The Paxton Ranger

2012-02-11T20:27:00.001Z

"Snow use crying about spilt milk" they say: so we didn't. In fact, we were quite amused to see an inch of ice-cream poking out of the top of our milk bottles this snowy, frosty morning.

When I was a kid, everyone had their milk delivered to their doorstep. Bread was also delivered in the same way, but by a different company. The milkman would usually come from the dairy in a quiet, electric milk-float, although I remember going to Edinburgh where the milk was delivered on a rubber-tired cart pulled by a horse, wearing socks so that he didn't wake us up.

At school we all had 1/3 of a pint of bottled milk a day to help us grow strong, healthy bones and teeth and make us look handsome. A dairy diet certainly worked for the Dutch but we also ate 6 pence worth of sugary sweets a day. I still have the bones, but not the teeth. In reality it was a scam to prop up the National Farmers Union who had a hot line to government and we even had a state sponsored Milk Marketing Board. Imagine that today! (It was actually a good thing for small farmers who only had a dozen cows. Now you have to have a hundred to break even.) We also had cod-liver oil capsules, but I can't remember why! Maybe it was a way to get rid of surplus livers from the fish-and-chip industry?

The small, glass milk bottles came in wire crates that were stacked at the school gate where dogs peed on them and then the milk froze; at least it did in winter. Miss Dunn would bring our crates indoors and warm them by the big, pot-bellied stove in our classroom. Sometimes the bottles were still frozen at break-time, and at other times they were deliciously warm. We had competitions to see who could glug them down in one go.

Now it's unusual to have you milk or bread delivered but in Brampton we still have a delivery service, every other day. The rounds are very long because there are less customers, so an electric float just won't cover the distance. At about 3 a.m. the milkman pulls up in a diesel van with a megaphone exhaust and then crunches his way up our gravel drive to clang the bottles down outside our door. Perhaps he's making a point: we are always weeks behind in paying him. Maybe he hopes we will open the door and say "Hi, come in and have a beer!" In reality, I have no idea what he or she looks like. It must be a thankless job and cheques are on their way out. How will we pay him?

The Co-op used a token scheme: You bought blue, plastic tokens from the shop and then, if you left out four tokens, you received four pints of milk. They had different tokens for bread.

Today, we had four pints delivered that froze and expanded, pushing the foil top off, so that an inch or more of ice-cream stuck out the top. We brought them inside and the rapid change in temperature shattered the glass on one of the bottles. I'll just have to drink wine instead.

It's a shame that glass bottles on the doorstep are so much a thing of the past because the birds used to love them. From the 1920's onwards, blue tits, great tits and some robins learnt to steal milk. In the 1950s they were briefly "foiled" by the introduction of foil caps, but they soon learnt to peck a hole in them and get the cream. They even learnt that the gold-topped bottles had more cream and went for them first! The habit was widespread in the UK but I guess it has died out. My bottles are never attacked in this way.

I told you so!

2012-02-09T20:22:00.002Z

I was strongly of the opinion that spring was just around the corner; right up until it started snowing. My geography training tells me that, if mild Atlantic conditions prevail for weeks at a time, it's usually safe to predict that they will continue to keep out any of that nasty, cold European air. To re-enforce my view, our neighbours in Holland and Belgium were having the same weather as us, so we seemed pretty safe. Of course my cynical colleagues and our regular volunteers kept telling me "We'll pay for this later" and they were right; we are paying for it now.

On Sunday morning the Friends had planned to run a volunteer work party at Pumphouse Pit, but it ws cancelled because of the weather. Our hardy Voluntary Wardens braved the conditions to open up the Visitors' Centre and they had a quite a busy day. Visitors had good views of the birds that remained on the frozen lakes and a bittern was seen on Rudd Pit.

On Monday I dug my 30 year-old Nordic skis out of the garage and made my patrol around the Heron Trail. I was pleasantly surprised to meet another skier coming the other way, also wearing 30 year old skis. He learned to ski in Norway while posted there with the Army in his youth. I only get to use mine about once a year, but just being on them brings back memories of Scotland, Austria and Yellowstone Park.

The harsh conditions had brought fieldfares to the reserve and to people's gardens and I saw my first goldcrest for this year at Rory's Wood.

Back at the wildlife garden, our new pond has frozen over, but I hope the newly laid turf has survived. We covered it up against the frost and then the snow probably protected it, but I hear there's more weather on the way. In fact, it's snowing now. It must be pretty tough on the birds and mammals.

Pond-life

2012-01-29T16:57:00.001Z

This week's big advance is in the wildlife garden at the visitors' centre where the pond has been stripped out and relined. It looks much bigger than it used to but in fact its only slightly larger. We have moved it back towards the hedge a but to gain some extra space.

Ranger Matt Hall has been leading on this project which he designed. The plan was to level the whole site at the same time, moving the garden plot to the edges so that we can accommodate more picnic tables and even use a marquee for events. The plan was foiled by big, black and orange salamanders that live in the garden. These great-crested newts are considered to be quite rare and are protected by law so we had to call in a licensed newt-handler (I'm not kidding) to inspect the site.

