2024- it’s a wrap!

This was a big year for UWNR – in August 2024, the project marked its 10th year. I wrote a blog in late summer celebrating what has been achieved over that time. In sum, a lot!

Now that the project is a decade old (and habitats have matured) what strikes me is how we (me and the species I share UWNR with) have aligned to a seasonal, rhythmic pattern. The Hobby pair arrive each spring, replenish themselves over the pond, display to reinforce their bond and move on, probably to their favoured nesting site. Come March and April I keep an eye on the (rare and native) wild honeybees – they increase their activity as weather warms and early pollen is on offer. Later in the summer at night, I stand underneath the barn owl hotel and strain my hearing to detect the owlets hissing for food. That first sliver of sound always comes as a massive relief…phew, they have had young! Then on calm warm nights in July or August the oaks around the barn are full of loudly hissing owlet fledglings, doing what is known as branching. As we roll into autumn and winter the migratory birds pour in; fieldfares, redwings, jays and blackbirds. They are all trumped by the arrival of the woodcock, who return each year. They number 4 – 6 and forage most nights around the pond edge and over the adjacent marsh.  Then we are into winter proper where everything hangs on to life, sometimes by a thread, until the restorative energy of another spring. It is in winter that I drag carcasses onto the land, these providing valuable protein and fat.

My (proxy) work has a rhythm too driven by these seasonal changes, for example: re-digging stallion pits in spring creating habitat for invertebrates; haymaking in high summer ensuring that the field vole habitat is vibrant and healthy; brush cutting in the woodland mid-autumn, to ensure that rampant bramble doesn’t outcompete other woodland ground flora; conservation hedge laying and tree thinning in the plantation woodland in mid-winter.

One of the real highlights this year was being invited to contribute to Ben Goldsmith’s podcast Rewilding the World. If you don’t already, I would hugely recommend this pod – the episodes are both highly educational and inspiring…the global rewilding movement is alive and well! My episode was broadcast on March 20th 2024.

The engagement work we do with young people is at the heart of our work at UWNR, and this year that has come full circle. Harry James first came to UWNR as a 15-year-old, volunteering during various school holidays. 8 years on he is a fully qualified ecologist, who has just set up a rewilding consultancy called Wild Patch. I am helping Harry as he develops his already thriving business. What makes Harry and Wild Patch unique – too few ecologists (in my experience) do the physical habitat creation, development and restorative work…Harry is a hard working, highly skilled operator with a depth of ecological knowledge!

Harry and Jack helping me construct our first ever Beaver Dam Analogue…in 2015.

Nor came to UWNR as a delightful, super-bright, tiny wee kid – I think she was 8. She worked her way through all 3 levels of the John Muir Award – no mean feat! She then went to Kingston Maurwood College to study ecology and conservation land management. During that period, she did her work experience with me. This year she started her ecology degree!

Both Harry and Nor help with the young people who do The Conservation Award, and the UWNR rewilding workshops.

I have posted this picture before…I love it. I seem more excited than Nor - she is receiving the highest level John Muir Award, so emotions running high!

And now there is James who is just beginning his ecology studies Kingston Maurwood College…like Nor he is working with me growing his knowledge of ecology and experiencing small scale rewilding first hand.

Our Conservation Award work with young people continues. One of the highlights of 2024 was the young people guiding visitors on a nature walk of the land. The young people worked their socks off to prepare for this event and the feedback was outstanding.

One of the groups on their guided nature walk - a massively successful event!

Getting up close to fauna really helps the kids connect to nature - at the end of 2024 we had BTO people mist net birds for us…an enthralling session.

Perhaps the biggest milestone we achieved this year was the 150th person attending one of our How to Rewild 1-50 acres, 1-day workshops. I keep a rough count of how many acres each attendee is rewilding – the average is 10. Do the math – a total of 1500 acres - now that is something!

At the end of the year, I worked with the legendary Matt Somerville of Beekindhives rescuing one of the wild honeybee log hives, which had been toppled in Storm Bert. On getting the log hive upright, we were able to inspect the bees and OMG what a discovery. I was one of Matt’s early clients, he deployed a log hive at UWNR in 2015. It is clear to us now, that over a 9-year period the honeybees have bred back to rare native bees. Their black & grey colouring and small size indicators of this evolution (invertebrates evolve rapidly). DNA analysis in the spring / summer of 2025 will confirm this…REWILDING REALLY DOES WORK!

Matt, Jonathan and James with a completely upright and restored log hive - hope the Queen survived the fall!

Everyone is doing this, so how about the 2024 UWNR best reads, book list. I have learnt so much from these books.

And a huge shout out to Folde Dorset who sell (both in person and online) ‘The Underhill Wood Nature Reserve How to Rewild’ manual. Thank you so much for supporting our rewilding project and spreading the word to others (who are rewilding 1-50 acres).

Before we leave 2024 completely, I need to mark the death of my / our dearest friend, lode star, hero and nature mentor Bob Gibbons. I have never met anyone like Bob: he didn’t give a shit for the material world (except his camera kit), shared his vast knowledge freely (he knew the latin names of at least 10,000 plants) and wore his fame so lightly. Being with Bob, walking RSPB Arne, was akin to walking with an ecology decoder - he knew every plant, invert, mammal, bird and how they interacted. I miss him so much - since his death I have often lamented the fact that I cant call him to share something, like the greater crested newt I found at Underhill, or the goshawk male circling over the land, or the whiskered bats who have re-colonised their roost in the Hartmoor barn. The world has lost much with his passing…

Bob and I on the Dorset coast…god I miss you!

So, what does 2025 have in store: in late winter a mini wetland of connected scrapes will be dug out on the south-western edge of the plantation woodland. This watery world will come to support a range of flora and fauna, like the greater crested newt I met mid-autumn 2024. Hugely looking forward to doing this work and watching another new habitat at UWNR flourish!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNDERHILL WOOD NATURE RESERVE!

WOW…Underhill Wood Nature Reserve (UWNR) is 10 years old!

 Before we purchased UWNR we had 2 distinct aims – they were: (1) increasing levels of biodiversity, by developing a range of complementary habitats, and (2) using the rewilded land to engage people in nature. 10 years on these aims endure and inform everything we do.

 And it’s instructive to consider what we have achieved…

Aim 1 – some examples of what we’ve achieved:

·      The butterfly species count has gone from 11 to 19…this is considered excellent according to my good friends from Butterfly Conservation.

·      The dormice have not only increased in number, but they have increased in range, as the land has wilded. (Dormice are classed as an indicator species - what does this mean? An indicator species needs pristine and vibrant habitat, so therefore, its presence indicates habitat health and vibrancy).

·      The barn owls have fledged up to 30 owlets, over the past 8 years. Barn owls are another strong indicator species.

·      Surveying the stream shows that it hosts indicator species like alderfly, caseless caddis fly and cased caddis fly. These species weren’t present 9 years ago.

·      Over the course of 3 years, we bat surveyed at the land – our species count is 9. Recently, the only whiskered bat maternity roost in Wiltshire was found at UWNR. How cool is that!

·      Our conservation hedge laying, which we started in 2017, has been a gamechanger. In 2022 Harry James surveyed the first run of hedge we laid. The results blew us away, to summarize: in just 4 years after laying, invertebrate biodiversity (number of species) and bio-abundance (number of individuals) increased 2-fold. Conservation hedge laying has now become a feature of our winter work. (Imagine if this method was rolled out across the UK!). The CHL hedges are now winter refuge for fieldfares and redwings, who descend on them in vast flocks. These species were not present at UWNR is previous years.

·      In 2024 an otter was present at the land, which was super exciting – a true apex predator in our midst.

·      For the past 4 years, in springtime, a pair of hobby stop over at UWNR. They hunt over the lake, replenish their reserves after their migratory flight, the male displays to the female (this really is something to behold) and head on their way to their favoured nesting territory.

·      As the marshland to the east of the lake has wilded and wetted (we cut the land drains in this area and created a series of scrapes), snipe and woodcock are a regular winter presence. It is likely to be the case that the woodcock are from Scandinavia or Russia.

·      3 wild honeybee hives are thriving at UWNR. And these are not just any old honeybee. They are rare, native honeybees – small, dark and feisty…at a distance they look like large flies!

·      In 2023 a beautiful small invertebrate called a yellow-flag iris weevil was discovered. According to the entomologist who made the find, this animal is very rare in Wiltshire. It may the case that UWNR is the only site where it is present…

·      And let’s finish this section off with a recent survey result. In June 2024 we surveyed the lake at UWNR - the results were striking. The Biological Monitoring Working Party has a rating system to indicate habitat health of lakes & ponds. A score of 40 is considered good and 50 very good. The lake at UWNR scored 60 – truly excellent!  

What does this tell me – REWILDING WORKS!

Aim 2 – some examples of what we’ve achieved:

·      We have run the John Muir Conservation Award for many years, creating opportunities for young people to learn about nature. I work with a small group of young people, over a long period of time – Nor came to UWNR when she was 8 and finished her John Muir work when she was 16! We are 18 months into a new group. Additionally, young people come to the land for work experience.  4 of these young people have gone on to study and work in ecology and related areas. Harry James is one of this number…he of conservation hedge laying fame!

