Curry Rivel Wildlife Survey Group weekly reports April / May

Emails between members of Curry Rivel Wildlife Survey Group.  ( edited)

I will walk Eastfield each week and report what my untrained eye observes. We're away some of the time in the next few weeks but I shall do my best.

I'm on Nightingale listening!

Paul 

Thanks David and Liz for joining us yesterday.

You can double your bird count, David! I have attached a spreadsheet showing what we saw, when. Catherine, her niece, and I continued on up to the fields above us this morning, and on into the woods on the scarp. We saw some different species, as you might expect. In total, 33 species over the two days.

I will log that on the wildlife map.

It looks like the swallows are properly back now; I saw a group of them on the telephone wires on Dyers Road by the Church Lane junction, where they usually hang out in the summer.

The orchids are on the top part of the road,  about half way along, on the southern side (nearest the village). Yes, spotty leaves, and there are a dozen or more of them. You have to look carefully amongst all the bluebells there. Lots of yellowhammers along that lane too, as usual. And two or three skylark territories. 

Matt

On 14/04/2017 15:15, David German wrote:

Wow,
First one reported ! No spotted leaves though? Was it a single specimen?  Thats the lane up from Dyers Lane?
Our first 2017 CR WSG early morning bird spotting walk went well this morning  Waiting for Matts record of the number heard and seen for most. Expect it was about 15 or so!
Will record the orchid. Wish we had it on Batty Piece or Eastfield.  Maybe too dry for us.
David

On 14 Apr 2017, at 13:31, Paul wrote:

My first Orchid 
On the lane to Woods

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Happy Easter
Paul

Batty Piece 4 acre meadow ( private nature reserve)

As in previous years I try in a very amateurish way to record what is growing on our local meadow. As you would expect plants are growing very fast now after steady rain over the last few weeks. Not enough to end the official drought of course. So as it was raining a little this morning I have only had an hour or so in the field and made a few notes and took a few photos. Here are a few to set the scene.

First shows the fruit on the fairly old Walnut tree on the southern boundary. I assume the picture shows the male flowers in the form of a catkin. I'll look for the female flowers next time.

Here is our first 2012 Yellow Rattle flowering plant.  This plant which first appeared in our field, probably brought in by a tractor,  and spread rapidly since then about 3 or 4 years ago. It has a parasitic relationship with grass and has certainly reduced the growth of the grasses which we hope will encourage more wild flowers

We keep looking for the first sighting of our two native orchids. The Pyramidal and the Bee Orchid. Looking for their leaves amongst all the rest is a hard task. But is this one of them?

The overall impression of the meadow is one of a field of golden yellow. Buttercups ( bulbous usually) are doing very well and are very numerous this year ( thousnds of plants). The same applies to Cowslips which also seem to be more numerous that previously ( but only a few hundred). We even have the Oxslip version. We think!

Our new 200 m hedge with seven native trees is looking very good in its 4th summer. The Blackthorn has finished flowering, the Wayfarer is in full flower, the Dogwood, the Spindle, Privet and Field Maple  are all developing well. Hawthorn is starting to flower.

A week in the life of a Somerset wildlife group

In case you were wondering what we do in our group here are some diary entries for this fairly busy week.

Monday 2nd April.

There were several matters hanging around from last week.
This included arranging to collect from Trust HQ a new first aid pack for Group use at meetings and on visits to reserves. We need more people qualified to provide First Aid cover.
There was a first meeting of a brand new local group based around Frome last week and it would show our support if I sent an email to congratulate them on getting the group started.
Having agreed to call a committee meeting at short notice last week there were some car sharing arrangements to put in place by telephone and this was successfully completed ready for tomorrow evening.
Last week I raised several queries after using the web site run by our parent organisation, the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, I received an acknowledgement that the matter would be followed up soon. A problem had arisen in my registering for membership of its Wildnet system designed to give communication between staff and volunteers across all the county trusts organisation. It appears that this new system which allowed me to register and gain access to a forum mainly intended for staff use should not have been so open. The web master has now locked my registration account! Whilst waiting for a clarification of my application I notice the web site and registration process seems to have been modified and made more secure. Perhaps I did them a favour by showing how easy it was to get entry to the network! I await a further response.
Apart from work for the Trust there is work to be done on our 4 acre private nature reserve field in the coming week to implement our plans to introduce additional wild flower species. All are native English meadow plants some of which are already present but not wide spread. Follow up phone calls had to be made to confirm participation of our volunteer work party. Although private we are members of the SWT Private Nature Reserve Network.