Like a plumber giving an estimate, he sucked on his teeth, looked at the sky for an agonising time and told us that we might get away with digging the pond now while the newts are hiding on land, but we mustn't dig the garden itself until all the newts have woken up in the spring, which could be any time now, I guess.

So that's the new plan. The pond will be finished next week and we will lay turf around it, but then we will have to wait for the newts to show up before we level and turf the rest of the garden. I just hope that's the muddy bit done with. We made a glorious mess that still hasn't been entirely cleaned up.

On Thursday we had a visit by seven staff from the Environment Agency's Coastal Programme. You can relax; they were not here to manage our defences in the event encroachment by the sea; they were here to work as part of their staff development programme. I took them along the shore of Cloudy Pit where they cut down some invading willows and burned the brashings. It was a real pleasure having them here, especially since they brought marshmallows that we toasted (or ignited) on pitchforks in the fire.

High-Rise Flats?

2012-01-20T14:51:00.002Z

Years ago I used to subscribe to a wonderful publication called "Vole Magazine". Nowadays we would call it a green broadsheet since it contained well written articles on countryside issues and topics such as the "History of the Garden City". It was sponsored by Terry Jones and not affiliated to any charity or to the BBC. Though it only ran for three years, it had contributions from loads of great writers including Richard Mabey. Bill Tidy and Ralph Steadman both contributed cartoons and I can remember one in particular.

Two country types are chatting in their front garden outside their idyllic, thatched, Cotswold cottages. One says to the other, " My, what a coincidence: I design high-rise flats for a living too."

I was reminded of this cartoon when I looked out of the Visitor's Centre window this morning to see no less than 11 nest boxes on one tree! What's going on there? Is it an affordable avian housing scheme?

This communal nesting installation is aimed at sub-urban sparrows that prefer a housing estate to a rural hovel. We have triple sparrow nest boxes on the building but they are too heavy to install on the trees, so we have 11 single ones, close together. It seems that sparrows are unlikely to occupy a nest box unless they have neighbours next door, and the noisier the better.

Sparrows are members of the weaver-bird family. You may have seen pictures or travelled to Africa where the Acacia trees are often festooned with their hanging nests made of grass. Living in a colony has its benefits in terms of finding food or a mate, child care, sharing knowledge and protection from predators. It's also true that it may attract more predators and parasites.

House sparrow, male.

Until a couple of years ago, it was rare to see a sparrow near the Visitors' Centre, but there were some near the allotments. Now, as I write this I can see over a dozen of them at the bird table and these are the birds I hope will nest here.

They are Passer domesticus, the House Sparrow; quite a rare birds in some parts these days, but perhaps making a come-back. These communal nest box schemes were originally designed for tree sparrows (Passer montanus) which are much rarer birds, typically associated with traditional farmland. The best place to see them locally is at the RSPB's Ouse Washes Reserve, though we have had the odd winter sighting here.

You may feel that these nesting tower-blocks are a bit of an eye-sore, but the tree is a weeping willow and it will soon soften the view when it sprouts yellow, drooping fronds in the summer. Hopefully though, we will have something new and interesting to watch from the window this year.

If you are interested in sponsoring a nest box, you can pick up a leaflet from the centre.

Island Life

2012-01-13T11:59:00.001Z

Our false spring continues apace. Cormorants are well into nesting, herons and swans are courting and song-birds, especially thrushes, are singing. Our two nest-box wardens, David and David, started their annual clean out and repair service, only to discover that some blue tits, great tits and robins have even started nest building.

Ladybirds and bumble-bees have been seen on the wing, so I wonder who will see the first butterfly?

Fortunately there's no sign of nesting activity among our black-headed gulls which are still all in their white-headed winter plumage. I say this because we like to give their nesting colony a good spring-clean before they arrive. Most of the black-headed gulls you see in the area in summer have their HQ on the islands in the Sailing Lake, though a few now nest in the workings near Diddington.

Although the Sailing Lake is not part of the Nature Reserve, we are permitted to manage the islands as well as the paths around it. Our objective is to keep the islands clear of vegetation as this is just what the ground-nesting birds want. Their eggs are camouflaged to look like gravel and pebbles and we think they prefer to be able to see all around so that predators cannot sneak up on them. Of course the sailing club members also like the islands to be bare so they get plenty of wind for sailing.

Every year at about this time, the Friends of Paxton Pits run a Sunday work party on the islands. The Rangers bring their metal boat and the Sailing Club provides a safety boat and crew. It's always an interesting event, but it's also a struggle to finish the work in one session, so this year we made a second trip to the islands on Wednesday with our mid-week volunteers. Bramble seems to be on the increase, making it really hard to get it all cut as it forms a network of runners along the ground. It's a problem because we have heard that young birds get tangled in it. As well as cutting it down and burning it, we plan to spray an area with herbicide. However, to be effective, this has to be done when the bramble is greening up; just about when the birds come back. Worryingly, there was a gull prospecting one of the islands this morning!

On Sunday we saw a common sandpiper on one of the islands and on Wednesday there were smews on the lake, but during the breeding season, the Sailing Lake is alive with birds; not just the gulls, but also common terns, oystercatchers, lapwings and geese, all nesting in a small area where they are safe from foxes.