·      Out of the blue, one day in late 2020, people from the BBC Farming Today unit, called me asking is they could come to UWNR and record a program. Of course I said yes, and it was broadcast in January 2021. The response to it was huge….

·      We have now had 150 people attend our ‘How to Rewild 1-50 acres’ 1-day workshops and 50 people on the waiting list. Our workshops give people, with new small-scale projects a plethora of ideas, which they can then incorporate into their work. I now deliver these with my good friend Sara King – Sara is a senior Rewilding Britain staff member and a vastly experienced ecologist. She adds much to the workshops!

·      My friend, fellow rewilding advocate and champion Ben Goldsmith invited me to contribute to an episode of his acclaimed podcast ‘Rewilding the World’. It was a hit and has become his most listened to pod! It was broadcast in March 2024.

·      Another good friend and rewilder Chris Hart, published Hedgelands in 2024. Our conservation laid hedges, and Harry’s surveying, are themes which runs through the book. Hedgelands celebrates this unique UK habitat and is clear-eyed about the role fat, verdant and vibrant hedges could play to restore our battered ecosystem.  In the summer of 2024, it was longlisted for the prestigious Wainwright Nature Writing prize…it may do very very well!

·      In 2021, the wonderful people from The Beautiful Truth came to UWNR and made a film about me and what led me to rewild the land at Underhill. The film got its first virtual public screening in the autumn of 2022. Since that release date almost 15,000 people have viewed the film.

·      They backed this up, with an article published in their magazine The Beautiful Truth.

·      In 2021 I decided to write (and self-publish) ‘How to Rewild – A Practical Manual from Underhill Wood Nature Reserve for One to Fifty Acres’. It has become a hit and is the best-selling book from Folde Dorset (they must be one of the best small bookshops on the planet!). The 3rd edition of the manual will be released in 2025.

·      Small scale rewilding has become so widespread, that with friends Rich and Fiona from Found Outdoors, we set up the Wiltshire Small Rewilders network. Our first meeting was late winter 2024. We look to a future of swapping ideas, visiting each other’s rewilding projects, volunteering and growing the rewilding movement!

What does this tell me – REWILDING WORKS!

And there are a few people to thank who have helped over the years!

Gareth Harris. He is a hugely experienced and knowledgeable Wiltshire based ecologist who has given me so much help and shared so much knowledge over the past decade.

Louisa Kilgallen helped me shape the education program. It really works and that is because of the advice she gave me many years ago.

Sara King of Rewilding Britain. Sara has contributed so much to the project over many years – she co-delivers the UWNR rewilding workshops adding gravitas to them.

Harry James first came to UWNR as a 14-year-old. He is now 23 and a fully qualified ecologist. He is at the heart of much of what goes on at UWNR.

My brother-in-law Patrick Carew is my stalwart volunteer – he comes to help me rain, hail, wind and sun!

Elinor (Nor) Frith came to UWNR as an 8-year-old! She is now 17 and about to dive into her undergraduate studies (she is studying ecology…of course). Nor was a star of the John Muir Conservation Award program and she is quickly becoming an outstanding ecologist. She has been another stalwart volunteer!

Hugo Brooke of Butterfly Conservation has helped massively with butterfly and moth counts over the years. In the early days he encouraged me to create woodland glades – they have been so successful!

Matt Somerville of Bee Kind Hives has guided me as we have rewilded the rare and native honeybees at UWNR. His knowledge is amazing!

 And finally, lots of other people who help from time to time: Jeff McMillan, Laura Loncar, Gustavo Montes de Oca, Sam Peters, Dan Brickell and of course Jack Sandford who was with me almost from the start and taught me things like, how good pignuts are to eat!

It rained and rained and rained and rained! And it’s still raining!

Wow what a winter we’ve had. Typically, this area gets around 30 inches of rain each year – this year we’ve had double that. These totals come from people who live nearby, own rain gauges and keep meticulous records. We bought Underhill 10 years ago and I have never seen the ground so sodden – it’s like one massive sponge.  This has consequences…

The barn owls have been using their dedicated barn, night after night in these conditions. On the night that Storm Isha struck, the first trail camera video was taken at 17.02 and the last at 07.40 – the barn owls remained in their barn the entire night. Barn owls are in peril when rain is hard and persistent – they don’t have protective oiled feathers like other birds. Many have died this year and with climate change set to drive wetter winters in the UK, indoor spaces for hunting and shelter will become critical for this species.

Over the past 2 years we have converted the 3 leaky barriers to beaver dam analogues (BDAs). The comparative results have been striking – spate flow significantly slowed, a greater amount of sediment trapped in the upstream pools and a larger semi-still water habitat created. My good friend and student ecologist Nor surveyed the stream in early autumn. The results were pleasing, particularly the presence of these indicator species: alderfly larva, caseless cadis larva & cased cadis larva. (Note – indicator species indicate a habitat that is healthy and vibrant.)

I took this short video of one of the BDAs after a nightlong deluge!

A key task each winter season at Underhill is rough (conservation) hedge laying (RHL). This winter we laid 3x 30-meter sections. While we were grafting with Silky saws and chainsaws, friend and author Chris Hart was crouched over his keyboard working this up! A hedge, which we RHL-aid in the winter of 2017 / 18, features prominently in Chris’s book. I highly recommend it!

Thank you to Akshay, Dan and Gustavo who all volunteered to help RHL this winter – its seriously hard work!

Right at the end of the RHL-ing season (early March) we ran an experiment – could RHL-ing be scaled up using a digger, rather than manually laying over the plants. If so, this method becomes viable on larger tracts of land. On a cold and windy day, I met up with fellow rewilders and good mates Harry and Akshay. Akshay has recently bought land in Dorset – it will rewild over the coming years and become home to valuable and under-pressure species. He has many 100s of meters of hedge, so the perfect laboratory. After teething challenges, we hit our stride and kapow – it works! Our key learning – a bigger digger is required. We had hired a mini-digger, but should have used a 3- or 6-ton machine.

In the summer of 2023, the trail camera picked up an otter navigating its way through the stream at Underhill. For years I had wondered if they were present. At last hard evidence.  Although with all things in nature you can never be 100% certain, it appears the otter is present at the time of writing and having an impact. The lake at Underhill had always been a favoured roost for many species of waterbirds and then things changed. By summer 2023, I noticed it was devoid of species like mallard, mandarin duck and tufted duck and it has remained so for the past 8 - 9 months! Hunch – the otter predated the waterbirds and transformed the lake into a landscape of fear. Again, I’m not certain, but it appears the otter has predated a large number of toads and frogs this breeding season. These middens (in the pic below) pepper the lake bank. It will be interesting to see how many tadpoles there are in the lake, come mid-spring. It is exciting to have a proper apex predator at Underhill…this type of thing after all, is what rewilding is all about!

Last but not least, Wednesday 20th March is World Rewilding Day and this year Ben Goldsmith is featuring Underhill Wood Nature Reserve on his podcast Rewilding the World. It’s a privilege and flattering to have been picked for this broadcast, on this date. And really great for the burgeoning world of UK small scale rewilding.

Where did the time go?

Somehow it’s winter already, so a long overdue catch-up! Lets start with what happened last week and work backwards.

In Scotland…

Last week we were in the Cairngorms and I ran a very successful and fun rewilding workshop - for people rewilding at a smaller scale. It was very different from the workshops I run at Underhill Wood Nature Reserve (UWNR), with a focus on sharing and swapping things like what’s worked, what’s not worked and how to do more. It was held at Rewilding Lettoch and generously hosted by Steve Rawson and Kirsty Leishman - thank you so much! The workshop was instigated by the writer and naturalist Polly Pullar, and we were lucky to have the expertise of James Nairne from The Northwoods, a rewilding network affiliated with Scotland The Big Picture!

While we were there we walked in the Cairngorms - the highlights being Mar Lodge and especially Glenfeshie. In 2006, Anders Polvsen bought the 18,000 acre estate of Glenfeshie. At time of purchase the deer stocking rate was 65 per square kilometer - this now stands at 2 per square kilometer! And the results from this severe cull are astonishing. I have never been anywhere in the UK or Ireland with such a vibrant, rich and mesmerizing range of habitats. We have travelled to eastern Europe to find similar landscapes. A naturalist and bothy caretaker we met (Lindsey Bryce), who works on the estate, in response to my question, reckoned the Glen last looked like it does now in the early-1700’s. If anyone doubts the healing & regenerative power of rewidling go to Glenfeshie…it is extraordinary. There were missing elements - the presence of apex predators like Lynx and ecosystem engineers like Beaver. One day, just maybe!

I wonder how long it will take for Scotland’s uplands to be dominated by these biodiverse and bio-abundant habitats. How long will it take before the broken, outdated and environmentally destructive models of grouse shooting and deer stalking are surpassed by this type of land management.

