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SHAPWICK HEATH Shapwicknational Natureheath Reserve National Nature Reservenewsletter Newsletter SHAPWICK HEATH SHAPWICKNational NatureHEATH Reserve Newsletter National Nature Reserve 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 bog myrtle fields for our rare argent & sable moth, and cutting part of the little ‘fen’ field adjacent to the Sweet Track. The Truxor has also been in action, cutting areas of reedbeds, especially noticeable from Meare 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 Ebbor Gorge NNR, removing scrub and bramble, in putting in time on the Ashcott 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 1 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 Mendip Hills 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 Somerset 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 Bridgwater 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 Bridgwater Bay 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 marsh 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 England 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 Marshes 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 Ham Wall. 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. 3 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”.
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