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.

Go Faster GWT?

Reserved parking at the co-op for a special car

Yep it really is Lewis Hamilton's 2016 Formula 1 car

Today was spent at Greystones where John was leading a team to cut back willow growth along the central ditch. The renovations {exterior at least } at Greystones are looking good but I was not prepared for the standard of car parked outside the new Bourton Co-op. Ok it was second hand but only one year old and one 'careful' previous owner who only happened to be Lewis Hamilton {number confirms it}. Wasn't sure whether the WT have decided to go for speed {for their new transport}  rather than practicality but the slicks were the tyres fitted so it was a good job today was dry & sunny!

Needed 4x4 to load willow on, Formula 1 not too practical

Impressive sculpture outside roundhouse

My first view of Greystone's roundhouse, Tom's new home? 

The team {~12}was divided into 2 which covered two stretches of the central ditch cutting across 2 fields. On the far side of the ditch,  {enclosed by a stock fence} was SSSI land and of course most of the willow stands which needed cutting was on this side of the ditch. The good news was John was able to drive 4x4 to the fence line where we could load it with the willow once it had been deposited on the non SSSI land. Again the clearance of these willow stands will be good for the water voles who use this water causeway as one of their 'highways' on the reserve. At midday, having done my bit, I passed by the Greystones roundhouse which I had made a small contribution to earlier this year. 

Bark spade and drawing knife are we Bats ?

Lesser horseshoes 'just hanging'

The March bat count took place on Wednesday with James & Mike at Sherborne in pretty wet conditions and alas without Maurice. On the plus side the number of Lesser Horseshoes were up on the February count [156] with 52[1] bats occupying the summer/transit roosts, 20 of those having moved from the main winter roost. So the final tally was 136 Bat cave, 6 Kennels, 39 Bothy and 7 Cellars with a grand total 188.  Temperature outside ~ 7.5C and inside a balmy 8C-9C with 97% humidity.

Here's one I prepared earlier

Its not only Sherborne where exciting new activities have started {with ~ 18 months duration} but its all action at Greystones as well. The new visitor centre building work is well under way, so much so we had to park at the nearby Co-Op car park. Today was spent with Tom at Greystones where further preparation work was to be carried out in support of an iron age Roundhouse build. The size of this build was going to be ~ 8m diameter of circular floor  with 10-15m? {can't remember figure quoted but thats very tall! ,correction welcome} roof height. Looking at the materials {oak and ash cordwood, hazel sticks and prepared faggots} it was hard for us to see how you could create any building  but as Tom pointed out it was akin to a rustic 'flatpack' without the usual instructions {no bad thing in my experience}. Add to this the addition of new tools: the bark spade {supplemented by sharpened normal spades} and the drawing knife  it wasn't getting clearer. The pictures may add some clarity? to this very early bark stripping and hazel shaping part of the build. It was another first for me and others so that's no bad thing.

Early stages of hazel pruning

Large stock of faggots for Roundhouse walls

Greystone cows as perplexed as us

Crude bark scraping and fine tuning with Drawing Knife

Some hard scraping of oak cordwood and more delicate DK smoothing

Interesting article in telegraph, I knew NT would get with the programme eventually? , even a statement from Andrea Leadsom who has been pretty invisible as Defra minister, lets face it Defra deputy Coffey is pretty hopeless.

Bats..

With the arrival of Maurice this Wednesday the December 2016 bat count was ready to take place. James and I were to act as health and safety while Maurice and Mike carried out the count inside the winter roost bat cave. The temperatures outside and inside the cave were unusually high {11C outside and 10C inside with 96% Humidity}. The counts for all roosts were 158 bat cave, 5 Kennels, 4 Bothy and 0 Cellars with a grand total of 167 lesser horseshoes[December 2015 total 146].

