Issue 24 Spring 201630

The Wildlife Trust Local Group

NEWSLETTER . NEWSLETTER . NEWSLETTER

Winter Indoor Talks We have had some great indoor meetings with a range of very entertaining speakers and extremely encouraging audiences. The topics varied considerably this year dealing with aspects of Wildlife Crime and Biodiversity to mention just a couple of popular subjects.

Summer Outdoor Walks We have a great programme arranged for the summer and we are hoping that our loyal band of attendees keeps coming along as hopefully there will be something for everyone. See details at the end of this Newsletter and in the article on page 3. It will soon be time for swifts to arrive in the UK; 7th May according to the Action For Swifts web site http://actionforswifts.blogspot.co.uk/. For more information see also http://www.swift-conservation.org/Contents.htm. If you have any news, please send articles to the editor at [email protected] for consideration. At the end of the Summer on Saturday 17 September there will be a fundraising walk at , which we hope will be well supported as it is being organised by the “Hollywood or Bust” Charity based at the Woodlands Centre of Hinchingbrooke Hospital. Please contact me if you require further information. Phil Norton Editor Reptile Trip to Northants

Reptiles are very rare in . There are no adders or slow worms (that I know of) and not a lot of grass snakes or lizards.

Hence I have organised a trip to Northants, where we should have more luck. Our guide will be Brian Laney, a local naturalist, and our starting point will be Fineshade Woods visitor centre, near Corby. We will need to make our own way there and try to car share.

The date has been set at Sunday 10 April 2016, meeting at 10.30 am and there will be a charge of £5.00 per person. If the weather forecast is bad, we will need to re-schedule. We have to limit this trip to 20 people maximum on a first come basis.

I have been with Brian before, and have been amazed at his ability to find adders, slow worms and lizards for everyone to see...... but nothing is guaranteed. Brian is an all round naturalist and should be able to find palmate newts and various rare plants, including yellow star of bethlehem, as well as the reptiles.

Please contact me to reserve a place.

George Cottam 01480 450809

Newsletter page 1 Issue 24 Spring 201630

Houghton Meadows – New Warden hay crop is taken in July. Cattle then graze the meadows usually between July and October. John Winterbottom The three unimproved meadows in particular support a variety of wild flowers including In December 2014, I moved back to Houghton Yellow Rattle, Meadow Cranesbill and, perhaps after living away from Cambridgeshire for over the star of the show, Green-winged Orchid. fifteen years, and soon reacquainted myself with the local area, particularly, as spring 2015 arrived, walking many of the footpaths and exploring the nature reserves, both old and new.

A birder first and foremost, my interests had expanded over the years to encompass all strands of natural history and looked intriguing from a botanical point of view, while the insect visitors too seemed to be plentiful. I’d lived for the previous 9 or so years in mid-Wales where I volunteered for the RSPB, leading guided walks at their Lake Vyrnwy Reserve most weekends throughout the The ancient hedgerows provide important year, and also leading tours at Ynys-hir during habitat for mammals, insects and birds including the residency there of BBC’s Springwatch. So woodpeckers, thrushes, tits and finches. volunteering was something I already enjoyed, Dragonflies are much in evidence during the particularly when it involved meeting visitors summer months, often seen near the field edges and introducing them to the local wildlife. and bordering stream, and include five of the hawker species found widely across In April 2015, back now in Cambridgeshire, I Cambridgeshire. volunteered to help run the Dragonfly Centre at , which I did throughout the 2015 “Day to day” activities, if you can call them that, season; I’ll be there again, I hope, most Sundays are supervisory really, at present involving, for during Spring and Summer 2016. Later in 2015, I me, roughly weekly visits to the site and the applied for the post of voluntary warden at the reporting of any problems or other observations. Wildlife Trust’s Houghton Meadows reserve – Site management is by traditional methods, as just 10 minutes walk away from home for me – mentioned above and in addition, making sure and was confirmed as such in October. that hedges and brambles don’t encroach too much into the meadows and ensuring that fences, gates etc. are all maintained to a safe and suitable standard. My predecessor as warden undertook several surveys of plants and insects and I intend to resume these activities this year.

