Recently, we posted that due to the help and support over
the last few years via logs, cards, calendars and donations, the Friends of the
Lower Derwent Valley had been able to purchase and install two Sand Martin
nesting banks at Wheldrake Ings and Bank Island. Once installation by John
and his team from Green Future Building, our hard-working team of volunteers carefully
filled all the nesting chambers and tunnels with sand - so that the Sand Martins
could then move in and dig it all back out. We’re delighted to say it’s been
an instant success, within days several individuals were busy excavating the
holes at Bank Island, providing great entertainment for visitors in the adjacent
hide to watch.
At present, up to 24 holes have been excavated, and last
week we were thrilled to find the first pairs are already incubating clutches,
with others busy lining their nests. Several birds have also started to investigate
the Wheldrake bank, hopefully visitors to the pool over the summer will be able
to enjoythe comings and
goings as the colony increases.
This really has been a case of ‘build it and
they will come’ – and in this case in just a couple of weeks. Many thanks to
the Friends for their ongoing support and great work in helping deliver improvements
to the reserve and adjacent area, and to everyone who has supported their work and
our hard-working volunteers. Following on from the immediate success this
year, we are hoping to install two more banks next year, including in
front of the Geoff Smith Hide at North Duffield Carrs, however a lot of funds
need to be raised beforehand. If you would like to help contribute you can do so
via our Go Fund Me page (https://www.gofundme.com/conserving-the-lower-derwent-valley) – thank you.
Over the course of the last two weeks, our fantastic and
enthusiastic team of volunteers have once again been on their travels with us,
this time heading up the River Derwent to a site near Yedingham, north-east of
Malton. The Environment Agency, working with a sympathetic landowner and the
Internal Drainage Board, have been working to ‘naturalise’ the straightened river.
The flood banks have been lowered and breached, allowing a small area of
previously arable land to become part of the floodplain once again with a
series of scrapes, ponds and channels providing a range of habitats. Our task
was to provide a range of wetland plants, sourced around the Lower Derwent Valley
NNR, to help the colonisation of the site, and to provide another refuge for
many of the rare and scarce species present on the reserve.
The team were kept busy
planting a range of species, including Water Dock and Greater Water Parsnip –
the latter being confined to just the LDV and Hornsea Mere a few years
ago. We have since managed to restore this nationally scarce and declining
species to many of its traditional Yorkshire sites, and hopefully this will help
secure it at yet another Yorkshire Derwent location. Many thanks to everyone
involved - another great job by our fantastic team.
At the end of May several of our team had the privilege
of accompanying Jean on her visit to York Minster, to ring and colour-ring the Peregrine
chicks. To reach the chicks the team, lead by Minster staff, made their way up
the 100+ steps inside of one of the towers, before carefully negotiating the
roof top and numerous ledges. Following on from our visit last year where
we ringed four large healthy chicks, on this occasion we were delighted to find another
brood of four healthy chicks. The four chicks were all in really good condition,
and going by the size of the individuals it was thought to be two males and two
females, all roughly four weeks old.
Each chick was BTO ringed and then fitted
with a unique colour-ring, which will allow the local birders and visitors
to the Minster to follow who’s who, as they fledge in the coming weeks,
but also in the longer term as they move out to find breeding sites of their
own. The ringing process went very swiftly, with the chicks soon back in the
nest again, shortly followed by the adults – they’d been keeping a watchful eye
on us from a nearby tower whilst the ringing was being undertaken. Many thanks
to Jean for organising the visit which allows us to monitor these beautiful birds,
and also to the staff from York Minster for allowing access to the nest and
accompanying us up the tower. Fingers crossed all four chicks fledge safely
this year – we had a few false starts and crash landings last year.
During the last two weeks our team of staff and volunteers
have been busy planting reeds at Bank Island, with the aim of creating a reed
bed in the new scrape. This project has been kindly funded by Betty’s and administered
by Two Ridings Community Fund – in total £3900 has been given to the Friends of
the Lower Derwent Valley for reed bed and scrape creation work at the site.
This work, alongside the installation of Sand Martin nesting banks is aiming to
increase the biodiversity and conservation significance of the site, as well as
increasing visitor and public enjoyment. We are also further indebted to the
York Ornithological Club, for a grant for scrape and reed bed creation elsewhere
within the Lower Derwent Valley – hopefully increasing populations of key reed
bed bird species, as well as plants and invertebrates. With thanks to these
kind grants and the hard work of our volunteers and students, we will hopefully
be enjoying some really positive changes over the next few years – many thanks
as always to everyone involved, and to our team for helping to plant some of
the 2500 reeds!