There are mammals there too. Sometimes we find harvest mouse nests and we always see wood mice and voles. In the breeding season rats were seen, probably attracted by all the dead chicks on the islands. All that activity would also attract mink, but we have seen no evidence of them there so far.

Happy New Year

2012-01-04T16:08:00.000Z

Pollarded willows near the river.

If you come to Paxton Pits this month for birds; you are in the right place. If you are looking for flowers, you're a bit early..........or are you? The mild weather has totally upset the flowering times of plants. Wild Arum is already showing so the first snowdrops might not be far behind. Cherries are in flower in Cambridge, so who knows what might flower next at Paxton? E-mail your sightings to paxtonpits@btconnect.com

Our New Year's Day event went exceptionally well this year with 259 people attending. My sponsored birdwatch raised £130 even though we only saw 37 species. Highlights included marsh tit, tree-creeper, goldcrest and yellowhammer, but we didn't see a collared dove or a starling! The idea was that people should pay us 10p for every species we found. I was pleased with the outcome because critics, such as my son, forecast a flop! He even suggested that we start people off with a fiver and then give them 10p back for every species they saw; then there would be every incentive for them to find birds, and for me to tell them they were wrong!

The Bank Holiday Monday was also busy with 193 people through the centre.

Looking back through December, I see that we had 1710 visitors through the centre in the month, making the total number of visitors through the centre for the 12 months of 2011 = 30,087. In 2011 our voluntary wardens put in 586 man/days and our midweek volunteers worked 506 man/days; all figures to be proud of.

Willows invading the reeds.
Hayling Pit.

In the mild December weather we were able to crack on with some hedge laying and also remove willows along the edge of the meadow. Of course, mild weather usually brings rain, and we have had some, but not enough to make up for the drought. All the same, it's still pretty muddy on both trails.

The Friends of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve organise monthly winter work parties on Sundays and these have done some really useful work so far this winter. In October they cleared away willow from a small reedbed in the Hayling Lake; in November they cleaned up a pond within the quarry where there are great crested newts and attacked willows on the shore of Pumphouse Pit. In December they took on the daunting task of removing shoreline willows on Island Pit to conserve a large area of silt that is important for rare invertebrates. On January 8th, we will be working on the islands in the Sailing Lake where most of our terns and gulls nest. This is done every year with the permission and assistance of the Sailing Club.

If you are interested in helping on winter week-end work parties, please contact Mike Thomas on 01480 387749.

The Wonder of Winter Wildlife

2011-12-29T17:18:00.000Z

Mild weather and a lot of birds at Paxton Pits.

The year is coming to an end with only a few nights of frost so far. There are cherry trees in bloom locally and farmers are harvesting spring veg. I had a very pleasant picnic in the sunshine on the 23rd and a garden full of flies on the 24th. This is good news for wintering birds like goldcrests, wrens and kingfishers that suffered losses during the past two winters. It may not be such a good thing for insects that do better in dry, cold winters. Mould and damp are their enemies.

Last summer was a great one for Arctic lemming populations and and for the predators that feed on them. Good lemming years may also benefit ground nesting birds because the predators might home in on the lemmings rather then their chicks. The result locally has been an unusually high number of sightings of short-eared owls, hen harriers and rough legged buzzards, but not at Paxton, yet. You can monitor what's being seen locally by going to the Cambridge Bird Club site. They have some amazing photos on their site too.

The December bird here at Paxton Pits is a solitary corn bunting that is hanging out with over 100 yellow hammers on the arable fields by the road leading up to the works. Jamie Wells from the RSPB has been feeding them some waste seed to keep them there, but you need patience. It's definitely a bird for my New Year's list.

Speaking of New Year; don't forget to come along to our annual Winter Wildlife event on January 1st. We start at 10 am with tours departing from the Visitors' Centre at 10.30 and 2.00 pm. Experts will be on hand in the hides and there will be hot soup and refreshments waiting for you when you return after your walk.

My special sponsored twitch starts at 10.30. It's free and you don't need to book, but I'm asking for you to pay 10p for each species that we see. I reckon this could cost you 5 pounds at the most but we have seen 57 species just from the hide on a previous New Year's Day.

The weather forecast isn't good and the track is quite muddy so I recommend that you wear wellies and warm, dull coloured clothing. Don't forget your binoculars either.

Wouldn't it be great if we saw a smew?

.

Year's End

2011-12-16T15:47:00.001Z

I haven't added up the figures for the year yet, but this is the time to stock-check 2011 and think about an annual report. I must say, it's been a mixed year for me and I'm not too sad to see it gone!

Just add water.
Dried up silt lagoon at the works.

This time last year we were frozen up with snow and ice. At the same time the District Council was going through budget cuts and staff reductions through voluntary redundancies and the gravel company was taking its second year off from the site. The future didn't look too good.

Despite all this and the dismal financial forecasts on the BBC, I see signs for optimism at Paxton Pits. The Friends of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve goes from strength to strength and they make a huge contribution to what we do here. In fact, this year they have been able to allow us to make progress instead of just marking time.