Finally, I believe that several local people helped the previous warden with practical management and surveying tasks and whilst I have a list of their forenames, I’m afraid that’s as far as it goes. So if anyone wants to get involved, please let me know: it won’t be overly time-consuming nor too onerous and you’ll be able to teach me a great deal, I’m sure! The reserve itself is small, approximately 8 hectares (20 acres) in size, and is adjacent to the John Winterbottom Ouse Valley Way long distance footpath as it [email protected] follows the Thicket Path midway between St Ives and Houghton. It’s made up of four small George Cottam meadows and one larger holding flood meadow; At the Wildlife Trust AGM, last October, our three of the smaller meadows adjacent to the President, Baroness Barbara Young, presented Thicket Path are scheduled as a site of special George Cottam with the Richenda Huxley prize scientific interest showing ridges and furrows, a for an outstanding contribution to the Trust. relic of the ploughing practices of the mediaeval Long-time member and the driving force behind period. Traditional management methods are the Huntingdonshire Local Group, George has in used to maintain the grassland, so the meadows recent years acted as Local Groups Co-ordinator are allowed to flower and set seed before the for Cambridgeshire and he is also a warden at .

Newsletter page 2 Issue 24 Spring 201630

Huntingdonshire Local Group – of the finest examples of ancient meadows that can still be found locally and was shaped by the Summer Outdoor Walks medieval agricultural methods of ploughing with We have a packed programme of walks this oxen. spring and summer. Why not come and join us. Please meet at Car Park, To whet your appetite we present short Meadow Lane, Upwood. GR TL 251825. Parking introductions to the sites. We begin the is limited so visitors are encouraged to car programme with the Beautiful Bluebells of share, walk or cycle. For more information th Brampton Wood on the Sundays 17 April please contact Tim on 01480 457795. st (10.30am) and 1 May (10.30am and 2.30pm). George Cottam, volunteer warden and other Meadow is our 3rd visit. members of the Local Group will lead three walks around this beautiful wood. The Huntingdonshire Local Group of the Wildlife Trust invites you to come and experience the delights of a carpet of bluebells in this local ancient woodland.

This will take place a few days before the auction for hay and aftermath grazing which takes place in the George Hotel. The meadow will be at its best and we will have an opportunity to look at the exceptionally diverse The guides will highlight the woodland flora flora, of which as far back as 1586 William including wood anemone, primrose and dogs Camden in his “Britannia” the first ever published mercury; early butterflies such as speckled wood, topographical survey of the whole British Isles, brimstone and orange tip; and we will also listen county-by-county said: for the song of woodland birds. Join us to marvel “It was from these Castle hils, (referring to at the scent, colour and freshness of the bluebells ) where there is a goodly prospect a that encapsulate the essence of a traditional great way off, a man may behold below a English spring. Please meet at Brampton Wood medow which they call Portsholme, environed Car Park, Grafham Road, Brampton. GR TL round about with the river Ouse, the same verie 184698. Park in the Trust car park. For more exceeding large, and of all others that the sunne information please contact George on 01480 ever shone upon most fresh and beautiful, 450809. whereof in the spring time this may be truely said: Our second visit will be to the Upwood Meadows ‘The pleasant spring faire floures doth yeeld; Trust reserve, to experience its Meadow Magic O divers colours, in this field.’ “ nd on Sunday 22 May at 2.30pm. We should also see and hear corn bunting. On the way to the meadow along Bromholme Lane we will also encounter a series of ‘ridge and furrow’ fields deriving from Medieval farming. Meet at 10.30am 12th June in the Brampton Mill car park TL 224707. For more information call Pat Doody 01480392706.

Kevin Doidge, the voluntary warden, and other Our final trip is to the . Staff from the local wildlife experts, will guide us through these project will lead us to some of the developing ancient meadows. A rich variety of flowers habitats and their wildlife. We will be guided by should be seen in the two meadows that have staff of the project to see how far the been largely undisturbed by modern farming developments have come and the wildlife that already abounds there. Meet at 2.30pm on the methods. We hope to see green winged orchids, th mousetail, meadow cranesbill, lady’s bedstraw, 10 July at the Great Fen Information Point on sawort and yellow rattle. Elusive turtle doves the B660 halfway between Holme and Ramsey can sometimes be seen and heard. Kevin St Mary's (GR TL 222876). explains that this National Nature Reserve is one Follow brown road signs to Great Fen.

