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!

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.

Spring surprises

Toad in the  bubble!

Good looking Toad

Arty frog

Bibury, Willow Coppicing

Toads hattrick

Impressive frogspawn

Handsome frog sharing the Rack Isle habitat with toads

Obviously no-one told the weather its gold cup week because today, with James at Sherborne, was a cracking warm sunny spring day. The mornings task was spent at Rack Isle, Bibury and involved repairing 2 sections of the rail fence and coppicing some of the remaining willow stands. As a bonus we carried out a survey of Rack Isle which revealed a healthy population of toads, a small number of frogs + frogspawn but sadly no voles or grass snakes. Also making a welcome appearance were grey&piebald wagtails and two buzzards. To complete this pleasant spring day I spotted a Brimstone, my first butterfly of the year,  on the return journey to Sherborne.  As is usual the coppiced material was removed from Rack Isle and loaded on the trailer. Following James success with creating 2 impressive chairs from the coppiced willow he will be putting todays material to good use, can't wait to see the results .

WeT,WeT,WeT but 'Dukes' win through

Out and about in April, 'the Duke'

Not a great day for outdoor work and having walked the dogs in heavy rain early morning it was with some doubts I met up with the WT team in a very wet lay-by not too far from Naunton golf club. From this spot we were ferried to the work site, on Round hill Farm, which was a section of an old disused railway line hidden in the rolling hills. After an introduction by Chris Wiltshire, butterfly recorder for Glos. , the surprisingly large team were set to clear the steep banks of overgrown shrub {ash, field maple..} and use bonfires to dispose of the brash.  The objective was to remove unwanted shading to encourage grass growth along hopefully with cowslips and other plant life all to help sustain the resident Duke of Burgundy population along with other butterfly species [Green hair streak...]. As the Duke male can be feisty in protecting its territory plus attracting females it was important to leave hawthorn shrub which it uses for its flowers and as a good vantage point. It turns out that the Dukes require a not too hot habitat with longish grasses and the cowslips they feed on similarly as they last longer out of prolonged sunlight. Its useful to point out that we aren't normally encouraged to work in such damp conditions but time is disappearing fast for avoiding disturbing wildlife during the seasonal breeding times. Again its sad to note the once healthy colonies of these butterflies has decreased significantly over the past few years so any work to help improve habitats is crucial.

Earlier in the week I joined Mike and James at Lodge Park to clear the mountain of leaves prior to the opening of the lodge later this month. The weather was decidedly better than today and this seemed to attract a healthy number of raptors. This included a red kite , a kestrel and a 'band' of 8 buzzards! As it turns out there used to be a colony of 'dukes' in 'Snowbottom belt' and there may be potential to do similar habitat improvements to see their return. Chris W is only too happy to offer further advice on this.

Mega Fascines!

Windrush river improvements underway

Super size Fascines, ready to be rolled down to the river 

New river bank creation 

Mega fascine floated into place

Posts driven into place to secure fascine

Out with the Wildlife Trust today, at Lower Slaughter farm by the Windrush, and together with the EA & local Fishing club. This was to continue the good work carried out on this important stretch of the Windrush to improve the habitat for fish , voles and other wildlife. Whilst the EA and Fishing club teams concentrated on building the new river banks to 'narrow the river' to its original width, the rest of us Wildlife trust volunteers, led by John, attacked the various areas of overgrown river bank to reduce  shading and increase growth of sedge/grasses important to wildlife especially water voles.

Earlier on this week I was able to resume work at Sherborne with the NT after my knee injury. This was a welcome change for me but not early enough for the February Bat count. The count of lesser horseshoes was ~156, down on last months January total, with only one bat found outside the 'bat cave'.

In spite of my reduced mobility over the this winter season I have been fortunate enough to see some varied wildlife. This includes  foxes and deer around my local Leckhampton patch together with goldfinch, green & greater spotted woodpeckers, siskin, redwing and green finch. I was also lucky enough to spot a Great Grey Shrike on Cleeve Common this week.

Lucky Friday 13th!

Its a first for me! and in Cheltenham

Nearly 50 waxwings and the sun

A regular ~11am slot on an unimpressive tree by Swindon road

You have to love the hair style

Tell me again why we chose this industrial estate site?

After a bad end to 2016 and an equally bad start to 2017  hopefully a happier sign of things to come for the rest of 2017.  The MCL knee injury had until today ruled me out of most normal activities over the the last month but now allows me some movement helped by pills and physio. The dogs have been nearly as grumpy as me but the dog walker has at least cheered them up for their regular exercise. Anyway it was good to break my duck on seeing, let alone photographing, waxwings. Amazingly they seem to like a particular spot next to an industrial estate in cheltenham and with convenient parking only 30 yards away! 

Observing nearly 50 waxwings is just the tonic for me to get through the next couple of weeks when I hope to return to normal volunteer duties if the NGO's will still have me!

Quick update on Sherborne Bat count which took place on 18 January in my forced absence. James supplied the details of the count which I assume was carried out by the two stalwarts of Maurice and Mike. 172  in the mines. 1 in the bothy and 1 in the kennels. 0 in the cellars giving a grand total of 174, 7 higher than December count .

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.