In April 2012, the Countryside Services section that we work in will be amalgamated with Parks to become "Greenspaces", headed up by John Craig. That's all we know at the moment, but a review will begin in February to produce a strategy for the new department. This could be seen as a threat but, given that we are still committed to an extension here and that the pressure on all our sites continues to build because of new housing projects nearby, we expect to have an expanding work program for the foreseeable future.

If you look up our Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) on the Natural England Website, you will see that this year its condition was posted as "unsatisfactory". At first we were a bit miffed about this, but let me explain what it's about:

Removing shade from the banks of Cloudy Pit
will benefit invertebrates.

When the SSSI was notified, the site was prized for its populations of flies that inhabit the silty puddles and lakes that are formed around an active quarry processing plant. This habitat is always temporary and is rare in nature, so the beasties that live there are rare too. They depend on small particles of silt suspended in water. The best site here is Washout Pit, but also along the shallow edges of Cloudy Pit. Over the years these sites have become covered with willow trees and other plants and become less suitable for those specialist insects that once thrived there. By giving the Reserve and unfavorable report, our man at Natural England hopes to spur us into action and to free up some funding to help us restore the best areas.

So, if you look from the boardwalk, across the meadow to Cloudy Pit you will see that we have started work on restoring the open shoreline. We are only taking out willows and hawthorns, leaving the alders, brambles and any dead trees to provide some places for birds. Work at Washout Pit is more problematic and may take some years to complete.

New Ranger office? Matt Johnson christens the new composting toilet.
Copies of this photo (for use in blackmail etc) are available on request.

Our workshop area (once known as "the Snakepits") has no water or electricity but we do have a new composting toilet there. Ranger Matt Johnson and his team of latrine-duty volunteers finished building it this week.

Assessing habitat for Dipteran flies
with staff from Natural England and Bardon Aggregates.
This site is the UK headquarters for a rare green leafhopper.
"It can jump this high".

This morning the temperature was just above freezing and it was trying to snow, but it was still a delight to patrol the Heron Trail because there are just so many birds about. The Heronry Lakes have huge numbers of wildfowl, especially wigeon, and I saw a goosander and a few goldeneyes out there. We also have hundreds of redwings in the hawthorns and, at last, a few dozen fieldfares. On the arable fields near Bardon's works there is a flock of buntings that includes over 100 yellowhammers.

Now the forecast is for colder nights and a bit of a freeze-up in Europe, so I would hope for even more birds to arrive soon. I really hope so because I've promised people over 50 species on New Year's Day. The idea is that you turn up at 10 am and I will take you for a walk around the Heron Trail. It's free, but for every species I show you, you have to pay me 10p. Please have your fiver's ready! I reckon a smew, a kingfisher or a goosander should be worth £5 alone. Otters are extra!

Have a good holiday.
Jim

Santa comes to Paxton

2011-12-15T10:33:00.001Z

I had the great honour of being invited to represent Santa for our Little Bugs Club this week. Debbie Mackenzie, who is our Wildlife Trust education officer, bought me a very nice suit, wig, beard and hat and installed me in the willow mammoth where I was to lay in wait for the tiddlers.

Of course, you all know that I was just a stand-in for the real Santa; but the children were literally awed and agape in my presence. It's a huge responsibility being Santa, even for an hour.

I got the job because, allegedly, the real St. Nick had a problem with DEFRA over his reindeer. He needs a blanket livestock movement-order to take them around the country (the same as a circus) and this was applied for in good time. However, someone spotted that the animals were coming in from the EU and so they contacted Brussels to see what further permits were needed. Fortunately the people in Brussels knew all about Santa or St. Nicholas, having just celebrated his birthday. They pointed out that he's already been there, but without his reindeer. He arrives in Holland every year from Spain by ship with his dappled-grey horse which has a long-standing permit to travel within the EU. So, problem solved and back to DEFRA. We're still waiting.

Heaven knows what the bureaucracy will be like when they realise that these animals fly! NATO actually tracks the sleigh every year and is fully co-operative, but what about the chaps in the little house in Buckingham Palace Road? They run an operation called the UK Space Agency and their main job seems to be to try and control what goes on in space above our heads and over our territories abroad. Making sure nothing falls on us must be quite a big task for a such a small agency. I went there once expecting something hi-tec with dishes and masts on the roof, but it's quite ordinary, though the roof was being re-enforced when I was there. I phoned them up and they said that, as long as Santa didn't fly higher than 35,000 feet, they were not bothered. Thank goodness for that!

I'm pretty confident that all the paperwork will be in place and that the real Santa will be able to deliver his presents on time, so my job was to give the customers a once over to see if they had been naughty or nice. Well, I gave them all special cookies that taste really sweet if you have been good, but taste of pepper if you have been naughty. They all said theirs tasted nice, so I passed on a positive report to the North Pole. I'm guessing they will all get nice presents under the tree.

Whoops! I just found out the the Space Agency moved to Swindon. Their new building has two massive, oblong silos. Are these the ventilation shafts for a huge bunker or just the chimneys for the central heating? see The UK Space Agency

Sunday Carols, Pies and a Winter Walk

2011-12-10T14:51:00.001Z

The Friends of PaxtonPits Nature Reserve

invite you to anafternoon of Christmas Birds and Music

On Sunday, 11^th December from 2.00 to 5.00 pm

At the Reserve Visitors’ Centre

We are offering a short guided walk to see the large numbersof water-fowl that have gathered here to escape the colder weather that ismoving down from the North, followed by seasonal refreshments and carols in ourwarm cabin.

