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SHAPWICK HEATH National Nature Reserve

Newsletter

SHAPWICK HEATH National Nature Reserve

Newsletter

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 volunteers have also continued their work at the top of Ebbor Gorge NNR, removing scrub and bramble, in an attempt to restore an area of calcareous grassland. An old dew pond has also been restored here and we are hoping to organise some type of grazing regime in the coming months.

Volunteer and Reserve News

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.

Local contractor Whitebeam Tree Services have been involved with much of this tree work as well as busy putting in time on the Ashcott Plot, as part of our long term mire restoration project. This part of the reserve is starting to look really good now with specialist plant communities thriving and large amounts of sphagnum cover. The site is grazed by highland cattle during the

summer, with rougher areas being cut by the Softrak during winter months.

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.

ISSUE: 24 (Jan – Mar 2017)

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SHAPWICK HEATH National Nature Reserve

Newsletter

The work at the top of the Gorge has also involved volunteers from the Mendip Hills AONB, a great example of how the Shapwick team work closely with other organisations. A day was also spent working at Thurlbear quarry with Somerset Wildlife Trust and Butterfly Conservation, doing essential scrub clearance on a site that has been neglected for some time. This is the third year we have helped out, and the site is slowly beginning to improve.

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 oystercatcher. We are also grateful to Bridgwater Bay

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

January - March 2017 has seen regular visits from local school Meare Village Primary. They have been practicing their map, compass-reading and orienteering skills on the reserve, as well as enjoying some den-building and bird-watching in Decoy woods and bird hide. We have also had Monkton Heathfield School and some lads from the Somerset Rural Youth Project join us, to help with some of our winter scrub-clearing work and footpath maintenance.

A major new public event took place in March on our 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

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SHAPWICK HEATH National Nature Reserve

Newsletter

and some cracking views of songbirds such as mistle thrush, song thrush and chiff-chaff.

Up-Coming Public Events For more information and booking please contact julie.merrett@naturalengland.org.uk or call the Natural England office on 01458 860120

Young Wardens The cold winter weather did not stop the Young Wardens from getting out and about - February half-term saw them gather in the woodlands at our Rodney Stoke NNR in the Mendips for a day learning the ancient art of coppicing. Lunch was cooked on the campfire and there may have been a little woodland den-building in the afternoon as well…

March saw them get a personalised tour of WWT Steart Marshes and go animal tracking out on the mudflats and early April will find them creating wildlife habitat on RSPB Ham Wall.

Up-coming Young Wardens Sessions The Young Wardens group is a programme of activities for 12-17 year olds.

For more information about Young Wardens sessions, registration and to book please contact Julie Merrett by email julie.merrett@naturalengland.org.uk or telephone: 01458 860120

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 Forest School for All the Family An afternoon of bug-hunting, den-building & more. Places limited, booking essential. £3 per child.

Friday 2nd June 2pm – 4pm Forest School for All the Family Traditional woodworking making crafts and beads. Places limited, booking essential. £3 per child.

Sunday 4th June 10am-4pm Avalon Marshes Open Day Come and meet staff and volunteers from all the organisations who look after the wonderful collection of National Nature Reserves of the Avalon Marshes. Learn about local wildlife, find out about volunteering, take part in environmental games and activities, join a guided walk down the Sweet Track & see reconstructions of a Roman Villa and Saxon Feasting Hall come alive. FREE drop-in event, no booking necessary.

Tuesday 4th April 10am-3pm RSPB ‘Giving Nature a Home’: Take part in some practical hands-on habitat creation work to benefit a 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

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Pacey Predator By Simon Clarke

“It was early February I was finishing up at the Avalon Marshes, just as dusk fell and the starlings came into roost at the western end of Shapwick. Thousands upon thousands of these birds filled the sky and covered the surrounding trees like instant foliage. The noise from these birds was phenomenal; high pitched chattering mixed with a roar as flocks moved and merged; but then above the murmur I heard it, a ‘kee kee kee’ high above me. I scanned the sky looking for the tell-tale shape, and then there they were, not one, not two but three of them, tussling, silhouetted against the reddening sky; Peregrine”.

I first became fascinated by the Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrines) back in spring 2000 when I’d just begun working as a Coastal Ranger in South Wales. One of the jobs I was given early on that first spring was to walk the beach front and scan the cliffs for Peregrine. This was to help monitor the expanding population in the area that was recovering from 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 itself and shuffled to pick up an offering, or in a change over as incubation duty began. It was here that I really noticed the obvious size difference in adults, the male peregrine being up to 15% smaller than the average female bird.

Six weeks later I’d would find myself counting small balls of fluff, and watching as the nest sites became more obvious, again with large amounts of guano and the remains of bird kills littering the nest site. Small waders, gulls, pigeon; I soon became an expert identifying prey by just a plucked body, a few feathers and a pair of feet!

By three weeks the youngsters would start developing their wing and tail feathers and by four weeks the brown juvenile plumage would appear. By six weeks they’d be ready to go and it would be hard to keep track of the youngsters as they moved across the rock faces. It was then that the teaching would begin, and I understood that the distinct 200mph stoop from a great height is not a peregrines only hunting technique.

One memory really stands out. I was watching a female and two juveniles dog fighting above the beach when suddenly the adult flew out to sea at a rockets pace. After less than a minute I’d lost her, somewhere over the Nash sandbank; and then the pigeon appeared, flat out and in a panic. The female was there, on the pigeon’s tale but not attacking. She slowed down; called and let the juveniles try. The chase then began, the pigeon using all its skill and cunning to use the cliff face to avoid these terrible two right on its tail. Then all of a sudden one of the birds dropped, put on a burst of pace and performed a back flip coming up feet first into the pigeon from below. This female had obviously taught these two well.

I miss the welsh coastline, but I don’t miss these birds. At Shapwick Heath NNR, and on the Mendip hills where I live, I’m lucky to come across these majestic birds almost every day. Those coastal cliff nest sites have been replaced by quarries, electricity pylons and churches, and the diversity of food sources for the peregrine across the wetland reserves is phenomenal. My children get very embarrassed on the walk home from school when dad suddenly stops and looks straight up into the sky. But it’s because I’ve seen or heard them. They call it the ‘jizz’, the word for that distinctive appearance, that instant recognition. For me it’s a broad bodied anchor, pacing through the sky with powerful beats. Why are you looking up dad? “It’s a Peregrine”.

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SHAPWICK HEATH National Nature Reserve

Newsletter

Centre & Visitor news

As promised January has seen the beginning of the 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 Peat Moors Centre to build a reed bed 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.

Part of this large Defra investment is also seeing our bird hides being upgraded, along with significant refurbishment of the craft centre building which is starting to get underway as I write this newsletter. All this while we are keeping the site very much open for business… please continue to visit the gallery even if there is scaffolding up! And Eco-Bites which has just won

another award – South-West Fairtrade Business Awards Silver – Well done Amy Lawson!

Wildlife Highlights

BOOM - record count for our Bittern survey!

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 recorded on Ham Wall, five on Westhay Moor, one on Catcott Lows, one on Westhay Heath (with another two adjacent on Godwin’s land) and one on Greylake.

That makes a grand total for the Levels of 46 Boomers (+2 unconfirmed)! To put that into context - there were 36 Boomers recorded on the March survey last year which makes a substantial increase. Onward and upwards to the April survey.

Over the winter there have also been good populations of wigeon, teal and shoveler across the lakes of the reserve, as well as the occasional pintail, 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 Shapwick Heath National Nature Reserve Facebook page.

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.

And finally… Earlier in the newsletter we ‘ran’ through the success 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

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