Volunteer Newsletter - April 2024

VolunteerNews

The latest news and highlights for the Volunteers of Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust

International Dawn Chorus Day Walk

Taking place on the first Sunday of May, International Dawn Chorus Day is the worldwide celebration of nature's greatest symphony. All across the world people rise early to revel in the sweet sound of birdsong.

On the 5th May you can join us in Rutland for our International Dawn Chorus Walk Take in the early morning sounds and listen to the bird calls as they defend their territories and attract mates.

Starting at the Volunteer Training Centre the walk will be guided by our bird experts who will point out bird calls and find the best spots on the reserve to enjoy the chorus as it crescendos over the morning If we are lucky, we may hear the call of the nightingale. The walk ends with a continental breakfast.

We also have another Dawn Chorus Walk taking place the following week on the 12th May To book onto either the event please visit the events page on our website https://www lrwt org uk/events

Wild About Our Reserves Appeal

You raised over £40,000 for our Nature Reserves! Spectacular! We’re sure nature and wildlife will love you for this! This will enable us to carry out some much needed improvements to our reserves.

Our extremely generous match funder has agreed to donate the full £100,000!

That means that with your donations, we now have £140,000 for our Nature Reserves across Leicestershire and Rutland.

Thank you so much to everyone who has donated Keep watch to see what this will help us to achieve

Nightingale singing - Chris Gomersall/2020VISION

Volunteer Training Centre

Did you know you can hire the Volunteer Training Centre? It is the perfect venue for your next business meeting.

Located at the internationally famous Rutland Water Nature Reserve, our Volunteer Training Centre is an idyllic place to meet with colleagues, inspire your team or gather members of your community group.

Just 2 miles from Oakham’s train and bus stations, the Volunteer Training Centre is within easy reach of public transport and is just a short drive from the A1, A47 and A606. Our car park has space for up to 40 cars (4 spaces are reserved for blue badge holders).

There are 2 rooms to hire within the VTC The downstairs training room is our largest meeting space, seating up to 40 people (theatre style) This multifunctional space could accommodate workshops, larger meetings or seminars, training sessions or talks.

The upstairs lagoon room can accommodate up to 20 people boardroom style and boasts a stunning view overlooking the reserve ’ s lagoon 4 Complete with a three seater-sofa, two armchairs and coffee table this room is ideal for smaller groups wishing to meet in a more informal setting or make the most of the extra special view to inspire your team.

Audio visual equipment, laptop and laser pointer, lectern and flip charts are all available on request. Free Wi-Fi is available throughout the building.

To find out more please go to

https://www.lrwt.org.uk/VTC-room-bookings

We also have other ways in which businesses can get involved and we are always keen to talk with corporate partners who share our passion and commitment to creating a wilder future. By working together we can develop shared goals and values, enhancing your brand image and helping you reach new audiences We can help motivate and engage your staff, encouraging team-building and giving you more productive employees

Read more, and view our business partnership brochure at https://www.lrwt.org.uk/corporate

Volunteer Training Centre

Osprey Cruise

One of the most exciting ways of seeing Ospreys at Rutland Water is to take a guided trip with members of the Osprey project team aboard the Rutland Belle.

We sail to parts of the reservoir where we stand the best chance of seeing fishing Ospreys and with a bit of luck are rewarded with spectacular views On many occasions we have enjoyed breathtaking views of the birds diving for fish, making it a trip to remember. Even on those occasions when Ospreys prove elusive, there is always a good range of the reservoir’s other wildlife on view including Little Egret, Great Crested Grebe, Red Kite, Buzzard, Common Tern and occasionally Barn Owls and Grey Wagtails

You will be joined on the cruise by a member of the Rutland Osprey Project team, who will be your guide for the trip, walking you through the exciting success story that is the Rutland Osprey Project and answering any questions you may have

To book your Osprey cruise please visit the events page of our website

https://www.lrwt.org.uk/osprey-cruises

Courses

Are you interested in learning a new skill?

From now until the autumn we are running both Dry Stone Walling for Beginners and Botanical Art Courses Both courses run for two days and offer a fantastic opportunity to get hands on and learn something new.

Our Dry Stone Walling course will give you the basic principles of the craft of stone wall building or repair and give you an understanding of the construction of a field wall

Our Botanical Art Course is suitable for both beginners and improvers. Attendees will learn about the art of botanical painting and the science behind this fine detailed technique.