This year’s carollers are from the St Neots Folk Club.

This an ideal way to get in to the holiday mood, because ithas all the best ingredients, (robins, berries, mince pies and carols) withoutrequiring you to go shopping!

No need to book; it’s free and it’s fun. (a Donation wouldbe nice though!)

Contact Jim Stevenson

07810 637543

Jim.stevenson2@ntlworld.com

Flushed with success?

2011-12-03T11:08:00.001Z

The 19th Century arrives at Paxton Pits.
A wooden outhouse.

One of the District Council's show-case projects is the tree nursery at Godmanchester. It's so much more than just a nursery; it is a full-blown community project. The rangers from Paxton pop in occasionally for work reasons (a cup of tea), and we always see that there is something new going on there. Often they have an idea that we can copy at the Reserve. For me, the highlight of one recent visit was to experience the beauty of their new composting toilet. Why can't we have one at our yard where we have no water or electricity?

I fondly remember the Sanilav at my Grans house in Swaledale. I say "at my Gran's house" but the loo was actually over a hundred yards away in a stone shed by the pigsty. It was cold, dark and smelly and you had to carry a torch unless it was a really sunny day. I remember the feel and smell of last week's Radio Times that hung on a nail behinds the door. 'A good read though.

Years later, I enjoyed the daily privilege of using the pit latrine on Cousin Island in the Seychelles where I was joined by two species of gecko, two kinds of lizard and a million mosquitos. This throne room was totally outclassed by one on the slopes of Mt Meru in Kenya. It lacked all the usual features such as lights, fans, walls, flushing water etc. but made up for this by having an excellent library of magazines and bird books, and the best view in the world, possibly.

But these new, Welsh composting toilets are absolutely palatial compared to the old holes in the ground I once new so well. Our colleague Mark Houston from the Architects' Department put in a bid for us, and now we have one! It duly arrived, in bits, on the back of a truck, but how to unload it? Our neighbouring farmers at Southoe, the Rampleys, were called to lend assistance with their front loader, but due to pure Welsh cunning, the kit was unpacked on the trailer and lifted off a bit at a time using our tractor. The hardware was soon installed and, by the time you read this, the door will be finished. Ranger Matt Johnson has led on this project, so I guess he should use it fist. He probably already has.

Last week's afternoon talk was a bit of an experiment. (That's what I always say when things don't turn out as expected.) Up to about 15 minutes before the start I was aware of at least 3 people who had come for the talk! I put out a dozen chairs, just in case a few more turned up. Well, in the end I had to put out 48 chairs and then stand at the back. Barrie Mason obviously has his own fan club because most of the audience had followed him up from Bedfordshire. Quite a few were old colleagues of mine from the RSPB at Sandy. So the experiment was a success because it attracted a new crowd and drew in a bigger total than we usually get for a evening talk.

I give quite a few illustrated talks myself (I'm available, by the way) and I always find it interesting to watch another speaker. Like our own Trevor Gunton, Barrie has stuck with slides rather than going digital and I must say, they looked stunning. (Note to self: I must remember to black out all the sky-lights next time we have an afternoon talk because slide projectors are far less bright than digital ones.)

Barrie is first and foremost a photographer, so the talk was about the pictures and the asides were about the business of taking them. Trevor and I are not really photographers, so we use the other approach where we tell a story and are quite happy to steal anyone's pictures to illustrate it. For us the pictures are largely there to remind the speaker what to say! In Barrie's case it was all about the pictures. Of course, to pull this off, the pictures have to be really good; and they were.

Our visitor figures for November are looking good, probably due to the mild weather. 1660 people came through the centre and 10 children's groups brough 104 aduklts afor only 75 children. This reflects the fact that we get mostly special education groups at this time, and the Little Bugs Club, which is for very young children and grown ups who like to party!

Cllr. Tysoe

Finally, last Wednesday we had a flying visit from Councillor Tysoe who represents Sawtry. He is now the portfolio holder for Environment at Huntingdonshire District Council, so I hope we made a good impression. We took him up to the quarry in the shiny, clean, black 4x4 that is based at Hinchingbrooke Country Park. Rangers Kirsty Drew and Judith Arnold came a long to make sure I stayed on message and didn't go all "lefty" on them. Judging by the email of thanks we received afterwards, we will all still have jobs on Monday, at least!

December? Really?

2011-12-03T09:06:00.001Z

Green grass and sunny skies.
The rose-hips tell us it's autumn, but which month?

If you took a photo almost anywhere on the reserve last week and then asked people what month it was taken in, they would probably say "September". There was so much greenery about and people were still having lunch at the picnic tables outside. It's still like that now, despite a couple of easily morning frosts.

I was made very much aware of the mild weather when I found a photo taken at the end of November last year. It shows frozen lakes and acres of snow. However, at this time last year, our lakes were pretty full. This year we have had a drought that the Environment Agency says will still be causing problems next year.

Having low water levels at Paxton Pits is not a bad thing in itself. The dabbling ducks and geese can now reach weed-beds that only swans could get to before. You can see them congregating over the deeper parts of the Heronry Lakes.

