Martin WW

Bird Ringing Demonstration

I can now confirm we will be running a bird ringing demonstration on Sunday 13th June, 10am start. More details on our ‘events page’.

“Wood-pasture and parkland are mosaic habitats valued for their trees, especially veteran and ancient trees , and the plants and animals that they support. Grazing animals are fundamental to the existence of this habitat. Specialised and varied habitats within wood- pasture and parkland provide a home for a wide range of species, many of whichContinue reading “Wood Pasture.”

Sunday peregrination.

A clear blue sky and the first warm Sunday of the year. Reeth was very busy as I drove up to the peace that is the Heggs Castle Cluster for a wander, or a ‘peregrination’ as some would have it. The last couple of days has seen a large arrival of swallows in the dale,Continue reading “Sunday peregrination.”

Plantlife Cowslip Survey completed

24th May: The Plantlife cowslip survey was done on the cluster. They are not particularly abundant but many won’t have been noticed as the flower spikes are nibbled off by grazers and I was only looking for flower spikes. Just over a hundred were found. Some couldn’t be recorded as the flowers were not ‘out’.Continue reading “Plantlife Cowslip Survey completed”

Moth trapping is GO!

Details are here of our mothing event.

Moth Trapping.

We are hoping to run some moth traps over one night of the BioBlitz with the VC65 recorder Dr Charlie Fletcher (that’s the Vice County and ours in number 65 explanation here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice-county). We are in a very under recorded area, not just for moths. I run one now and then in Fremington and haveContinue reading “Moth Trapping.”

Nesting waders, trees and blanket bog.

On part of the area where we are hoping to re-establish trees, both the issue of breeding waders with the associated calcarious grassland, and blanket bog have been flagged up as a possible concern. I was confident that we were not compromising any breeding waders as I did a fairly detailed survey a few yearsContinue reading “Nesting waders, trees and blanket bog.”

Bumbling about

This morning we learned how to survey bumblebees for the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme run by The Bumblebee Conservation Trust https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org. The Cluster survey involves walking a 1km ‘transect’ every week for 6 weeks, which is easy enough. The tricky bit is identifying the species of bumblebee. Luckily we have some very willing volunteers helpingContinue reading “Bumbling about”

Tree tubes be gone.

Yesterday saw an enthusiastic group of National Park volunteers removing about a thousand (?) tree shelters and stakes from one area on the cluster. The old shelters and plastic ties will be recycled by Tubex, who originally manufactured them. Only a few hundred left to do!

Cowslip survey.

https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/discover-wild-plants-nature/cowslip-survey Plantlife are running a cowslip survey to determine the quality of the grassland where they are found. Apparently there are two sorts (morphs) of cowslips and a roughly equal number of both signify healthy grassland. It’s a very easy survey to do with full instructions provided and you record your results on the associatedContinue reading “Cowslip survey.”