Tuesday 3rd April.
Following on from Mondays comment, as secretary to the Syndicate which owns the 4 acre field I had welcomed a chance to meet a new member. This proved a most interesting chat to talk about how we set up our Syndicate and a summary or our progress so far and also to hear a bit more about the fields history from someone who had lived in the area for a lot longer than me.
I am a little concerned about the need to progress arrangements for a SW Trust meeting of all local area group chairs which happens every 4 months or so and our group is responsible for the organisation of the next one in June. A local village hall has been booked but the agenda needs to be agreed. A draft needs to be circulated for comment and any additional items to be discussed need to be identified.
In the evening we got together for our Group committee meeting with the main business the summer programme of events. The meeting went well and all seem happy with the arrangements with various jobs spread around the committee including refreshments for our Group meeting. Our Diary blog gives details.

Wednesday 4th April
If you have read my post dated 22.03.07 you will know that I had researched the way local trusts provide a wildlife information service for plant or animal identification. I sent a copy of my brief report to the SW Trusts CEO as a courtesy and for his information. Today I received a brief note saying that my comments had been referred to a group carrying out a review of the Trusts web site. I hope they take my somewhat critical comments as constructive observations.
For our private reserve, morning and afternoon sessions on the field, with help from several members of our syndicate, resulted in two small areas being prepared for young wild flower plants grown from seed and some bought in from a specialist nursery. It was necessary to remove a small plug of turf to insert each plant. Some gravel or sharp sand was placed around each one to try to keep slugs at bay. Their survival is not certain and only time will tell.
In between planting sessions two phone call are worth reporting. Firstly a call from the local office of the Environment Agency to reply to my recent request for information on the Parrett Catchment Project. The main news was that the PCP was being wound up at a meeting on 27th April and replaced by a new form of partnership. The aim will continue I assume to attempt to balance the demands of farmers making a living with conservation needs and other development type issues.A contact name in the Somerset County Council was given which I must follow up. Our Group is centred around the levels and moors and is involved indirectly.
The other call resulted in getting agreement on holding a garden party locally with all members, friends and the public invited. A chance to meet members not yet seen at our meetings we hope.Detailed arrangements to be sorted out later. An email has been sent to our local Parish newspaper giving date and time

Thursday 5th April.
Today's activities started by preparing an email to all our local Trust members who are on email which numbers around 80 at present with a further 450 members not contactable this way! It seemed a good time to remind people about the dates of our Group events and visits to local reserves. The next visit is at the invitation of the RSPB with a guided tour of their two nature reserves in Somerset. One has only just opened to the public. One more member has called to ask to join the party which is encouraging. I will need to contact the dozen or so members who have told me they are coming along to confirm arrangements.
Out on our private field planting continued to add a further area of new wild flowers. We are keeping a record of what has been planted so that progress can be monitored. It is noticeable now in early April that plants and grasses are starting to grow in earnest. A rota of Syndicate members has been agreed to keep our new very small plants watered at least for the next few weeks. The weather has become quite warm with plenty of sunshine and a fair drying wind making watering necessary.


Friday 6th April.
Alongside our private 4 acre field is a similar area of grassland which our local council is negotiating to acquire. News from this Thursdays Council meeting is that they have deferred a final decision on the transfer of ownership. They have received a further letter from the owners solicitor raising yet more legal queries still to be resolved.The outcome of this matter will have an impact on our own field and is therefor of considerable concern to our Syndicate.
Further afield some Trust members have today reported disturbing activity by a farmer on the Westmoor Drove near Hambridge. They are asking for information and guidance on what can we do to retrained damaging actions of this kind by farmers? Not having a ready answer to such queries I can only take details to be followed up next week after the Easter break. There are a number of bodies that might be able to confirm the legality of farmers work where it effects the pathways etc across the moors and levels. I have promised to check and call back in a few days.

Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th April.
Two days of beautiful clear blue skies, warm sunshine and almost clear of wildlife issues apart from finding an hour or so to type up this report and time to pay attention to our own garden which gets neglected. Just one other important event to mention. The second stage of the UN IPCC report on Climate Change has just been issued and today's papers are giving it attention but a more measured approach this time. The heat is on Governments now in more ways than one!! This blog gives links to both the UK Met Office and the IPCC for detailed information.