Next time you are in the hide, watch the feeding ducks closely. A typical flock will be centred on either a couple of swans or Canada geese that do the hard work of pulling up the weed. Coots will follow to get any green scraps and wigeon and gadwall ducks will grab any small items and seeds that float out. Shovelers and teal rake the surface film for what's left (although these vacuum-cleaner ducks are more likely to be asleep in the day as they can eat in the dark, using touch rather than eyesight.)

Rafts of wildfowl on the Heronry Lakes

That's the dabblers catered for; but what about the diving ducks? To be honest, we don't have many at the moment, probably because the water is too shallow and they have too much competition from the dabblers, but you may see tufted ducks joining in the feast. They are particularly fond of snails and other small invertebrates that the feeding frenzy has disturbed. Pochards are pretty much vegetarian and they will join in to grab roots and corms. Goldeneyes have arrived recently and they act in a much more free-wheeling style, chasing active invertebrates like shrimps, beetles and water-boatmen. The bigger fish-eating ducks like goosanders stay away, probably because all the activity will have scattered their prey.

If you have been really looking, you will have seen that each clump of birds also contains on black-headed gull. The gull's job is to act as look-out, but as a reward he gets to mug any ducks that catch a tasty item that he fancies. He's a klepto-parasite!

East Anglian Landscapes

2011-11-29T18:53:00.001Z

East Anglia is flat and boring isn't it? Think of the A14 and weep. 'Remember queuing behind tractors and caravans all day, just to spend an hour at Southwold before driving back? I do.

Well, it's not always like that, according to Barrie Mason. He travels all over the region from his home in Bedfordshire, taking photographs, writing and lecturing, and he's a real fan of the place. So am I.

If you would like to learn more about our region; or if you are getting over Wednesday's strike; or even if you just want a toasty afternoon indoors, in good company, watching very nice pictures; then why not join us on Thursday December 1st at 2.00pm (NOTE THE TIME, IT'S IN THE AFTERNOON, NOT AT NIGHT).

There's no need to book and there's no charge (but a donation would be nice).

I'll see you there.

Rory's Wood

2011-11-27T22:05:00.001Z

Today we had a beautiful sunny morning after a stormy night, but all the trees I saw were still standing and the Heronry Lakes were teaming with birds. More importantly, the berries that will feed the birds when the cold weather arrives, were still on the bushes.

Many of the trees still have green leaves and there was a common darter dragonfly still on the wing. Thrushes have been singing for the last two weeks as though it was spring, yet on this day last year, the lakes were frozen and snow was beginning to fall.

The McAdam family work party in Rory's Wood.

It was a good day for some practical work on the Reserve and so it was really nice to meet the McAdam family for their annual get-together in Rory's Wood, which is named after their son.

The base and tank are in place.
Matt Hall is digging the soak-away,
under Matt Johnson's critical eye.

For many years they planted trees in the wood until we had to ask them to stop. We simply had too many! Now they spend more time tending the young trees and obliterating the non-native turkey oaks. This year I asked them to bring a few more hazels as you can never have too many of them. We use the two year-old shoots to top off our hedges and the small mammals (and the big, fat squirrels) really appreciate the nuts. If you look around under the bushes you can usually find the discarded shells, complete with tooth marks. It's fun to try and identify which mammal or bird ate the kernel.

Meanwhile, up at our yard by the river, the two Matts have been hard at work putting in our new composting toilet. The tank and all the fittings arrived from Wales by lorry and all we have to do is put it all together. We are building the wooden shed over the top ourselves. It will be a real "convenience" for staff and volunteers when it is finished and may cut down the number of rapid trips back to base!

Great Otter photo!

2011-11-10T16:40:00.001Z

Otter at the Kingfisher Hide, Nov 2nd 2011
Photo: Kevin Loader

Local photographer, Kevin Loader, was at the Kingfisher Hide on November 2nd. He actually had three sightings of an otter on that day. 'Talk about greedy!

I couldn't resist posting it as soon as I received it.

October News

2011-11-06T10:42:00.001Z

Sightings: I was getting really irritable last month: If another person saw an otter and told me about it, I could have screamed! But last Friday it was my turn.

As I walked back down the Heronry Trail, past Peter's Field by the row of conifers at Wray House Garden, I could hear the urgent whistles of nervous wigeon just beyond the trees; so despite being in a bit of a hurry, I popped over the little wooden bridge for a look. On the right of the path there is a fallen tree that lies in the water. Very close to the shore, there was my otter busily fishing among the submerged branches. It soon caught a small pike and settled down on a branch to eat it, tail first. I could still hear it munching away as I left. So now that I have seen one it's your turn, and I won't be jealous.

Piglet taken with a mobile phone.

We also have a new mammal on the reserve, though I'm not sure that it's one we want. If you stand on the River Viewpoint and look across the river towards Great Paxton, you are actually looking at a substantial, wooded island that is part of the reserve. Last week, staff from the Environment Agency were there to clear debris from the river and startled a spotty piglet, then a second one. They didn't hang around to see the sow that they suspected was there as well.

