Nature reserve update

It has been a good year for breeding birds and there have been several pairs of Whitethroats nesting as well as Linnets, Yellowhammers and Chiff Chaff. Conor Mackenzie led a bird-watching walk in early May attended by 10 people. It was a lovely morning, and Conor helped us to recognise birds by their songs and sight. Conor recorded 36 species of birds on the walk (some of which he just heard). My observations were somewhat less but it is good to know that so many species are around. The bird list is at https://ebird.org/checklist/S330857692

In April, we planted 1,000 yellow rattle plants to reduce the vigour of the grass in the ‘Rough Grassland’ area so that wildflowers could establish themselves (see photo). Unfortunately, it didn’t rain for weeks after planting them, so they have all died. We will try to be more successful with yellow rattle seeds in the autumn. We have not done much maintenance recently so as not to disturb the birds when they are nesting. But we will need volunteers again from August to help with maintaining the paths, hedges and scything back the scrub which is encroaching the reptile area and scything the dominant plants in the orchard area. If you would like to learn to scythe to join our team, please contact me.

Jane Kinniburgh