Major clearance at Greystones

Today was the final volunteer session 2016 for GWT which took place at Greystones. There was a good turnout possibly motivated by the end of year BBQ. The task for the morning was to 'clear and burn' a large amount of brash and wood at the margins of an SSSI pasture at Greystones. The SSSI factor meant that the construction of the two fires were on platforms at a height that prevented damage to the ground. This clearance work would allow a new fence to be constructed along the pasture boundary plus the laying of  a new hedge and make available a significant additional area to the existing pasture.  A very important consequence of this should ensure Greystones will meet the conditions of the environmental grant allocated to this reserve.

'Barn storming' and Extreme 'Coping'

Workstation 1 inside Greystones barn

Mine & Andy's  first box, latest design

Today was spent at Greystones with over 20 WT staff & volunteers led by Richard & John for the day's task. So what do you get with lots of drills, screws, saws,  25 'flat packs',  battens {to be cut to specific lengths}, instructions, pencils and several workstation tables? The answer is 25 of the latest designed Barn Owl boxes. The Barn owl box design main features were a removable top to allow 'use' monitoring and waste clearance, an entrance positioned to suit the hoped for 'owlets' {they have to be strong enough to reach the opening}, an outside platform allowing ease of re-entry for owlets. Given the number of people and materials it was fortunate we had a barn we could 'storm' and get the production lines set up. The aim for the day was for everyone to be involved in the production of at least one Barn owl box and ideally to reach a total of 25 boxes. The overall aim of this WT project was to produce 60 Barn owl boxes to cover at least the Windrush{Dickler?}  habitat area. After this construction phase a choice/survey of suitable installation locations with willing landowners will be taking place. Happy days in the future for our Barn owls, at least from a housing perspective.

View over North park looking down on Sherborne house

Pat showing off Coping stones reset in an earlier build phase 

Team surveying next section of Coping to be reset

Arrived at Sherborne this wednesday to find Pat and James busily mixing up some lime mortar, in readiness for resetting the extremely large Coping stones on the 17th century wall which runs along the North Park boundary next to Clarkes Close. The Coping stones to be used were the originals from the ~1600s and were pretty heavy. This meant that Mike had to use the 'blue' tractor to lift the heavy weight stones to the top of the rebuilt wall sections.  With Pat and James located on the 'public' side of the wall and Mike with me on the other 'lower' side, it enabled us to move the Copng stones into place. The lime mortar was the 'fixing' agent and applied on top of the wall by James & Pat.

Escaped sheep in rape field, coming to see the wall rebuilding

Sheep being herded alongside Clarkes Close

Before we could start the 'Coping' I noticed that we had an unexpected audience. A small flock of sheep were heading in our direction and it was clear they had escaped from one of the nearby pastures in/close to North Park. Mike immediately organised the 'shepherding' of the nervous flock back towards the potential escape point. It soon became clear that the sheep would have to pass by Clarks Close so James was sent ahead to prevent them entering the wood. Eventually, and with expert handling!, we managed to get the sheep back to their pasture via the damaged fence section alongside the public footpath. Once all the sheep were back in their pasture some temporary fence repairs were carried out and the work on the Coping stones resumed. By the end of the morning we had completed the bottom Coping layer which left the Coping 'top' stones to be positioned in the afternoon. You have to appreciate the drystone wallers in the 1600s who carried out the original wall construction without the aid of a tractor, they must have been exceptionally strong!

New arrivals to mark end of financial year!

Its arrived, Mike can't stop smiling

Wednesday marked the arrival of Sherborne's new tractor, not the best of weather but that didn't lessen the big smile on Mike's face. No work possible for me but a quick tour of the new workhorse and updates on upcoming work made my short stay worthwhile.

Cutting back new growth on willows on the river Eye

high water levels on the Eye but sunny skies

Its a Fungus amungas..

River banks shading cleared, water voles happy!

