SHAPWICKNational NatureHEATH Reserve National Nature ReserveNewsletter Newsletter

ISSUE: 24 (Jan – Mar 2017) Volunteer and Reserve News summer, with rougher areas being cut by the Softrak during winter months. If 2017 continues as it has begun, then the NNR team will be having a very busy year… The first weeks of January had staff finishing the annual tree safety surveys across the NNRs. Any trees that are identified as a hazard to the public then have to be dealt with, often involving winching out large windblowns, or felling dead or rotten trees.

The Softrak has also been busy across other areas of the reserve, including cutting rank vegetation along the South Drain, improving habitat in the myrtle fields for our rare argent & sable moth, and cutting part of the little ‘fen’ field adjacent to the .

The Truxor has also been in action, cutting areas of reedbeds, especially noticeable from Heath Hide view.

Staff and contractors aren’t the only ones that have been busy. The team of volunteers that assist the NE wardens have also been kept on their toes, cutting and chipping areas of birch scrub on the edge of the ‘bog myrtle fields’ and using this material to keep the footpaths around Shapwick Heath topped-up. The Local contractor Whitebeam Tree Services have been volunteers have also continued their work at the top involved with much of this tree work as well as busy of NNR, removing scrub and bramble, in putting in time on the Plot, as part of our long an attempt to restore an area of calcareous term mire restoration project. This part of the reserve grassland. An old dew pond has also been restored is starting to look really good now with specialist plant here and we are hoping to organise some type of communities thriving and large amounts of sphagnum grazing regime in the coming months. cover. The site is grazed by highland cattle during the

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SHAPWICK HEATH National Nature Reserve Newsletter

Wildfowlers Association for their help in building and installing four new shelduck nesting boxes on Steart Island, which lies between Burnham-on-Sea and Steart Point. Shelduck nest in old rabbit holes, so the boxes mimic these. Constructed of plywood, they consist of a tunnel and a nesting area, and the whole thing is buried in the sand with just the tunnel visible. Hopefully these will end up occupied by shelduck and not rabbits..!! Education & Events The work at the top of the Gorge has also involved volunteers from the AONB, a great January - March 2017 has seen regular visits from local example of how the Shapwick team work closely with school Meare Village Primary. They have been other organisations. A day was also spent working at practicing their map, compass-reading and Thurlbear quarry with Wildlife Trust and orienteering skills on the reserve, as well as enjoying Butterfly Conservation, doing essential scrub clearance some den-building and bird-watching in Decoy woods on a site that has been neglected for some time. This is and bird hide. We have also had Monkton Heathfield the third year we have helped out, and the site is School and some lads from the Somerset Rural Youth slowly beginning to improve. Project join us, to help with some of our winter scrub- clearing work and footpath maintenance. Anyone who visits the Ashcott end of the reserve, and has taken a stroll down the Discovery Trail, may have noticed some other construction work underway just off the main walkway. This will be a covered seating area looking out across a small lagoon, and will be wheelchair accessible. It has been designed by apprentice Adam Kasik, and will be finished by early summer (no photos until it’s finished!).

At Bay, staff have been strimming islands in the lagoon to make them just perfect for Avocets to nest. They have also been repairing the fence lines that run down across the mudflats, to protect populations of waders that roost and breed here including curlew, whimbrel, dunlin, ringed plover and A major new public event took place in March on our oystercatcher. We are also grateful to Ebbor Gorge Reserve – ‘Relish the Great Outdoors’ running event. This included a fun-run for children, a 5k run around the reserve and a 10k run (twice round the reserve). With its hills and gorges this was quite a challenging course, but the weather was fine and the day seemed to be enjoyed by all!

The end of March also saw the first of our years guided walks with Senior Reserve Manager Simon Clarke taking visitors on a walk across the reserve to see the first of our spring migrant birds. The weather was bright and fine and folks were treated to some views of the first sand martins arriving as well as some fantastic displays from harrier, great white egret and great crested grebe all seemingly feeling the spring. Not to mention the sounds of bitterns booming 2

