July Update
It is an exciting time of year for surveys across the site. The warm weather has seen a big increase from last year in the number of butterflies and moths. In one night, we recorded over 114 individual moths including an eyed hawk moth and a large elephant hawk moth. There has also been an exceptionally high number of bats recorded during May using a specialised detector, especially pipistrelles, with the warm weather increasing prey numbers.
On Otterhampton Marsh it has been a different picture for the waders. Although the avocet colony started strongly with a record number of 62 nests/pairs, productivity has been very low. Upgrades to the predator fence and monitoring has shown that foxes are not getting in, but the colony is instead being harmed by sky predators such as corvids and gulls. This has been a national trend, with many other reserves reporting similar issues.
Stockland Marsh has seen some positive outcomes so far this year, with up to 3 pairs of nesting lapwing. Fledged juveniles have now been spotted indicating their first success on the reserve since 2019. We are also hopeful for our first successful pair of breeding marsh harrier.
Great news that great crested newts were found this week at the northern end of the reserve in ponds recently restored through the Species Survival Fund habitat improvement project.
We have recently acquired a Softrak 75 Cut & Collect system for efficient wetland vegetation management. We held a demonstration afternoon showcasing the Softrak in action, attended by local farmers, landowners and agricultural students. As the Softrak will be used alongside conservation grazing, Blue Carbon Farming also spoke about their experience of using Nofence GPS cattle collars on the reserve. Photo: Nick White
The Softrak & collars have been funded by the Government’s Species Survival Fund, Wetter for Waders project.
Join us for our Dragonfly Weekend 9th/10th August, 10am-3pm each day. Highlights include a dragonfly art trail with installations made by local artists, including the Combwich craft group, willow weaving, pond dipping, expert walks and talks, wildlife stalls, and refreshments! Festival flags will be decorated by the children of Otterhampton Primary school and the Combwich Art Group. Local artist Alison Jacobs will be returning with hide window art! We are working on catering but hope to have an offer on both days for this one-off.