I was told a story while we were there, about a wealthy stalker who was so hungover he had 3 attempts to fell a stag - he missed on each occasion. Disgusting, debasing, infantile.

At UWNR…

While we were hiking the Glens and hills of the Highlands, Gareth Harris and Lisa Wade (as ever, thank you!) did our annual Dormouse survey and the results are brilliant. 3 nests and this lovely male were found ! And just maybe the Dormice at UWNR are spreading - the finds occurred at 3 distant points across the land; one to the north-west, one to the south and one to the east. Why does this, finding unequivocal evidence of Dormice, matter? Dormice are classed as an indicator species - they indicate habitat health. So, where you find Dormice you are likely to find a range of flora and fauna. As the land rewilds and interventions like conservation hedge laying regenerate and restore the critical scrub mosaic, more and more species thrive. Its working….

Its worth adding that the PTES classify Dormice as vulnerable to extinction.

For years I have felt the presence of Otter at UWNR. I have seen disturbances on the lake with water churned and wake produced, but never found any concrete evidence - no scat or footprints. This summer that all changed, with this trail camera footage! This is so bloody exciting - a full blown, serious predator roaming the land. An interesting consequence of its presence is the sudden absence of waterbirds on the lake. The lake at UWNR was a preferred roost site for a range of waterbirds, and each evening, I would see and hear them landing as dusk drew in. And a few birds (Mallard, Moorhen, Little Grebe, Tufted Duck) would sometimes stay all day, foraging for food. It is likely that the Otter predated some of the birds and suddenly the lake become a place of danger, rather than sanctuary. A landscape of fear!

Writing of danger and fear - I am now seeing Goshawk with some regularity at UWNR. This summer I unfortunately disturbed him (or her) 1/2 way through their lunch, sorry.

Time elapsing has generated a change of young people who do the John Muir Conservation Award, at UWNR. After many years Nor, Annie, Poppy, Sophia and their friends have all ‘graduated’. So, we have a new group and we begin another cycle of teaching young people about nature and developing young naturalists. So far, we have studied diverse subjects like beavers, dormice, trees, solitary bees and spring!

Our John Muir Award summer campout at UWNR was a blast and the weather was superb!

And what else happened…some highlights:

In early summer two Hobbies (again) stopped by, refueled on dragonflies, displayed to each other (clearly a male – female pair) and headed on their way; in early spring the lake was flooded with Frogs and Toads; the Badger family were vaccinated for another year, so they are safe (I learnt from the ecologist who manages this process, that the UWNR family have no neighbours – they were all wrongfully slaughtered in the mass cull that swept through our part of England); the Barn Owls had another raucous brood who successfully fledged (somewhere between 20-30 owlets have fledged from UWNR over the past 9 years); the Grass Snakes emerged again in summer to confirm their ongoing presence at UWNR (I found a particularly large female this year!); the Roe Deer doe gave birth to another fawn (just a single this year) and for weeks I caught glimpses of this cute, spotted and gangly character and with the John Muir brigade we remodeled the leaky barriers – they are now bona fide beaver dam analogues (BDAs).

Spring renewal.....

After what seems like a long winter we are all emerging from our various states….

I have heard the first chiffchaffs; toads have arrived in a swirling, writhing bounty (I have never seen so many in the lake); the heron is gorging on these arrivals; the moorhens are busy carting around strips of bullrush (they are in nest building mode); I have seen the first bats vigorously hunting at dusk; the badgers are on the move and are attentively tending their sett holes (please click on the link below to watch an enchanting vid of this activity - I’ve called this clip ‘Badger School’); flora like gorse and goat willow are in early blossom and the male tawny owl is calling with vigor.

I love this time of the year - it steadily ramps up from now on and hits a frenetic crescendo in about June.

A seasonal turning point is having people to the the land to learn and engage. Very recently we held a (Wiltshire Mammal Group) dormouse training day, run brilliantly by Georgie Starkie and Gareth Harris (two outstanding Wiltshire based ecologists - we are lucky to have them in our midst!). The group looked at dormouse ecology, current status and surveying techniques. Here they are!

An extraordinary start to the 2023 spring season was cleaning out the abandoned wild honey-bee hive. Wild honey-bee hives typically fail after a number of years (5-7) - this abandonment and renewal is a natural process. Last summer, I had detected dramatically diminished levels of activity and after conversations with the wondrous Matt Somerville (check him out at beekindhives.uk) we decided, this early spring, to investigate. Matt’s inspection showed that the hive had been abandoned. At that point, we had a decision to make. If we had left the wild hive as-is, the next bee swarm would have cleared it out and reoccupied it, but that expends valuable energy. Our increasingly erratic climate is escalating the number of challenges this species has to overcome, so helping out seemed right and proper. And just maybe we would get a haul of honey. Matt scaled the veteran oak and removed the comb - alas, not even a teaspoon of liquid gold. It had been recycled by more deserving creatures - other honeybees, wasps and hornets the most likely candidates.

The blades of comb. The lighter upper-parts is where honey is stored, the next layer down is where pollen is stored and the darker bottom parts is where the brood is nurtured. On the right hand blade you can just make out a protrusion - this is called a queen cell. This is where the queen is nurtured. This invertebrate just blows my mind!

And next weekend we kick off the John Muir Award again and on March 30th (in conjunction with Rewilding Britain) we are holding a one-day workshop with young ecologists (the future!) from Kingston Maurward College….its all kicking off & I am so excited!

It's autumn, so what happened in spring and summer 2022?

Badger Vaccination

For many years the badger family at UWNR had been threatened by the unnecessary nationwide badger cull. In 2020 working with the brilliant people from The Badger Trust, I created a series of strategically placed bait stations to encourage this charismatic mammal to forage away from the neighbouring dairy farm and move deeper into the land at UWNR. Manipulating their foraging behaviour was likely to reduce the amount of contact they had with the dairy cows - this limiting the chances of TB spreading from badger to cow.

It worked, but required many hours of diligent labour and at times a small team of helpers - thanks goes to Annie, Alison and Tim.

Even with this concerted effort, it was pretty stressful knowing that the badgers were under threat of being killed. Imagine UWNR without them…

Completely out of the blue, in spring 2022 an offer came to have the badgers at UWNR vaccinated. It was a moment of relief and elation. Huge thanks to Gareth Harris and Peter Shallcross for making this happen.

For the best part of a month, we habituated the badges to the vaccination cages. These were placed in runs and close to the existing bait stations. The whole process was overseen by Kiera, a highly skilled and knowledgeable ecologist. Nor, who for many years has done the John Muir Conservation Award at UWNR, gave massively valuable assistance. It was extraordinary witnessing Keira vaccinate the badgers - she was gentle, quick & calm. Her approach and mood affected each badger and they too were calm and visibly stress free. On release they ambled past us completely at ease. And the outcome is just wonderful - the badger family at UWNR is now removed from the cull and they can live their lives in safety.

The Drought!

I am not sure I need to write much about this ‘weather event’…love and hate that expression. What is clear to me is that our fauna and flora is not equipped to deal with temperatures, which daily hit high-to-mid 30s.

We watered (huge thanks to Patrick Carew and Harry James) the orchard and hedge and thankfully didn’t lose any plants. But we did graft & sweat a lot. What is of greater and immediate concern is the probable collapse of the field vole population. Fresh grass is a cornerstone requirement of this species and by early July the fields at UWNR were completely desiccated and devoid of this basic food source. Feild voles play a key role in the ecology of UWNR (and by extension much of lowland England) - they are a key prey species for middle guild predators like barn owls, weasels, tawny owls, foxes, stoats and sometimes grey herons.

Given this situation, I have set up the barn owl barn 6 - 8 weeks earlier than I typically would. And immediately the barn owls are using their winter hunting habitat. I was completely amazed to find this rat skull in the middle of a fresh pellet - unequivocal evidence of barn owls predating on this sizeable and formidable mammal!

Other highlights from the spring and summer:

The Hobby. Oh, what a bird - it is beyond compare…OK a Goshawk is very impressive, but the flying ability of this raptor is completely jaw dropping. Is there another bird of prey, which can change its flight path at full velocity with such shuddering reactivity. It seems to defy logic and physics - how does its body withstand the tight wild arcs it draws, as it pursues its dragonfly quarry? On a few occasions I was privileged to observe, filled with wonder and awe, this bird relentlessly and accurately hunted over the lake. It has migrated south now - back to equatorial Africa - I hope to see it in 2023.

Whiskered bats have moved in. OK need to clarify here - 1 bat has moved in but this is significant. When we built the barn owl barn, we installed bat panels on the exterior walls. For years they were unused and unoccupied, but that all changed this spring. Sara King from Rewilding Britain first spotted bat pooh on the ground beneath one of the panels and then Gareth captured this confirmatory image. It is a lone male whiskered bat and just perhaps its presence will give rise to others using this roosting habitat. Hope so. Build it and they will come applies yet again…yeah yeah it took a while I know, but it worked in the end.