The full details, including how to book, can be found on our website:

https://www.lrwt.org.uk/events

Fishing Osprey - Peter Cairns/2020VISION

Reserve spotlight

Have you been watching our reserve spotlights?

Each month we do a new spotlight on a different reserve and publish a video on our YouTube page. If you are interested in finding out more about our many reserves then do take a look at them: https://www.youtube.com/user/lrwt56

This month we took a trip down to see Tilton Cutting Nature Reserve Tilton Cutting is a little slice of ancient history! A real-life Jurassic world, this reserve is managed as much for its geology as for its wildlife, 200 million years of history can be seen in the exposed rock layers.

Our reserve officer for Tilton Cutting shares his thoughts:

“Having only been involved with Tilton Cutting for a short while, I have not yet been able to get a full grasp of what makes it so special, but the times I have visited I’m always surprised how quiet it is, down in the cutting you could be in a different century Water running from the neighbouring land and the overhanging trees provide perfect conditions for various ferns. Hart's-tongue and scaly male fern are two species that first grab your attention. The latter preferring the floor of the cutting while hart’s-tongue tend to cling onto the sides

Like most wooded areas, springtime can be a particularly attractive and refreshing time to visit due to the reserve still being wet after the winter and the pale green leaves of the trees emerging. Bird song at this time can be wonderful and it is possible you could encounter marsh and coal tits, willow warblers, chiff-chaffs and thrushes

The fossils you are most likely to encounter are brachiopods. As you walk down the access ramp, just before you reach the cutting there are rocks on your right with layers of these sea dwelling hinged bivalves. Due to its geological interest, Tilton Cutting was given SSSI status and hammering of the rock faces is not permitted ”

It was created in the 1870’s for the railway from Melton Mowbray to Market Harborough and ceased taking passengers in 1965. It is now a peaceful area for Wildlife and is managed for both its wildlife and geological interest

Remember if you are visiting the reserve Leave Nothing But Footsteps. Tilton Cutting is a SSSI and hammering of the rock faces, or removal of any material including fossils is not permitted.

Tilton Cutting

Volunteers at Tilton Cutting

Willow coppicing and weaving

Willow coppicing and weaving

Cloud Wood

David Maltby and the volunteering team

In a comparatively unknown part of Leicestershire, criss-crossed by winding lanes and surrounded in summer by the haze of golden arable fields, lies one of the most reclusive of reserves. This hidden place has always been forested, from the final snow encrusted days of the last ice age, to the heat of today's rising temperatures The quiet gloom of its history under swaying trees has resulted in a nearly unique flora developing gradually which has in turn been medieval deer park, a working coppice wood ringing to the sound of timber extraction and finally wartime "national need" resulted in this ancient semi-natural woodland changing into what we find there today This reserve has recently seen off the threat of HS2, although the neighbouring multi million pound quarry operation continues twenty four hours a day. In spite of man's questionable industrial and commercial activities, through natural evolution and its geological situation on carboniferous limestone, there is now in Cloud Wood an exceptional flora of a type scarce in lowland Britain

As in all nature reserves, this unique heritage must be managed or else its flora will deteriorate. Since it became a reserve in 1993 a group of hard working and enthusiastic people have endeavoured to redress the neglect of the past and now, by focusing on the demands of today - by welcoming visitors, enhancing the nature conservation interest as well as its use for education and research, they are addressing the wood's management needs in a balanced way. Ride mowing, coppicing, glade creation, fencing, surveying, bat and nest box erecting are amongst important activities, as is volunteer biscuit eating, all of which take place in their appropriate season

However, the management of reserves, like any viable developing body, needs to change. Constant change is an accepted feature of life today and this is certainly happening in Cloud A significant proportion of the reserve is composed of ash trees and the expectation is that the effects of ash die back on the reserve will be dire. Rather than sit back and do nothing, LRWT has begun to fell the ash in places that pose a danger to visitors. This programme will be helped by replanting with more native species such as oak and small leaved lime The current Trust appeal will support this programme to the tune of £3000

CLOUD WOOD VOLUNTEERS

Removing the branches

Clearning the branches

WOOD VOLUNTEERS

Current improvements in government grant aid for farming environmental schemes has this year seen an increasing interest in hedgelaying For many years we have been supplying hedge layers throughout the Midlands and East Anglia with stakes and binders from the arisings in the management coppice programme and so LRWT will continue to pick up a financial benefit to the tune of about £2000 a year.

