12/09/18 - Wader ringing

With the dry conditions and dwindling water levels around the reserve over the last month, the ringing team have been able to take advantage of the conditions and the opportunity to catch and ring some passage waders. With little inland wader ringing taking place across the country some of the results from the valley add significant numbers to the national totals and data set. Using wader nets set during the hours of darkness, the team have managed to catch 26 Common Snipe, 17 Green Sandpiper, a single Wood Sandpiper and Little Ringed Plover, as well as 7 Teal and 2 Mallards over the last month. 

The sandpiper totals are particularly noteworthy – 17 Green Sandpipers represents about 25-35% of the annual UK ringing totals, whilst only around 4 or 5 Wood Sandpipers are ringed in the UK each year. Likewise, the annual ringing totals for snipe average around 400, so another 26 from the valley will hopefully add further to our knowledge of these birds and how they use the valley throughout the year. It’s likely that will be it now for wader ringing this year, as the last remaining pools look set to dry up any day now, which will see ‘our’ sandpipers head further south, into Europe and Northern Africa for the winter.

Wood Sandpiper

10/09/18 - Signs, hides, logs

Last week we had another great day working with our ever-growing band of volunteers. After introducing new team member Tim to the group, as well as welcoming back Dave, the team got to work on a range of tasks. First off several of the team put in the new way marker posts between Bank Island/Wheldrake and alongside the riverside path - all part of the visitor improvements works that have been slowly transforming the site this summer and autumn. These posts way mark the routes to different parts of the reserve, including the hides and the distances between them. 

Another group made a few more upgrades to Tower Hide at Wheldrake in preparation for the new interpretation panels, whilst Sandra cut the paths to the Bank Island hides and along the riverside path to the Wheldrake car park. 

As well as all that the team even managed to split another 8 cubic meters of logs to stack away ready for the spring – filling up the space recently freed up in the wood sheds as the orders start to pick up the pace. Many thanks to the team for their great efforts as usual – and to everyone who has ordered recently helping us to refill and keep up with demand through the winter and into next year.

 

25/08/18 - Amey return

Last week we were delighted to welcome back our friends from the York branch of Amey for their annual corporate volunteering trip to the valley. With 12 eager and willing sets of hands, the team, helped out and guided by Nick and Sandra, swiftly got to work helping out the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust deliver an upgrade to the track to both Pool and Swantail Hides at Wheldrake Ings. Around 5 tonnes of stone was moved via the mule and wheelbarrow, along with plenty of shovelling to fill in a missing piece of path, whilst others in the team helped unearth and resurface parts of the existing track. 

This work means that visitors to the site will now have an easier visit to the NNR, without the need to wade through the water and mud to visit the hides in the winter, and follows the first stage of upgrading the riverside track to Tower Hide earlier in the summer. The team even found time to help coppice some of the willows surrounding the track to help keep it from overgrowing quite so quickly. Many thanks to everyone for their efforts during the day - we’re looking forward to next year already. If your company or team are looking for a day out in pleasant surroundings, and fancy doing a bit of conservation work then please get in touch.

20/08/18 - Bugs and butterflies

Whilst working on Skipwith Common NNR we were treated to views of a number of our Shield Bug species – Green, Gorse, Birch and Bronze (all in nymph form). The Green nymphs were out in abundance and recorded in double figures, with just single individuals of the other species. When hatched Shield Bugs pass through several moults (five in total), changing colour and shape, resembling more like the adults at each stage until they reach the final breeding stage. When they are in the early stages, known as ‘instars’ identifying them can test even the most knowledgeable observer! Pictured in the photographs below are Green, Bronze and Gorse.

Recently we also had the pleasure of watching a male Brimstone feeding on lavender in the NNR base garden, shown in the series of photographs below. Brimstones are thought to give rise to the word 'butterfly', originating from the yellow ‘butter’ colour of the males. In comparison, the wings of the female are pale green, and can sometimes almost appear white, meaning that they can occasionally be overlooked amongst the larger ‘whites’. Brimstones are one of the earliest species seen on the wing, often coming out during warm sunny days from early March, especially in sites such as Skipwith Common, where the caterpillar’s food plant (the leaves of Buckthorn and Alder Buckthorn can be found). The individual photographed at the base has been ‘nectaring’ on the Lavender, and roosting amongst the foliage of our Plum and Apple tree - the angular shape and the strong veining of their wings closely resembling leaves and giving them great camouflage. 

As well as the Brimstone, we’ve been enjoying the appearance of some new visitors at the NNR base, and are pleased to report that our wildlife garden appears to have attracted a little colony of Brown Argus butterflies. This small butterfly is characteristic and more typical of southern areas, and chalk and limestone grassland. However, it is also found in a variety of other open habitats and is at the northern edge of its range in Yorkshire. For a long time, it was thought to be dependent on just one plant species – Rockrose (especially in calcareous areas), but it is now also known to use a variety of cranes-bill and stork-bill. Over the last two decades Brown Argus have expanded their range by over 40 miles, moving north more quickly than other species in a possible response to climate change. It’s also been present on Skipwith Common NNR again this year, and we’ve heard of a record from Thorganby as well, so a fantastic year in the valley for this species.

  

15/08/18 - Red Kite release

The wonderful and talented Jean Thorpe has done it again - this time she’s worked her magic on a juvenile Red Kite, which was found downed and hugely underweight - perhaps struggling during its first few days/weeks of independence, to find enough food during the prolonged dry and hot weather. Red Kites are magnificent and graceful birds of prey, and are unmistakable with their reddish-brown body, angled wings and deeply forked tail. They were once confined to fewer than 50 pairs in central Wales, until being re-introduced during the 1990’s to several areas in England and Scotland. Following a release in Yorkshire, at Harewood House, birds have increased in number and range across the county. This year four pairs have been present around the valley during the summer, with at least two pairs producing young.

This individual, having been gently rehydrated and subsequently fed up to gain weight and body condition by Jean, was released at the southern end of the NNR, in an area which has been attracting two or three non-breeding kites recently – indicating a suitable area with good and safe feeding opportunities. Despite the dry conditions, the damper ground of the Ings meadows are still supporting good numbers of accessible frogs and worms as well as the usual prey items Red Kites will take advantage of with their opportunistic nature. It was a real privilege to watch such a beautiful bird take to the air and return to the wild having been on the very edge of starvation – a real success story and another job well done for Jean’s tireless efforts. We’re delighted to be able to work alongside Jean and are so proud of the outstanding work she does.