First of all a general note from the Warden, Nick Covarr:
May and June this year brought almost constant showers but there’s been very little rain since then. Many of our summer surveys have come to an end with their usual mix of winners and losers, so thank you to everyone who took part in both those and the path clearing. That’s a tough job and one that will reduce significantly over the years as our new ride system comes into action but currently there are a lot of miles to cover to keep us operational.
Soon the habitat management season will start again and we are looking towards another highly ambitious and exciting push to take the reserves on to the next level. To help get us there we have several new recruits. Sam Richardson joins as the new assistant warden, and there are three new interns.
Next, he summarises recent work:
Blean Woods
Blean Work Parties: Path clearing has been the ongoing battle of the summer, fighting the irrepressible growth of the bracken and the brambles.
Culvert Fixes: Blean is a wood of many culverts and old drainage networks which are in need of annual servicing and check-ups. We are developing a plan for the hydrological management of the site but in the meantime, the upkeep of the old crossing points keeps the site accessible. It’s amazing the difference some chestnut posts and a lot of road planings can make!
Fencing: Following the success of the new culvert installation, the Wednesday team of volunteers have replaced a section of the old heathland fence line with some chestnut fence posts sourced from the reserve. The Monday team have also spent the summer replacing old posts around the fence line that had rotted away.
Forwarding timber: A key activity this summer has been transporting our 2015/16 cut firewood from the coppice plots and rides to a pick-up point near the A2. This serves a dual purpose in fundraising for conservation work on the site, while also clearing areas for the incoming stump grinder/mulcher. This will provide permanent open areas for the benefit of ground flora and sun-loving invertebrates such as the heath fritillary.
Bracken bruising: This involves knocking back the extensive bracken growth amongst the rides in the north east of the reserve using the new bracken bruiser. It won’t eradicate bracken from the rides completely, but it’s important that it doesn’t dominate to the point where all other flora is shaded out. The bruiser helps take some of the competitive edge off of the bracken without the need for herbicides.
Blean Surveys
Breeding birds: As usual there have been good results for some species and less good results for others. The big success story of the year has been the nightingales, up to 49 territories this year from 45 last year, making it the best year since 1990. This is a direct result of the coppice work done over the last decade. Song thrush and mistle thrush also had significant increases as did lesser spotted woodpecker, with the latter registering 10 territories over the site this season. Spotted flycatcher also appeared to have had a very good season. Sadly nightjars were down from 4 to 3 churring males, garden warbler from 15 to 8 and marsh tit had a particularly bad year with only one registration on the surveys.
Butterflies: A particularly difficult year for our star species, the heath fritillary, as a very wet June massively hampered their flight season despite a good year for their food plant, cow wheat. Weather in July was better, so we are hoping that later emerging species have fared better in later surveys.
Other Blean News
After what seems like an eternity of spine-jangling trips into the reserve, the new track repairs are complete. A much-needed improvement.
Seasalter
Pennywort: This invasive plant continues to be a huge challenge in the Seasalter waterways but progress has been made and there is less and less of it every year. We have recently had our annual herbicide spray which will be followed up by manual removal of the bits that got missed.
Hay cuts and topping: Our hay fields have recently been cut and the fields are looking their tidiest! Tractors are also in this week to start cutting the vegetation down on the wader fields, the first step to getting them into condition for the 2017 breeding season. As always it is a race to remove invading thistles before they seed into the hay fields.
Surveys: It’s been a very tough year for the breeding waders at Seasalter as they faced significant predation pressures from crows, foxes and mink. We are now looking at appropriate methods of controlling this next year. Passerines showed very similar figures to last year with another good season for reed and sedge warblers, a slight decrease in skylark numbers and an increase in reed bunting.
Dragonflies continue to do well at the site with another year of successfully breeding Norfolk hawkers and the ongoing presence of both common and scarce emerald damselflies.
Repairing the culverts
Laying the new track
Part of the new fence