Category: News

This was a busy month. Our main work on the 7th July was to take the ESCC tractor up to the canoeists access point on North Bank. The entrance of compartment C14 has a small grassy area that we cut, plus we cut a path at the boundary hedge area which had become overgrown with bramble so we could maintain access to the hedge. 

We then continued and cleared the access path right through to C12 and the meadows. This path cutting was not straight forward as several large trees were down along the route blocking the path, these all had to be cleared with a chain saw and hand tools to make the path sufficiently clear to get the tractor to the site. 

Once at the C13 meadow with the Sand Martin bank box, all the bracken to the east end was cut, plus all the other bracken/ bramble areas were also strategically cut but leaving some areas uncut that had good flora. Also, no cutting was carried out along the water edge where we are encouraging marsh plants, only hand removing some unwanted Willow saplings. 

A further meadow to the West in C12 not visible from the car park was also cut. This meadow had been neglected and been taken over by bracken. It is an area that we are now trying to improve by cutting to control the bracken and improve the habitat for flora and wildlife generally. 

Pic – Bracken area at C13 meadow at east end after the first few cuts were taken to get a perimeter path. 

Pic above is the west side of C13 meadow looking East showing some of the cut and uncut areas. 

Plus we retained some stands of bramble and the odd tree for nesting birds etc. 

This meadow still has some bramble problems to control, but the flora is improving to the point that this year we have only cut selected areas of the meadow to allow the flowers to seed and spread. 

On the 21st July we found that strong winds through the week had blown down several trees around the West End Nature Reserve & Whillet’s meadows including some work around the reedbed. 

Other work covered on the 21st July 

We noted a damaged and dead hawthorn tree next to the footpath leading to the hide which was becoming a hazard and this was cleared whilst we were working in the area. 

Over at Whillet’s in the 3rd meadow we cleared the access path through to the old Otter holt, and then cleared some Himalayan Balsam that we found was growing near the river bank in this area. 

Over at the glade area a tree was down. (See below) 

A fallen tree alongside the footpath to the reedbed viewing platform was cut and stacked by volunteers, the final clearance work now just awaiting completion by our Rangers with their chain saws. 

We also cut an access path through the reeds so we could reach the path that leads to an open area where we can access the reedbed Island which we maintain when water levels allow. 

Work on the 28th July – We were back again mowing meadows, this time on the South Bank but nearer the dam end to cut the meadows that are behind the Reedbed within compartment C27 where there are several meadow glade areas among some oak trees. This time we were accessing from along the path past the sailing club building. 

Final pic is of the contractors completed work of removing the dangerous tree on the 29th July. 

The picture above showing just the stump that is left. 

This work not only made the area safe, it should also improve the wildlife viewing particularly for fly over birds and passing raptors now we are not losing birds behind the tree that so many have complained about in the past. 

May included two very wet Tuesday workdays that severely restricted what larger project work we could sensibly ask volunteers to carry out in those conditions. We did find we had a completely flooded road in front of the access gate to Whillet’s on one of those days. We spent some time unblocking the drain of points that feed into the reservoir so the flood water in the road which was quite deep and affecting traffic could drain away. 

May is another month when we are busy with survey work of all types at the western end of the reservoir. This included checking the numerous bird nest boxes, flora surveys, grass snake & small mammal refugia tin survey. Whillet’s also has regular butterfly & dragonfly surveys.  

Our pondlet at the study area had become over vegetated with starwort water weed some had to be suitably raked out to make a little open water. We also controlled the invasive Hemlock Water Dropwort (HWD) from the nearby marsh pool and cut back further HWD and bramble from our common spotted orchid area. We also installed a sonic alarm to reduce fallow deer browsing damage to the orchids. 

We trimmed the hedge tops at all our West End wildlife public viewpoints. 

We carry out survey work over all the reservoir, wildlife surveys and habitat checks were carried out at the main dam end side of the reservoir. At the North Bank side, we surveyed from the dam right up to the picnic area. Where we also carried out hedge cutting and repairs to the vandalised hedge within the picnic area and generally tidied the picnic area and cleared the rubbish.  

Along South Bank we surveyed and cleared access paths all the way from Admirals Wood right down as far as the new Reed-bed area where we surveyed around the reed-bed area itself.

May 26th

A few of us enjoyed an enjoyable walk from the car park all the way to the new reed bed on the south bank today.

It took 2hrs to get there due to stops to trim back bramble, nettle etc encroaching onto the paths plus a few stops for birds, butterflies and damselflies. The return was only around an hour.

Highlights were finding plenty of reeds now getting established with the bonus of two pairs of Reed Warblers and a Reed Bunting nesting there.

We also found a few dragon and damselfly species including Red-eyed Damselfly for the first time this year and Black-tailed Skimmers in several locations.

Below are some images from the day

In April we completed the Willow clearance we started in March in compartment C19 at the Lecomber seat viewpoint with all arisings suitably stacked ready for future disposal. The work was to improve the views from the viewpoint and habitat improvement to encourage more water edge marsh plants.  

We then went on into the nearby compartment C18 to complete some further Willow and Bramble clearance from the water edge (See pic below) for further marsh plant habitat at the water edge, again with all cuttings suitably stacked ready for future disposal.

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Any Canada Geese nests were removed to deter them from nesting. These nests would fail if left as any geese chicks would die as the young cannot get off the rafts to feed, which are specifically designed for Common Tern use.   

In Whillet’s  C9 we removed several Willow trees growing next to the bridge into the back meadow C11 the trees were now leaning towards the bridge and causing access problems for the machinery we need to use for grass cutting and these were suitably felled and again all arisings were stacked ready for future disposal.

All West End: March is our time for managing all the nest boxes and we have well over a 100 that need cleaning and maintenance, renewals etc and then monitoring. We also carry out Refugia tin surveys regularly.   

 Whillet’s Meadows: (C8 to C11) We had several bonfires to clear from previous work when we were managing Blackthorn & Willow overgrowth and fallen trees within the meadows. We also repaired the anti-slip wire mesh on the two access bridges for safety reasons. 

Later month we cleared several unwanted and part fallen Willow trees now growing along the ground from the river line and these were cut and stacked ready for future disposal. We also cleared some access paths and started our breeding bird surveys (BBS).  

We planted some native Snakeshead Fritillary bulbs and purchased materials and built a protective cage to protect them from grazing damage by Fallow Deer which are proving to be a problem to our plantlife within the meadows.  

 

Study Area: (C2 to C4) Further bonfires and some hazel coppicing was carried out in our Study area C2 to C4 where we also repaired a feed pipe leak at our pondlet. 

We cut back some vegetation on C1 Pintail bank to allow better access for our grazing wildfowl and carried out some fence repairs.

Legsheath lane: (C6) We cut and cleared fallen trees that were lying on the reserves boundary fence or infringing the road area.

Hide car park: (C5) We dug out and cleared the Car Park drainage ditches to help reduce the car park flooding and mud problems. We also repaired a broken bench seat at one of the seating areas.     

In C18 & C19 The North Bank public footpath – Lecomber seat view area – We cut and cleared internal access paths to allow us to do survey work & monitor these compartments. At the view area we started to clear Willow from the water edge to maintain open views from the public footpath seat view point and encourage more marsh habitat at the water edge.  Pics before and after at view point