(minor revisions 8th April)

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this Somerset

View along the River Parrett towards Langport


View from Aller Woods across Aller Moor towards West Sedge Moor

Apologies to William Shakespeare but he must have had Somerset in mind when he wrote his play Richard II in 1595.
Now, 18 months after starting our new group and having chosen a name which links us to the Somerset Levels it seems right to stop and look in a bit more detail at the area where we live and how well "we" are managing it for wildlife.

A vast amount of literature exists concerning the Somerset Levels and Moors and there are many government and non government organisations who have an interest in the area. Wildlife sits in the middle of interests ranging from jobs and commerce to housing,transport, sport and pastimes.The area is large and well described by Michael Stirling in an excellent compilation of historical research reviews,comments and illustrations. He introduces his work as follows:

"Looking South from the jagged rampart of the Mendip Hills, some 200 square miles of Somerset are laid before you: gentle expanses of field and water; a lacework of rivers and marshes. Between your eyrie and the distant horizon of the Quantock Hills,this great plain is broken in half by an East-West ridge of wooded meadows and little villages that make up the Polden Hills.
The Northern areas make up the Vale of Avalon; the Southern half, up to the gates of Langport and Taunton are known as Sedgemoor, usually referred to by the locals as The Levels."

One of the many typical documents produced in recent years and available via the web is titled, "The Parrett Catchment. Water Management Strategy Action Plan", Spring 2002 in which Humphrey Temperley, Chairman of the Parrett Catchment Project claims,

" The actions within ( the Plan ) are not just another list of studies instead of work on the ground, they are practical steps forward to dealing with the Parrett Catchment's problems of flooding,conservation interests, communities and the threat of climate change."

The fact that so many reports exist raises the question of who, if anyone, has an overall controlling interest. After some time on the web and reading some of the documents available it seems that the top of the chain is Somerset County Council (SCC).
Their Environment Dept currently lists the Parrett Catchment Project and describes how "local agencies and people came together in 2000 to form the Parrett Catchment Project (PCP), whose aim it is to take action to address the issue of flooding now, rather than storing up problems for the future."

SCC also is responsible through its Countryside Services Dept for two other groups. "LAMP"(Levels and Moors Partnership) and "The Parrett Trail".

A consultancy report dated Sept, 2005, by "Land Use Consultants", identified a number of problems arising from overlapping interests and powers and recommended that a Standing Conference of some 30 organisations should be set up. This does not seem to have happened so responsibility for coordination of the many and presumably sometimes conflicting interests must stay with SCC.

Concerns of other organisations can be illustrated by these brief extracts from their web sites.


The National Trust. A current news item.


Just this week the National Trust has published a report in which Director-General Fiona Reynolds has called on the Government to make the conservation of peat moorlands a climate change priority.

We still have an active peat extraction industry in Somerset.

The story can be read on their web site at:
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-global/w-news/w-news_peat_crisis.htm

"Vital carbon stores at risk

Urgent Government action needed to defuse Britain’s hidden climate change timebomb.
• Peat and carbon
• The crisis
• Taking action
• Government action
National Trust Director-General Fiona Reynolds has called on the Government to make the conservation of peat moorlands a climate change priority. At the same time, she announced a call to action for thousands of volunteers to help save the precious peat resources of the Peak District.

At a briefing outlining the growing threat to the UK’s peatlands, Fiona Reynolds commented:
'The simple message is that we need to give greater priority to conserving our peatlands or risk losing the nation’s largest carbon store'."


The RSPB is very much involved on the Levels as can be seen from their web site at:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/england/southwest/conservation/somerset_moors_levels.asp

RSPB Somerset Levels and Moors Project.

The Somerset Levels and Moors is the largest extensive area of lowland wet grassland remaining in Britain and supports huge flocks of waterfowl in the winter, including internationally important numbers of Bewick's swans, golden plovers, teals and lapwings.
It is also one of the most important breeding areas for lapwings, curlews, redshanks and snipe - wading birds that all require wet grassland. In addition there are important botanical communities and a rich invertebrate fauna. For these reasons much of the area is designated as a Special Protection Area (SPA), Ramsar site and Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA).

The RSPB's Somerset Levels and Moors project complements the work of their two Somerset reserves by developing conservation activities in the wider area, with a dedicated project officer, James Millett. The project focuses on the continued conservation of breeding and wintering birds through advocacy, education, research and monitoring. The project has developed productive working relationships with a wide range of government agencies, non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders."

