November 2022
What do we want from our Area Group?
Our last newsletter was in February 2020 A lot has changed since then. At the time, I’d offered to take over as interim chair of the group to give chance for someone else to come forward; needless to say, that hasn’t happened.
The pandemic has caused other changes. We are no longer able to distribute paper copies of our newsletter with the Lincolnshire Trust magazine So, providing this online version is the best way for us to communicate with you all. But, of course, an online newsletter won’t suit everyone. And many people won’t see our Facebook page either. It has, in other words, become harder to share details of events and programmes with members except through electronic media.
We are still short of volunteers on Committee, particularly for a programme secretary. As a result, we won’t have a series of indoor talks this winter other than our AGM in the spring. And when we ran a few talks last spring, we only got 10 participants for what was a very good talk on climate change It’s been difficult to get things back to how they used to be. But, if we run more talks, will members still turn out? If they do, is it better to have them on a day other than our traditional Friday?
However, we will run our regular and popular open days at Dole Wood and Deeping Lakes; we will also run a series of walks over the summer. Details of all of these are to follow shortly. But if we are to do more than this, then it needs more people with the time and willingness to help organise and run things. I’m still technically an interim chair only (I would like to hand over the reins), Terry Connellan wants to retire as treasurer and we no longer have a catering coordinator to help run the open days. So, there is no shortage of vacancies.
Not surprisingly, our last newsletter said pretty much the same thing. Ultimately, whether we have an Area Group going forward depends on you.
(Vin Fleming)You can contact us by using our Facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lincolnshire-Wildlife-Trust-Bourne-AreaGroup/171779319576810
To find more about the Trust go to:- Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust
Around the Reserves
So, what have we done since the publication of our last newsletter in February 2020? Well, I could try to summarise everything we have done, or just skim off and report the things we have done recently. But, since it has been such a long since ‘we’ produced a ‘newsletter’ there is some logic in starting from new Also, I guess we need to decide what to cover in this column. The Bourne Area Group includes Stamford, the Deepings and Bourne. For an account of how the County was split up into Area Groups take a look at ‘Fifty years of the Bourne Area Group’ on the Trust’s website.
If I was an organised sort of a person I probably could monitor all ten reserves within the Area Group, I’m not, and this doesn’t! However, I shall try to document what has been happening on the reserves local volunteers work on, and any snippets of information on other reserves in ‘our’ area.
The Coronavirus pandemic had a profound effect on the countryside. At various times we were being told to ‘Stay at Home’, or allowed out for an hour a day. Schools closed, no foreign holidays, most people off work. Thousands of people visiting the National Nature Reserves, or National Trust properties, which had to be closed for safety reasons. The paths on all of our reserves were being hammered.
At DEEPING LAKES, even with gates chained shut and notices everywhere we still had hundreds of people visiting – and we had glorious weather to encourage them! Volunteers were told to keep away, so couldn’t even keep an eye on what was going on. This changed one day when three horses damaged a fence and were seen charging around the reserve –this would not have happened if ‘normal checks and repairs’ had been allowed. After that a small number of volunteers were allowed to visit, and to carry out essential work where needed.
Gradually the restrictions were lifted – the ‘Rule of Six’ helped, sometimes we even had two or three ‘bubbles,’ so could do even more. By April 2021 things were getting back to normal, and we now have no restrictions on work parties
Recent work includes clearing hundreds of self-sown willow saplings from a reedbed, and coppicing or pollarding trees around the lake edge. Some of the cut branches will be used when we continue laying the hedge at the toe of the riverbank, either as stakes, or the top binding. Hedge laying will be one of the final winter tasks, and needs to be wrapped up by the end of February to avoid the start of the bird nesting season.
At DOLE WOOD we had the usual tasks of clearing the ditch and pulling up brambles in the coppiced part of the wood. During ‘lock-down’ the paths around the reserve widened out and new paths appeared. Even now some paths are wider than necessary, and there are far too many of them.
The grassy areas of HORBLING LINE and TOFT TUNNEL were cut and cleared during August –September. The paths usually need to be cut every three weeks or so, but due to the increase in visitor pressure they have not needed to be cut so often, ROBERT’S FIELD looked splendid during the summer, with its usual display of butterflies flitting about the wildflowers. Perhaps of the four smaller reserves we look after this was the least affected by an increase in visitors – perhaps due to its somewhat remoteness. A hay cut was taken in August, with about half of both fields being cut.
A moment of normality at Robert’s Field, Marbled White butterfly on Knapweed. Apart from keeping an eye on these reserves there is little to do during the winter
AVIAN FLU arrived at Deeping Lakes at the end of August, a moribund Gannet was spotted on one of the islands, it died the following day. This was followed by a Kittiwake in early September, which also died. At around this time a number of dead Mute Swans were seen. It is still unclear if the death of any of the swans resulted from having the virus. At the time a male swan was harassing other swans, landing on their backs and trying to drown them. This aggressive behaviour is not uncommon, and could easily have led to most of the dead swans. Also, in order to avoid being attacked some birds were staying on land, an easy meal for a fox.
Cranes at Willow Tree Fen
It has been another successful year for cranes at Willow Tree Fen with our resident pair producing two young which successfully fledged.
As many of you know, the Trust ran a volunteer-manned viewpoint through the spring and into late summer which was able to document the success of the birds and to enable people to have, at times, great views of the cranes.
We expected that by now, the cranes would have done what they’ve done in previous years, namely, to leave the site during the winter to join, probably, the wintering flock of cranes on the Nene or Ouse Washes.
They haven’t done that this year. In fact, not only are our family of cranes still about, but they’ve been joined by at least ten others. It now looks like Willow Tree Fen is the focus of a small wintering flock of its own, the birds typically coming in to roost on the site at dusk and leaving to feed on surrounding fields during the day.
It’s also clear that there is a lot of competition now between cranes looking for suitable breeding sites. Perhaps that is why our pair have been reluctant to leave; during the spring and summer there were occasional visits from others cranes with ‘our’ birds having to chase the interlopers away. This strongly suggests that any new wetlands created (perhaps like the Trust’s plans for Bourne North Fen), which are sufficiently disturbance free, will rapidly be colonised by new pairs.
So, there is still a chance to see cranes around Bourne over this winter. The car park / viewpoint at Willow Tree is open during from 9-5 Monday to Friday. And, of course, central to this breeding success has been the closure of the reserve to people, and its re-modelling to remove the central track and re-profile the drains to make the site function as one large wetland rather than as two divided parts.
(V Fleming)
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Our paper newsletters usually consisted of four pages of A4, sometimes with a separate programme of events. The ‘new’ electronic newsletters can have as many pages as ‘we’ choose. We can, of course use colour photographs for the first time, and can include video clips.
We produced three newsletters a year, to be distributed with the ‘Lapwings’ mailing. We could have more (or fewer) newsletters, and could publish them whenever we want.
‘We’ needs to be more than just the current ‘editorial team.’ If you wish to contribute content for the newsletters then our Facebook page is probably the best way.
Banovallum House Manor House Street Horncastle, LN9 5HF info@lincstrust.co.uk
The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust is a registered charity. Charity number:- 218895