SuffolkWildlife News from Suffolk Wildlife Trust
September 2014
Living Landscapes Living Gardens Living Seas
P18 SuffolkWildlife September 2014
News from Suffolk Wildlife
Trust
On the cover Common buzzard Paul Sawer FLPA
Living Landscapes
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Seas Living Gardens Living
STEVE AYLWARD
P16
STEVE AYLWARD
STEVE AYLWARD
P12
DARIN SMITH
P9
HAN CLARE SHEE
SEPTEMBER 2014
YOUR MAGAZINE
SUFFOLK WILDLIFE TRUST
Suffolk Wildlife is published by Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Brooke House, Ashbocking IP6 9JY 01473 890089 info@suffolkwildlifetrust.org www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org SWT cENTRES Bradfield Woods 01449 737996 carlton Marshes 01502 564250 Foxburrow Farm 01394 380113 Knettishall Heath 07717 156601 Lackford Lakes 01284 728706 Redgrave & Lopham Fen 01379 688333 EDITOR Matt Gaw DESIGN & ARTWORK Clare Sheehan ADVERTISING Today Magazines, Framlingham 01728 622030 PRINTING Five Castles Press, Ipswich
PATRON Lord Tollemache PRESIDENT The Earl of Cranbrook MA PhD FLS VIcE PRESIDENTS David Barker MBE, Lord Blakenham, Lord Deben, Bernard Tickner, Peter Wilson TRUSTEES Sir Kenneth Carlisle (Chairman), Ian Brown (Vice Chairman), Robin Drayton (Treasurer), James Robinson (Hon Secretary), John Cousins, Nigel Farthing, Dawn Girling, Denise Goldsmith, Pip Goodwin, Fred Goymour, Peter Holborn, Simon Roberts. Suffolk Wildlife Trust is one of a national network of Wildlife Trusts dedicated to safeguarding the future of wildlife for the benefit of all. Suffolk Wildlife Trust is a registered charity no 262777 and a company limited by guarantee no 695346.
Welcome
STEVE AYLWARD
Incredible support
captain’s Wood: fallow deer grazing near veteran trees
YOUR MEMBERSHIP The Trust benefits from the most incredible support, with many members’ commitment stretching over decades. Please keep in touch so we can ensure you get the most out of your membership.
Samantha Grange Our Membership Manager would love to hear from you. Please call on 01473 890089
One of the most exciting things about working for Suffolk Wildlife Trust is the unexpected. It might be a rare bird, such as the Siberian stonechat that dropped into Trimley Marshes; a generous legacy appearing ‘out of the blue’; or the discovery of a special place previously unknown to us. Old Broom is such a place. Seven years ago Ben Hanbury invited me to visit. Driving past you would be forgiven for giving Old Broom a cursory glance – on the face of it a typical broadleaved woodland. Julian Roughton However, once within the wood you are transported Chief executive to somewhere very special. Vast oak pollards frequent this fragment of a medieval landscape which somehow survived whilst all around changed. It was a revelation and thanks to Ben, his sister Jan Morris and their wider family Old Broom is now protected forever as a gift to Suffolk Wildlife Trust. Discovering Captain’s Wood, near Sudbourne, was similarly fortuitous. The owner phoned for advice about the rhododendrons he loved in his wood. We were keen to visit as the wood had never been surveyed and what a discovery. Amongst the rhododendrons were magnificent ancient oak pollards – trees from centuries back, some with large hollies growing out of them. It was like finding another Staverton Thicks – that famous stronghold of veteran oaks. Some years later, when Captain’s Wood came up for sale, we knew we had to secure it. Not just the wood, with its ancient trees, but also the extensive grasslands that surrounded it. This open landscape gives Captain’s its unique feel and is rich in skylarks, hares and hunting barn owls. Marked as Black Walks on historic maps, it is a grazed landscape that goes back centuries, but due to agricultural intensification has now largely disappeared. Nearly ten years on from our purchase of Captain’s Wood we have now secured a further sixteen acres of rough grassland around the wood. As this land was being sold at auction we had just weeks to raise the funds and no time for a members’ appeal. Thanks to the generous pledges of a network of incredible supporters we were able to bid with confidence and secure this vital piece. And, as soon as we can, we will remove old fences to link up this land with the wider nature reserve. Thanks to our members’ extraordinary support we can seize opportunities like this. And the unexpected becomes truly exhilarating.
We can tailor your membership to suit your family. If your children are aged between 6-14 they’d enjoy our Wildlife Watch magazine. Likewise do let us know if your children have grown too old for the magazine.
SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 3
Going wild at Knettishall Heath CONSERVATION NEWS
DAVID TIPLING
Education opportunities and wildlife events for young people have been flourishing at Knettishall Heath since the Trust’s successful fundraising campaign and the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) in early 2012. The introduction of youth groups, activities for schools and local groups, and a diverse events programme, has seen children of all ages getting involved and engaged with this wonderfully varied site. Themed family drop in sessions initially provided a structure for people to find out more about Knettishall Heath, through river dipping, wildlife recording, wild art, bush craft and orienteering. These introductory events quickly developed into the popular ‘how to’ family sessions that now run regularly during the school holidays. The popularity continued into the Trust’s Junior Rangers monthly youth
group for 6 to 12-year-olds, with the regular sessions developing their enthusiasm and knowledge of the reserve. The next stage up, Young Wardens for 12 to 16-year-olds offers a more practical approach. Through conservation tasks like building habitat piles or archaeological excavations, their interest grows with them, to inspire the passionate local naturalists of the future. Knettishall Heath has also been added to the list of Trust sites offering Forest Schools, and local primary schools such as Hopton and Bardwell have already explored the woodland habitats through this six week programme. More recently the launch of themed wild walks such as bat nights, dawn chorus mornings and butterfly events, led by local experts, are creating new opportunities for more in-depth discovery of the Heath’s wildlife.
The events and activities have allowed the Trust to thank members and local people for their support and the final year of our HLF partnership looks set to be crammed full with wildlifefilled days on the Heath 4 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE
DAVID KJAER
Marsh work benefits wetland wildlife
Wigeon
Projects to increase diversity at Carlton & Oulton Marshes are already benefiting wildlife. The creation of scrapes and foot drains at Carlton, following grants from SITA Trust and Essex & Suffolk Water’s Branch Out Fund, has led to a surge in the number of wetland birds visiting the site. Previously the marshes only attracted a few mallard, but since the work has been carried out, large numbers of wildfowl and waders including wigeon, shoveler, lapwing, redshank and greenshank have been drawn in to feed and loaf in the shallow water and muddy edges. The speed with which nature colonises sites has also been demonstrated at nearby Oulton, where nationally rare and uncommon species have become established in the first years after the digging of ponds to create important early successional habitat. Monitoring of the turf ponds, carried out by Suffolk freshwater invertebrate
recorder Adrian Chalkley, has shown an outstanding and varied range of invertebrate fauna. Some species already present in the surrounding mosaic of tall and grazed fen and wet scrub have moved in to the ponds and expanded their populations, while the more mobile beetles and bugs have flown in from nearby ditches.
Large numbers of wildfowl feed in the shallow water and muddy edges Further surveys are planned for this summer, but preliminary results have found at least 22 species of water beetle and 17 species of bug to be present in the ponds. The community conservation index indicates the ponds, which were dug with a grant from The Million Ponds Project, are of very high conservation value and of national significance.
