Reserve Opening Times: Wednesday: 10am - 4pm Saturday: 10am - 4pm Sunday: 10am - 4pm Trustees: Richard Fuller - Treasurer - to 3rd July 2014 Penny Smith - Treasurer - from 3rd July 2014 Alan Patchett - Retired 4th March 2014 David Nesham John Brook Graham Barlow Ian Willoughby Jerry Knapp Company Secretary - Peter Murphy Report Editor: Peter Murphy CONTENTS 3 Introduction 7 Monthly Roundup 2014 28 Introduction to the Systematic List of Birds 30 Systematic List of Birds Recorded 79 First and Last Dates for Winter Visitors 2014 80 First and Last Dates for Summer Visitors 2014 81 Nest Box Report 83 Mammals 89 Small Mammal Surveys 91 Harvest Mouse Introduction Programme 92 Amphibians 93 Reptiles 94 Butterflies 103 Butterflies - First/Last Dates 2014 104 Moths 106 Ladybirds 107 The Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) 108 Dragonflies and Damselflies 117 Dragonflies and Damselflies – First/Last Dates 2014 118 Rodley's Pond Life in 2014 129 Fungus Report 131 Survey of Algae in 2014 132 Plan of Reserve 133 Acknowledgements Photographs: Banded Demoiselle by Jamie Illingworth Donacia versicolorea and Small Yellow Underwing by Rob Simpson Emerald Damselfly by Richard Musgrave Fox by Andrew Thompson Southern Hawker Emergence by Liz Walley Water Stick Insect/Water Scorpion and Comma Chrysalis by Jerry Knapp White-letter Hairstreak and Ochsenheimeria taurella by Madge Gibson Back Cover by Madge Gibson and Rob Simpson Front Cover and other photographs by Barbara Murphy 2 Introduction 2014 was the year of three successful major projects on the reserve. We always marvel at the amount of work our band of volunteers achieve but they have excelled themselves this year. In autumn 2013 they started work on the construction of an artificial sand martin bank on the Lagoon. A stormy December and a very wet January and February saw them working in a sea of mud at times but by the end of February the project was completed and all we needed were the sand martins. And they arrived in exceptional numbers, reaching an estimated 500 over the reserve at times in the early part of May. By the middle of May the first holes were being excavated in the nesting bank and by the middle of June around 70 nesting holes were being used. It was a major success story with large numbers of juveniles on the wing in the summer months. Another important project was the continuation of the permeable hard path from the Willow Path Hide to the Reedbed Hide. A prolonged period of wet weather in February had taken its toll on the grass path and some areas had to be cordoned off for the public's safety so a new hard path had become a necessity rather than a luxury. Thanks to a lot of hard graft this task was completed in June. The new path has made walking on here in the winter months much easier and has been particularly welcomed by wheelchair users. The third project this year was the construction of a thatched gazebo on the site of the children's teaching area near the Education Pond. This was completed in December using reed from our own Reedbed for the thatching. Our volunteers' ingenuity shows no limits! This will prove an invaluable asset for school visits but will be very welcome for any visitors caught in a downpour at the otherwise very open eastern end of the reserve. Our first lodger turned up before the work was even finished - a barn owl which roosted in the eaves overnight for the remainder of the month. Yet another exciting project in 2014 was the Harvest Mouse Breeding Programme which culminated in the release of a total of 496 mice behind the Reedbed and by the Duck Marsh. Initial signs are that these have settled in well, nests and juveniles having already been found during subsequent surveys. 3 There were some changes behind the scenes too this year. In March we said goodbye to Trustee/Director Alan Patchett who retired after more than 16 years on the Trust. Alan had been involved with the reserve since the very outset and had a wealth of knowledge about the site. In July we also said goodbye to fellow Trustee/Director Richard Fuller. Richard had been the Trust's Treasurer since its inception on 6th November 1997. Richard has now retired to pursue other interests. In his place we were delighted to welcome Penny Smith as the new Treasurer of the Trust. We again had a full programme of activities at the Reserve this year. On Easter Sunday an Easter Egg Hunt for children organised by Aireborough Rotary Club was well supported and raised valuable funds for Children's Air Ambulance and Martin House as well as for the Reserve. A similar event is planned for 2015. There