So everyone who has an interest in Cloud and LRWT, from the CEO downwards to the humblest volunteer, is ensuring that we are responding to the challenges the future will undoubtedly bring in a forward looking and positive way.

Night Thoughts of an Oak Tree: For

J.R.R.Tolkien by Richard Bonfield

I am the sarsen stag

Tossing my antlers

In the wind washed forest

I am Saint Francis

Preaching to The Parliament of Birds.

I am circles within circles

Each year is a ring

On my wooden fingers...

I am a clothes horse

For all kinds of weather

An acorn thrown into the lake of time

I provide shade for my own enlightenment

In winter

I am the pearly king

Covered as I am

In buds of starlight

In summer

I wear the crown of the mistletoe vine

I am the oldest wood

In the oldest wood

Since my birth

I have sheltered Druids

Canterbury Pilgrims

And flower children

Kings have hidden in my gilded tines

Afraid only of adze and lightning

Ships, cathedrals

And the chain saw's whine.

I take the long view

The years flicker by My leaves take a sip of rainwater wine

I may put down roots here

I may put down roots

But let's not be hasty

All in good time

All in wood time

CLOUD

Removing the branches

Sarah Bedford - Senior Reserves Officer - East

Holwell Wood - the story

One frosty Friday morning in mid-November, I was on site at Holwell Nature Reserve to take delivery of the materials that would soon become the new Holwell Wood. This was not the sort of parcel you could ask the delivery driver to leave with a neighbour and of course, I was desperate to see that “package” finally arrive: the first tangible sign of months of planning, liaising and formfilling, so that the empty field at Holwell Nature Reserve could take on a new life, as Holwell Wood.

The fields, purchased in 2019, were earmarked to become new woodland to create a biodiverse woodland corridor connecting our nature reserve with existing woodland on neighbouring land. Making that happen is not as simple as ordering a few saplings and sticking them in the ground. After soil surveys and site meetings, minor delays for global pandemics and headaches from Excel spreadsheets and mapping software, by the summer of 2023 we had eventually reached a plan to put over 13,000 trees on the 6.2ha site.

Despite knowing that the order for the trees and their associated paraphernalia was arriving in one go, it was still a bit of a shock to see it all in one place that morning Pallet after pallet of tree defenders, towers of wooden stakes and bags of trees and mulch mats arrived on a long, low trailer being pulled by an enormous tractor. It felt like a feat just getting the items to the right postcode but in fact the challenges had only just begun The trees now needed to make their way up the hill, from Holwell Lane to the planting site.

A small tractor with forks to lift the pallets was seemingly perfect for the job, but just a few minutes into the task it was sliding back down the hill towards the road because the track was too wet and muddy. Cue an emergency call out to LRWT volunteers to ask for help in ferrying all the materials up the hill to the planting site which is situated at the very back of the nature reserve. Our faithful volunteers stepped up, and in a couple of sessions, with the help of a hard working all-terrain vehicle and trailer (and Juliette’s 4x4 driving skills), all of the pallets, bags and crates were painstakingly transported from the bottom of the hill to the top.

Now with everything in place, planting could begin. First came the contractors who planted 10,000 trees over 10 days with a team of just 5 people This was not their first rodeo With a slick system of driving in stakes and with bags of trees strapped to their belts, they glided across the site like a misty winter ballet. They made short work of the majority of the planting and achieved what we set out to do, which was to get the lion’s share of trees in the ground before Christmas

Tree planting season runs from November to March but, ideally, you want to be planting trees in early winter, when the ground is cold, the soil is moist and there is plenty of humidity. This not only means that they will need very little attention once planted, but it is also the start of their dormant period meaning they are not putting all of their energy into making leaves and the roots can concentrate on settling in before the spring.

The contactors headed off to sprinkle their magic on a site somewhere in Oxfordshire, leaving us with around a quarter of the site to left to plant It was time for LRWT’s volunteers to come back and finish the job! Over 15 sessions, the final 3330 trees were planted.