This morning was spent at Greystones where a good number of volunteers gathered,  before being led by Will down to the work area by the river Eye. The Wildlife 'new arrivals' were not quite on the scale of the NT but the new Silki saws and gloves were well received. The task was to remove new growth {mainly willow} casting shade over the River Eye with part of the team in the water and the rest operating from the relative safety of the river bank. This is one of the most worked stretches of the river Eye which highlights the need for sustained efforts to keep on top of the riverside management which benefits this water vole habitat.

Less we forget a Martin Harper guest blog on the Hen Harriers, in addition Ms Truss is continuing to do a fine job for this Government on the environment leading Defra to even more ineffectuality.

A little bit of everything

Some tricky chain sawing of fallen willow 

River Dickler, close to Rissington Bridge

Scrub clearing over water course which runs out of lake

Wednesday morning was spent at Sherborne with both Mike and James. James was on chainsaw,  I was on wood processor loading the cord wood {plus occasional axe splitting} and Mike was operating the wood processor. Should have been quite straight forward to build up the stocks of wood for the depleted wood supplies but not so. The main difficulty in achieving maximum efficiency was the quality of the cord wood we were using i.e. relatively small in diameter and not straight! This meant much more work for all of us and by the end of the morning we had only achieved one trailer load albeit an  extra large one. The only good news was we hadn't wasted any wood and the remaining cord wood pile for the next session looked to be much better 'quality'. Highlight of the morning, apart from my moans about the wood, was that a sparrow hawk which was hidden on the ground near where we were working flew right in front of us, clearly fed up with the noise we were making.

Today I made a comeback with the Wildlife Trust out at Greystones where a sizeable team led by Will and Richard were to carry out brush clearing close to the river Dickler near to Rissington Bridge on the outskirts of Bourton on the Water. The water course coming out of one of the gravel lakes, adjacent to Greystones reserve, which ran into the Dicker needed some serious scrub clearing. Once completed {more than one session would be needed} this would provide a better habitat for water voles connecting the gravel lakes and Dickler. Previous work in the past in this area already showed encouraging signs of water vole and hopefully this current work would improve on this and make sustaining it much easier. Although I only had a short time on brush clearing my 'sawing' skills proved not to be too rusty and the two fires for burning the large amounts of scrub were well fed.

An early Spring Dip!

Will  close to an icy plunge

                                                        Exposed Water vole burrow in river bank

                                                             River Eye banks cleared

Tuesday was my first 2015 session with the Wildlife Trust at a sunny Greystones featuring a walk in the river Eye, fortunately in waders. The task was to cut back new growth of Willow along the banks of the Eye plus remove some substantial branches which spanned the river. This was a continuation of work done in previous years and would help promote the right kind of environment for the growing water vole population. The session was lead by Will and Richard with an unusually low number of volunteers {3 of us} to carry out the shrub clearance. Some care was required as the river levels were still high which meant there were stretches where the depth was too high even in waders. Fortunately no unplanned incidents took place and the work progressed well in the welcome sunny spring weather which attracted a fine looking buzzard flying low on the hunt for field voles or similar.

Kennels in Lodge Park's coach house grounds

Today at Sherborne,  on another fine spring day, the day was spent at Lodge Park and in particular in the coach house grounds.  The day was dominated by the felling of a number of squirrel damaged beech trees and the subsequent clearing of the associated brash. The usable wood was blocked by Mike and stored in the nearby outbuildings. Whilst the power tools were in use Ollie and Maddie were conveniently placed in the old kennels. They weren't too pleased with the imprisonment and on release made best use of their freedom which included hindering me as I built up a sizeable brash pile in the adjacent woodland. A busy day and part of the task to tidy up Lodge Park ready for its opening later this month.