SHAPWICK HEATH National Nature Reserve Newsletter

and some cracking views of songbirds such as mistle Young Wardens thrush, song thrush and chiff-chaff. The cold winter weather did not stop the Young Wardens from getting out and about - February half- Up-Coming Public Events term saw them gather in the woodlands at our Rodney For more information and booking please contact Stoke NNR in the Mendips for a day learning the [email protected] or call the ancient art of coppicing. Lunch was cooked on the Natural office on 01458 860120 campfire and there may have been a little woodland den-building in the afternoon as well… Monday 3rd April 2pm – 4pm Forest School for All the Family Follow our trail-game along the Sweet Track. Places limited, booking essential. £3 per child. Sunday 23rd April 10am-4pm A Spring Wild Day Out Find out about native butterflies, bees and other pollinators with fun, hands-on games and crafts. Learn how to plant a wildlife-friendly garden, go pond-dipping, take a trailer-ride across the reserve and more. FREE drop-in family event, no booking necessary. Saturday 6th May 2pm – 4pm March saw them get a personalised tour of WWT Forest School for All the Family Steart and go animal tracking out on the An afternoon of bug-hunting, den-building & more. mudflats and early April will find them creating wildlife Places limited, booking essential. £3 per child. habitat on RSPB . Friday 2nd June 2pm – 4pm Forest School for All the Family Traditional woodworking making crafts and beads. Up-coming Young Wardens Sessions Places limited, booking essential. £3 per child. The Young Wardens group is a programme of activities for 12-17 year olds. Sunday 4th June 10am-4pm Avalon Marshes Open Day For more information about Young Wardens sessions, Come and meet staff and volunteers from all the registration and to book please contact Julie Merrett organisations who look after the wonderful collection of by email [email protected] or National Nature Reserves of the Avalon Marshes. Learn telephone: 01458 860120 about local wildlife, find out about volunteering, take th part in environmental games and activities, join a guided Tuesday 4 April 10am-3pm walk down the Sweet Track & see reconstructions of a RSPB ‘Giving Nature a Home’: Take part in some Roman Villa and Saxon Feasting Hall come alive. practical hands-on habitat creation work to benefit a FREE drop-in event, no booking necessary. range of species found on the RSPB’s Avalon Marshes reserve. £5 per Warden. Places limited, booking essential. Tuesday 30th May 10am-3pm Join Somerset Wildlife Trust to discover the Aquatic Wildlife lurking in ditches and lakes across the Avalon Marshes. Many fascinating aquatic creatures lie waiting to be found... £5 per Warden. Places limited, booking essential. Wednesday 26th July 10am-3pm Join members of RoAM (Recorders of the Avalon Marshes) to improve your Wildlife ID on Shapwick Heath NNR looking at a range of wildlife signs and learning how to use identification keys. £5 per Warden. Places limited, booking essential.

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SHAPWICK HEATH National Nature Reserve Newsletter

Pacey Predator By three weeks the youngsters would start developing their wing and tail feathers and by four weeks the By Simon Clarke brown juvenile plumage would appear. By six weeks

they’d be ready to go and it would be hard to keep “It was early February I was finishing up at the Avalon track of the youngsters as they moved across the rock Marshes, just as dusk fell and the starlings came into faces. It was then that the teaching would begin, and I roost at the western end of Shapwick. Thousands upon understood that the distinct 200mph stoop from a thousands of these birds filled the sky and covered the great height is not a peregrines only hunting surrounding trees like instant foliage. The noise from technique. these birds was phenomenal; high pitched chattering mixed with a roar as flocks moved and merged; but One memory really stands out. I was watching a then above the murmur I heard it, a ‘kee kee kee’ high female and two juveniles dog fighting above the beach above me. I scanned the sky looking for the tell-tale when suddenly the adult flew out to sea at a rockets shape, and then there they were, not one, not two but pace. After less than a minute I’d lost her, somewhere three of them, tussling, silhouetted against the over the Nash sandbank; and then the pigeon reddening sky; Peregrine”. appeared, flat out and in a panic. The female was there, on the pigeon’s tale but not attacking. She I first became fascinated by the Peregrine Falcon slowed down; called and let the juveniles try. The (Falco peregrines) back in spring 2000 when I’d just chase then began, the pigeon using all its skill and begun working as a Coastal Ranger in South Wales. cunning to use the cliff face to avoid these terrible two One of the jobs I was given early on that first spring right on its tail. Then all of a sudden one of the birds was to walk the beach front and scan the cliffs for dropped, put on a burst of pace and performed a back Peregrine. This was to help monitor the expanding flip coming up feet first into the pigeon from below. population in the area that was recovering from This female had obviously taught these two well. human persecution and the impact of pesticides such as DDT. I first had to look for the tell-tale signs, not always easy when looking over a 14 mile length of towering limestone cliffs. Quite often the initial signal would be the call as a bird alerted its partner on the cliff. I’d then pick out the regular perches, streaked white with guano and usually located at a safe but vigilant distance of the nest site. Then it was the search for the nest site itself. No large bundle of sticks here; more commonly just a shallow depression, literally scraped on the rocky ledge by the peregrines feet. In this scrape, normally early in April, a typical clutch of 3-4 eggs would be laid. It was always a joy to see glimpses of these small red-black blotched eggs, shaped so not to roll off the cliff, as a sitting bird lifted I miss the welsh coastline, but I don’t miss these birds. itself and shuffled to pick up an offering, or in a change At Shapwick Heath NNR, and on the Mendip hills over as incubation duty began. It was here that I really where I live, I’m lucky to come across these majestic noticed the obvious size difference in adults, the male birds almost every day. Those coastal cliff nest sites peregrine being up to 15% smaller than the average have been replaced by quarries, electricity pylons and female bird. churches, and the diversity of food sources for the peregrine across the reserves is phenomenal. Six weeks later I’d would find myself counting small My children get very embarrassed on the walk home balls of fluff, and watching as the nest sites became from school when dad suddenly stops and looks more obvious, again with large amounts of guano and straight up into the sky. But it’s because I’ve seen or the remains of bird kills littering the nest site. Small heard them. They call it the ‘jizz’, the word for that waders, gulls, pigeon; I soon became an expert distinctive appearance, that instant recognition. For identifying prey by just a plucked body, a few feathers me it’s a broad bodied anchor, pacing through the sky and a pair of feet! with powerful beats. Why are you looking up dad? “It’s a Peregrine”. 4