A few lines about other spring / summer happenings; the grass snakes were both very numerous and active, the frogs and toads scattered another generation of youngsters across UWNR - in the 1000’s, the barn owls raised another brood of raucous youngsters, the dragonflies and damselflies reveled in the heat, the tawny owls hunted regularly in the woodland at UWNR, a stoat seemed to clear out the remaining rats from the barn owl barn, our butterfly species count went up to 17 with the presence of the common blue and the whiskered bats had a successful breeding season. Rewilding works!

But what is wrong with these people?

A wee bit of context here - lets be really clear, biodiversity in the UK is in a very perilous state. Using data from the IUCN, the UK is one lowest ranked nations when it comes to ‘biodiversity intactness’ (the state of its nature). Recent revisions of this data may take us from the bottom 10%, to the bottom 5%. It is that bad. To begin to address this crisis a range of conservation measures, initiatives and practices are required. Within this mix Rewilding surely has a place and this place needs to be acknowledged and properly understood. (At UWNR species counts show levels of biodiversity have improved significantly since 2014…as habitats develop and improve).

So, what is Rewilding - I think Rewilding Britain has a brilliant (the best?) definition: Rewilding is about creating the conditions for nature to thrive, re-establishing natural processes to repair ecosystems and boost biodiversity. It’s not about reintroducing wolf or lynx or elk or bison or bear…its about repair, regeneration, restoration, renaturing.

Why then do people, who should and do know better agitate, spread disinformation, unnecessarily disrupt and try to snuff out a conservation method, which has its place and adds value. Why do they do this? What are they trying to gain? Are they seeking attention? It confounds, makes me angry and depresses me. Recently on a podcast called ‘The Rest is Politics’ (September 15th, minute 16) one of the speakers makes the claim that ‘we’ve taken millions of acres out of cultivation to rewild them’. No, we haven’t. So far 1% of the UK has been rewilded - that is 250,000 hectares (620,000 acres). Not millions of acres. Why didn’t the speaker hit on this fact, I wonder: Pheasant and partridge shoots occupy 3 million hectares (the total UK land mass is 25 million hectares) so, put another way that is 12% of the total land mass (ref GWCT). And 8% of UK is used for grouse shooting (ref Avery). This land use is not about feeding the nation, its not about our food security - it is about people perversely killing for leisure and pleasure. Why is rewilding singled out?

And just for good measure we had this completely unnecessary contribution - again why?

UWNR goes multi-media...and other news.

Over the past few months UWNR has been popping up in different media; a Rewilding Britain webinar, a new and ground-breaking magazine called The Beautiful Truth (TBT), a live talk at a nature festival, hosted by the inspired people at Planted and a You Tube channel…what a feast!

So here you go:

Thank you so much to the wonderful Sara King at Rewidling Britain, who made this happen. The feedback has been stupendous and it has come at the right time for many who are rewidling at a smaller scale. The subjects covered and the running order are as follows:

• Min 03.00 Introduction to UWNR and how I apply rewilding methods.

• Min 09.37 Lake and Marsh

• Min 18.29 Pasture

• Min 31.56 Stream

• Min 36.30 Hedges

• Min 50.00 Built Structures

• Min 57.34 Woodland

• Min 1.14 until close of webinar question and answer.

A heartfelt thanks to the amazing people at TBT, who worked tirelessly to bring this sumptuously produced and brilliantly written piece to the world. UWNR features….

In soft spring rain, the inspirational Sam Peters hosted this panel (me, Keggie and Amber) to talk about nature writing…The UWNR Manual gets a bit of look in too!

Earlier this year I launched this You Tube channel - I update it with the best and latest trail camera videos. It gives a good account of the fauna, which call UWNR home!

Now for other news!

Nor: After 6 years of work and study at UWNR, Nor was awarded with the highest level John Muir Award and moves on to formally study ecology and animal behavior. Nor has been a cornerstone of our education program at UWNR and she is going to be really missed. Together we have studied subjects like barn owl ecology, seasonal changes to flora and fauna, grass snake ecology, woodland management, beaver ecology and on and on.

I must add, the highest level John Muir Award is not a push-over - it requires significant dedication…

A very happy & very sad moment, in the life of our project. As I have noted Nor will be hugely missed!

Workshops: The UWNR Rewidling Workshop program has continued through the spring of this year. The workshop itself is seriously firing now - I have done a fair bit of work refining the design and it is purring. All the groups have been just stunning - engaged, receptive and inquiring. The fact these events are so quickly booked up, shows the desire of people to do something positive in this time of crisis. I wish our global corporate and political leaders were of similar mind and intent!

Me in full cry on a bright early spring day - I’m doing the woodland slot!

Grass Snakes: The grass snakes have been slow to show themselves this year…but this week at last, they are present and correct. Last Thursday I came across this beauty. This is possibly the biggest snake I have seen at UWNR! She is a she, perhaps 4 - 5 years old, so fully mature. My task this week is to prepare and replenish her nesting creche - trailer loads of old hay will be stacked in a dedicated south facing spot. There in full sun, the hay will rot down sufficiently and provide her with a safe place to nest and lay her leathery eggs.

Bats: We built the barn owl barn five years ago. Immediately it was used by the resident barn owls as a refuge and hunting site, when inclement winter weather makes outdoor impossible and perilous. The barn is consistently used by the barn owls throughout the winter months and has for certain contributed to their winter survival.

All those yeas ago, as we completed the final phase of construction, our minds turned to consider what other structures we could incorporate to benefit fauna. The incomparable ecologist Gareth Harris offered superb and innovative solutions. One, attach bat panels to the exterior walls of the barn.

Then earlier this month, Sara King from Rewilding Britain, spotted traces of bat pooh. On a recent visit Gareth deployed his endoscope and bam - a bat! Not just any old bat - a male whiskered bat. A bit rare and a lot special!

If you have a garage, shed or similar please consider installing these panels - bats are under significant pressure and we now have proof that these structures help!

Solitary Bees: About three years ago we built this solitary bee hive, on the right of this picture - part fo the John Muir Award program.

This year it is just awash with activity - in fact, madly frenetic. Over time, these hives take on a burdensome parasitic load, with ultimately dire consequences for the various solitary bee species. Best practice is to either replace the older nesting material or build new. Yet again Gareth provided the optimum solution; screw sturdy, long and straight branches to the south facing wall of the barn. Once in place, drill holes to create nesting opportunities. I used an 8 mm drill bit and have created about 20 holes in each length of wood. Next year, I will drill another 20 and continue this process until it is time to change the length of wood.

If you have a south facing wall (garage, shed or similar) please consider doing this - all these species are crucial pollinators, and like many invertebrates, are under significant pressure in our increasingly toxic biosphere. These structures help!

And lastly….Suddenly the kestrel is constantly hunting at UWNR - it had only ever been an infrequent visitor. Why this change in behaviour? It could be down to climate change! I have been reading about recent research, which indicates that field vole numbers are remaining high through our milder winters and quickly bounce back with the onset of spring. This spring has been mild - perfect breeding conditions for this key prey species. My hunch - UWNR is groaning with field voles and the local kestrel is seizing this opportunity - a winner for now, from our warming planet.

UWNR EVOLVES...

Over the past 8 years we have worked hard at UWNR to develop a mosaic of habitats and create as many opportunities as possible, for a range of species. And it’s working! (Please refer to my last blog about the amazing results from Harry’s research of our conservation laid hedges. One example….).

About now, UWNR has a story to tell and there is a group of people who want to hear that story. As the 6th Extinction bears down on us, our leaders do too little too late. This inaction has generated a growing body of people who are taking things into their own hands – buying land to rewild. And with this, suddenly, UWNR has become a resource for teaching; ‘How to rewild 1 – 50 Acres’. So, these are exciting and busy times!

 So far this spring, I have hosted a rewilding workshop (these are really flying now – having refined the design), a biodiversity group and numerous visits. There are more workshops and group visits in the diary…

Rewilding workshop March 2022

In this mix, is the webinar I will be doing with the brilliant people at Rewidling Britain. It takes place on Thursday 14 April from 18.30-20.00. Much excitement!

And a plug for Rewidling Britain – join them, give to them, shop from them (great t-shirts!), support them…. we need them!

A clutch of nature notes from UWNR - recent happenings!

This winter, each late dusk, woodcock would dart in from the woodland to the north of UWNR. Their focus, the lake surrounds and the sedge marsh immediately to the east. There they foraged each night. They have gone now – back to Siberia and the vast, open lands to the north-east. I miss them….

Again this spring, the lake has been a lovely, seething, writhing mass of frogs and toads – thanks to Bob Gibbons for this extraordinary shot!

With the onset of fine, warm, early spring weather there has been a burst of energy and life…solitary bees are on the wing, butterflies are emerging from their winter hibernation and drift about the land, chiffchaffs have arrived and are chiffchaffing, the wild honeybees have burst into action - working working, brimstones are out and about and I have found a thrush studiously building her nest in thick ivy….

And finally - UWNR has its own You Tube channel! (I will update this from time to time…).