Another year ends

decent shape to new hedge at Moors Copse

new hedge line looking good in fading light

Another year of volunteering came to and end this week with an afternoon at Sherborne followed the next day with a morning session at Greystones. The session at Sherborne was particular satisfying with hedge laying at Moors Copse. Attending were Mike and I with Maddie and Ollie along for the ride. Ollie had to be tethered as the hedge laying was next to the road and he didn't like it too much with a little too much whining for a 'special' ranger. Ollie's behaviour aside, the creation of a hedge using the existing hawthorn, field maple and hazel was very satisfying especially since I had the use of the Silki saw and Mike volunteered to work on the road side of the hedge line. Unfortunately the light and complaints from Ollie ended the session too soon leaving completion of this stretch of hedge for the new year. 

The work at Greystones with the Wildlife trust featured some serious shrub clearance over one of the water courses to allow it to be dredged next year to ensure efficient functioning in a flood protection context. A large turnout {~30 volunteers} marked the last session of the year, possibly influenced by a BBQ at Greystones which sadly I missed to ensure Ollie got his mid day feed. 

Overall another rewarding year on the volunteer front albeit with less opportunities due to weather and the arrival of Ollie. Look forward to next year with the possibility of a companion for Ollie and hopefully some more positive signs on the Conservation of nature & our countryside. 

Bridge over the river Eye!

River Eye with healthy flow and river banks clear here

Brash piles mounting and river edge now visible 

Fence and bank cleared so clear stretch to bridge downstream 

Plenty of willow to be dragged out of river Eye

Ollie wants his ball back and a good feed!

Winter finally making its mark with a hard frost on Tuesday morning making the journey to Greystone and the Wildlife trust more interesting. The task for today was clearing the banks of the river Eye upstream from the main bridge where we had previously positioned some Dipper boxes. Rampant willow had enveloped both sides of the river and in parts obscured parts of the fence line. So with the river running high and fast the team led by Will and John was split into those with waders  attacking the willow from the river whilst the rest of us sawed away from the relative dry of the river bank. Initially with some fine sleety rain falling it felt damp and cool but soon the weather cleared,  internal warmth increased and the brash piles grew fast. By the time I left, the fence line was clear and the river banks visible, a good effort all round.

Today was the 2014 November bat count at Sherborne , {last years total 161}, sadly Morris our Dark Knight couldn't make it but we did have Ant to help out. The Bat cave had 124 lesser horseshoes, the kennels 0, the bothy 3 and the cellar 11 giving a total of 138. Lower than last year but probably accounted for by the mild autumn and early winter weather.

Who lives in a place like this?

First stage: with stakes embedded and facines in place

Completed with 'dog' access, Andy fine tuning

Monday was spent with the Wildlife Trust at Hyde Mill, Nether Swell. Was pleased to get the opportunity, so soon,  to practice the Plant id work carried out with Richard 2 weeks ago.  Initially however the challenge of river bank revetment/restoration work beckoned on the river Dikler near Hyde Mill. This was to be a similar construction approach carried out at Greystones where I helped last year in the creation of the 'facines' a key component of the bank revetment work. Lots of volunteers turned out today for this work plus the additional  task at Slaughter farm to finish off the kingfisher box. Nick, Mandy and Paul volunteered for the Slaughter farm task but more on that later! Leading the day required Will, Richard and John who gave us all a chance at 2 out of the 3 tasks on offer.  Of the volunteers, at Hyde Mill, Will led one team on the 'plant Id' in the adjacent meadow {followed by the Hyde Mill house garden/meadow} whilst I was with the team Richard led, to start the revetment work. Its interesting to know in this case that the bank erosion has been mainly caused by enthusiastic dogs who {with owners} frequently visit this part of the Dikler, as it lies on 'several' main walking routes in this picturesque area of the Cotswolds.  In order that the work is effective in restoring the river bank and erosion isn't moved further down the river a dog access was added to the construction 'blueprint'.  Had a lot of fun honing my sledgehammer skills on the stakes which would secure the facines and managed to avoid injuring anyone especially Richard!. Everyone had a role to play and with waders we all managed to cool off in the cool waters of the Dikler, which had a healthy population of small fish and perch. At lunch time John and the Slaughter farm team joined us with 'Mandy and Paul' looking pretty muddy & wet having misjudged their route in the deep waters of the Windrush where the Kingfisher box was sited.

