Autumn 2019 NEWS FROM YOUR LOCAL WILDLIFE TRUST AND FROM AROUND THE UK Roving flocks Meet the charismatic tit family 8 >> Bud-ding Detective >> Life and Death How to identify trees Find out what lives in in winter 18 and on deadwood 26 PROTECTING WILDLIFE FOR THE FUTURE WILDLIFEWILDLIFE TRAVELTRAVEL More than 30 years of supporting nature conservation, ALL our profits are donated to the Wildlife Trusts, raising in excess of £220,000 since 1988. Travel with us and help to protect your local wildlife. 2020/21 destinations include: Botswana, Ethiopia Chile, Colombia, Galapagos, Costa Rica Macedonia, Morocco, Armenia Scilly, Dorset, Devon, Burren France by train relaxed pace Poland Lesvos expert leaders small friendly groups natural history holidays ATOL protected No. 808 No. protected ATOL www.wildlife-travel.co.uk 01954 713575 Give the Gift of Wildlife this Christmas Explore our range of Wild Gifts online athertswildlifetrust.org.uk/shop Christmas Cards Experience Vouchers Wildlife Sponsorships 10 for £5 from £10 £20 Bug Explorer Kits £10 Gift Membership Give the gift that keeps on giving. Treat a loved one to their own T-shirts Identification guides membership of the Trust for a £19 from £3.30 whole year. From just £42. 2 wildlifematters Autumn 2019 Autumn 2019 contents NEWS FROM YOUR LOCAL WILDLIFE TRUST AND FROM AROUND THE UK CONSERVATION 4 Celebrating wildlife Festival of Wildlife and Apple Day highlights 5 Rare bat population found A new population of barbastelle bats discovered near Stevenage 6 A shore thing New shoresearch programme launched for citizen scientists 12 Discover how your local community has been supporting the Trust 16 Find what you can do to help Meet the tits! local wildlife Great tits Learn more about this beautiful bird family © Bob coyle DAYS OUT More on page 8 14 Stocker’s Lake Away from the hustle and bustle of the city lies a wildlife refuge CONSERVATION 22 Nature’s Calendar 18 No Cold Case 26 Deadwood Tim Hill shares his autumn Learn the skill oxf winter Learn more about this and winter wildlife highlights tree identification unexpected wildlife haven HERTS & MIDDLESEX WILDLIFE TRUST Grebe House, St Michael’s Street, Registered Charity No: 239863 St Albans, Herts AL3 4SN More info online Registered in England: 816710 01727 858 901 [email protected] hertswildlifetrust.org.uk All rights reserved. No part may be Discover reproduced without written permission wildlife Editorial Team Josh Kubale from the editor. The publishers do not necessarily identify with or hold and Frieda Rummenhohl Donate 01727 858 901 x 240 themselves responsible for the views [email protected] expressed by contributors, Join an correspondents or [email protected] event advertisers. Membership Alan Cotterell Do 01727 858 901 x 234 Spring 2020 issue Blue tit © Jon [email protected] copy deadline: Hawkins,Surrey 24 January 2020 Hills Photography Design TGDH www.tgdh.co.uk Printed on FSC © Certified Stock Find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram Autumn 2019 wildlifematters 3 Welcome to the Autumn edition of Wildlife Matters. As the days get shorter and colder, there are some wonderful autumn wildlife sights to spot – fungi in the woodlands and flocks of finches and tits out in search of food. The golden-brown leaves of oak, hornbeam and other trees make a spectacular backdrop to a wildlife walk. Although there are still some magnificent wild places As our landscape becomes increasingly fractured, to explore, the picture on the whole for wildlife is not now more than ever we need to start creating a living a pretty one. The State of Nature report, first published landscape – a network of connected habitats where in 2013, has been updated for 2019. Sadly the report wildlife can move and thrive. Our nature reserves are does not make happy reading - it reveals that 35% of important havens for wildlife, but alone they are not English species have declined. Whilst there have been enough. We will continue to work with farmers and some ‘winners’, the alarming news is that 13% of the landowners to help them create spaces for wildlife. species assessed are now threatened with extinction. Now, more than ever, your support for the Trust is Butterflies have been particularly hard hit with vitally important. Thank you for continuing to fight numbers of butterflies down by 23%. for local wildlife. Celebrating wildlife The Trust’s Festival of Wildlife and Apple Day attracted close to 3,000 people this year. Both events are free and family-friendly. They are a celebration food producers, there was plenty to see and do over the of the wildlife we cherish and protect in Hertfordshire and course of the weekend. Middlesex and aim to engage and inspire people. Apple Day, a celebration of all things apple in October, offered The Festival of Wildlife at Panshanger Park was organised in tours of Tewin Orchard, craft stalls, home-made