UWNR’s OPERATION MOONSHOT

In the last blog, I mentioned that Harry’s research on the conservation hedge laying (CHL) we do at Underhill Wood Nature Reserve (UWNR), was looking very promising. Recently I spent a day with Harry and the results are amazing – more than that, they are mind-blowing! More on the survey results in a moment…

What is CHL and why is it deployed at UWNR?

Back in the winter of 2015 / 16 it became clear that the hedges at UWNR needed to be managed - the hedgerows lacked density and individual plants had raced skyward leaving huge gaps at their base. The ecologist Gareth Harris, who over the years has given me so much valuable advice and guidance, talked me through CHL. I was up and running. (And CHL is now a key element of winter activity at the land).

CHL is a bit like conventional hedge laying with distinct differences. As individual hedgerow plants are being laid, lateral growth is retained and not pruned back, the base of the hedge is mostly left untouched and the retained plants are not pinned. It is the messy, unruly cousin of conventional hedge laying. (There is a description in the UWNR rewilding manual on pages 26 and 27).

A section of hedge which had not been laid for many years

The same section after conservation hedge laying. Immediately the profile of the hedge changes - greater density, more cover close to the ground and broader in profile.

What effect does this method have? Almost immediately the hedge is broad, dense and the gaps have closed. A few springs on and this is what you have….a massive species rich, natural structure!

This was conservation laid 4 years ago. Imagine this in say 8 - 10 years…..

The results from Harry’s research at UWNR are amazing…I think this could be a complete gamechanger, in terms of how hedges are managed. (Let’s hope one day soon, those who make decisions in this field get to see these data…).

 Firstly, looking at average species counts, for each class of hedge within the area of study:  

1.      Control hedges, which have not been conservation hedge laid (CHL), have an average of 27 species.

2.      Hedges which have been CHL in the past 1 / 2 years have an average of 31 species.

3.      Hedges which have been CHL in the past 3 / 4 years have an average of 40 species. The highest number of species in hedges which have been CHL in the past 3 / 4 years is 43.

The rate of increase over a short period of time is way ahead of the expectations of Harry and his Professors.

Next and strikingly the Individual numbers of invertebrates for each class of hedge, within the area of study:

1.      Control hedges, which have not been conservation hedge laid (CHL) had 67 individual invertebrates.

2.      Hedges which have been CHL in the past 1 / 2 years had 90 individual invertebrates.

3.      Hedges which have been CHL in the past 3 / 4 years had 110 individual invertebrates with highest 113.

For me part B is the most astonishing - levels of abundance explodes once the hedge gets beyond year 1 / 2.

It is highly likely that Harry’s research dissertation will be published in an academic journal. And get this, Harry hasn’t graduated yet!

 This is all very big news! Our Operation Moonshot worked!

A bit of crucial background stuff…Once we had 500,000 miles of hedgerows in the UK – today we have close to 300,000. Too many of the hedgerows which dissect our terrestrial environment are very poorly managed – they are too often subjected to annual flailing, leaving them damaged and dying. Poor habitat for fauna. As the Peoples Trust for Endangered Species state, in their online document about hedges; ‘Today, neglect and incorrect management, such as too-frequent trimming, are responsible for more hedgerow loss than outright removal’.

And why do hedgerows matter…Ben MacDonald unravels this for us in Rebirding, page 36; ‘Our native (pre-historic) scrub mosaic, where seed-eating birds foraged in disturbed grassland, and nested in dense bushes, was reincarnated in the hedgerow’.

So there we have it - rare, rambling, dense and tall mixed hedges are proxies for the wild scrubland that was a feature of our prehistoric land. It was a land that supported species like turtle doves and nightingales.

More broadly why do invertebrates matter. Dave Goulson (Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex), in his most recent book Silent Earth states (p 3); ‘...it seems likely that insects have declined in abundance by 75 per cent or more since I was five years old’. (He was five years old in 1970). So why does this matter…more from Dave Goulson (p21); ‘…insects are intimately involved in all terrestrial and freshwater food chains and food webs’.  ‘The loss of insect life from the food chain would not just be catastrophic for wildlife. It would also have direct consequences for human food supply.’

There is clearly more research to be done around CHL. What effect might this management have on bird and mammal numbers…I have a hunch….

On the wildlife front at UWNR…

Last winter was the season of migratory redwings, blackbirds and fieldfares - they arrived in October / November and dispersed as early spring began to show itself. They all merrily plundered the fruit rich holly, bramble and blackthorn. Each evening this wonderful mob would roost in the dense and substantial thicket which runs behind the lake. They numbered 100’s.

This season no sign of them - instead we have migratory woodcock. They (I cant be certain, but think there are 3 - 5 birds) arrive at the lake shore at dusk and probably feed late into the night. I love this species with its high-speed, darting, zig-zag flight and angular body form. Just this week I disturbed one individual buried deep, hunkering down in a stand of hazel and holly. They will head north as we head into early spring. As UWNR rewilds, perhaps it is increasingly attractive to species like woodcock….

Another brush with shifting baselines, Harry's amazing data and John Muir Award time!

There are times at UWNR when it feels healthy, fecund and full of nature…. frogs abound in the lake in their 10s; the jays kick out their rattling alarm call; the barn owl creeps out onto her balcony, as the blue light of dusk gathers and the roe deer gingerly walks across the meadow, in front of the barn. It looks vibrant….

 Our recent visit to north-eastern Portugal (and the Faia Brava rewilding project) made me reconsider the baseline of what a healthy ecosystem looks & feels like. Near the upper reaches of the Douro River the land is gently farmed, free from chemicals, by people who cohabit sensitively with nature. Marginal bits of land are left to go – here we might even call it rewilding. Food supply chains are local – people eat what they grow…it is fresh, seasonal and delicious. (For the record…. allotment style land management is highly productive, producing between 20-35 tons of food per hectare. Agri-chemical intensive systems produce between 3.5 – 8 tons per hectare. (Ref; Goulson, Dave, Silent Earth, 2021)).

North eastern Portugal

According to our wonderful ecologist & guide (more on him in a minute), hunting is low key and strictly for the pot. We are back to the weird, annual, ritualistic slaughter of (approx. 20 million!) semi-domestic ‘game’ birds. The shooters kill, but don’t eat everything they kill - perhaps they can’t eat these animals, they being too toxic? The folk of north eastern Portugal would find this perverse…at best.

It wasn’t just the numbers of species that was really striking in this part of Portugal, it was the numbers of individuals (i.e. overall abundance), that struck us profoundly. We encountered otter scat on every 3rd or 4th rock, it full of pink crustacea shell; massive flocks of starling in every dense thicket; so many hen harriers I stopped gawping; kingfishers flashing up the river valley we walked, in a constant procession; dippers bobbing and diving as we rounded each bend; fresh water clams the size of my fist; multiple species of bats each evening in their 10s; and daily flying high on hot thermals, Griffin Vultures with wingspans just under 3 meters…I think 2.75 to be precise. The list goes on and on and includes wonders like mongoose, Iberian turtle, hobby, wryneck, and peregrine. And wonderful woodlarks! When I was a kid we had bellbirds in the bush, on our dairy farm in New Zealand – their resonant notes, which carried through the dense subtropical flora, sounded like small bells being delicately struck. Even as a 10-year-old, they halted me in my tracks. The woodlark call has elements of the New Zealand bellbird call and hearing this often, I was transported back to another time and hemisphere….

 We hadn’t experienced nature this vibrant, since our spring visits to eastern Poland and central Romania. So, my baseline of what a vibrant and healthy ecosystem is, is in need of revision. The UK has a challenge to restore our battered fauna and flora. The Natural History Museum (NHM) recently published research, which supports this. We live (in the UK) in one of the most nature depleted places on the planet - in fact, we are in the bottom 10% when it comes to biodiversity intactness. The NHM report stated that our nature has depleted by 50% since the industrial revolution. The IUNC has been reporting these data for some years….

Just as the ink was drying on this shocking report, Tory MPs voted to allow toxic discharges into UK rivers. There were 400,000 of these discharges last year. (They sort of u-turned on this, after significant pressure). Another two mind-numbing numbers; using EU water quality tests, the UK has only 1 designated bathing river, France has 420.  (Ref; BBC).    

Nature in the UK is screaming.

Back to Faia Brava & north-eastern Portugal. We spent an amazing day with Paulo (ecologist and guide) who works for the Faia Brava rewilding project. It is approx. 1000 hectares and is grazed by native horses and cattle. The former are relatively docile, but the latter clearly not. They resembling Spanish fighting bulls – all muscle, energy and speed. The wildlife highlight of the day with Paulo was watching the 12 resident Griffin Vultures riding the thermals over the crags, which tower over the river valley. The day kicked off with light cloud cover and cool temperatures – these vast birds only showed themselves once we hit temperatures in the low-20’s (Celsius). They are truly mesmerizing to watch, flying with such ease and grace.

Faia Brava

Native horses Faia Brava

A key feature of this project is that it is member owned. 700 people all share in the ownership of Faia Brava and contributing as little as Euro20, buys annual membership. A bargain! One of the tropes about rewilding projects in the UK, is that they are exclusively a thing for wealthy elites. This innovative model shifts that and positively turns that narrative upside down.