New scrape at carlton Marshes
DAVID KJAER
STEVE AYLWARD
Redshank: one of the wetland birds now visiting carlton & Oulton Marshes
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CONSERVATION NEWS TV presenter and naturalist chris Packham took time out from Springwatch to talk with Audrey Boyle about the challenges Suffolk’s wildlife faces and how a visit to the Trust’s reserves is on the cards
Award-winning Trust
JELGER HERDER FLPA
Show visitors enjoy pond dipping at Trinity Park
and we found families spending a good chunk of their day enjoying our wildlife activities. We have a brilliant team of staff and volunteers that help to pull everything together and this year ran as smoothly as we could have hoped for.” Alongside an activity to build a giant willow hedgehog over the two days, volunteers and Trust staff were joined by Prickles hedgehog rescue. “It really feels like the county is behind this campaign and people have been adding their sightings to our online map in their thousands”, said Michael. “We spoke to a lot of people about hedgehogs, and signed up a lot of new members too – which is fantastic. Their support will help the campaign in the long term.”
BBC
Judges at this year’s Suffolk Show handed the Trust an award for its wildlife garden display that featured ponddipping and a giant willow hedgehog. Thousands of people visited the stand in Ipswich’s Trinity Park on May 28 and May 29, with judges awarding the Trust second prize for representing environmental or educational issues. Michael Strand, Development Manager at Suffolk Wildlife Trust said: “A lot of hard work goes in to preparing Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s stand at the Suffolk Show each year. We were very pleased to win the award this year; we really believe we offer something unique for show-goers. “Our wildlife garden was an oasis of calm in the hustle and bustle of the show
If you have any space, recognise you’re in control of it. Make your garden a wildlife resource
Stunning images taken by a sixth form student have been handed to the Trust for use in its publications and websites. Daisy Hawkins, 18, took close-up shots of diving beetles as part of an A/S level extended project at Thomas Gainsborough School in Sudbury on the biodiversity of Suffolk chalky boulder clay ponds. The A* graded work has already been displayed at the Natural History Museum in London after the county recorder for aquatic invertebrates; Adrian chalkley, showed the images to a fresh water group who meet at the museum. Daisy, the daughter of the Trust’s pond conservation advisor Juliet Hawkins, is now planning to travel before possibly studying photography at university.
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STEVE AYLWARD, NICK COLLINSON
JULIET HAWKINS
Young photographer gifts images
Chris Packham on Suffolk’s wildlife
W
hen I meet him, Chris Packham is examining a dead queen hornet he found earlier that morning. Turning it over, he is astounded
by its beauty. It’s back to work on a Monday morning and he has just returned from his rented farmhouse near the New Forest where he spent the weekend doing a voice over for a pre-school series, taking wildlife photos and walking for miles with his beloved dogs. “They’re both 11-years-old now and they don’t like me leaving; it’s always heartbreaking, so it’s good to get home.” But now back at Minsmere, the setting for this year’s Springwatch, it’s clear he’s also fond of this part of Suffolk. “This place is fantastic because it’s an ongoing laboratory; an ark for conservation – but also a sculpted manmade habitat,” he says. “There’s been a lot done here for vulnerable species and on ecological and visitor management. It’s an important global model on how to manage people harmoniously with the environment.” Chris claims it also looks likely that the Trust’s reserves will feature in forthcoming shows. “Over the next couple of years we will expand out of Minsmere.
“We’ve done the obvious stories this year and have hit bitterns hard; next year it will be marsh harriers. I constantly strive to get away from birds – I like them very much but Springwatch used to be very avian-centric. The benefit of birds and nests is you’ve got guaranteed activity; it will always be central to what Springwatch does. This year we’ve featured adders, damselflies and fish and we were hoping to get more stoat action because of the vast number of rabbits but we haven’t.” He adds: “There’s lots of material but we’ve got to pace ourselves. There’s some brilliant botany in Breckland so I hope to be doing more on that.” One of the central appeals of Springwatch is the narrative it gives to wildlife, documenting the joys and the challenges. Chris believes that Suffolk wildlife, like the rest of the UK, is currently facing its biggest challenge from intensive agriculture. “Since 1980 there are 40 million fewer birds on our farmland; we’re talking about a 40% reduction in large moth species in last 25 years; a 40% reduction in large beetle species – they’re being sprayed to death. “It’s farming policy, not farmers that’s
to blame. I think everyone agrees we need a wholesale reform of CAP – I spend a lot of my time with farmers and I have sympathy for them.” But, for Chris, helping the environment is not solely about Government intervention, it is about people and communities. “If you have any space, recognise you’re in control of it. Make your garden a wildlife resource”, he says. “All the gardens in the UK cover an area the size of Suffolk and that can make a big difference. Plant trees that produce berries, put up feeders and nest boxes; share your space with as many other species as possible – don’t be choosy; we need rats, foxes and pigeons not just the fluffy cute things; that’s not the real world. Avoid using pesticides and molluscicides.” In his own garden he has replaced his lawn with wildflowers and the impact that has had on his own environment is obviously a source of pride. “I don’t see the point of lawns – one or two species of grass that never flower; never have sex,” he says. “ I’ve planted butterfly food plants like lavender – because the deer don’t eat it – buddleia and this year I’ve got lupin and hollyhocks in pots around the place. House sparrows have nested in a box I put up for first time.”
Suffolk’s Nature Strategy Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Suffolk County Council, RSPB and National Trust have come together to produce the region’s first nature strategy. The document, produced in consultation with other organisations such as Natural England and the Environment Agency, reflects a shared vision for nature conservation and acknowledgment of the importance of the natural environment to Suffolk's economy and peoples’ health and wellbeing. The strategy was launched by Chris Packham at the BBC's Springwatch studio at RSPB'S Minsmere reserve.
SUFFOLK S NATURE STRATEGY
You can read the document on: issuu.com/suffolkwildlifetrust/docs/suffolk_nature_strategy_brochure
SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 7
CONSERVATION NEWS Follow us online
Snap to it There’s still time to get your entry into the Trust’s annual wildlife photography competition. Whether you’re an opportunistic snapper, fun-loving amateur or an ‘up before dawn’ professional, you can take part in this visual celebration of Suffolk’s wildlife. Alongside regular categories covering birds, mammals/reptiles or amphibians, invertebrate/plant or fungi, young photographer and mobile device, there will also be new categories entitled Suffolk Wildlife Trust nature reserve, Living Garden, Wild child (people engaged with nature) and Selfies in Nature. Entry is free and there is a simple online submission process. Last entries should be received by Sunday November 9. A prize-giving event will be held at Brooke House, Ashbocking, on Friday December 5.
The Trust’s Facebook page and Twitter feed are a great way to get involved with us. We regularly post information about wildlife issues; events and activities and sometimes we just find stunning or unusual wildlife photographs to share. This is a fantastic way to see what’s happening out and about across the county and further afield. There’s a thriving online community of thousands who follow the Trust and share their own wildlife anecdotes, photographs and video footage. The nesting season was especially busy as people posted and shared wonderful stories. We had great tits nesting in a Royal Mail post box, a hedgehog sharing a meal with a young fox and a wonderful time-lapse sequence of a blue tit building a nest through to the chicks fledging.
How to enter Male brimstone on lavender Winner from the 2013 plant category by Matt Berry
Information for entrants, prize details and registration at suffolkwildlifetrust.org
cotswold Outdoor discount In recognition of your support as a member the Trust has negotiated 10% off* the full retail value of current season’s product ranges at Cotswold Outdoor Ltd. It is available for use both in store and online using the code AF-SFWT-M3 How to use the code: In-store – please present your membership card to obtain your discount. (If you have lost your card, contact the Trust’s membership manager, Samantha Grange, to arrange a replacement).
Online – register your address details at www.cotswoldoutdoor.com or login. When ready to checkout, key our code AF-SFWT-M3 in the promotional code box (not case sensitive). All qualifying items will
have the correct price structure applied to the order. Click & Collect – Click and Collect services are available for use from most stores. Mail Order – please provide your address, quoting our promotional code when ordering.
