bat cave, 5 Kennels, 7 Bothy and 11 Cellar giving a total of 200 lesser horseshoe bats {March 2017 was 188, shame our test cricket  couldn't reach this total, we won't mention the rugby!}. Temperature outside the mine was over 12 degrees C and 8-9 C inside. All in all good to see the count reach 200 and also for Paul to see a healthy population of lesser horseshoes who don't reside {or at least not seen by Paul} in the frozen North!

Can't see 'the water for the trees'

Dense patch of shading on Windrush

Downstream water vole heaven

Initial cuts reveal clear water

Joined GWT at one of my favourite sites today at Brassey on a stretch of the river Windrush  dividing the Hill and Aston farms. John led the team, on a 'remove the shading' task to please the water voles,  downstream of the Brassey reserve. This was a continuation of the work carried out on a stretch of the river Windrush  which included the watercress beds. Given the water levels waders was the order of the day for most of us plus an ability to clear the barb wire fence protecting the riverside from cattle erosion. On Gold cup day at Cheltenham we were blessed with some fine, warm sunny weather. Although previous work had cleared long stretches of overhanging branches the 3 man team I joined had a stretch which was pretty dense. With saw in hand I waded out to attack the willow overshading the water and in spite of a lengthy layoff from this physical work I soon got into a rhythm and gradually made a dent  in the branches revealing the water underneath. It was satisfying to get my feet wet again in one of the river systems here in the Cotswolds. As a bonus the waders I used were free of leaks and the only slight negative was the trudge back up the hilly slope where we had parked the cars.

A new start...

Ollie & Toby still battling on

The end of December 2017 and beginning of 2018 has been a little fraught {sad news regards Toby, a nasty fall and the demise of my relationship with the NT}. This has impacted my volunteer activities and I am just trying to adjust to the changing circumstances. However today I was pleased to assist Maurice and Mike in the February bat count. In cold and wet conditions the lesser horseshoe count was 174 bat cave, 0 kennels, 1 bothy and 4 cellars giving a total 179 {156 last years count} .  As always it was interesting to hear from Maurice on his increased activities in the Cotswolds on bat populations and historic & future bat developments.

I  will never be able to understand why anyone would want to kill wildlife for fun {indirectly or otherwise} and for this reason cannot accept the NT decision to allow this to happen in the Peak district. I have lived with the NT soft stance on a number of conservation issues but sadly I am now unwilling to continue with my NT volunteering& membership. So I am hoping to develop a different conservation volunteering role {outside NT} in 2018 alongside continuing my WT volunteering work.

Further to this the hunting and shooting community {Moorland association, Countryside Alliance etc} continue to provide a rich source of material which illustrates their disregard for scientific facts, support for illegal activities, their continued lies and their arrogant belief they know what's best for our countryside {ably supported by DEFRA and NE}.  On the slightly more positive side, some challenges to the  new image of  DEFRA Gove is trying to develop {NE shooting their boss in the foot!}, a further reminder on the cost to the environment of driven grouse shooting {DEFRA still not responding}. I am reminded of a recent Theresa May interview where she admits to supporting our traditional fun sports e.g. fox hunting et al. In order to rescue her tenuous position she backs down from a new vote on fox hunting but imagine how her government {outside the EU}, with a big majority, would manage our countryside. It doesn't bear thinking about.

The great Marcel Hirscher, 2018 Olympics

Always happier to end on a good note, was really pleased to see Marcel Hirscher win his first gold. BBC to note this skier is one of the best there has ever been, ref their coverage 2017 of a near miss  to a skier from a drone {no mention that it was Marcel!}.