Paulo our wonder ecologist guide….

The very big and emerging news from UWNR; the early results from Harry’s dissertation research. Many of you know and / or have met Harry – a recap; he first came to UWNR as a 15-year-old, has been a feature ever since and inspired by his time at the land he started a degree in Ecology and Conservation Land Management at Aberystwyth University. As I have alluded to, Harry is doing his final year dissertation on UWNR. The research topic; what effect does conservation hedge laying have on invertebrate numbers. Hedges of different ages (i.e., those laid 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 years ago) were investigated to ascertain any differences in species numbers and overall abundance. So far, so exciting…. the hedges which I conservation hedge laid 5 years ago not only have more species, but the levels of abundance are greater. Interestingly the dominant invertebrate – spiders! Can’t wait for more detailed results from Harry. Perhaps we can say; Rewilding works!!!!

John Muir Award presentation. These are among the very best days at UWNR. Annie received her Explorer award this week….HUGE CONGRATULATIONS!

On our way north through Spain we spent a couple of days in Segovia and we came across this….they knew back then where this would all end….

An imperceptibly small step for man (& woman), but HUGE leaps for Underhill Wood Nature Reserve (UWNR)

A few years ago David (friend, and a colleague from a former life) visited the land. At the end of the tour he asked; ‘is any of this written down’. ‘No’, was my answer. From that very brief and simple exchange, ideas were hatched to write a practical manual about rewilding a relatively small parcel of land and run workshops. I spent lockdown 2020 writing the manual - helped throughout by Keggie Carew, David Burnett and Chris Nicholson. Huge thanks to this trio of helpers!

Last weekend (Saturday 21st Aug), was the culmination of all this - we ran the very first 1-day UWNR Rewilding workshop. The workshop worked and the booklet worked. This is what Jennie, who attended, said; ‘…you have clearly spent a great deal of time putting things together and really honing how it would be rolled out - the whole day was a real treat and you should consider it a major success’.

This is a big deal for UWNR and feels like an important step. After 7 years there is a compelling story to tell of how a small block of land can help support dragonflies, butterflies, roe deer, buzzards, weasels, dormice, glow-worms, barn owls, wild honey-bees, grass snakes and their kind. I can now tell that story in a very practical way, through the booklet and the workshop. What I have learnt on our 25 acres can be applied.

This is the group of lovely people who attended workshop 1:

I intend to run 2 - 4 workshops each year. The booklet can be bought separately. For more detail about both, please click below:

The other very big news from UWNR…

First this happened: Recently, working with brilliant ecologists Georgie and Gareth, we (well in fact they) discovered the only recorded, Whiskered bat maternity roost in Wiltshire. Big news for UWNR! We are not 100% sure, but think there are 8 - 10 females and 8-10 young. Just to clarify - it is highly likely to be the case that there are other Whiskered bat maternity roosts in Wiltshire, but none have been recorded before. Elated to have this breeding colony at UWNR…feels a bit special.

Then this happened: This week we ran another really fun and interesting John Muir day with the young people. We moth trapped and identified our bounty - OMG it was stupendous. We set a single trap (often we set two) and conditions overnight were beyond perfect….broken cloud, warm, windless and moonless. Early the next morning, the trap was bursting with moth-life. We had a record species count (53 species in total) and this magnificent beast the standout….an Oak Eggar:

Book Plug:

The lovely people at Little Toller books sold me this, not so long ago. One of the best books I have ever read and if bird migration is your thing, then this is a must read. Some of the newly discovered facts about avian migration are just bizarre - science stranger than crazy fiction. Like the ability of migratory birds to see magnetic fields….just a taster.

And the BAFTA goes to....

In late winter 2021 we decided to upgrade the trail camera. The old one took OK still images, but the quality of videos was poor, at best. Over the moon at the quality of these and we can now observe the fauna at UWNR at close quarters, giving us eyes on their secret world.

The BAFTA….get the votes in!

Let’s talk about hedges.....

UWNR is dissected by three lines of mixed native hedge - planted roughly 3 - 4 decades ago. In turn, a long run of hedgerow creates a barrier between the land and the lane on the eastern flank. On buying the land, I was aware of these hedge-bones - something to work with and enhance. It was clear from the outset that none of these flora corridors had been managed in any way - they were lanky, scrawny and uninviting windblown habitats, at best. In the first winter at UWNR I expended much time trying to work out what I could do to create dense & tall hedgerows, which would draw in species like blackbirds, dormice, wrens and wintering fieldfares. As ever, ecologist Gareth Harris had the answer - conservation hedge laying.

Ka-ching! 5 winters on and more than 30% of the hedges have been conservation laid to produce the impenetrable green walls, I had imagined. No, they have exceeded what I had envisaged. (I need to add, that this is the hardest graft I do - it is hardcore. Kevlar lined gauntlets are essential).

So what has come from this graft then. For me the most telling & raucous outcome occurred in the winter of 2020 - 21. For weeks UWNR was flooded with fieldfares, redwings and blackbirds all vying for the plentiful spoils, gorging themselves on holly berries, sloes, rosehips, ivy berries and blackberry. The avian profusion was really something. And each night this gaggle would roost in the hedges…their chatter slowly ebbing as the dark took over.

Over the past year I have read two really extraordinary books - Rebirding by Ben MacDonald and Orchard: A Year in England’s Eden by Ben MacDonald and Nicholas Gates. They have a lot to say about hedgerows!

From Orchard: A Year in England’s Eden by Ben MacDonald and Nicholas Gates, pages 206 & 207; ‘…the annual October destruction of hedgerows – as nature is given its worst ever haircut – is one of the most senseless acts of vandalism that we, as a nation, have become accustomed to in recent decades. Such destruction continues at large across our country. In the slashed, stunted metre-high hedgerows that increasingly constitute the norm, bullfinches, warblers, marsh tits need not apply.’ ‘The chilling mathematical hedge-lines we see in most of Britain today are entirely useless to most of our scrub-evolved wildlife’.  

Mike Perry. m-perry.com

From Rebirding by Ben MacDonald, page 36; ‘Our native (pre-historic) scrub mosaic, where seed-eating birds foraged in disturbed grassland, and nested in dense bushes, was reincarnated in the hedgerow’.

So there we have it - rare, rambling, dense and tall mixed hedges are proxies for the wild scrubland that was a feature of our prehistoric land. It was a land that supported species like turtle doves - they too, are rare now.

With this context, I was recently visited at UWNR by a local dairy farmer. Our conversation turned to the topic of hedgerow management and I waxed on and on about the ecological benefits of conservation hedge laying. When we explored the possibility of slackening their severe annual hedge flailing, the block was the fact that the hedges at UWNR were untidy (unseemly?) and theirs neat, tidy & controlled. I wonder if this is a prevailing attitude? I was also struck by their lack of knowledge about the role hedges could play…but then why should a farmer understand ecology….not sure my dairy-farming Dad did?

Tidy really is the enemy of nature and to quote the father of UK conservation, Roy Dennis, from Cottongrass Summer, page 95; ‘Over my lifetime, I’ve seen many examples of misplaced tidiness, even on nature reserves. A tree falls over and someone immediately thinks they have to tidy it up, cut it into logs, take it home and burn the remaining brash. Well, that’s not much use to nature’.

There is hope - ELMS (which replaces the CAP) may drive change in how hedgerows are managed, but for some species it is perhaps too little, too late.

To finish a wonderful picture from the sky-table…just love those talons and the what-you-looking-at stare!

And please read about our latest John Muir Award session (click on the tab below and scroll to the bottom of the page)….we are up and running again, which is really amazing…I have missed this part of our work.

Science (because it’s the in thing) and a bit of springy news….

Science:

In mid-winter, ecologist Gareth Harris took barn owl pellets home (sourced from the barn owl barn) and gently prized them apart to reveal their secrets. His findings & words from 10 pellets dissected:

• Wood Mouse/Yellow-necked Mouse – 4 skulls and 4 pairs of low mandibles (in different pellets so likely 8 animals…..)

• Field Vole – 7 skulls plus another 2 pairs of lower mandibles…..

• Common shrew – 2 and possibly a third skulls

• Pygmy shrew – possible skull, tiny but could be a young common shrew, hard to be sure….

A decent range of small mammals from UWNR and the surrounding land. The end of February proved challenging for barn owls (at UWNR and elsewhere), with lots of sightings of them hunting during the day. This can be a sign that they are under pressure to source suitable prey. I am not sure that the pair at UWNR survived - I last saw them sitting side by side on a hunting perch early one morning in late January 2021. They looked so sweet all loved-up & cuddling! The breeding season should reveal more…..

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At about the same time Gareth put out a bat detector on the land to gauge winter activity. In his words ‘Moderate levels of bat activity…’. These species were detected:

• Whiskered bat

• Brown long-eared bat

• Common Pipistrelle

• Soprano Pipistrelle

I was talking to him about winter activity and just loved this insight…younger bats tend to break their winter torpor more frequently than older bats. Those with greater experience winter roost in places which are warmer, drier and generally more suitable. This enables them to hunker down for longer stretches and use reserves more conservatively. Evidence shows that young bats are forced to feed more frequently to top up their reserves.