Thank you We are grateful to the families of the following friends of the Trust who have recently remembered us in their Will or through an In Memoriam donation Joan child Ethel Newman christine Parsons Daphne Pilkington
Alan Sparrow Derek Stevenson Edwin Westren Valerie Winchester
All orders placed using the mail order and online services for delivery within the UK will be subject to the promotional carriage charges that apply at point of order (FOC over £30.00) or incur our standard carriage charge of £4.95. Any orders placed requiring urgent or overseas delivery will be subject to the relevant delivery charges that apply at point of order. *Terms and conditions: not to be used in conjunction with any other offers or discounts. Offer expires 31.05.15. TOM MARSHALL
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Tuning in to wildlife
GREAT TITS: DOMINIQUE DELFINO FLPA
GADGETMAN
The way we watch wildlife has changed dramatically over the last five years. Kerry Stranix looks at how the Trust has worked with a worldrenowned camera expert to bring the drama of the nest box into the county’s homes
D
uring the spring and summer of 2012, the Trust broadcast live footage of a pair of breeding barn owls from our Redgrave & Lopham Fen reserve. The pair – dubbed Mr and Mrs P after leading-light in barn owl conservation Steve Piotrowski – successfully hatched and fledged two chicks. It was the fifth time this pair had bred in this particular nest box, but the first time we had been given the privilege of watching the drama unfold. From the mating rituals, to the long absences while
we waited with baited breath for Mr P to return after wet weather – it had all the drama of a soap opera – but was infinitely more fascinating. The broadcast was made possible because of funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. This funding, through the Networking Nature initiative, marked a new era for the Trust, one in which we could use new technologies to inspire even more local action for wildlife. At this point I contacted the Wildlife Gadgetman! (or Jason Alexander as he is also known) to explore how we could bring local wildlife in to the homes of people across Suffolk. SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 9
GADGETMAN I had been in touch with Jason for a few years, as he had been supporting the Trust as a business member. Jason’s company designs and manufactures nest box cameras and in the last few years Jason has diversified to become a leader in the ‘DIY wildlife watching’ field – with an award winning nature blog, an online wildlife watching community of thousands and a website full of tutorials and wildlife cameras set up in his own garden. Although his camera systems are used across the world – he is based just down the road from the Trust’s Ashbocking office. Jason installed a camera in the nest box at Redgrave and ran a long cable under the ground into the office nearby where it was hooked up to a computer. We then set up a live internet stream, which meant our barn owls were being broadcast live around the world 24 hours a day! It was amazing stuff. Needless to say, the 24-hour streaming had an impact on our broadband connection and we nearly drove the poor reserve staff to despair, as anyone who has experienced a slow internet connection will sympathise with.
A quiet revolution The technical difficulties meant filming Mr and Mrs P at Redgrave again the next year (they did return to the box to nest) wasn’t an option. But, I’d certainly got the bug – and Jason and I began to explore other ways of capturing wildlife footage. We set up a camera in the beehive at Ashbocking and, as I write, I am watching a pair of stock doves nest in a box that sits just behind my office window. However, I am not the only one… as anyone who follows the Trust online via
PAUL SAWER FLPA
New technology has allowed us to witness the dramas and joy of nest boxes and feeding stations
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From the mating rituals, to the long absences while we waited with baited breath – it had all the drama of a soap opera – but was infinitely more fascinating Facebook will see. There is a huge trend for nest box cameras, and wonderful home-produced footage is abundant on our Facebook page and indeed across the online world. It seems everyone can be a wildlife filmmaker these days. Jason believes there has been a democratising in the world of filming and streaming wildlife footage. “During my ten years in the nest box camera business I have seen the industry shift enormously as technology becomes cheaper, simpler to use and, maybe more importantly, as people become more familiar with the technology.” He adds: “For well under £100 now
It has never been easier to have a go at filming wildlife where you live
you can get a very good quality, unobtrusive camera that can be placed in a nest box and streamed directly to your television. The same goes for trail cams – around £100 will buy you a motion-censored infrared camera that attaches to a tree, or other object in your garden, and will record clips of night-time goings on.”
Find out more Visit suffolkwildlifetrust.org/watchingwildlife – for live footage from Wildlife Trusts and other organisations across the country, as well as a link to Jason Alexander’s blog and website.
ALEC HILLIER
The shots in black and white are recorded using infrared nightvision as there is either insufficient daylight in the nest box/cavity or it was recorded at night INSETS
Young blackbird: Jason used a Logitech c920 HD webcam with a special USB extender cable to shoot footage of nine blackbird nests this year
CLARE SHEEHAN
The barn owl camera and hedgehog recording website have been funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund as part of Networking Nature –a project aimed at inspiring action for wildlife across Suffolk
There’s still time to log your hog
DANNY GREEN NATUREPL.COM
Field mouse: photographed inside one of Jason's artificial mammal habitats using a high resolution camera and a custom-made white lighting module
For well under £100 you can get a good quality camera that can be placed in a nest box and streamed directly to your television
The Trust has been showing footage from the ‘Wildlife Gadgetman’s’ hog buffet bar and weigh station as part of our campaign to record sightings of hedgehogs. The response has been phenomenal with 5,000 sightings recorded by July. This is the largest citizen science project Suffolk Wildlife Trust has ever been involved with, and it is quite possibly the biggest in Suffolk. If you haven’t logged your records there is still time to do so. Remember we are asking for all eventualities. So that’s live sightings, dead sightings, historical sightings (where you used to see hedgehogs but have not for at least two years) and we even need negative sightings. It’s as important for us to know where hedgehogs are not – as well as where they are. This data will be absolutely crucial as we plan our next steps for the species in the county. A huge thank you to all who have already taken part – we look forward to letting you know more about the survey results in the coming months.
The map shows the location of all the sightings that have been logged so far. Even if you have added yours – go and have a look to see if there is other activity near you. You may live in a ‘hedgehog hotspot!’ To log your sighting visit suffolkwildlifetrust.or/hedgehogs or call us on 01473 890089
Please take a minute to do the survey and ask your friends and neighbours to do the same
SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 11
MIKE LANE FLPA
RETURN OF THE BUZZARD
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The return of the buzzard Buzzards disappeared from the county’s skies for more than 100 years after systematic persecution. Julian Roughton looks at how the return of a symbol of the wild to Suffolk’s countryside represents nature’s powers of recovery ne of the most remarkable stories in recent years has been the appearance of soaring buzzards across Suffolk's skies. I was in my teens in the 1970s when I saw my first buzzards. Then they were birds of the Welsh hills and the Lake District and even now I cannot help but associate their plaintive mewling call with these wilder landscapes. But like red kites, ravens, polecats and pine martens before them, buzzards had been pushed to the western margins of the British Isles by persecution rather than preference.