Delivery Day - Sarah Bedford - 17 November

Trustees Planting Day 11th Jan - A Murdock - LtoR - Mat Carter Becky Ash (David Cock Foundation) Ann Tomlinson (LRWT Chair) Sarah Bedford Juliette Colaco-Fournier

Misty tree planting - Juliette Colaco-Fournier - November 2023

Planning the planting of the site and choosing the appropriate species mix was done with support and advice from the Forestry Commission. The woodland design took into consideration our wish to use native species, the soil and topography of the site and the expected resilience of species for a projected climate in the year 2080 The application also stipulated that over 30% of species should be native woody shrubs, to ensure a biodiverse mix of woodland with ecotones throughout. The species that were chosen and the number we planted are listed below:

Populus tremula

Prunus spinosa

Alnus glutinosa

Cornus spp

Acer campestre

Salix caprea

Viburnum opulus

Crataegus monogyna

Ilex aquifolium

Carpinus betulus

Quercus robur

Salix purpurea

Sorbus aucuparia

Pinus sylvestris

Betula pendula

Tilia cordata

Wild privet

The volunteer planting sessions were scheduled and then advertised locally so that the people of Holwell and Melton Mowbray could also join in with the project and begin to take ownership of their new woodland. Community engagement is a vital part of LRWT’s work and this goal was also a requirement from The David Cock Foundation, the organisation responsible for generously donating £53,000 to LRWT for the creation of the new woodland.

So, our regular, trusty band of LRWT volunteers, including the local volunteer group at the nature reserve, found themselves working alongside an array of people who had heard about the planting sessions and wanted to join in. People from Holwell village, four generations of the same family from Ab Kettleby, children from the local kindergarten group, corporate groups from Melton Mowbray, and groups of friends who had heard about it at the pub on a Saturday night, all put on their wellies and picked up spades to help.

In total, 180 people attended 15 tree planting sessions This works out at an average of 18 5 trees planted per person Some individuals who were there week after week will have planted far more and some far less, but the contribution of that combined effort was incredible and there is now a woodland where once there was an empty field.

There will be a future plan for management of the wood, integrated into the nature reserve ’ s overall management plan, that will include annual maintenance of the rides, care of the young trees, removing tree defenders when the time is right and installing infrastructure such as gates and seating

I want to extend a massive thank you to all volunteers, colleagues and trustees for their unwavering enthusiasm and support for this project. A particular thank you to Juliette on behalf of myself and I am sure many of the volunteers who will join me in saying throughout the planting she was an amazing tutor, chauffeur, barista, cheerleader, spokesperson and organiser. Thank you, Juliette!

Holwell Wood is now established, for everyone to enjoy; a valuable natural asset in the Leicestershire landscape I hope in the years to come, many of you will return there, looking for the trees that you planted and reflect with pride that you are a part of that legacy; I know I will.

Stakes and defenders - Juliette Colaco-Fournier - December 2023

Nextdoor Nature has been working with Belgrave Neighbourhood Cooperative Housing Association (BNCHA) since March last year, getting to know the community and understanding how we can help them connect with nature in ways that are meaningful to them. The end of February 2024 saw our very first community gardening session! This is the resulting effort of many partnerships coming together to support people and nature A huge thank you to BNCHA for £500 towards to the project; to Coop Food for a £300 donation towards equipment and seeds; to Men and Women in Sheds (Age UK) for their generous supply of tools and raised beds, to Pat Lower for the tool donation and to all the volunteers who made the first session so productive We constructed a green house, dug out new borders, positioned and levelled standing raised beds, planted sweet peas, and planned for the next session. We were also treated to pizza and chips for lunch, very generously ordered in by the Chair of BNCHA, Jaimini Bharakhada

Wildwater Ponds visited and having measured up, have very generously offered to create a wonderful wildlife pool and a mixed habitat area as part of this project. This is an amazing opportunity to increase biodiversity within the garden.

Watch this space as the garden takes shape over the coming weeks and months Gardening sessions are weekly, every Wednesday 11am to 1pm and everyone is welcome! Come and see what's going on, maybe you ’ ve got some gardening hints and tips you could offer?! The garden is situated at BNCHA head office on Loughborough Road, Leicester, LE4 5LQ If you would like to know more please don’t hesitate to contact Fee Worton, Nextdoor Nature Community Organiser at fworton@lrwt.org.uk.

