River monitoring event

What better thing to do on a lazy Sunday than to spend it dipping for river folk.
This event was arranged via the Wiltshire WIldlife Trust in conjunction with the Riverfly Partnership
Riverflies website
The aim is monitor populations of invertebrae in selected rivers within Wiltshire to determine the health of that particular stretch. By studying the larvae of the Caddis fly (cased and uncased), Mayfly (Ephemeridae), Olives (Baetidae), Stoneflies and Flatbodied (Heptageniidae) a state of a river can be determined as these species are most vulnerable to pollution.

'twas a great day, with lectures in the morning followed by a practical session held at Langford Lakes, after lunch, samples collected from the river were studies in closer detail with the aid of microscopes.

After a location confirmation period we should recieve details of our stretch of river to be studied (hopefully Slaughterford in Wilts) and we'll be issued with useful kit...like speed boats and jet skies....or most probably just a dipping net.




Mayfly larvae



Caddis fly larvae case - each one is unique, note the small water snail shell used in the bottom left section!

River monitoring event

We delegate

Ahhh, bliss! This is what becoming a Countryside Manager is all about, we sit around in the sun and get someone else to dig a whopping big hole for us!

The new pond - This big 'ol will be levelled and 'shelved' in a few weeks time ready for a liner and water. It is adjacent to the local beekeepers' hives and base so will provide a useful resource for them. Once landscaped the whole area will contain numerous shrubs and plants along with water based greenery.
This has confirmed to me that hiring a small digger for my own (smaller) pond back home is quite a good idea.

We delegate

Pondways - Newt survey training day

Just at the last minute a friend contacted me and asked if I'd like to attend the Avon Wildlife Trusts' newt monitoring survey - in hunt mainly for Great Crested Newts in the Avon area...I jumped at the chance!

The background info: The project aims to raise public awareness of ponds and pond networks in our landscape, their heritage value and the plight of our most strictly protected amphibian, the great crested newt Triturus cristatus. Pondways will also actively engage the local community in pond conservation by training volunteers to survey Avon’s public ponds for biological quality and the presence of great crested newts. The British Isles’ largest newt and a Biodiversity Action Plan species, it has specific habitat requirements. Its decline in recent decades is due to the loss of good quality ponds and pond networks, plus a reduction in suitable surrounding terrestrial habitat.

Such surveys will add to the currently limited knowledge of great crested newt distribution within Avon and help to identify where pond networks, crucial to sustaining larger populations, could be restored or created through management. Findings will also contribute to national surveys – ‘The National Amphibian and Reptile Recording Scheme’ (NARRS) and ‘The National Pond Monitoring Network’ (NPMN), as well as be made available to the public through the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) and a Pondways website.

The highly imformative training day event took place in Keynsham, with a ID and survey technique talk to get the 10 volunteers clued up as to what species of newt to look out for. The classroom event lead to a quick survey of 2 local ponds within public access fields. They were in quite a bad state, not much vegetation and a fair bit of floating litter - but! there was positive signs of Great Crested Newts eggs.

The day ended with a nightime torch survey which yielded positive sightings of both Palmate and Smooth newts lurking at the bottom of the pond. The cherry on the cake moment was when we found both a female and a male Great Crested Newt, twas a full house!

The survey will run untill October where we will be designated 3-5 ponds to survey local to us. Hopefully I shall be able to obtain some decent images of any newts discovered which can be submitted along with my recorded findings.

These first few summer months should prove to be a busy one with many surveys currently planned:

Avon Pondways Project - GCN and other newt survey
River Monitoring Scheme
National bat survey - Bat Conservation trust
Stag Beetle survey

Pondways - Newt survey training day

DED

Next year at college is 'Le Grande Project', about 10,000 words covering an area of interest to me. I'm choosing the value of biodiversity in trees within our countryside, mainly in hedgerows, field boundaries etc....
Having a scope around my local parish I found these poor buggers today, Wych Elms....they've suckered and sprouted everywhere along the hedge line and each one in turn is falling prey to Dutch Elm Disease. The patterns left by the bark beetle (larvae) are amazing to look at, intricate symmetrical weaving lines. The beetles emerge in spring from dead Elm and carry the Ophiostoma novo-ulmi fungus upon them, this takes hold when the beetle finds new young trees to feed upon, the fungus spreads throughout the trees and kills of branches or complete trunks.
Females lay eggs in dead patches of the tree, larvae burrow out, and the process begins again.

It's a big plan of mine to somehow be involved with research, surveying and development of a method to mitigate DED cases in the UK.

Some info: RHS Dutch Elm Disease advice

It's been two very long weeks but come Monday it's back to college for the final installment of year one...man, it's flown by!

DED

Out with the old...........

A Then and Now picture.

The top one was taken 2006, below - 2007 At the top field - a drastic removal of natural invasive species (such as nettle) will have to make way for an introduced meadow - which will hopefully encourage a wide diverse insect species. A new pond will feature to the right of the image which will in itself over time introduce a new range of species to the area.

I plan to add many more fruit trees to replace the plums and apples lost over the years, then I can re-name the top field, "The Orchard"...gives it a bit more class, don't it?!

Out with the old...........

One hurdle does not maketh a fence

a few days and a dose of sunburn later (in April!!) and the hurdle is finished. Seven more are needed to create a screen across the back row of trees. I need to look further for good hazel coppice as local sources are badly kept and resembles wych hazel!
The 'top field' is now mown, and de-brambled ready for an Easter egg hunt this coming Sunday...mmm, chocolate.

One hurdle does not maketh a fence

Hurdles

From nearly 2 weeks on and off collecting of hazel I have managed to make half a hurdle! I think I mis-calculated somewhere along the line, and now my local sources are quite dry.
Not bad for a first attempt, and with little info to go on. Perhaps a trip to a local woodcraft fair this summer should reveal more.





And to think I was planning to make eight of these by summer!

Hurdles