O Persecution
Every gamekeeper's hand was against it; noone seems to have given it any sanctuary
The first recorded acts of persecution in Suffolk were in Elizabethan times when bounty payments were given for “the hedes of vermyn” principally crows, rooks and sparrows. Parish accounts from Bedingfield in 1568 and Cratfield in 1580 also record payments made for buzzards. No doubt they were disliked for occasionally taking chickens or, perhaps more importantly, for being a significant predator of rabbits at a time when they were an important and valuable commodity and a source of meat and fur. Whether this persecution was
systematic enough to have anything other than a local and short-term impact seems doubtful. In early nineteenth century Suffolk the buzzard is reckoned to have still been a common breeder, but as game shooting became a dominant influence in the countryside the buzzard’s fortunes were set to change. In 1811 the Annual Meeting of Suffolk Gamekeepers gave a prize to the keeper who destroyed the most vermin – won by a keeper that had killed 167 “hawks of all kinds” on his 4,000 acre estate that year. The loss of the final nesting pair from Monks Wood, near Felsham (now part of the Trust's Bradfield Woods nature reserve) was particularly brutal. One of the nesting birds was shot in 1874 and thrown to the foxes. When a pair returned the following year the female bird was shot and wounded on the nest. It was to be the last pair known to have nested in Suffolk for over 120 years. In 1932 Ticehurst documents in his History of the Birds of Suffolk the buzzard’s rapid decline and disappearance and comments “little wonder that this fine bird has died out as a nesting species; every gamekeeper's hand was against it; no one seems to have given it any sanctuary.” SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 13
RETURN OF THE BUZZARD
DAVID KJAER
It was to be as late as 1999 before buzzards successfully bred in Suffolk again. This first pair bred near Newmarket and soon a population built up in the Brecks and the west of the county. Meanwhile birds were also breeding in north-east Suffolk near Somerleyton and in the south-east near the Essex border. The Suffolk Bird Report in 2006 estimated that there were 60-70 pairs present – an astonishing increase. And two years later the Suffolk Bird Report described the buzzard as a “fairly common resident” and added “there are now very few places in Suffolk where buzzards are absent”. Today where I live in mid-Suffolk I am much more likely to see a buzzard than a kestrel – something that was unthinkable fifteen years ago. It is a remarkable story for, unlike the red kite, the buzzard has not been the subject of a reintroduction programme but has recovered its former range on its own. Why have its fortunes so dramatically changed? Protection and changing attitudes are key. Instead of being greeted by gunshots, keepers and farmers have provisioned Suffolk's colonizing buzzards with shot rabbits, pigeons and remains from deer culls. The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) puts the buzzard's extraordinary national recovery down to rapidly improving nesting success linked to reduced persecution (and so improved survival) and increased food supply due to the recovery of rabbit populations from the effects of myxomatosis. The buzzard's adaptability has made it the UK's most abundant raptor. It is willing to follow the plough to pick up earthworms and my own local pair of buzzards readily takes roadkill that I have put out for them. They appear to be rather passive hunters spending hours unobtrusively sitting in the boughs of old oaks on field margins. But in the wood behind our house I have also seen them shoot through at speed at dusk. Judging from the regular piles of Buzzards have benefited from the recovery of rabbit populations
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WIM WEENINK FLPA
Successful breeding
Buzzards are the symbol of wildness in Suffolk’s managed countryside
pigeon feathers it appears to be a technique that works in taking unwary woodpigeons. Studies have shown that where mammal prey is scarce buzzards will survive at lower densities with more bird species in their diet – recently fledged jackdaws and other corvids are a favoured prey.
Hopes for the future Suffolk's countryside has an abundance of rabbits, crows and pigeons so buzzards are set to prosper if left unmolested. News of Defra's intention – since abandoned – to licence the destruction of buzzard nests where they conflict with gamebirds caused consternation amongst conservationists. It seemed a throw-back to an era that many thought was long since past. Even if buzzards take the occasional young pheasant the
numbers are tiny in comparison to those released or indeed to those killed on the roads. However, the recent shooting of a buzzard near Reydon is a sad reminder that persecution of birds of prey still occurs. I still get a thrill every time I see buzzards wheeling and soaring in the sky. They are a symbol of wildness in Suffolk's managed countryside. But more than that they represent the power of nature's recovery and how attitudes to wildlife have changed for the better.
Protection and changing attitudes are key to the buzzards’ changing fortunes
Buzzards are daytime hunters and are most frequently seen soaring slowly in the sky over open countryside and farmland. In flight, the large wings often form a shallow “V” shape with the tail spread out like a fan and they sometimes hang almost motionless in the air. Buzzards are usually seen hunting alone but sometimes they fly in pairs. The buzzard also likes to perch on trees, posts or poles as it surveys the area for prey. When prey is spotted it will quickly swoop down to catch its food.
PAUL SAWER FLPA
DARIN SMITH
REPL.COM ROSS HODDINOTT NATU
Spotting a buzzard
Mating and nesting
They represent the power of nature's recovery and how attitudes to wildlife have changed for the better
Buzzard pairs mate for life. To attract a mate, or to impress his current one, the male will perform a ‘roller coaster’ flight. He will rise high up in the sky, then turn and plummet downward in a spiral, twisting and turning as he comes down. He then rises again quickly through the air and repeats the manoeuvre all over again. Each pair will have as many as 21 potential nest sites, usually changing to a fresh site every year.
DAVID KJAER
R DAVID KJAE
Buzzards use trees, posts or poles to survey an area for prey
SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 15
Communities making a difference NETWORKING NATURE
For the last three years the Trust has been working on a major Heritage Lottery funded initiative to inspire on the ground action for wildlife in every one of Suffolk’s 447 parishes. Kerry Stranix looks at the breadth of activity and highlights some of the communities already working hard to make a difference where they live
Bredfield Jubilee Meadow In Bredfield near Woodbridge, the parish council and interested individuals came together to purchase a meadow from the church. The Trust worked with the group to create a management plan and wildflower training was offered. It was discovered the meadow was rich in wild flowers, including many species of orchid. The group are now restoring the habitat, enhancing it with fruit trees and using it as a community space for all to enjoy. In recognition of all their hard work they were awarded a Creating the Greenest County prize earlier in the year.
KERRY STRANIX
W
and take a look at just what they have managed to achieve in a relatively short space of time.
STEVE AYLWARD
hether it is the installation of swift boxes, advice about churchyards, tailored training courses, help with funding bids or support to manage large-scale woodland, the Trust has so far worked with communities to benefit wildlife in more than 300 parishes. Not that members of the community advisory team would want to take the credit – because along the way the Trust have been inspired by the dedication, knowledge and experience we have seen from the individuals and groups that have been part of the project. To highlight the breadth of activity we have revisited a couple of these parishes
Wildflower training at Bredfield Jubilee Meadow with local expert Stephen Massey
The next generation of naturalists analysing barn owl pellets at Bramford Water Meadows
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Group member and local resident Helen Young reflected on all they have achieved so far. “Within a year it was been possible to buy a suitable field, have it mown, hold a children's event in the autumn sunshine, and make an order for the first tree planting,” said added. “All this along with establishing enthusiastic support locally – led and supported every step of the way by Suffolk Wildlife Trust.”
ROSS DEAN
SARA HOLMAN
This project has given us the resources to build networks of people that have the skills and support to take forward their own projects
Many species of orchid, including southern-marsh, were discovered at Bredfield Jubilee Meadow
Bramford Water Meadows Community adviser Sara Holman has been working with the Bramford Open Spaces group who have taken ownership of a site in the village that incorporates water meadows and the picnic site at the River Gipping. “The group have achieved so much already, and they are building a fantastic partnership with local primary schools who are using the site for environmental education”, said Sara. “This is what action for wildlife is all about, helping people take action on a really local scale. Supporting them in the early stages and celebrating with them as they build relationships with the local community, learn more about the natural environment, and ultimately achieve valuable conservation outcomes.” John Hooker, part of the Bramford Open Spaces group added: “The site is split between a Local Nature Reserve and a picnic and recreational area. We found the confidence to take this site on thanks to the early support and advice from Suffolk Wildlife Trust.”