Newsletter page 3 Issue 24 Spring 201630

Summer Walks St. Neots CAMRA Beer Festival – March 2016 The next CAMRA Beer Festival will be held in the Sunday 10 April Priory Centre in St. Neots on Thursday evening Reptile Trip – Limited to 20. See article on 10th March and afternoons and evenings on Friday Page 1 and Saturday 11th and 12th March 2016. The Wildlife Trust Local Group will again be staffing the glasses stall and collecting donations for the Sunday 17 April (extra date) Wildlife Trust BCN. Brampton Wood Bluebell Walk at 10.30am. Meet at Brampton Wood GR TL 184698 At the last Beer Festival in St. Ives, we raised £673.82 (a new high record). The money was Sunday 1 May included in the donation to BCN Wildlife Trust’s Brampton Wood 2 walks at 10.30am and “Walk in the Woods Fund” to support local 2.30pm. conservation work at Wistow Woods and Pingle Meet at Brampton Wood GR TL 184698 Cutting. Thanks to everyone involved for their fundraising efforts. Sunday 22 May If anyone is interested in helping at the Beer Upwood Meadows 2.30pm, near PE26 2QL Festival, please contact any committee member for

more details. Sunday 12 June Portholme Meadow 10.30am PE28 4NE George Cottam Meet in Brampton Mill Car Park Bridget’s Bursary Sunday 10 July Great Fen 2.30pm. Follow brown road signs to Are you aged between 18 and 30 years old? Great Fen. GR TL 222876. Meet at the Great Fen Do you have an interest and enthusiasm for Information Point Wildlife? Are you prepared to give up a Saturday or Sunday Advance Notice of Winter Talks to learn about an aspect of wildlife, flora and fauna? You may be just the right person. Hemingford Grey Gardeners’ Society are able to st 1 Talk fund the cost of attending training workshops Wednesday 14 September delivered by the Wildlife Trust in , Domestic Wildlife – Nature on your patch Cambridgeshire and . Robert Burton, regular contributor to British Wildlife Magazine Interested? Go to their website: www.wildlifebcn.org and find Wildlife Training Evening talks are held on the second Workshops. Choose a subject, find out about availability of places, and then contact Annie Wednesday in September to March at Waters of Hemingford Grey Gardeners’ Society. Brampton Memorial Centre, Thrapston Road, The Society will provide a cheque to go with your Brampton, PE28 4TB at 7.30pm. Admission: application form. Annie would like to know why £2.50. Children Free Of Charge. you are keen, so send her an email – [email protected] or give her a ring on 01480 Main contacts: 467077. Chair Pat Doody 01480 392706, Training Workshops include identification of Email: [email protected] different insects, botanical subjects such as Events Co-ordinator Introduction to Wildflower Identification, Tim Fryer 01480 457795, Vertebrates covering Birds, Bats ,Dormice, Email: [email protected] Badgers, Otters. If you are a practical person you Logistics Director might like to learn how to Lay a Hedge, make George Cottam 01480 450809, Charcoal or learn about Coppicing. Email: [email protected] Editor Annie looks forward to hearing from you. Phil Norton 01480 382863, Email: [email protected] Hunts Fauna and Flora Hunts Fauna and Flora also have a comprehensive Please find us on Facebook: programme of Winter Talks and Summer Field Trips. Details can be found on the web site Huntingdonshire Local Group of the Wildlife www.hffs.org.uk Trust BCN

[The views expressed here are solely those of the Wildlife Trust Huntingdonshire Local Group]

The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, The Huntingdonshire Local Group supports the work of Northamptonshire, The Manor House, Broad Street, the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Great Cambourne, CB23 6DH. Northamptonshire. http://www.wildlifebcn.org/ Charity no 1000412

Newsletter page 4