Fee Worton - Community Organiser

Nextdoor Nature Project

Chris Hill - Reserves Officer

Unless you have been hibernating, you will have noticed the UK has witnessed rainfall of biblical proportions. Indeed, I know one volunteer whose house has been flooded on more than one occasion Our nature reserves in The Soar Valley are often inundated following persistent rain and this is something that makes them what they are and why they are attractive to a wide range of wildlife, not just ducks.

Unfortunately, there is a downside to flooding in that whatever has been thrown, washed or pumped into The Soar, will inevitably find its way onto our nature reserves Plastic bottles, beer cans, crisp packets and old car tyres scattered on the ground resemble a music festival after everyone has departed and that isn’t an image we would like our members to take away with them.

So, in Mid-January, the volunteers descended on Cossington Meadows to begin a massive clear-up Now, we have had many floods over the years and spent many hours picking up other people’s rubbish. But nothing on this scale. Bottles were lodged in the branches of trees and the tips of old nettles were decorated with small strips of plastic. It took two days to remove the majority of litter from Cossington and then we moved onto Mountsorrel and Rothley Marshes and finally Wanlip Meadows. But guess what happened? It rained and rained and it happened all over again. It was so demoralising to see days of hard work ruined by another influx of rubbish. So I made the decision to abandon litter picking until later in the year when the weather (hopefully) improves Finally, I must add our magnificent volunteers removed nearly 200 bin liners of rubbish and I am so grateful for that.

At Cossington, we were coppicing in Mill Wood. Instead of making habitat piles with the arisings, we planted the whips to diversify the habitat in what is presently showing very little sign of natural regeneration.

When the field was reinstated has a large bearing on the speed of self-set seedlings appearing. If the ground is levelled at a time when adjacent trees are dormant, natural regeneration will be very slow As is the case here, so by planting willow stakes will eventually provide protective cover for other shrubs such as hawthorn and blackthorn to establish.

Rubbish washed up by recent flooding

Coppicing at Cossington

Litter picking at Cossington Meadows

Litter picking at Wanlip Meadows

Paul Trevor - Senior Reserve Officer

I would just like to start by saying that after this update I promise to have less excavator content (for a few months at least).

The habitats team have been busy as usual coppicing, managing scrub, cutting reedbeds, hedgelaying, refurbishing the cattle handling facilities, managing livestock (TB tests), tree planting, hide maintenance, along with a whole host of other tasks. A great effort from staff and volunteers.

For a large proportion of the time, whilst the team were out working away in all weathers, I was sat in the nice warm and dry cab of an excavator. Although I do have to say that I certainly didn’t stay clean, as when I did step out of the cab it was very, very muddy.

I was working on quite a list of tasks; installing culverts along the path through the Lyndon ringing area, creating 4 new ponds across the Lyndon reserve, clearing vegetation from the channels in front of Waderscrape hide, extending and creating new ponds near Mallard hide (the area known as Fran’s pond), creating a bee bank near lagoon 6 and working on some drainage ditches and issues around the wet meadow area The exceptional amounts of rainfall over this period made work quite tricky and highlighted new tasks as soon as I’d finished another.

Hopefully the next few months will be a little kinder with the weather, although we certainly don’t want it too dry for the ponds whilst they are establishing.

Legacy pond - after

Lyndon ringing pond

Legacy pond - before

Lyndon ringing pond - before

TRO Elizabeth Jordan at Narborough Bog

Volunteers at Narborough Bog

Sophia meeting with Botanists at Lucas

Sophia Attwood-Clarke - Reserves Officer

Despite the rain trying to flood us out of Narborough Bog, volunteers in the West have worked extremely hard over the last couple of months to remove successional woodland from the reedbed Willow and thorn are trying their darnedest in a fight against the Phragmites. Our team cleared two large central pockets and encroachment from the wooded edge, before slogging to drag the brash off the reed and expertly stack it well within the wood, resulting in the creation of habitat piles which will quickly support flourishing wildlife communities

More recently, we have spent two task days at Lucas Marsh: a small, urban fringe nature reserve adjacent to Brocks Hill Country Park. Without intervention, the Marsh will be invaded by trees and turn into woodland Approximately one quarter of the reedbed was cut We collected and deposited the cut reed on existing brash piles to enhance them as habitat. A large area dominated by willowherb was cut too to control the prevalence of the species. Volunteers have mattocked throughout the Marsh to remove bramble at the roots; denser thickets of which were housing Willow, Ash and Blackthorn, which we coppiced to form a dead hedge between the woodland and the Marsh, complete with a “badger highway” (an opening in the hedge which corresponds with the track from their sett). I met with botanists Uta, Geoffrey and Richard after the work. The opening up of the reserve has generated some excitement and several of you are keen to see how the area evolves over the course of the year.