In order to build a lasting legacy for these projects we have launched an online nature scrapbook, where groups can post images, videos and blog about what they are doing for wildlife where they live. These are all shown on a map of the county, so people can browse existing projects for inspiration. The scrapbooks will allow us to illustrate just how much work for wildlife is happening across Suffolk’s towns and villages, not just on nature reserves, or specially designated sites – but village greens, school grounds and community green spaces. Although the end is in sight for the funded project – the forward-thinking nature of it means it is certainly not a wrapping up of our involvement with communities. In fact, it is quite the opposite. This project has given us the resources to build networks of people that have the skills and support to take forward their own projects, engage the support of the wider community and have the confidence to inspire and advise others who want to do the same. It’s an exciting time for local action; the momentum continues to build and next year we will be celebrating many more projects like these in a weekly East Anglian Daily Times column. If you’d like your community project to be featured please get in touch.
Roadmap to success This map shows the breadth of action for wildlife in Stowmarket. It’s striking to highlight just how large an area can be managed with wildlife in mind when local individuals, communities and businesses pull together.
STOWMARKET
It’s also worth noting that this map is not exhaustive and does not include people’s gardens. Just imagine the impact we can have when we approach nature conservation with this joined-up approach.
Online nature scrapbook You can use the Trust’s online nature scrapbooks for inspiration and information about ongoing community greenspace projects. To set up your own nature scrapbook, please get in touch.
The scrapbooks can be found at: http://www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org/community
This is what action for wildlife is all about, helping people take action on a really local scale Networking Nature community advisers There are four Networking Nature community advisers who work across the county thanks to funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Sara Holman
Tracey Housley
Angela Jones
Leonie Washington
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MAPS REPRODUCED UNDER OS LICENCE NUMBER 10016410
What’s next
OLD BROOM
Sweeping back the years As the Trust’s newest reserve, Old Broom is a remarkable remnant of a landscape now largely lost. Steve Aylward explains how the woodland can be a window into how parts of Suffolk might have looked several hundred years ago
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ocated on the edge of the Brecks near Risby, just north west of Bury St Edmunds, Old Broom is the largest of three pieces of ancient woodland in the parish. At 17 acres it is quite modest, yet it still contains approximately 120 extraordinary trees; huge oak pollards that range from 2.5 to nearly 6m in girth and estimated to span 250 to 500 years in age. In addition there are 18 dead oak pollards, thought to be an accumulation over the last century and representing a death rate of well under 1% per year. There are also three ancient pollard hawthorn and two pollard crab apple
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trees as well as hazel and a handful of other species. Between the trees are several old grassland clearings with large anthills.
Old wood pasture Oliver Rackham, the renowned academic and expert on the history of the countryside, considers Old Broom to have once been part of a large area of wood pasture that extended across much of the parish. Interestingly, Old Broom is one of a number of old wood pastures and fields with ancient trees scattered across Norfolk and Suffolk and recent academic studies have postulated that these might
declined to a much greater extent than woodland and may have been especially significant in the medieval Breckland that had no ‘conventional’ woodland. Pollarding is a means of growing timber in the same way as coppicing but at a height that keeps the new growth out of the reach of grazing livestock in what would have been a ‘duel use’ landscape. In Rackham’s view, the ancient oaks of Old Broom were last pollarded around 1850 and there has been no active woodland management since that time. Reintroducing pollarding now would present too great a shock and risk to the trees and therefore these remarkable
Pipistrelle: slowly rotting heartwood provides roosts for bats and birds
Old Broom is considered to hold the fourth largest concentration of oak pollards in Suffolk SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 19
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be fragments of an extensive savannahlike landscape that once covered large parts of East Anglia. Much of this ancient landscape would most likely have been common land but the majority has since been enclosed and destroyed. Along with most other remaining areas of ancient wood pasture, Old Broom almost certainly only survived because it was incorporated into one of the great parks of East Anglia sometime in the 18th or 19th century. Old Broom is considered to hold the fourth largest concentration of oak pollards in Suffolk. It is a relic of a highly distinctive type of ecosystem that has
OLD BROOM veteran trees will simply be left to become ever more ancient. However, among the old oaks grow their young offspring and one option might be to pollard some of these trees to create a new generation of pollards to replace those that will in time, eventually be lost.
The coming years will be a journey of discovery as surveys expand our knowledge of the wood and its unique wildlife
ALAN WILLIAMS NATUREPL.COM
Heartwood The most ecologically significant component of ancient wood pasture is the slowly rotting heartwood of the veteran oak trees. This unique ‘medium’ is home to an exclusive mix of organisms ranging from specialist beetles and flies to species of fungi which are in part responsible for creating the rotting wood. Site continuity is critical and places such as Old Broom that have supported large numbers of ancient trees for many hundreds of years tend to be the rarest and most important. The scarcity of this type of habitat is reflected in the fact that many of the species that depend on ancient trees are considered Red Data or Nationally Scarce. The cavities and hollows in old trees are also important for bats and birds while the ancient bark can support rare mosses and lichens. Equally important are the dead trees and the large limbs that occasionally fall from living trees. These large pieces of deadwood are home to another range of specialist species. As yet, Old Broom remains largely under-recorded and over the coming years, surveys will no doubt reveal a great deal more about this fabulous place. As with any piece of ancient woodland, the boundaries provide many clues about the history of the wood. The northern boundary is a shallow holloway with a bank upon which stand several pollards while the eastern boundary with the road is also marked with a bank indicating its age. The western boundary however is straight with no bank and is therefore considered to be modern. The soils of these ancient woods are almost as important as the woods themselves as they have lain uncultivated and
Tawny owls make use of the cavities and hollows in old trees
undisturbed possibly since the last Ice Age. Aerial photos of the area around Old Broom show the highly distinctive mark of ‘patterned ground’ that is unique to the Brecks. These soil stripes and polygons are the product of periglacial action during the last Ice Age that sorted the layers of chalk and overlying sand and almost certainly extend under Old Broom.
Generous gift Nuthatch can be seen on the sides of veteran trees or feeding on acorns
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Old Broom was gifted to the Trust by the Hanbury family. It was not just an act of great generosity but an act of deliberate intent. Old Broom had been cared for by
Old Broom is a relic of a highly distinctive type of ecosystem the family for many decades and their deep affection for this extraordinary place meant that they wished to ensure that the wood was placed in protective ownership in perpetuity. This followed the gift of the Norah Hanbury-Kelk Meadows at Barton Mills many years ago, which was similarly passed to the Trust by the family to ensure the long-term preservation of these
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STEVE AYLWARD
Beefstake fungus
traditional species-rich riverside meadows and their large population of early marsh orchids. Change remains the greatest threat to places like Old Broom and therefore the role of the Trust will be to ensure things remain largely as they are. But as yet much remains to be discovered about Old Broom. The coming years will be a journey of discovery as surveys expand our knowledge of the wood and its unique wildlife. There is no doubt, it is one of the foremost areas of old woodland in Suffolk and most importantly, its long term future is now secure.
Green woodpeckers are one of the species to thrive in Old Broom’s distinctive ecosystem
Old Broom has always had a special place in the hearts of the Hanbury family. Their generous donation to the Trust means that the wood and the beautiful trees it contains will remain in protective ownership in perpetuity.
Ben Hanbury and his sister Jan Morris, walking in Old Broom
Visiting Old Broom
MICHEL POINSIGNON NATUREPL.COM
currently there is no public access to Old Broom other than on open day events. Please check the Trust website for dates suffolkwildlifetrust.org
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JEM HANBURY
DAVID KJAER
Protective ownership
Trusts fight to save grasslands
UK NEWS
No child stuck indoors Four generations ago children roamed, on average, six miles from their home on foot. Now children roam 300 yards and spend twice the time we did indoors. Four generations ago Britain had more than three million hectares of wildflower meadows. One generation ago we had only three per cent of this left and this is vanishing fast. So the chance today of a child stumbling across a wildflower meadow is almost non-existent. Yet we know our happiness is tightly bound up with experiencing the natural world. The UK’s children are the unhappiest in the Western world, Unicef reports. And the most overweight. And many parents wish their kids were outside more. I know I do. The reasons are clear. When I was a child the doors were open, the woods were nearer and there was a limit to how much entertainment could be found indoors, especially after a winter of board games and books. Now the doors protect us from strangers; the woods and meadows are further away and the garden, if there is one, may not entertain older children for very long. Meanwhile, indoors there is a constant and varied scene of entertainment. The solution is more wildlife places nearer where most of us live. It means forest schools being core to our learning. It means parents being more actively involved. And that’s no bad thing because whilst we may have been outside more we are ecologically illiterate compared to the generation before ours. Thanks to your support, your Trust is doing all it can to help change this. Let’s say it loud and clear: No Child Stuck Indoors!
