UWNR took another significant leap forward this week when we installed a wild bee hive. The fact that this took place is entirely down to the ground-breaking work of Matt Somerville.
The Freedom Hive in position.
Click on the 'Read More' button and scroll to the bottom of the page to read and see more.....
On Sunday, April 29th working with friends of UWNR, Laura, Elinor and Richard (without his expertise we would have truly struggled), we carried out the first proper bird survey. The jewel in the crown - identifying a Willow Tit!
Click on the 'Read More' button and scroll to the bottom of the page for a full species list...
The pain of losing the Barn Owls (I think both male and female have died) from UWNR has been slightly tempered by the fact that this spring (2018) there is a raptor nesting in one of the large Ash trees. While buzzards are common it is special to have an apex predator using UWNR to raise chicks.
My days at UWNR are typically filled with joy & wonder....yesterday at lunch I watched the resident fox stalking through the rough grassland to the north of the barn, and early this morning, with mist streaming skyward from the lake, a female mallard duck busily constructing her nest for her seasonal brood. That sensibility was blasted sideways, when this mid-morning, I found one of the beautiful, ghostly, mesmerizing Barn Owls dead. It almost certainly died of starvation - this hard winter depressing the field vole population and successive snow storms making hunting impossible.
Of all the fauna at UWNR it was this creature that properly took my breath away each time I observed it qaurtering its field. It is gone, along with too many others, in this harsh cruel winter of 2018. I wonder how many years UWNR will have to wait before it is graced by another white Owl. What sadness. What loss. What empty-ness.
After a few days of decent winter seasonal graft the bug glade is with us!
When Marc Arbuckle, the Wiltshire County entomology recorder, visited UWNR he suggested that we create a bug glade in the midst of the woodland. It is about 1/4 acre in size, south facing and is sheltered to the north, east and west. Stone slabs have been distributed across the glade. When Marc comes to do his survey, it is underneath these that we will find small creaturely treasures.
The final bit of clearing work - Jack, one of the amazing young people from Seeds4Success, helped with this work.
Slabs in place....
Last Saturday, January 20th 2018, the amazing, hard working and tough young people from Seeds 4 Success did more valuable work at the reserve. Along the eastern boundary they cut back the hedge (mainly hawthorn), to enable fresh spring growth and ensure plant vigor. They cut in 20 meter intervals, leaving every other 20 meter section fallow. This rotational cutting pattern is good practice, ensuring wintering fauna is left untouched in sections of the hedgerow.
Much of the day was foul - wet, windy and cold. The young people worked through theses conditions and put in a full day - my hunch, most people would have thrown in the towel early on. Amazing all of them!
Please click on the tab below and scroll to the bottom of the page...read about our most recent work, working with the wonderful young people from Seeds 4 Success....
'What is an animal? Its a rolling conversation with the land from which it comes and of which it consists. What is a human? Its a rolling conversation with the land from which it comes and of which it consists - but a more stifled, stuttering conversation than that of most (I think all rather than most) wild animals'
Ref; 'Being a Beast' page 20.
Yesterday morning in the gloom of 07.30, and with the remnants of Storm Caroline raging around UWNR, I waked through the barn and gazed westward. Through squinted eyes I could just about make something out, and it appeared to be sitting on one of the hunting perches, which are situated throughout the barn owl field. No surely not? But maybe! I crept and fetched the binoculars and there it was - a large, adult barn owl perched on the cross-bar of the perch, in full hunting mode. More joy, more wonder. I then lost sight of it....I think it had dived for prey? My next sighting was the same bird sitting upright and proud on the balcony of the 5-Star barn owl hotel. After a pause, it turned to face the entrance and then popped in. More joy, more wonder. So more than 2 years on, the UWNR resident barn owls are using the hotel as intended. By this time the day was gathering light and I thought; I can now die happily!
Ive just recently finished The Moth Snowstorm - the best read of the past 12 months, by a substantial margin! Part of my personal canon for certain. Michael McCarthy writes of the joy and wonder of the natural world and I had my own moment of this last week, at UWNR. For 30 minutes, while having lunch, I watched the resident fox prowl and stalk the barn owl fields in search of field voles. Oh what unbridled joy and wonder.
I recently learned that 100,000 foxes are wantonly slaughtered annually in the UK and this is an historical high - they can be considered to be locally extinct. What is wrong with us? Why do we despise this majestic wild dog so? And what the fuck does vermin mean? So 30 minutes of joy, wonder and then sadness.....