Volunteers at work at Narborough Bog

Volunteer team at Lucas Marsh

As Kelham Bridge’s “New Scrape” reed cut was so well received by Snipe last year, we returned this winter to do the same again. Armed with brush cutters, three of us made a noisy mess which the team raked up and dragged off the following day in no time at all. Watercress, pond weed and sedge was hand pulled from the pool in front of the Sand Martin wall by wader-wearers, and the ditch running to the scrape was cleared of similar vegetation. The excitement of the pond work got the better of me and I decided to wade out and tackle the island vegetation too. A massive thanks to Garry, David and Andy for donning waders and helping with this, and to the rest of the team for the on-shore support! A deliciously muddy couple of days for the desired outcome, which will hopefully improve the reed bed health and entice wintering waders. In preparation of the Hirundinidae returning, a few of us put our waders on again recently to remove any debris from the Sand Martin wall and to re-sand it Fingers crossed that they would find it a suitable place to nest

In anticipation of increased visitation as the Snowdrops were coming into flower, a day’s work was scheduled at Dimminsdale to do some infrastructure repairs. I had earmarked a few deteriorating steps and rotten posts in the safety fencing around the clifftop during a site safety assessment, most of which our volunteers replaced in the space of several hours.

We owe the scale of our achievements to the generosity of our volunteers. Thank you, you brilliant bunch

Sand Martin wall at Kelham Bridge

Reedbed work at Kelham Bridge

Sand Martin wall at Kelham Bridge

Velvet Shank at Lucas

Marsh

Reedbed work at Kelham Bridge

Fungi hiding in the scrub at Ketton Quarry

Fungi hiding in the scrub at Ketton Quarry Fungi

Juliette Colaço-Fournier - Assistant Reserves Officer

Sensational Scutellinia

A fascinating fungi find

A day spent clearing scrub at Ketton Quarry often involves marvelling at different lichen, badger latrines and sparrowhawks whizzing by and this sunny day in February was no different. A small but determined team focused on pulling up the few scrubby stragglers that had been left from previous scrub removal work parties and, as I was dragging scrub into the tree line, something bright red caught my eye. Looking closer, I could see a bright red fungus, similar but much smaller than scarlet elf cup, growing on the soil in between some rocks Seek, an ID app, suggested common eyelash, Scutellinia scutellata, which seemed possible as the fruiting bodies were surrounded by a black outline.

Luckily, Simon, one of our volunteers, had a hands lens with him and we were able to get a close up of the magnificent fungi From this, we could see that the hairs were much smaller than those that fringe the orange cup of Scutellinia scutellata (hence its common name eyelash cup). We were at a bit of a dead end as my fungi ID book only had information about Scutellinia scutellata but luckily, we have a Tim Sexton. I showed him a few pictures and he offered to look at the spores and in the meantime, gave me a ‘Fungi of Switzerland’ book featured a more expansive selection of Scutellinia. Looking through the book, I thought it could be Scutellenia armatospora, Scutellinia kerguelensis or possibly even Melastiza chateri so I noted down the features of these fungi to take with me when I next went to Ketton.

Fungi hiding in the scrub at Ketton Quarry Trying

On my next visit to the site, with extra sets of eyes and brains (from different volunteers), we had another look at the fungus Absolutely beautiful but still as flummoxing as ever as it didn’t really fit any of the descriptions After marvelling at the tiny red cups a little more, we carefully collected a few fruiting bodies so that Tim could ID it. Once Tim had a look at it under the microscope, the real excitement began …

On first look, the spores suggested Scuttelinia armatospora, which currently has only been recorded 20 times in Britain! However, the ‘roots’ of the hairs were not quite right for this species.

Tim posted some micrographs on some online fungi forums and went back to the sample – this time at 1000x magnification and concluded that it is most probably Scutellinia barlae The size and shape of the mature spores matched, as did the length and width of the Asci (the structure that contains the spores). The paraphyses (the filament between the asci) looked good for the species, as did the shape and length of the ‘eyelashes’. According to the NBN, there are just 9 records of S barlae in Britain (the closest to Ketton being Herefordshire and south of London).