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lower-rich meadows and grasslands are more threatened than ever, according to new evidence from The Wildlife Trusts. Despite 97% of lowland meadows in England having been wiped out by 1980, loss of these habitats continues. Since 2005 a quarter of Local Wildlife Sites with grasslands (99 out of a total 392) in Nottinghamshire have lost valuable species. In Cumbria, surveys of upland hay meadows show a 27% decline (35 out of 128 sites). In Worcestershire, 24% of grassland Local Wildlife Sites (48 out of 200) have
ROBIN CHITTENDEN/FLPA
Stephanie Hilborne OBE Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts
In some parts of England up to a quarter of wildflower-rich habitats have declined or disappeared since 2005
UK NEWS FROM AROUND THE WILDLIFE TRUSTS AVON
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A derelict former sports ground in Bristol’s Avon Gorge will become Bennett’s Patch and White’s Paddock nature reserve from 2015 when Bristol is the European Green Capital of the Year. wtru.st/AvonGorge
The 34th annual count of snake’s-head fritillary plants at Iffley Meadows revealed a record 84,190 individual plants despite the site being under water for eight weeks earlier this year. wtru.st/RecordCount
The Trust has taken on the historic Deer’s Leap Wood, on the boundary between the Edgbaston, Harborne and Soho Wards of Birmingham. It now has a secure future as a nature reserve. wtru.st/DeersLeap
The Trust is undertaking major works to improve and enhance Red Rocks nature reserve on the Wirral. The SSSI is crucial to the survival of the natterjack toad, Britain’s rarest amphibian. wtru.st/ RedRocksWork
Since 2012 16 volunteers have been mapping distribution of the Lake District’s smallest tree, dwarf willow. Its habitat requirements make it a potential indicator species for climate change. wtru.st/DwarfWillow
Volunteers have discovered a new species of starfish in rockpools at Kimmeridge. The small cushion starfish Asterina phylactica has never been recorded there before. wtru.st/Small Cushion
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NICK UPTON
L UK-w atest id and e new wild issues: s life org/ trusts. new s
Species-rich hay meadows often only have Local Wildlife Site status. It’s not enough
been degraded or lost since 2005. After making these shocking discoveries, in May The Wildlife Trusts presented Environment Secretary Owen Paterson with nearly 9,000 epetition signatures, collected in just four weeks, to urge better protection. The Government is about to take vital decisions (based on the Common Agricultural Policy) which will determine the future for many wild grasslands in England. Wildlife-rich grasslands are vital resources. They store carbon and help purify and hold water. But on current trends they – and the insects and birds that depend on them – will vanish.
We are asking the Government to: Improve laws and policies to better protect important grasslands; Reward farmers for managing important grasslands, and link their conservation to conditional payments Designate deserving grasslands as Sites of Special Scientific Interest; Set up a national grassland inventory, with sustained monitoring of sites; Restore more wildlife-rich grasslands, and encourage restoration partnerships. Longer term, we are working with Plantlife, landowners and others to tackle the issues facing grasslands. More on wildlifetrusts.org/grasslands
One grassland saved... just A hard-fought campaign over a city centre site in Derby shows how at risk our special places are. When Derby City Council proposed building a closed-circuit cycle track on The Sanctuary Local Nature Reserve (LNR) it was opposed by 16 conservation groups including Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, the Derbyshire Ornithological Society, the local RSPB group and others. The Trust took legal action against the Council to save the site, which is the city’s only bird reserve. The Council designated the site as a LNR in 2006. It was widely welcomed as a great example of green development in an urban environment. It is home to an impressive array of species, given the small size of the reserve. Birds breeding here include little ringed plover, lapwing and skylark. Derbyshire Wildlife Trust is now seeking to work positively with Derby City Council and to establish a ‘friends of’ group to ensure the future management and protection of this site. More at derbyshirewildlifetrust. org.uk/news/2014
Despite damage by diggers, 45 bird species have returned to The Sanctuary
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The Greater Horseshoe Bat Project has received HLF funding. The project helps farmers to farm in bat friendly ways so that vital feeding areas and flight corridors are maintained. wtru.st/ GHSBatProject
The Trust has developed the Wildground Project – 18 traineeships in grounds maintenace to encourage a more natural approach. The aim is to improve biodiversity in built-up areas. wtru.st/WildGround
A new Education and Visitor Centre at Walton on the Naze will be created with £1.145m from the Government’s Coastal Communities Fund. It will help develop understanding of the Naze’s ecology. wtru.st/NazeCentre
Excavations at Greystones Farm reserve have turned up Iron Age remains, including two human burials. The reserve includes Salmonsbury Camp, an ancient monument. wtru.st/ IronAgeGreystones
The Trust is asking people to record their hedgehog sightings online. The project will help to identify hedgehog hotspots in the county as well as areas where they are completely absent. wtru.st/ SuffolkHogMap
Abandoned playing fields at Priest Hill are beginning a new life as a nature reserve. Bare ground and chalk encourage invertebrates and wild flowers, which in turn support many birds and butterflies. wtru.st/PriestHill
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Can we rewild Britain? LIVING LANDSCAPES
And what could it mean for the landscapes our children and grandchildren will inherit? Dr Tony Whitbread investigates
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ravel through rural West Sussex, between Wisborough Green and Petworth, and you will discover a wonderful old forest: tall beeches and oaks soaring above holly trees and a scattering of woodland flowers. This ancient place is ‘The Mens’. It’s Sussex Wildlife Trust’s biggest woodland reserve and home to a long-running ecological experiment. There are no obvious signs of management here. Instead, The Mens has been deliberately left to its own devices since we bought it in 1974, and probably for decades before that. It is, arguably, one of the few places like a ‘natural’ wild wood in lowland England. So it’s a good place to start looking at ‘rewilding’ – helping the natural processes that once drove the ecology of places to regain a foothold. Rewilding is an idea finding its time thanks at least in part to George Monbiot’s recent book Feral. In it, Monbiot argues that we need large areas where we can experience something close to the full grandeur of nature. Places where we can rewild ourselves, as much as rewild nature. But that doesn’t just mean restoring trees and peat bogs to the sparsely-populated uplands. Rewilding asks deep questions about our relationship with nature, and how we look after it. In some places UK nature conservation is already heading in this direction. From upland forest regeneration in Glen Affric, peatland restoration in the Pennines to saltmarsh restoration in Essex, we see a move towards understanding and working with natural processes over large areas. But what did wild Britain look like before we took up the axe and plough? People generally picture a dense 24 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE
‘wildwood’ that covered Britain perhaps 8,000 years ago. After all, many habitats in Britain, if left alone, will eventually develop into woodland. But that original wildwood must also have included all the precursors to the habitats we know today such as grassland and heathland, as well as dense forest. These would have been formed as a result of natural disturbance, such as wind, fires, grazing, flooding and probably a great deal more besides. Evidence of oak and hazel in prehistoric pollen records suggests the wildwood would not have been continuous trees, as these species don’t regenerate well in dense woodland. And more than half of all our species need open, unwooded habitat, while many of the rest live on forest edges. So whilst trees may have been abundant in the wildwood we also need plenty of imagination when conceiving the wildness of our past and future landscapes. So what does this mean for nature conservation today? Rewilding is about understanding how nature works and using this to shape our future landscapes, not recreate the past. There is some debate on the best way to rewild – should we just leave areas completely, or should we restore natural processes where they are absent? If the aim is wild places with as many natural processes present as possible then a range of approaches may be needed. This could mean encouraging the natural regeneration of trees such as at Dundreggan in Scotland (the ‘Trees for Life’ project). It could mean opening up large areas for ‘near-natural’ grazing such as in the Great Fen (a partnership led by The Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs and Northants) and in the privately owned Knepp Estate in Sussex. It could also mean