And the last word should go to the Somerset Wildlife Trust in their appeal made last September concerning a proposal for a tidal exclusion sluice across the River Parrett which could be disastrous for Somerset’s wildlife and environment.

"We are urgently seeking your help in the fight to stop the sluice from becoming a reality by making your views known to the Environment Agency by the Friday 15 September. There is less than a week to make our voices heard.

What’s the issue?

There is growing body of political and officer support for the idea of a sluice on the River Parrett below Bridgwater in the misguided belief that shutting out the tide is the best way to tackle flood risk and also to revitalise Somerset’s waterways.

There is no formal environmental assessment but it is already clear that the sluice would pose a major threat to wildlife. By blocking the natural daily ebb and flow of the tides it would cause major environmental impacts and alter habitats along the whole course of the river.

Migratory fish, other specialised plants and animals and even the teaming flocks of waders and wildfowl that rely on the mudflats of the Parrett Estuary and even Bridgwater Bay could all be badly affected.

In reality there is expert evidence which suggests that there is no need for a barrier of any sort to prevent tidal flooding for the next 30 years. Even then it is a tidal surge barrier - to exclude only extreme tides - which would be likely to be needed."

These are only a few of the concerns being voiced in the interest of protecting wildlife for the future. They demonstrate that there are a great many issues which can have a major impact on wildlife on our doorstep and about which, I for one know, little about.

Wildlife Information Services

The Somerset Wildlife Trust aims to set up a Wildlife Information Service.

Whilst waiting to find out how they intend to do so, it may be worth looking around at other Trusts to see what is happening else where and what is available already for Somerset Members.

A visit to five other Wildlife Trust sites showed significant differences in how this subject is handled.

The National Wildlife Trust Organisation uses what I regard as a somewhat cluttered, old fashioned home page which is not very attractive to view and contains a lot of references but no form of information help line. There is the usual contact us facility which I have used in the past and received an answer.You can see their web site by clicking here.


The Wiltshire Wildlife Trust home page is brighter but still a bit cluttered. There is an FAQ feature under the heading of “The Questions you ask us” which covers a lot of typical subjects. There is also a heading, “Use our Expertise”, which looks promising. There is a contact us facility but no offer of a telephone help line. Here is their web site.


The Dorset Wildlife Trust has a brighter home page and uses interesting good photos to lead you to main pages which are encouraging. There is no mention of a telephone help line or information service. Here is their web site.


The Devon Wildlife Trust uses the same or similar format to the National site and as noted above is in my view a bit dull and uninviting. If you have a question you need to go to “Other Services” then find a sub heading saying “Wildlife Advice Service” and this gives you an FAQ which covers many topics. There is also a link to “Devon Wildlife Consultants” which carries out paid work on ecological surveys etc. However there is no telephone help line and only the usual contact us feature. Here is a link to their web site.


The Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust
To get a view from further a field I looked at this Trust and found a refreshingly bright and inviting home page. Under some attractive photos are link buttons which take you first to an “Advice” page and then to “Wildlife Information” where a friendly welcome is given with the words:

“We can help you to identify plants and animals, find out how to garden for wildlife or answer your general questions about local wildlife and conservation.”
Here is a link to their web page

Of all these Trusts the BBOWT site is my preferred model.


Finally back at the Somerset Wildlife Trust. The home page is along the lines of the National web site as is the Devon site. It has some good feature such as the map showing all the reserves, the volunteering and education pages are well thought out although putting those areas in a separate box seems a bit off putting. It certainly isn’t as easy as just having a button at the top of the home page. However it suffers as do most of the sites looked at by packing too much onto a page and from the point of view of this report, there is little to say welcome in a friendly way and only the formal contact us box. No telephone help line for questions about wildlife. Not even an FAQ. An example of too much information is given by the Contact Us page. Here apart from the main switchboard number your eye is drawn to Donations, News, Events and also a small box for Staff which to my mind deserves a much more prominent display. Here is their web site.

In conclusion it is clear to me that the SWT is correct to have an intention to establish a Wildlife Information Service. There are other Trusts who already have such a service although not all. Out of 6 looked at, only one, BBOWLT, was considered good in achieving this form of service for its members. There is another test I should apply and that is to actually use the links on each web site to see how it performs. That will have to be another post in a week or so.