One last check, Paul showing off his muddy morning exploits

I spent the remainder of the day with the 'plant ID' team, which included Nick, Mandy and Paul, with Will leading whilst John led the remaining volunteers in completing the revetment work.  The owner of Hyde Mill and surrounding estate, Hugh Tollemache, who also is on the Wildlife trust board, has certainly embraced  water meadows conservation {see here if u want ure own meadow}. He has recorded approaching 150 plant species which includes several types of orchid. Needless to say we identified a good deal less on the day but it was certainly a step up in diversity from any meadow I have visited recently.

Our 'host' with a Soay lamb to be reunited with the herd

Bee Orchid in Hyde Mill garden meadow

Pyramid Orchid in Coronation meadow

Scabious, popular with butterflies and moths

Poetry in motion!

Looking towards South Park from just below Moors Copse

The promise of a hot sunny day at Sherborne on Wednesday was certainly delivered and oddly we were first to deliver a full load of wood to a village customer at a location which was a pleasure to be in.  In the skies above Sherborne swifts and swallows {on a lower sometimes ground hugging flight path} demonstrated their aerial prowess ,  this nicely captured by a  Mark Avery guest blog featuring this 'swift' poem.  Following the unloading of the wood we enjoyed a welcome drink and biscuit kindly provided by a local villager and whilst still admiring the swifts & swallows witnessed the late arrival of 2 red kites and a buzzard. The rest of the day was dedicated to the completion of four more tree guards down from  Moors copse, still plenty left  to do on this task. My nail, staple, sawing ends of rails  and 'wire twisting'  skills are certainly being tested! Had time to see the Broadwater swans and especially their cygnets who after only a week on this planet were being shown how to cope with the weir. Have to confess I didn't realise how buoyant they were. Lots of other youngsters out on the water {coot & mallard chicks but no tufted duck young yet.  As a slight aside on my visit to Slimbridge tuesday observed for the first time kingfishers at the Kingfisher hyde although their young were not quite ready to leave their 'hole in the bank'.

Hare today….

Thursday acting on information from the Barrington gamekeeper was delighted to 'strike gold' on the hare front {no jokes please!}, I gave up counting after 20.  So lots to learn here like : the early bird…, a bigger telephoto is a must and the footpath from Greater Barrington to Tayton provides a good walk & plenty of wildlife opportunities !

Andy & Will under river Eye bridge, 'models' extra!

Alan using his head, Andy & Will bookends

first Dipper box duly deployed

Survey begins, just downstream from the Mink boat

One still living trout needing some first aid!

Beautiful demoiselle female, watch the spider...

Today saw a return to Greystones with the Wildlife Trust to deploy the Dipper boxes constructed last week and to also carry out a water vole survey along the reserves river Eye stretch and also a part of the river Windrush close to Bourton. I joined Will's team for the river Eye location leaving Richard to lead the team on the Windrush location ( we've still to learn how Richard's team fared in the deeper waters of the Windrush).  Have to say was unsure how: the Dipper boxes were to be fixed to the underside of the bridge,  our team of 5 would be used , the water vole survey would be carried out. The good news was the weather was great, we would be in the water for most of the work in the hottest day of the year and even better we all had waders albeit slightly leaky. The pictures give an indication of the work involved but not how much we all enjoyed the day on a slightly different to the norm outing. Several things deserve a special mention not listed in any  preferential order. Andy & Will showed their flexibility fixing the boxes under the bridge without getting too wet, Alan majored on drilling, spotting a kingfisher, a water vole and impressive water vole feeding & toilet areas, we all walked in the river Eye from the Greystones boundary nearest the farm all the way to the main bridge for the water vole survey without mishap. The day ended all too quickly with the Dipper boxes safely installed and the survey with very encouraging findings,  completed.