Rewilding is allowing nature to work (as much as possible) as it should. At Cossington Meadows near Leicester, semi-wild Exmoor ponies help to keep wetland habitats wild and healthy
Tony Whitbread is Sussex Wildlife Trust’s chief executive. He’s worked for The Wildlife Trusts since 1990
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LIVING LANDSCAPES
The Mens - a wood that has seen no human disturbance in decades
Wild Nephin – a major new rewilding project in Co Mayo, Eire
Natural tree regeneration at Blaeneinion in mid-Wales, Pumlumon Project
reintroducing the ‘ecosystem engineers’, such as beavers, as is being trialled in Knapdale by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. Or it could mean kickstarting natural processes by reversing engineering works on some rivers or blocking ditches on peatlands. Putting the top predators back, however, may be more difficult. The ecological need is clear – they are a missing part of our ecosystems and they drive diversity in nature. But we live in highly modified and populated landscapes and there are practicalities to consider. Nevertheless we should keep an open mind; in the long term our society needs healthy, functioning ecosystems, with as many constituent parts as possible. For example the reintroduction of lynx to parts of Scotland is gathering support, both for ecological and socio-economic reasons. The Wildlife Trusts’ Living Landscape aim is for a wilder, more ecologically 26 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE
balanced landscape. To put it simply, we insist that wildlife should be abundant throughout the landscape, with natural processes restored where we can. This is why we are re-naturalising rivers, working with farmers to create wildness in farmland areas, reintroducing key missing species and blocking thousands of miles of upland drainage ditches. Ditch blocking in particular should improve the country’s balance sheet – in this case by reducing the cost of clean drinking water and storing carbon. So what has the experiment at The Mens shown us so far? Some natural processes – most large herbivores and their predators – are missing. But oldgrowth forest with minimal natural disturbance – common in the wildwood – is now extremely rare. And the decision not to actively ‘manage’ the wood has provided a valuable study into woodland ecosystems. One example was The Great Storm of 1987. In the 25 years that followed there was a huge pulse of
regeneration in gaps where trees blew over. Broken trees sprouted, shrubs grew, wildflowers colonised and birds which usually stay on the edge moved inside. But in the long term the storm has not altered a gradual reduction of oak, hazel and hawthorn. And whilst some less common species of fungi, flies and holenesting birds are doing well, other flowering plants and woodland lichens are becoming less widespread as shadeloving beech and holly gradually take over. This shows that while storms are important, they are only one form of natural disturbance in woodland ecology. Rewilding is a different challenge in different landscapes. The Wildlife Trusts are working hard to help nature gradually re-assert herself in all sorts of different places – upland, lowland, rural and even suburban and urban. Our long-term goal is restoring natural processes and reestablishing wildness where we can. But meanwhile we still need to intervene actively in some places to preserve critical
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP L/H: MATTHEW ROBERTS, KNEPP ESTATE, WILD NEPHIN, MONTGOMERYSHIRE WT
Naturalistic grazing at the Knepp Estate, Sussex
A natural approach Projects around the UK where natural processes are being restored. From a range of organisations. Local communities are often involved. Scale and methods differ. Dundreggan Conservation Estate, 4000ha Who: Trees for Life Where: Glen Moriston, Scotland. What: Reforestation, using wild boar for natural regeneration, montane scrub restoration, tree nursery treesforlife.org.uk Soar Valley, 6000ha Who: Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust Where: Leicestershire, England What: Floodplain, wetland, naturalistic grazing. lrwt.org.uk Wild Ennerdale, 4300ha Who: National Trust, Forestry Commission, United Utilities, Natural England Where: Cumbria, England What: Re-naturalised rivers, naturalistic grazing, montane restoration, forest regeneration and native woodlandexpansion wildennerdale.co.uk Pumlumon, 9000ha Who: Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust & landowners Where: Montgomeryshire, Wales What: Naturalistic grazing, woodland, scrub and peatland regeneration. montwt.co.uk Wild Nephin, 8,000ha Who: Coillte, National Parks and Wildlife Service (Ballycroy National Park) Where: Co. Mayo, Eire What: Wild conifer forest, river, lake, restored bog and forest coillte.ie (search ‘wild nephin’)
We need large areas where we can experience something like the full grandeur of nature wildlife – for example by traditional grazing of wildflower meadows. Nature reserves are called this for a reason. They are reserves for the future, not an end in themselves. A living version of the seed bank at Kew, they give us a chance of one day helping wildlife to disperse and recolonise. Understanding the wild still has a place here however. If natural processes like disturbance are largely missing we can design conservation plans to mimic this, especially if informed by what we learn from wild nature. Similarly removing disturbance by fencing land and leaving it also influences the nature we get. Rewilding also applies to the sea. This means persuading Governments to designate protected areas – something The Wildlife Trusts and others are helping
to achieve. Once that’s done, our seas could begin to return to a more natural state. In the part of Lyme Bay now closed to scallop dredging we are beginning to see a recovery of slow-growing organisms such as Ross corals. Thinking big for nature has long been part of the plan, but rewilding can help widen our vision. In a densely populated country, we can’t always recreate true wilderness but we can, for example, improve the natural functioning of river valleys, enabling nature to take its course far more than we do now. We may not have the ancient wild aurochs to lumber through our woodlands, opening up glades. But extensive grazing with native cattle might help. We may not have top predators prowling the countryside and influencing how grazers behave – at least
Knepp, 1400ha Who: Knepp Estate Where: Sussex, England. What: Naturalistic grazing, wetland, scrub and woodland regeneration kneppsafaris.co.uk Alladale Wilderness Reserve, 9300ha Who: Alladale, European Nature Trust Where: Alladale, Scotland What: Forest and peatland restoration, naturalistic grazing, reintroducing species theeuropeannaturetrust.com The Great Fen, 3,700ha Who: Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs & Northants, Environment Agency, Middle Level Commissioners, Natural England, Huntingdonshire District Council Where: Cambs, England What: Wetland restoration, naturalistic grazing, scrub and woodland regeneration. greatfen.org Dingle Marshes, 93ha Who: Suffolk Wildlife Trust Where: Suffolk, England. What: Natural reshaping of man-made coastal defences. Wetland. suffolkwildlifetrust.org Scottish Beaver Trial, 4,400 ha Who: Scottish Wildlife Trust, Royal Zoological Society of Scotland & Forestry Commission Scotland Where: Knapdale Forest, Argyll, Scotland What: Trial beaver reintroduction. Wet woodland, Atlantic oak woodland, lochs and burns. scottishbeavers.org.uk For more information and links: wildlifetrusts/rewilding
not yet. But for now we can ‘pulse’ grazing to create diversity. We cannot, however, ignore the impact of humans. Ours is a cultural landscape which probably goes back many thousands of years. The last truly natural wilderness may have been in the previous interglacial period more than 100,000 years ago when elephants, rhinos and bears mingled with badgers, deer and otters. Those thousands of years of interaction between people and wildlife are important. But our job now is to create our future natural landscapes: places where people can experience wild nature with healthy ecosystems that can support us through life. Conserving what remains is the starting point, but it is not the best we can have. Restoring our wildlife and ecosystems is a work in progress but we must imagine, and do, better. And popular support for rewilding can help to inspire that change. SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 27
Hello world PEOPLE & NATURE
Taking young children out? These are our experts’ tips to introduce them to the wonderful planet they are a part of
15 great outdoor games Explore under logs, in crevices in trees, on leaves, in meadows, in streams. Children love holding millipedes that are ‘playing dead’ and watching them unfurl. For advanced ‘mini-beasting’ set an overnight pitfall trap: sink a yogurt pot to ground level and prop a rain-proof roof over the top.
