Axe Vale & District Conservation Society NEWSLETTER No. 76 SPRING & SUMMER AUTUMN & WINTER 2013-2014 AXE VALE & DISTRICT CONSERVATION SOCIETY President: Donald Campbell. Hon. Vice-Presidents: Mr. G.A. Jones; Miss B. Lepper M.B.E.; Mr D. Ord-Smith Officers: Chairman: Mike Lock, Glen Fern, Whitford Road, Musbury, EX13 7AP 01297 551556 Hon. Treasurer: Roger Ash, 37 Springfields, Colyford, EX24 6RE 01297 551314 Hon. Secretary : Lesley Clarke, 78 Scalwell Lane, Seaton, EX12 2DL 01297 20180 Executive Committee: Rob Beard, 10 Western Place, Colyton, EX24 6NS 01297 551551 Neil Croton, Gashay Farm, Hawkchurch, Axminster, EX13 5UU 01297 678139 Martin Drake, Orchid House, Burridge, Axminster, EX13 7DF 01460 220650 Jean Kreiseler, 17 Alleyn Court, West Acres, Seaton, EX12 2JX 01297 24323 Lucy Morton, Cobb Cottage, Whitford Road, Musbury, EX13 7AP 01297 552132 Derek Prince, The Briars, Yawl Hill Lane, Uplyme, DT7 3RP 01297 443793 Doug Rudge 1 Armada Close, Seaton, EX12 2UT 07702 189914 Ann Smith, 18 Burnham Close, Seaton. EX12 2UW 01297 24049 Ian Waite, 38 Durley Road, Seaton, EX12 2HW 01297 20326 Colin Walker, Cissbury, Hillhead, Colyton, EX24 6NJ 01297 551224 AVDCS Website: www.axevaleconservation.org.uk A note from the Chairman Mike Lock As I write this, your Society is spending money on helping to pay for a planning consultant to present the views of a large number of local residents on the development proposals for the Harepath Road area of Seaton. This proposal involves a large number of houses of which some will be ‘affordable’, light industrial units, and playing fields. This proposal was rejected by the Planning Committee of East Devon District Council but the developers have appealed, and have also put in a further planning application which repeats the proposals from the earlier one, with minor modifications. Our objections, which have been submitted to EDDC, are: (1) The development is in excess of Seaton’s housing needs, at least some of which could be filled by the development of the uncontroversial regeneration area beside Tesco. (2) The development encroaches heavily on the Green Wedge that currently separates Seaton and Colyford. (3) The area to be developed is close to the Axe Estuary Wetlands and would affect the corridor that links Holyford Woods and the Wetlands; this corridor is used by several species of bat including the very rare Grey Long-eared Bat whose population in Britain is probably no more than 1000 individuals. Even if the corridor itself is not developed the light pollution from the development could well affect its use by bats. When the Society was founded, one of its main objectives was to discourage inappropriate development, and your Committee feels that spending money in this way is an appropriate use of Society funds. In an article in this newsletter, Martin Drake reports on the meeting of the East Devon District Council’s Planning Committee at which the first application was rejected unanimously by Councillors. However, as he points out, this was a battle won but the war continues − the developers can appeal (and have done), and there is also a provision under which the proposers of a rejected planning application can submit another within a year without an extra fee – which they have done. 1 Since my last message, the Sand Martin bank on the Wetlands has been completed. Sadly no Sand Martins took up residence this year but it is hoped that we may have better luck next year, when young birds, that may have roosted in the holes on their way south, return. Furthermore, by next spring the pool in front of the bank should have been completed which could well be an additional attraction. Our commitment to help the Devon Wildlife Trust with the purchase of an area of the Undercliffs National Nature Reserve below Rousdon has not been required because the Trust’s negotiations to purchase this site have fallen through. Our finances are therefore in an even healthier state than we expected. The Devon Wildlife Trust has been selected to operate the Discovery Centre planned for a site near the Tram terminus. This is an extremely exciting venture that should help to attract more visitors to Seaton and contribute to regeneration of the area. The plans for the centre have been approved, as has the first phase of Lottery funding to DWT. Both your Chairman and President are involved in Committees looking at how the Centre will operate, present itself, and engage and co-operate with other local organisations, including AVDCS and EDDC’s Countryside Service. As usual this number includes reports of excursions, including one led by Ian Waite to Ham Walls and Shapwick – a beautiful sunny day with many species of warbler in full