The next week, Sarah and I went to collect more samples, for further analysis and found another extensive patch of the fungus in the adjacent paddock, some on bare soil and some amongst creeping feather moss and other vegetation

I am sure you agree that it is an absolutely spectacular fungus and very exciting to have found such a rare sight for Britain on one of our reserves.

Fungi under the microscope

Scutellinia barlae

Map of Scutellinia barlae records

Scutellinia barlae

Scutellinia barlae under the microscope

Scutellinia barlae

Hello from my new role over at the Lyndon Visitor Centre. For the rest of the season I will be based at Lyndon as Visitor Centre and Events Assistant. After a bit of a scramble to get everything ready, it was with great excitement that on the 4th March we opened the doors to our Lyndon Visitor Centre for the first time this year

And what a start it was. We had been open less than an hour when George Smith spotted an Otter swimming right past the Visitor Centre. Although not the rarest of sights on the reserve at Rutland, it was the first time in the four years she had been here that Laura Brady had seen one! That’s been a bit of a recurring theme in my short time here Almost every day a visitor will come back and tell me about all they have seen out on the reserve. Although I really do love hearing about the amazing wildlife out there, I do get rather envious. I am determined to see a kingfisher before the year is out, so I will keep my eyes peeled and hopefully will spot one soon

The early days of opening were good, and it was nice to welcome everyone back onto the reserve again. However, all the time our eyes couldn’t help but keep glancing at our Osprey nest webcam footage, waiting for the first sign of any movement And for a while not much was happening on the nest front We had a couple of Egyptian Geese who were not particularly happy with the bin lid that had been placed on the nest, specifically to stop them laying eggs on it. We also had a Pied Wagtail that must have thought it had found the Holy Grail of nests for himself

Then, one afternoon, on what was really quite a miserable day weather wise, we caught the sight of an unringed female on the nest. She was only there for just over a minute but it was long enough for George to review the footage and confirm this was our resident female Maya, for what is now the 15th year she has been at Rutland Myself and George raced down to Waderscrape Hide, after the centre had closed for the day, and watched Maya as she sat on the perch just next to the nest. It was a really special moment and we were thrilled to see her back here again.

Matt Scase - Visitor Centre and Events Assistant

View of Rutland Water reservoir out of Teal hide

Matt Scase looking at Maya out off Waderscrape hide

We still hadn’t got over the excitement of Maya’s return when, less than 24 later, 33(11) landed back on the Manton Bay nest. This was the earliest we have ever had both birds together in Rutland, and hopefully set’s us up for a great season. Other Osprey quickly followed, with Rutland regular 25(10) also making an appearance on the Manton Bay nest She was not on it for long and returned to her regular nest site

It’s been great to have the Osprey back and seeing the excitement from visitors when they come has been so nice. It wasn’t just the Osprey who have been popular over here at Lyndon. George, our information officer, has been in high demand with the media and has found himself doing many TV and radio interviews. From sit down interviews at Lyndon, to being the main feature on ITV weather, George has talked about the incredible migration the Osprey, the history of the Osprey at Rutland Water, and likelihood of eggs and chicks this year. It’s been marvellous to see the Trust represented this way and hopefully you have caught Geroge at some point (I’m sure if you pop down to Lyndon he will happily sign an autograph for you now that he is famous).

It's not just the Osprey that are here at Lyndon, we have had so much to see over the last few months To name just a few we have seen Otters, Kingfishers, Great Northern Diver, Mandarin Ducks, Muntjacs, Weasels, and a whole host of garden birds, all from the visitor centre (though as I mentioned earlier not all have been seen by me).

At the end of March we had 13 Osprey back in the Rutland area and with them returning the visitor numbers quickly started to pick up at the centre and we have been really busy. The Easter weekend especially was very busy and it has been great to welcome so many people here and talk to them about the reserve and Ospreys. As I write this we have just seen Maya lay her first egg of the year, happening just before 2pm on Saturday 30th March, so we were able to celebrate our very own Easter egg). Hopefully more eggs will be on the way soon and by the time the next volunteer newsletter comes out we will have welcomed chicks onto the Manton Bay nest. To keep up to date with all that is happening please do follow our social media pages, take a look at the Osprey webcam, and come and give us a visit at Lyndon

George Smith on ITV

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