If the year was a day, this would be tea-time! November is traditionally a good time for berries and fungi, and there are plenty of both, but who would have expected wild flowers? This week there are still some colourful surprises to be found, especially in Peter's Field where you can still see white campion and deep blue cornflowers.

Purple toadflax

Tasks: Along the side of the Haul Road, near the Sailing Lake, you can see chicory, fennel and stork's bill still flowering, but it's a notorious spot for fly-tipping and we had a fine show of exotic poppies there earlier. I found a couple of spikes of purple toadflax, which is a garden escape, but I think it's rather attractive and not invasive. However, there is (or was) another plant there that we definitely don't want on the Reserve.

Crown vetch is a creeping member of the pea family that has pinkish purple flowers. It scrambles over the ground forming a dense mat of vegetation, almost a foot thick, that obliterates all competition. Having formed a monocultural colony in a glade, it then starts to spread to the neighbouring bushes and small trees, scrambling up through the densest bramble and even reaching up into willow trees. It just has to go.

Crown vetch before.....

We have tried spraying it, but that only kills off it's competitors and gives it more space. This week we cut it all down and burned it, but I'm sure it will be back. Perhaps our best hope for next year is repeated mowing of the colony and then hand weeding to pick out any strays near-by.

.......and after.

On the arable land we have increased our area of seedy, bird-food plants in the hope that there will be enough to last the whole winter without us having to put out grain. When we first started growing crops we attracted a large flock of yellowhammers, but we haven't seen them for a few years now. Neighbouring farmers are going into stewardship schemes, so we may have a joint effect by all trying to attract the missing farmland birds. Of course, if they simply aren't around, you can't attract them.

You may spot some brass tags on some of our trees. This means that we are monitoring them, usually because they might become a safety hazard. Ranger Matt Johnson led on this and is now worrying about how to find money to get the most urgent tree surgery done.

In every winter month, the waterbirds on all our lakes are counted as part of the national WeBS count which is coordinated by the BTO. Due to the low water levels, we have been able to access some tricky bank-sides in order to trim the willows to facilitate counting from viewpoints.

Shaggy Ink-caps

Visitor Figures. The highlight of the month was Family Autumn Watch which was a joint effort between the Rangers, The Friends and the Wildlife Trust. We used the Education Centre as a base for a wide range of activities and attracted 475 people on the day. Over the whole month we had 2252 visitors in the Visitors Centre and Debbie was visited by 96 children at the Education Centre as well as the Autumn Watch families. Over 30 people attended a talk on Fungi by Peter Walker.

Volunteers: Over 150 man days of volunteer effort contributed to the running of the centre, the reserve and the Autumn Watch event.

Coming Up: As well as hosting events on the site, The Friends of Paxton Pits sometimes goes on the road to reach people in the wider community around St Neots. On November 19th at 7.30 in the United Reformed Methodist Church we have An Evening of Song. Huntingdon Male Voice Choir will be supported by Take Three Folk. Tickets are going fast at £8.00. (From Paxton Pits or the St Neots Museum).

Volunteer Gerry Senior trying to look busy while
we clear bramble from an orchid patch.

On December 1st at 2.00pm, photographer Barrie Mason will be giving us an armchair tour around the Wildlife and Landscapes of East Anglia. There's no need to book for this, just turn up in good time at the Visitors' Centre.

In November our wildfowl numbers should increase, even though we already have more ducks than usual . I'm hoping for smew and goosanders before too long. We have water-rails on the site now and can expect more. Because it has been a lemming year in the far north, we might expect to see a short-eared owl or even a rough legged buzzard. They are being seen in the county already. Will we see bramblings on the bird tables this year? There's always something to look forward to, even if the weather (and the economic) forecast is gloomy.

Indian Summer

2011-10-16T18:33:00.001Z

This summer just goes on and on, despite threats from the Met Office. According to the tabloids, we should be up to our necks in ice-bergs by now, or at least expecting The Big Chill next week. Visitors keep telling me that we'll pay for it later, but I don't care. What I crave is sunlight on my skin and that feeling of being alive, almost flying, when you look up into a deep Dali-blue sky; or was that just a 60's flash-back?

Redwing from the RSPB web-site.

In the last couple of weeks I've developed a serious crick in my neck by sky-watching. I hoped for honey buzzards in September and cranes, harriers and geese in October, but all I saw was sparrow hawks and buzzards; lots of them. Aren't they great though? Then last week the redwings started streaming in from the far north. Among them I found a few continental blackbirds but no fieldfares until the14th when an un-mixed flock of them settled in the car park.

There are still swallows passing over (I saw some on the 15th) and finches such as redpolls, siskins and crossbills pass over us daily, but you have to be really tuned in to see them or hear them. Looking lower in the bushes you might find goldcre

Otter at Kingfisher Hide
Friday 14th October
by Kevin Robson

While I've been walking around watching the sky (I must do a risk assessment on this), others have been sitting very still in the hides, with cameras at the ready. If you really want to see an otter, the opportunist approach doesn't work: You have to act on the 'gen' and stake them out. Several people have seen otters this week at the Kingfisher Hide, which means that you now have more chance of seeing an otter there than a kingfisher!