were the usual Bird Walks on 4th May and 21st September, Bat Nights on 19th July and 9th August, a Small Mammal Survey on 2nd August and during the school summer holidays weekly Moth Trapping Events on Wednesday mornings, all designed to try and interest children in the natural world. We are grateful to the Friends of Rodley Nature Reserve for again organising two excellent fundraising events this year. The Summer Fair, held on Saturday 16th August , was again very well supported and while the weather could have been better it was certainly not as bad as last year. This year the Pie and Peas Event, held on Saturday 18th October, was followed by the annual Fungus Foray and both enjoyed excellent support. Visits to the Fish Pass were held throughout the year on the last Sunday in each month and these continued to attract new visitors to the Reserve. Away from the reserve we again had a stand at the Science Fair in Leeds City Museum on Saturday 15th March. Inevitably there were some disappointments this year. After last year's disaster for the common terns we had hoped the modified nesting rafts would deter the American mink but we hadn't counted on all nine juveniles leaving the rafts and drowning in an exceptionally thick bank of blanket weed. So it's back to the drawing board for 4 2015. Coot and tufted duck numbers were worryingly low and the latter failed to raise any young for the fifth year running. On the positive side, a second pair of kestrels nested for the first time in another barn owl box and the two pairs successfully raised six young - an excellent result considering the national decline of this species. At least one pair of water rails also nested successfully for the third year running and four pairs of gadwall raised 26 young. Kingfishers too had an excellent year, many visitors enjoying their first ever sightings of this beautiful bird. A worrying development this year was the spread of Crassula helmsii - New Zealand Pygmy Weed - an aggressive alien water plant. This was found on three ponds. On the advice of Natural England it was found necessary to drain and dry out the small public dipping pond and two of the Dragonfly Ponds to prevent the spread of the plant. These areas will require a considerable amount of treatment before we can look at restoring them. We are not alone in having this problem as it is widespread on some Yorkshire reserves. The popularity of the reserve as an educational resource continues to grow and we entertained more primary school classes than ever this year - 29 in total. There were also 12 evening visits from uniformed organisations. For the first time this year we ran a drawing competition for primary schools, inviting children to submit a drawing of something that had inspired them during their visit, the winning entry to appear in our 2015 Calendar. The lucky winner was Georgina Munro, aged nine, from Farsley Springbank Junior School. Georgina's beautiful drawing of one of the Dragonfly Ponds is featured for the month of April. In addition to organising fundraising days and entertaining school groups and uniformed organisations, the Friends of Rodley Nature Reserve also look after the manning of the Visitor Centre and their aim is to provide a warm and friendly welcome to all our visitors. The fact that so many of our visitors return again and again is testament to this and we do receive some wonderful feedback from first time visitors. A big thank you to all our volunteers for all their hard work and commitment. A big thank you too to Natural England for all their help 5 and support, to Yorkshire Water plc for giving us the opportunity to create this wonderful reserve for the public and to the many groups who have worked on the reserve this year. Editor 6 Rodley Nature Reserve - Monthly Roundup for 2014 January It was an exceptionally wet month with a series of depressions steaming in from the Atlantic, though there was some respite in the middle part with several very pleasant sunny days. Flooding was a major problem in some parts of the country and while the river ran high throughout the month it never burst its banks. Paths on the reserve were very wet and muddy and a section of the Willow Path had to be fenced off. It turned out to be the second wettest January on record, beaten only by January 1948. With the first real cold snap of the winter still awaited and water logged areas everywhere wildfowl numbers remained low but a movement of pink-footed geese over the reserve between 1st and 12th provided some interest with 100 on 5th, 55 on 10th and 200 on 12th, all flying in a westerly direction.