cakes as well as association with Hertfordshire Natural History Society and in fresh apples and apple juice from the orchard. The nature crafts partnership with Tarmac. The July rain certainly didn’t dampen and storytelling marquee hosted a range of children’s activities. the spirits, as welly boots and happy faces dominated the We thank Councillor Ken Crofton for helping to fund landscape. From minibeast safaris, a Chalk Stream Discovery Apple Day with his Locality Budget and all our volunteers Zone and a children’s activity area to local craftspeople and who helped make both events such a great success. ©FRIEDA RUMMENHOHL©FRIEDA Festival of Wildlife 2019 4 wildlifematters Autumn 2019 Rare bat found near Stevenage One of Britain’s largest barbastelle populations found near St Paul’s Walden. The colony of over 90 bats was found as part of the Hertfordshire Barbastelle Project - a research collaboration between Herts and Middlesex Bat Group and Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust. The project aims to learn more about the barbastelle bat which is one of the rarest bat species in the UK with an estimate of around 5,000 Barbastelle © SARAH MILLER specimen. The maternity colony is only the third to be discovered in Hertfordshire. TIM © HILL Tracking, using specialist equipment, helps find maternity roosts. The survey team uses remote detectors to find a concentration of barbastelle activity and commuting routes. Nets are then set up to catch the bats which are fitted with radio tags that lead the researchers to the maternity roost where emerging bats can be counted and surveyed. Very little is known about this species in the UK and this project is directly contributing to records and helping to shed light on their activity in our area. © MULALLEY MULALLEY © Council is taking High Speed 2 at swift Broadwater Lake action for It is with sadness that we have to announce wildlife Swift box on house that High Speed 2 is formally taking possession of Broadwater Lake. Stevenage Borough Council will provide funding to install nesting boxes for swifts The HS2 route crosses the Mid-Colne Valley Special Site of Scientific Interest (SSSI) on a viaduct bisecting the as part of its social housing renovation. Trust’s Broadwater Lake. The nature reserve might be The plan, which will see over 70 boxes installed over a closed for public access for the duration of the viaduct five-year period, forms part of Stevenage’s Biodiversity construction, estimated to be seven years. Action Plan that the Council developed in partnership At the time of printing, we do not know the results with Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust. The plan helps of the independent review that was initiated in August, to ensure that wildlife is considered in new development but we welcome the process. The Trust had objected and renovation works. to the HS2 route since it was first proposed due to the The work will be carried out by construction company impact on the ecology of Broadwater Lake. While we Mulalley who are installing the boxes free of charge. have been unable to stop the scheme, we believe our Swifts have seen a drastic decline in populations – they collective action has helped reduce some of the have decreased by 53% between 1995 and 2016 – which worst impacts of HS2. is mainly due to a loss of suitable nesting places. For up-to-date information, please visit Find out more about these and other stories at hertswildlifetrust.org.uk/broadwaterlake hertswildlifetrust.org.uk/news Autumn 2019 wildlifematters 5 NATIONAL NEWS Shoresearchers: Ulster wildlife Shoresearchers: A shore thing A shoal of citizen scientists across the UK will be learning more about our shorelines than ever before, following the launch of A Year of Success The Wildlife Trusts’ new and improved Shoresearch programme for our seas this summer. n More protection – this May This national citizen science survey trains Now, for the first time, the same methods the Government announced the volunteers to monitor the marine life will be used across the UK, giving us even designation of 41 new Marine around our coasts, gathering valuable better data and ensuring that species Conservation Zones, adding to the data that will help experts monitor our records can be compared between 50 already designated. These will sea life and better understand the effects different regions and changes can form a vital series of underwater habitats which, with the right of pollution and climate change. be monitored. management, will allow nature Surveys focus on the intertidal zone (the The data collected by Shoresearch in the to recover. area of the shore that is covered by water past has already been key to securing n Better information – The Wildlife at high tide, but exposed to the air at low many of our Marine Conservation Zones, Trusts’ new Shoresearch programme tide).