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What sounds better? “Fancy going for a walk?” or, “Who’s up for a mission to go back in time and discover dinosaurs and find their eggs?” It’s fun chasing imaginary dinosaurs through the woods. Stones are their eggs! Muddy puddles are footprints!
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Find objects and make up what they could be. A twig is a walking stick for a hedgehog. A catkin is a squirrel’s scarf. Children will really get into it and come up with some crazy ideas.
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Roll down a grass bank and see who can roll the slowest – or who can get to the bottom first!
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Ask the children to pretend they’re 5 an ant. They could put a piece of string on the ground and explore every minute detail along it as if they were very small. What do they see and what do they find? What would it be like to be that creature? Stop, sit and be still in long grass or under a tree. Nature will come to you! A couple of minutes is all it takes!
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Lay a sheet under a tree and shake a branch. You will be amazed at how much is living up above your heads.
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In the woods, get the children to leave a trail, marking out arrows with stones, sticks or pine cones to show the way they’ve gone. Or leave some leaf art for other people to find.
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As you walk, make up stories about the unusual things you pass. Who really lives down that hole? Was that tree watching you?
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Catch grasshoppers in long grass with a net made from light material and a wire coat hanger. Have a jam jar ready to catch flying insects from the net for a closer look.
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Building nest boxes is a brilliant activity for children. Ready-sawn wood and pre-drilled nail holes make it easier for smaller ones to get involved.
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Make a pond to attract wildlife with an upturned dustbin lid dug into the ground. Wait a few weeks in spring or summer. Then just lie down on your tummy and watch.
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You can do a lot of fun things with a handful of mud
Watch bees: spot the pollen baskets on their hind legs, and their long tongues drinking nectar.
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Use the best binoculars available – a pair of taped-together loo rolls. This simple bit of kit will focus their attention on the smallest of habitats under a leaf, or features across a landscape. They’re light, durable and you can even stick them on the compost heap when you get home. Even your back garden becomes a jungle of exciting creatures after dark. Hang up a sheet and shine a torch to attract moths. Or search under stones or logs to spot nocturnal creepy crawlies.
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CORNWALL WILDLIFE TRUST
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Think like this
Embrace the great outdoors in all its
wildness. You and your children are wild at heart. We are meant to be connected to nature. Children who are engaged and buzzing with excitement take in and store that experience for the future. It also awakens their natural curiosity. Get out there and enjoy the sunshine, wind, and rain. Children will follow your lead and will want to do the same. Let yourself go: run around, get muddy, make silly shapes and noises. Children will thrive off the energy you give off.
Keep it simple, cheap and local. There’s no need for fancy expensive materials. If you come across a bug you’re not sure of, think of a funny way to describe it. That way you’ll remember it to look up when you get home, if you want to. Above all, give them the time and freedom to play, and to explore the outdoors for themselves.
Do Play with your children outside, reg ularly Let them get wet and muddy En courage them to explore and dis cover Let them grow plants they can eat Climb trees, make dens, dip Go out at night to search forpobandtss, look for bugs Rear spawn into frogs or caterpilla or minibeasts Pick and eat wild blackberries rs into butterflies Use your senses: look, listen, touch, smell
Don’t Worry if you’re not an expert. Jus
t aim to create a sense of wonder – happ y memories which wil l set them up for life Stay indoors if it’s raining. Take a change of clothes and see who can make the biggest puddle splash
Go wild this summer Find a wild place near you to explore. See a list of our regular nature clubs. Download activity and spotting sheets. wildlifetrusts.org/mywildsummer
Your experts
Climbing over logs is so much better in bare feet
Judy Powell, Suffolk Wildlife Trust; Bryony Carter, Shropshire Wildlife Trust; Lorna Fox, London Wildlife Trust; Jennifer Morpeth, Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust; Michelle Crooks and Jim Day, Hants & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust; Katie Fenton, Essex Wildlife Trust; Julie Doherty and Jo Morris, Avon Wildlife Trust; Debs Richardson Bull, Worcestershire Wildlife Trust; Steve Ashton, Tees Valley WT; and Cheryl Marriott, Cornwall Wildlife Trust
SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 29
The UK’s sea life needs
YOU
LIVING SEAS
LINDA PITKIN, 2020 VISION/NATURE PICTURE LIBRARY
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SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 31
wildlifetrusts.org/mczfriends
I’ll become a Friend of Marine Conservation Zones by going to wildlifetrusts.org/mczfriends. This will give me regular emails from The Wildlife Trusts’ marine campaign team, letting me know how I can help. If I live near the sea, my local Wildlife Trust may also contact me with other ways I can get involved. My details will not be used for any other purpose.
The Wildlife Trusts want the UK Government to set up and defend a network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). These are parts of the sea where habitats are protected from damaging activities such as scallop dredging and trawling. In England, nationally important MPAs are called Marine Conservation Zones. After the 2009 Marine Act, establishing them should be a formality. But only 27 conservation zones have been approved so far in England with a further 33 being considered in Scotland. The Stour and Orwell estuaries were one of four zones to fall at the last hurdle, meaning there is not a single MCZ between the Essex and Northumberland coast. The Wildlife Trusts are campaigning for a joined-up network of protected sites in UK seas. Marine Conservation Zones protect threatened undersea habitats such as eelgrass meadows, rocky reefs and deepwater canyons – and the animals that live in and around them. Only your support will put pressure on the Government to fulfil its commitments and set aside areas of the sea for protection.
What are we trying to achieve?
Yes! I’ll help to save the UK’s sea life
The UK’s seas are home to half our wildlife: whales, dolphins, turtles, birds, fish and thousands of other weird and wonderful animals and plants They should be safe, but in fact they are threatened by damaging over-exploitation. Many habitats have already been destroyed, and species pushed towards extinction Please join our campaign to persuade the UK Government to set up a network of Marine Protected Areas where wildlife can flourish again
LESLEY WALDUCK
Moor Farm
Hugh Pearson Chairman Alde & Blyth Wildlife Group
What’s on
Living Seas Living Landscapes Living Gardens
We are Suffolk’s local wildlife charity. One of the things that makes us local is our active volunteer network.
PAUL HARRIS NATUREPL.COM
It was also our most successful event to date, with an impressive £1,301 raised for the Trust. We'll be aiming even higher at a repeat event on 7 June next year.
Wildlife Groups are at the heart of local communities across Suffolk. Each group is different offering a broad range of events, walks and talks throughout the year. Plan a visit to one of their local activities with your What’s On guide included in this pack. October 2014 to January 2015
DavidTipling
We were delighted to be invited to run an open garden at Moor Farm, Friston during the summer. The area around the farm house is a great example of a wildlife-friendly garden with an abundance of bees, hoverflies and butterflies on the mixed borders, ponds and wildflower meadow.
Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Brooke House Ashbocking, Ipswich IP6 9JY 01473 890089 info@suffolkwildlifetrust.org suffolkwildlifetrust.org Registered charity no 262777
suffolkwildlifetrust.org