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Toads!

One night last week Gareth surveyed the lake at UWNR for amphibians - a cut / paste of his mail:

•  118 male toads plus 6 copulating pairs (spawn evident in a few places too)

• 25+ clumps of frog spawn

• 1 female smooth newt.

• Spawning activity was also pretty low, so perhaps low temperatures were the reason for this.

Last year at about the same time, I stopped counting when I got to 130 floating, blinking faces peering back at a head-torched me…..so the population has sustained over the course of the last 12 months.

The day before Gareth visited, I discovered this slightly macabre collection of dismembered toads at the eastern end of the lake:

Much email chat about who the predator was and a big cast-list of suspects - raven, weasel, brown rat, otter, moorhen, mink, crow, badger and fox. On closer inspection I discovered more kills at various locations on the lake bank and this strange small midden of cleaned bones. We think the bones were likely cleaned by small mammals, after predation had occurred.

I will position the trail camera this week at the lake edge and see if we can discover who the predator is….

Spring is a time of surplus protein and this is evidence of a dynamic ecosystem functioning as it should….UWNR is working!

A huge thank you to Gareth for all this survey work and fascinating results!

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I have just read this extraordinary book for the second time….why isn’t this read at GCSE or A level I wonder.

It is jam packed with information about the state of our planet and a brilliant manifesto about how we could arrest the decline of many species. An issue which is mostly lost with Climate Change occupying centre ground…..

A fact that sticks - there are 2 million known species i.e. they have been identified, there are 7 - 8 million probable species in total on our planet, yet only 1000 have been intensively researched. With current extinction rates running at between 100-1000 greater than normal, think about these numbers…. Hugely recommended read.

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Throughout 2019, as part of the John Muir Award, we did an iGCSE in Environmental Studies. Nor pushed on and in 2020 sat her exam. SHE FLEW THROUGH! CONGRATULATIONS!

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Harry and Alex:

Both these wonderful young ecologists, (Harry doing his undergrad degree in Land Conservation & Ecology and Alex finishing his A-levels before he too goes to university to study ecology), are doing projects at UWNR. I helped Alex a couple of weeks ago with his project looking at soil type, species of flora and ambient conditions….Alex doing the science and me pushing the barrow around!

This summer Harry will do the field work for his 3rd year dissertation. He is going to research invertebrate species numbers in the areas which have been conservation hedge laid, and compare these data to areas which haven’t been laid (managed). Really looking forward to the results from this work. Again me on barrow….

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Springy things:

This time of the year is always transfixing - the days lengthen, temperatures increase and stuff begins to happen at a pace…..I was at UWNR on Monday and the lake was littered with birds – 6 tufted ducks , 2 little grebes, a heron, 4 mallard and 2 moorhens! An avian conference!

Caught this image of a resident moorhen some distance from the lake….poking about…love her colours.

It appears the roe deer has expelled last year’s juvenile from the territory in preparation to give birth to another fawn(s).

The wild honeybees are frantic already, returning to their log hives festooned in vibrant yellow pollen.

There are times in late January when the land feels locked in a weird stasis - from now on the opposite is true as it begins to hum then scream with life. Roll on…..

And the most endearing of all things….a huge (I am talking Muntjac size) female hare overseeing 3 / 4 leverets, they all ambling around the woodland at UWNR in a bit of a daze.

Winter of Hope, Awe & Despair

HOPE:

Hope 1: The response from the Radio 4, Farming Today program has been close to overwhelming. It took me most of last week to respond to the tsunami of mails, which poured into my inbox. My conclusion from these - there is a new army of people with 2 - 60 acres re-naturing. I spoke to some of them - they had bought their land within the last 2 / 3 years. I asked them why and universally the response was - ‘I am doing this because our Govt & legislators aren’t leading on this - they are woefully behind’. A type of direction action then!

If you missed the Farming Today program you have 4 handfuls of days left…..BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 02/01/21 Farming Today This Week: Rewilding to create a private nature reserve

Where do I go with this next…I have (almost) written the UWNR Re-Naturing Manual, which will be the accompanying text for Re-Naturing workshops to be run at the land as soon as we can. Many of these lovely people will attend and I will have the opportunity to share in greater depth why UWNR has worked.

Hope 2: Within the next year, 2 of the wonderful young people (Harry & Alex) who are associated with UWNR will do assignments and dissertations using the nature reserve as the focus of their research and study. This is a hugely exciting development. When we started this project, back in 2014, I imagined such things would happen and they now are - YES!

Hope 3: I am writing a piece for Barn Owl Conservation describing how the barn owl barn at UWNR serves as a valuable winter habitat for the resident pair. The hope is that more people will give over a portion of a barn, a garage, a garden shed and provide valuable indoor habitat for this under-pressure species. I have camera trap evidence showing that they use the barn on nights when weather makes outdoor hunting impossible. Recently, there was an image of a tawny in the barn - 2 species of nocturnal raptor using the barn.

Harry & his Dad have done pellet analysis for me using fresh pellets. This enables us to ascertain what species the barn owls have been recently predating. There are two species of small mammals which predominated; field vole and wood mouse. Interestingly only one brown rat jawbone was found - I would have expected more.

Love the pics of their work:

AWE:

Awe 1: Last Wednesday, I was standing on the bank of the (new) woodland pond and I detected rustling in the leaf litter on the opposite side. I stood stock still - a weasel poked up, sniffed the air and had a rapid-fire look around. She (cant stand calling sentient animals it) then worked her way to the pond edge and swan dived into the water!! To be clear here, I am talking a chest out, arms splayed, toes pointed dive – 10 points for sure. She then swam at pace across the pond (like a micro otter), mounted the bank and dashed by me. Bloody crazy. Imagine the water temp! Why?

I have seen weasels at UWNR many times and regularly find scat. But this experience was off the scale.

Then another turn in this story… I mailed my old commercial fishing skipper, who lives in Ireland and is a keen naturalist, about this. His reply completely blew me away. ‘I was steaming into Glandore harbour one day - summer, late afternoon I think. I met a stoat happily swimming east to west; about 350 metres done; 150 to go. Just measured it off GMaps’. (Glandore is in West Cork). WOW!

Awe 2: The sky table is now playing host to Buzzards, Jays and Ravens. Given the harsh weather of the past 2 weeks it feels right to supplement their diets. Harry & I first deployed the sky table about a month ago and even on day one the Buzzards were aware of it and doing reconnaissance, overhead flights. Their awareness now is at another level. As I walk to the table from the barn, distinctive large white bucket in hand, they are directly above me wheeling and calling. They know - here comes the bloke with the meat, so line up - dinner time. In that short space of time they have learnt these associations.

Awe 3: I love the soundscape at UWNR especially at night and often when the weather is fine, I will sit and listen. The roe deer barking and the tawny calling are among the best. But our landscape is sound-poor compared to this: BBC Radio 4 - Soundstage, The River Crossing

DESPAIR: Oh god, there are times when what we do to our planet weighs so bloody heavily. Last Friday, late evening (get the timing) and under the cover of the pandemic, the Government issued this licence: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/neonicotinoid-product-as-seed-treatment-for-sugar-beet-emergency-authorisation-application

It is hard to overstate how bad this is. The evidence about Neonics is unequivocal. The EU ban the use of this chemical…join the dots. I have read widely on this subject. Years ago I found a Dutch research paper, which summarized the detrimental impact Neonics have on aquatic species. I have been trying to re-find it, but cant....this Japanese research is similar:

How the world’s most widely used insecticide led to a fishery collapse (nationalgeographic.com)

Fills me with despair....this is the DDT of our age.

Rachel Carson, wonder what you would make of us (49 years on)?

The BBC comes to UWNR!

This really did happen. In mid-October 2020 Rebecca Rooney of BBC Farming Today called me to discuss creating a program about UWNR. I thought it was my mate Mike, running another hoax…surely it had to be a set up. But no, it was for real. So in late October, Rebecca came to UWNR (twice) to interview this stellar cast:

• Annie - is one of the wonderful young people who does the John Muir Award…these young people are at the heart of the project.

• Matt - Mr Honey Bee man…dedicated, knowledgeable & passionate about this under pressure species. A proper revolutionary.

• Gareth - he is Wiltshire’s very own Chris Packham….he knows everything about everything. His vast knowledge underpins almost everything I do at UWNR.

• Hugo - a lepidopterist with vast experience, accrued over decades. Hugo moth traps at UWNR each year.

• Harry - has worked with me at UWNR for many years and inspired by these experiences, is now studying Ecology and Conservation Management at Aberystwyth University. The future.

• Volunteers - Patrick, Steve and Laurie…these guys do the hands on graft and help me nudge habitats into optimum shape. Without them UWNR would not perform as it does….

• A very special raptor.

• And me.

The program will be broadcast on Saturday 2nd January at 06.30 on BBC Radio 4. After that available on BBC Sounds. And UWNR takes up the whole program!