song. Lesley and Peter Clarke tell of a trip to Lundy, also on a bright and sunny day (a bit of a contrast to my visit in May when the island was shrouded in mist and drizzle). Humphrey Sitters has contributed an article on Oystercatchers and how they feed. A pair bred successfully in 2013 on Black Hole Marsh, after trying three times without success in 2012. They can be seen most days on the Estuary. Phil Parr has a note on the Ivy Bee, a relatively recent colonist of this country whose burrows are a feature of sandy banks and cliffs near the sea in the sutumn. Another colonist, Himalayan Balsam, is the subject of a note by myself. Much money and volunteer effort is being spent in trying to eliminate this plant from the Axe catchment. 2 Oystercatchers at night Humphrey Sitters If you take a walk by the Axe Estuary by day at low tide, you can see waders, such as Curlews, Redshanks, Dunlins, Oystercatchers and Black-tailed Godwits, feeding on the mud. They are all feeding on intertidal invertebrates – worms, crabs, molluscs, crustaceans – but mostly they do not compete with one another because they each have a different feeding strategy and a different size bill. But then the tide comes in and they have to stop feeding and gather at a roosting site nearby until the tide ebbs and they can feed again. If you go to the same place at low tide at night, you cannot see the birds, but you can hear them. They appear to be active. But what are they doing? Are they feeding? If so, how successfully are they feeding? And how important is night-feeding to them in fulfilling their daily food requirement? These are questions that fascinated me so much that 20 years ago I decided to investigate them for a doctorate at Oxford University. I carried out my studies on the Exe Estuary, mostly from a scaffolding tower hide built in the middle of a mussel bed near Lympstone. My plan was to study the behaviour of Oystercatchers feeding on mussels by day and night using a video camera with infra- red illumination to record what the birds were doing in darkness. But even before I started my project, I knew that feeding at night was vitally important to Oystercatchers. It is one of the best studied birds in the world. Its daily food requirement has been calculated and given that studies have shown that they only ingest about a half of that by day, the other half must be taken at night. In fact the amount they can eat in a low-tide cycle is limited by the rate at which they can digest food. Like us, they can eat more quickly – about three times faster – than their digestive apparatus can process food. This means that while they are on the mussel-beds, they frequently have to stop feeding to let the food go down. It is also well known that individual Oystercatchers show a strong tendency to specialise on a particular type of prey; there are cockle- 3 feeders, mussel-feeders, worm-feeders, crab-feeders, etc. Among shellfish-feeders individuals have their own particular method of breaking the shell and gaining access to the flesh inside. Therefore some mussel-feeders look for mussels that are themselves feeding and have their shells apart; those birds then stab between the shells and cut the adductor muscle (the muscle that holds the shells together) by biting and then scoop out the flesh. We call those birds ‘stabbers’. I found that by day stabbers locate mussels that are gaping by sight; that is they walk across the mussel bed looking intently at the mussels; then suddenly they plunge their bill into a mussel and in next to no time they are eating the orange-yellow flesh. I found that at night they change to touch-location; they would walk very slowly jabbing their slightly- A Stabber stabbing opened bill in the water until they managed to hit a gaping mussel between the shells. In September, they were less successful at feeding at night, but success at night increased from autumn to winter and by December they fed more successfully at night than by day. I think (but cannot prove) that the reason is that mussels have to filter-feed (gape) longer in winter because the amount of their food in the water declines at that time of year; moreover they feed more at night than by day because it is safer from predators, such as gulls (but not Oystercatchers!). Then there are ‘ventral hammerers’. They detach a mussel from the ground; either by dragging it from the weed or stones to which it is attached, or by cutting the byssal thread (the means of attachment) by biting it. Then they usually take the mussel to a place where the ground is reasonably hard, turn it upside down and hammer a hole in the underside of the mussel (the ventral side) which is the thinnest part of the shell.