This weekend, working with a couple of dedicated UWNR supporters , we seasonally cut the long central hedge, which runs through the spine of the land. Specifically, this is done to create habitat, which is inviting for Dormice. At a general level, this annual winter work is beneficial for the management of the endemic flora & fauna. In sum, it is part of the ongoing & sensitive habitat management across the entire reserve.
This hedge had been neglected for many years and as a result it lacks density, with many plants achieving way too much height. This year, taking advice from the ecologist Gareth Harris (a key champion of the project), I have changed the cutting and pruning rotation. Rather than a 3-year cutting rotation, I have moved to conservation hedge-laying. In practical terms, this is a cutting regime whereby a 20 meter section is laid, and then the next 20 meters is left fallow. This pattern is then repeated for the length of the hedge. The fallow strips will be cut in subsequent years. By adopting this approach a pool of invertebrates, which have either laid eggs or who are hibernating, are left unharmed.
A section of conservation laid hedge.
Please click on this link & scroll to the bottom of the page to read about what we have achieved so far....
Click on this and scroll down the Education and Engagement Page, until you get to the note headed John Muir Award.....this is really great news and moves this aspect of the work at UWNR to another level.
Is there such a thing and if so I wonder if this is an example?
Click on the 'Please Read More' tab and scroll down the page until you get to the heading Eco-mimicry.
At the end of last week Marc Arbuckle, who is the Wiltshire county recorder for Coleoptera, in other words an expert on terrestrial invertebrates, visited UWNR. It was amazing being with Marc, walking the land and looking down, under rocks, under rotting logs into a world of minutiae.
One of the things that struck Marc, as he observed the UWNR habitat, was the abundance of hornets on the wing. As Marc pointed out these are apex predators, within their prey-predator pyramid, and an indicator species of habitat health.
Outcomes of Marc's visit (1) create a sunny and dry woodland glade and (2) next spring begin surveying.
Please check out Marc's very informative blog.....
One of Marc's exquisite drawings....this is a Longhorn Beetle, Rutpela maculata.
Today at UWNR, I saw 2 Grass Snakes within a few minutes of each other, both basking beneath sheets of silver, galvanized corrugated iron. This is very exciting and shows the resident population is more than a single individual.
At the beginning of summer, with the help of young people from Seeds4Success, we placed approx 20 sheets of silver, galvanized corrugated iron around the land. The bulk of the sheets were placed near the lake and all facing south, to increase levels of solar gain.
Today had started cool with heavy persistent rain. This cleared around 12.00 noon leaving partly cloudy skies and humid temperatures, in the low 20's degrees C. It was in these conditions I found both snakes basking beneath the warming iron sheets.
1 snake was perhaps 12 inches in length and 1 was closer to 18 inches.
Just back from UWNR (June 4th, 2017) and spotted a large grass snake swimming in the lake. While in the grander scheme of things this is not unusual (grass snakes are very good swimmers), this is an exciting first for UWNR!
Last week my friend Simon and I installed these bat boxes. 9 in total so 3 boxes in 3 different trees spread across the reserve. Each location was carefully selected - a veteran tree, alongside an established ride (likely to be used by bats as a thoroughfare), facing south - south west, in a position to receive dappled sunlight and at a height of approx 4 meters.
Gary Powell, Head of Reserves for Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (https://www.arc-trust.org), spent a good few hours at UWNR today, on the back of the adder sighting in early April. He gave me some good advice to manipulate the habitat to increase suitability for this species - cutting sunbathing mini-glades to enable the adders to sunbath.
During his walk around the reserve we came across this wonder - so newly hatched it couldn't fly...a Four Spotted Chaser.
As a follow to Gary's visit the day after saw many Four Spotted Chasers emerging and drying themselves in the bright warm sunshine. Hopefully not too many were predated by birds and we see this species in abundance hunting around the lake at UWRN.
Each time I come to UWNR I walk the land - I don't always follow the same route but generally I skirt the boundaries - this enables me to observe changes in flora and fauna. Today I walked the land, at about 13.30, in blazing spring sun and very light winds - the temperature on the gauge was reading 18 degrees C.
As I walked alongside the most sheltered, southerly facing, ancient raised hedgerow, I heard a rustling in the undergrowth. I stopped, stooped and there sleekly moving was a large (probably) female adder. WOW!! About 10 feet further down the hedgerow, to the west, another rustle and disturbance, but this time the probable reptile was too fleeting. The male adder?