Over the last couple of months our staff and volunteers have been
out and about on the Ings harvesting the meadows, albeit not in the traditional
sense. Prior to the local farmers taking the hay crop, our team have been using
a seed harvester to gather seeds from the hay meadows across the
site. We’ve staggered this harvest to collect a wide range of grass and
herb species from the reserve as individual species ripen and are ready to be
collected. All of this seed is dried (which has been easy to do this year with
the very dry, hot and sunny weather), and is now ready to be used to enhance
other meadow restoration sites elsewhere in the local area and occasionally
further afield.
It’s great to be able to use our NNR’s in this way – not
only does it help create pockets of species rich grassland which can be used as
stepping stones through the landscape, but it also provides more sustainable
and resilient grassland to withstand seasonal flooding events, and can be used for
grazing animals and agricultural production, as well as creating areas for
people to enjoy. It’s also a great way to raise a little bit of extra money
through donations to help support further conservation efforts in the valley. We’ll
be out and about next week across the county helping to spread the same seed at
the recipient sites - if you’d like some then please feel free to get in
touch.
Recently our great team of staff and volunteers have also been working further afield at Hornsea Mere – a site that we have
helped out at over recent years for various tasks, this time the plan was to help
control Himalayan Balsam around the edge of the Mere. We’ve also been working
hard to control this invasive non-native species throughout the valley, and
with great success. Fortunately, the seeds of balsam are only viable for
a relatively short period (a couple of years), so if we can prevent (or at
least reduce) it seeding for a couple of years, it leads to a marked reduction. However if it is left unchecked, it will completely take over, forming dense
carpets and swamping out the rest of the natural vegetation. Hopefully the
efforts by our team will help the native flora surrounding the Mere. Many
thanks to our team for travelling even further than they normally do, and for
their efforts on the day, despite the heat, brambles and nettles!
Visitors to Bank Island of late will have seen the
diggers and tractors busy working on the site creating an expanded and improved
network of shallow scrapes, pools and areas ready for the creation of new reedbed
habitats. These seasonal shallow scrapes are designed to hold water a bit
longer in the spring, drawing down as the season progresses to reveal fresh mud
and the wealth of insect life that thrives in them. These are then in turn
available to our breeding waders and more importantly their chicks (with their
short bills that cannot probe deep into the mud), and instead pick up insects
on the surface of the damp mud.
Hopefully these new earthworks will prove invaluable in
helping our local Lapwing, Snipe and Redshank populations in the valley, with
the possibility of also attracting other species of passing waders. A couple of
areas of new reedbeds will also hopefully provide suitable conditions for Water
Rails, wintering Bitterns, Spotted Crakes and various warblers and buntings. With
the work nearly finished for this year we just need a drop of rain
sometime to start to filling them up!
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