And look the new sky table is working - the resident buzzards scavenging:

Merry Christmas and 2x snippets....

First Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2021….gotta be better surely?????

Snippet One:

Each November, I prepare the barn owl barn for the onset of winter weather knowing that heavy rain, high winds, dense fog, sleet and snow all pose huge challenges for the resident barn owls. These conditions make outdoor hunting close to impossible for this raptor. They detect their prey from the sound a small mammal makes as it moves through grassland vegetation. Rain, high winds, heavy fog etc. dampens the sounds emitted. Starvation is a common cause of death for this species in winter months.

The barn prepared with fresh straw hay scattered about, and feed hoppers cleaned and refilled, I then deployed the camera trap. Sure enough the pattern I have observed each year recurred - each night when outdoor conditions made hunting impossible, a pair of owls were detected using their barn. I had seen on numerous occasions the barn owls flying directly from their box to their barn - without deviation!

This year though an interesting twist…

This was the best image taken, but after verification (thanks as ever to Gareth Harris) it is a tawny owl not a barn owl. WOW! So the barn is now supporting two nocturnal raptors….both under pressure in lowland England. Closer attention will be given to images from now on….I wonder how frequently the tawny is using the barn?

Snippet Two:

For many years I have put meat, bones and carcasses out on the land. There is sound research evidence to show that meat discards and rotting mammals have hugely beneficial effects, for a range of fauna. They (rotting mammals) are after all, a key feature of wild ecosystems - think wilderness areas of sub-Saharan Africa or the Americas. I have records of many different species feeding on the discards - robin, buzzard, jay, blackbird, crow, badger…..

Inspired by Derek Gow, last week I built & deployed this sky table. Avian species now have a chance to forage without mammals interrupting. I will post pics of who visits in due course….

Lots about Dormice and bits about others....

Each year I write a piece for the Wiltshire Mammal Group (part of the UK Mammal Society) newsletter. This is my 2020 contribution.

The mammal highlight of 2020 was finding Dormice at UWNR again – but this time with an interesting & exciting twist. 

Historically, nests and live animals had been confirmed in mixed scrub on the most western edge of UWNR. This part of the land leads into a broad & deep stream valley, that is almost impenetrable with hazel, bramble, holly, blackthorn and hawthorn. No surprise then that Dormice have been consistently confirmed in this area. Ecologists Lisa and Gareth retrieved the lively male in the picture, from a tube in this location, in May 2020. This is the 3rd year in a row that we have either found nests, or have seen live Dormice, in this very defined location.

Lisa and Gareth came back to UWNR in October and we carried out another careful sweep of the land inspecting the tubes and boxes. This time we found a nest (see pic below), right on the eastern edge of the land. Huge excitement….as the habitat develops, maybe they are spreading deeper into the land. Of course, it could be that they were already in this location – undetected.

Each winter I conservation lay sections of hedge and the results are astonishing. (I only ever lay 20 meters at a time. Bats use hedges and trees as waypoints when navigating, laying too much hedge risks detrimentally altering their night flight-scape). Within a year or two of conservation laying the hedges grow to become, tall, broad & impenetrably dense. I notice that they produce much more blossom in summer and fruit in late summer, early autumn. The hedge in the picture this year contains hazel nuts, blackberries, sloes & rose hips. This habitat is likely to be attractive to a range of species, including Dormice.

I additionally let the ground-level margins grow, so vegetation feathers out from the base of the hedge into the adjoining ride or path. These margins are burgeoning with dense grasses and thistles.

 Lastly – last year I wrote about the effectiveness of the barn owl barn over the autumn & winter months. This season it is again in use, on nights when the barn owls are unable to hunt outdoors. I was at UWNR recently on a foul night of high winds and heavy rain - I watched the barn owls leave their box and fly directly into their barn, via the small back door. I assume they stayed there for the night, hunting in dry conditions.

Autumn 2020 notes....

Working with ecologists Lisa and Gareth, we recently completed our last Dormouse survey of the season. As noted previously, we had for the first time this year, visual confirmation that this charismatic indicator species is alive and well at UWNR. So it was hugely exciting to find another nest, but this time in a different location - deeper into the land, on its eastern edge. To date Dormice have been recorded only on the western flank of the reserve. It could be the case that they have always been widely distributed, or it could be as the habitat changes & develops they are spreading. After 6 years all the hedges at UWNR have taken on a profile that is likely to attract Dormice (and a range of other fauna). They are dense, broad, rough & ragged - dominated by hazel, blackthorn, bramble, hawthorn, hedge-maple, honeysuckle and wild rose. I have created wide rough hedge margins at ground level - thistle, nettle, course grasses predominate. And this year the hedges are full of food - invertebrates, rosehips, sloe berries, blackberries & hazel nuts. (A far cry from the over-flayed skeletons, which cover too much of our land).

I love they way they construct their nests - stripped grass woven to create a wrap round bundle.

The save the Badger strategy appears to be working. They have discovered all 6 feed stations and now clean out the peanuts in short order. I have noticed latrines & diggings for worms near the bait stations. This activity had always been situated in the south western area of the land - close to neighbouring cattle farms. The Badgers are moving north and east each night and away from trouble. In fact, one walked past me recently on its way to the baited feed stations. Tim (good friend of UWNR) is helping replenish these - thank you….

This path is more and more beaten with each visit I make…..I imagine them trundling along with purpose to the next feed station.

Late last week a Snipe blasted out of the deep, wet sedge & soft rush marsh to the east of the lake - arrowing left and right. These new arrivals have become a feature of each autumn season. This rough upkept wetland habitat is all too uncommon in lowland England now. As a result Snipe numbers have plummeted, 62% of their number vanished just between 1982 and 2002. UWNR a finger in the dyke for this species??

Field Fares have arrived.

As is the case each autumn Hornets are everywhere. Probing, searching, hunting. I have been scattering sacks of windfall apples across the land and often find one of these magnificent creatures gorging, its bum poking out of an apple. For me they are the most charismatic insect of all - there is an unnerving intelligence about them.

I guess we had the right balance of hot summer temperatures and timely rainfall to produce a bumper crop of Ivy. (Why the hell do people cut Ivy down with with such vigor - STOP)! The Ivy at UWNR this season is covered with solitary bees, Hornets, Honeybees and Wasps. All plundering the last nectar before the winter grips. The noise from this industry really is something.

Last week I set up the Barn Owl barn for coming bad weather. Hoppers filled with layers mash and some fresh hay scattered about on the floor. Soon enough small mammals will venture into the barn, to be predated by the white owls of UWNR. I set up their new (Hartmoor) field for winter hunting - perches are now in place. It is amazing even after just one summer how thick, tufted grasses are a feature of this field and it is now a myriad of field vole runs. A key prey species for many predators.

OK this bit has little to do with autumn but much to do with us - Homo Sapiens. On page 33 of the journal British Wildlife, Amy-Jane Beer writes, ‘Trespass is not a crime. But the government is currently consulting on a manifesto pledge to make it so’. Recently very close to home, we came across this (on SSI designated land);

So what is this? An early test of the manifesto pledge? A 21st Century version of the Enclosures overseen by Natural England? The elites grabbing more land for their exclusive use? Natural England is headed up by Tony Juniper….ex Friends of the Earth. What happened to him I wonder?

This really matters...I think.

I have often wondered if the subject of Climate Change overly influences how people interpret what matters, in the Anthropocene. Has the degrading of our biosphere been reduced to a single cause, in the eyes of too many? To what extent do environmental pressure groups, charities and the popular media overly focus on one single issue (Climate Change), when other issues are as important, or perhaps even more important? Why might this be? Is it because Climate Change is perceived as the greatest threat to humanity?

Michael Moore & Jeff Gibbs have made a controversial documentary (The Planet of the Humans), which looks at the underbelly of the Climate Change industry, related charities, lobby groups & related policies. I would implore a viewing of this provocative movie….

About 10-15 years ago I came across the concept of looking at the health of our planet, through the lense of multiple boundaries. Each time I read about these boundaries, the author was clear - that breaching any one of these boundaries is significantly detrimental to our biosphere. Why aren’t these issues presented to us, in their entirety and complexity? Limiting the presentation of these has consequences. About 15 years ago Jules Pretty coined the phrase ‘Environmental Literacy’. His assertion - if we don’t know about our natural world (planet), then we can’t properly care for it. High literacy gives rise to deep & comprehensive care. Do we lack both?

This is a typical list of global environmental boundaries:

• Loss of Biodiversity - as David Attenborough spoke about recently, 1 million species on our planet face extinction and the rate of this extinction is possibly 100 times higher than normal / background. From my experience at UWNR the bulk of Ecologists consider this to be the hot button issue - for example; predictions are that Adders could be extinct in the UK within a decade.

• NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium) over use has given rise to the development of things like oceanic dead zones. Many scientists consider this boundary to be the most critical.

• Climate Change

• Land use and related habitat loss

• Fresh Water scarcity

• Ocean acidification

• Chemical Pollution

The film got me thinking…..