SHAPWICK HEATH National Nature Reserve Newsletter

Centre & Visitor news Wildlife Highlights

As promised January has seen the beginning of the BOOM - record count for our Bittern survey! new office build get underway. It’s a very exciting and long-awaited development for us, but of course it does have its challenges for us while it is being built. Ground works have seen the north end of the car park being transformed into the site compound, so this gate is now closed to the public. The public toilets have been moved and are now located next to Eco-Bites café. Work has begun in the old Moors Centre to build a system that will be part of dealing with waste water from the new toilets when they are built and this did mean a week of having the entire car park dug up to install the pipe that runs from one end of the site the other. March saw our first Bittern survey of the year. In total 16 confirmed Boomers we recorded on Shapwick with another potential two birds on site.

In detail - there were two birds out on Canada Lake, six birds around The Roughet area (with another potential), five birds around Meare Heath (with another potential) and three birds around 70 Acres.

News from other sites on the Marshes – 21 birds were Part of this large Defra investment recorded on Ham Wall, five on Moor, one on is also seeing our bird hides being Catcott Lows, one on (with another upgraded, along with significant two adjacent on Godwin’s land) and one on Greylake. refurbishment of the craft centre That makes a grand total for the Levels of 46 Boomers building which is starting to get (+2 unconfirmed)! To put that into context - there underway as I write this newsletter. were 36 Boomers recorded on the March survey last All this while we are keeping the year which makes a substantial increase. Onward and site very much open for business… upwards to the April survey. please continue to visit the gallery even if there is scaffolding up! And Over the winter there have also been good Eco-Bites which has just won populations of wigeon, teal and shoveler across the another award – South-West Fairtrade Business lakes of the reserve, as well as the occasional pintail, Awards Silver – Well done Amy Lawson! and lots of great white egrets. In the woods and grasslands there have been good numbers of siskin, redpoll, fieldfare, redwing and overwintering snipe. There have also been surprisingly high numbers of bearded reedlings still being seen in the reedbeds.

Some great footage has been taken by our ‘kestrel- cam’ situated in a bird-box on the South Drain. Barn owls seem to be using it regularly to take their prey - to eat in peace there – resulting in some rather grisly images of starlings being torn apart. These episodes are then followed by a kestrel coming to scavenge the leftovers. Fascinating to observe this ecology in action!

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SHAPWICK HEATH National Nature Reserve Newsletter

To see the footage please look on our Friends of And finally… Shapwick Heath National Nature Reserve Facebook Earlier in the newsletter we ‘ran’ through the success page. of the ‘Relish the Great Outdoors’ running event. Well now we are at it again, so if you missed your chance to take part at Ebbor or want to run of some of those Easter treats then why not take part in this year’s Shapwick Bunny Hop? With a choice of distances this great event goes through both Shapwick Heath and Shapwick Moor Nature reserves. For details contact Shapwickrunners.co.uk or call Teresa on 01458 210107

Recorders of the Avalon Marshes (RoAM) have had some interesting winter sessions, firstly learning about microscopy, to make better use of all the wonderful microscopes that have been donated over the past couple of years, and in March spending a day on Shapwick taking a closer look at myriapods (that’s centipedes, millipedes and woodlice). Some of my highlights of the tiny things that we have found this winter are a red velvet mite (surprisingly common Bright red arachnid), a ‘common eyelash’ fungi growing on cowpats on our mire restorations and some juicy clumps of sphagnum on areas of Canada Farm, where we had not necessarily hoped to find them. Find us on Facebook: Friends of Shapwick Heath NNR www.facebook.com/FOSHNNR/

Shapwick Heath NNR is part of the Avalon Marshes Landscape Partnership www.avalonmarshes.org

Important contacts Natural England: 01458 860120 Hawk and Owl Trust: 01458 433805 RSPB: 01458 860494 Somerset Wildlife Trust: 01823 652400 South West Heritage Trust: 01823 278805

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