Thank you to everyone who joined us for this year’s bird survey around the East Keswick Parish. There were 25 people who came, including the children, who enjoyed using the Merlin app, taking photos and making lists of their observations.
Highlights were flocks of siskin and linnet, 3 little egret, 2 gadwall and a sparrowhawk. We also had a lovely view of a hare, which has not been recorded in the parish for many years.
On a very cold and wet January day, a hardy group of EKWT volunteers visited the Lower Ure Conservation Trust (LUCT) at Nosterfield. LUCT aims to establish best practice in the provision and maintenance of wet grassland. EKWT are keen to share knowledge about the wetland plants in our fen area in Bardsey Fields and so were delighted to be invited to visit the nursery at Nosterfield. The day was very informative and we are pleased to have made links with another Trust. LUCT will be visiting Bardsey Fields reserve in the spring.
Leeds Swifts is a group of volunteers working to bring this red listed species back from the brink. Having seen the impact they have made from watching Hamza Yassin’s visit to them, we asked if they could visit East Keswick Wildlife Trust and give our volunteers advice on how to encourage more swifts to nest in our village.
We welcomed over 50 people to Bardsey Fields at the beginning of July to see the work that we have been doing, learn about the wildlife there and take part in craft activities. Permitted access is now available through the two gates at the corners of the top field next to the road. A path has been cut between these two gates and then all the way around the top field. We had guided walks around here and were able to explain that in time, our management will result in the top fields developing into wood pasture. This will be characterised by open-grown, often old trees in a grazed environment, creating a rich mosaic of habitats including grassland, fen and scrub. There will be open views across to the fen below. The fen is home to many uncommon plants and butterflies and recently fawns have been seen there and a kingfisher nesting.
Craft activities on the day included willow wishing wands, spiders and felting sheep. Emma demonstrated how to ‘slow the flow’ with guttering and tennis balls. This is because we have broken two pipes under the field into the beck and brought the water to the surface in the field. The water will then filter through a series of dams to slow the flow of water and help prevent flooding downstream in Bardsey and Collingham. Paul had set a moth trap and had a number of interesting species to observe, including elephant hawkmoths.
We have the Dexter cows on site and there will be 2 in Bardsey Fields all summer. The grass is thick and dense and the cows on site are having a real impact on removing this, which will allow wild flowers to bloom in the summer. When you visit, please remember to close the gate behind you so they don’t escape!
The Trustees of East Keswick Wildlife Trust have made the decision not to allow dogs on the site. This is for a number of reasons but primarily: there will be cows in the fields all year round; the resident wildlife such as deer, foxes, badgers and small mammals will be disturbed as well as ground nesting birds such as meadow pipit, willow warbler, chiffchaff, dunnock, blackbird and skylark.
In July a group of Cubs and Squirrels came to visit the Ellikers nature reserve. Melanie explained about the yellow fish campaign and ‘only rain down the drain’. We then had a walk all around the reserve. It was a lovely evening and so there were a number of butterflies to observe, along with the wild flowers.
This year our summer family event is at our new reserve, Bardsey Fields – opposite Bardsey Primary School. The event will run from 11- 2pm, so please bring a picnic. There will be guided walks around the reserve, crafts – including making spiders and willow wands, storytelling and more. It will be great to welcome you to hear our plans for the future of the reserve.
It was lovely to meet everyone who came to our stand at Bardsey Gala on 4th May. We were able to let people know about all the work that we have been doing in Bardsey Fields recently and our work in the Parish in general.
We had craft activities which were enjoyed by all ages. Janine kindly led the felting to make sheep and hedgehogs from fleece. Douglas led the dragonfly making so a big thank you to both of them and all the Trustees and EKWT members who helped on the day.
In March we had a great session with Year 3 from Bardsey Primary Academy. They came over the road from the school to get involved.
We talked to them about how water travels through the landscape and demonstrated how it travels much faster in pipes or across hard surfaces than across more natural ground. We did this using some plastic guttering laid across the field and we ran lots of balls down the gutter. They travelled quickly down the slope, a bit like water in a pipe. Alongside this, another group of children dropped the balls onto the field. These slowly ran down the hill and stopped before getting as far as the end of the gutter. A great demonstration of how if we take water out of pipes and enable it to filter slowly across the land surface then it slows it down and reduces flooding issues further down the catchment!
This is exactly what we have been doing in conjunction with Yorkshire Water and the Yorkshire Dales Wildlife Trust recently! We’ve dug into the pipes that took water directly from the school roofs and under the field into the beck at the bottom. When it rained these pipes were flowing fast. Now the water will flow down the field more slowly. Some will soak in and evaporate and it will create some wetter areas on the field for different habitats. You might also have seen our wooden leaky barriers – the idea is that when it’s raining very hard these will trap and slow down the water going across the field, further slowing it down. The children were very impressed!
They then got stuck in and planted some trees. A whole host of species. These will create great habitat and also soak up more water! They learnt about the different animals that might eat young trees, like mice, rabbits and deer, and that’s why we need to use fences and tree guards for the first few years while they establish. The children were excited at the prospect of coming back with their families and see their patch of woodland growing!
Yesterday 21 adults and children joined us for the annual winter bird survey and it was lovely to welcome a number of people who had not been before.
We saw a total of 39 species, which is a good count for a survey in winter, although we did not see some species that would have been expected such as Goldcrest, Lapwing, Goosander and Collared Dove.
Many thanks to Ann, Robert and some of their colleagues from the Yorkshire Mammal Group who came to Bardsey Fields last weekend to carry out small mammal trapping. This work will give us a baseline for the species of small mammals living there. We laid 50 humane mammal traps on Saturday afternoon, ensuring that any mammals caught had a cosy bed and plenty of food. We then returned on Sunday morning to empty the traps, record and weigh the mammals and then release them safely.
44 people came to set the traps and 50 came to see what had been caught. This was phenomenal as the weather on Sunday morning was very cold and wet!
The children had a great time and were so excited to see whether the traps were closed and what would be inside.
The results of the survey were: 20 woodmice, 6 bank voles and 1 common shrew. This compares with 18 woodmice, 1 bank vole, 1 field vole and 1 common shrew in last years survey.