The arrival of autumn migrants in mid October should come as no surprise. After all, the lakes are full of winter wildfowl such as wigeon, shovellers and tufties (plus a scaup and a couple of pintails). Its just that we still have blackcaps, chiff-chaffs and swallows around.

Red Admiral, taken in July.

You couldn't fail to have noticed the large number of red admiral butterflies and late dragonflies around the Reserve, but there are a few smaller beasties around that I wouldn't expect, such as small coppers and masses of caddis flies.

This week we ran another set of traps to check for "killer shrimps" in Pumphouse Pit. We didn't find any, but there was a strand line of washed up weed under which we found swarms of shrimps, up to metre from the water's edge. These were not the dreaded shrimps that we sought, but another species that inhabits the freshwater splash zone. There were thousands of these grey and glossy hoppers there and they are really good at burrowing. They are very similar to the sand-hoppers that you find under seaweed at the beach. I think they are Orchestia cavimana whuich is described as semi-terrestrial. The Freshwater Biology Association has a good key that you can see on-line.

In another existence, I have had a close encounter with the real killer shrimps; see Stream of Dreams which is my fishing blog that isn't really about fishing!

September

2011-10-06T12:15:00.000Z

Sightings and soundings: We are into October already, and the first week feels like August again, with drought and record temperatures for the time of year. Most of our lake levels are below the bottom of the gauges, but we still have enough water here. We all have nice tans too, but I'm told we will pay for it later and there may be snow on the way!

Ragwort flowering yet again.

Meanwhile, throughout the UK we have a bumper crop of berries and acorns, which should mean a good autumn for migrant thrushes such as redwings and blackbirds. Apparently the berry crop in Scandinavia isn't so good as here, so we might have another waxwing year. Jays are already moving in on the acorns which they bury all over the place, often a long way from the parent tree. This explains the random, lone turkey oaks that pop up in strange places on the reserve.

The last of our summer migrants are still being seen: I saw both a swallow and a hobby on Monday of this week. On the same day a very rare, young Pallid Harrier flew up the valley and was seen by several people. Sadly, I wasn't one of them.

Already we have high numbers of migrant waterfowl, particularly over 300 wigeon from Iceland. Why so early? The answer seems to be twofold: The Ouse Washes are very dry and so these birds are coming to us instead, and the weather up north hasn't been nearly so kind as it has here.

Sheaves of thatching wheat.

The "Indian Summer" was great for butterflies and dragonflies and I'm seeing plants that are flowering for the third time this year. Some of these, such as ragwort, crown vetch and Himalayan balsam, are not the ones we would like to see on the reserve, but it's great to see great dodder flowering again.

Visitor Figures: September was a good month for us in the Visitor's Centre with 2156 visitors. We always get a lot of customers who take their holidays after the schools have gone back. Many come from the Camping and Caravan Club site at St Neots.

Most of the groups that came were walkers of one sort or another. 7 groups brought 131 people.

In the Environmental Education Centre, Debbie and her team have started the autumn term well with visits from both primary schools and 6th forms as well as the WexWatch club, GreenWatch and Little Bugs. 8 groups brought 150 children. In addition, Castle School and Samuel Pepys have been bringing small groups of children each week on a self help basis and the "Green Team" from the Regional College comes at least twice a week.

Volunteers: Our Voluntary Wardens, who manned the visitors centre every day of the month, put in almost 60 man-days.

New calf gets it's ear-tags.

We gave our midweek volunteers a month off in August but they returned to work in September and numbers have slowly built up through the month to total 42 man-days.

Tasks: The main tasks have been repairs to fences, improving access and sprucing up the garden, although we have also done a good deal of weeding. We pulled all the ragwort on St Neots Common for the second time this year. On two occasions we took our volunteers to Barford Road Pocket Park to remove old signs and clear up grass cuttings. The Rangers have been dashing around cutting all the grass that has to be cut, hopefully for the last time this year.

Old plough, made new.

Agriculture: Our wheat harvest from Peter's Field went for thatching and subsequently we sowed more wheat for next year on a different field. This was achieved using an old plough that our volunteer Davy Jones renovated for us, using a generator bought for us by the Friends. Our wild bird cover mix is looking very attractive with big, yellow sunflowers and red and orange quinoa plants among the crop. Hopefully this will provide enough seed for wintering finches in the first part of 2012. The next task is to sow a field with clover to fix nitrogen in the soil.

We have a small guest herd of very polite, French cattle in the meadows this year, as well as our own Sussex-Angus crosses that we keep near the river. Presently, Ranger Matt Johnson has a flock of Wiltshire horned sheep in the paddock where he hopes they will clean out the ragwort rosettes that remain. These sheep are unusual in that they don't need to be sheared; they just shed their wool. They will later be moved to a railway embankment in Huntingdon which HDC is managing for butterflies.

Bird cover/seed mix.

The Friends of Paxton Pits have been as busy as ever. Trevor and Veronica Gunton gave a really fascinating talk on their travels to the Arctic and Antarctic, pulling in over 70 people at the Village Hall. Meanwhile, a lot of time has been spent preparing for our big Autumn-Watch event on Sunday, October 9th.

At Barford Road Pocket Park we have been cutting the larger areas of grass after most of the plants have set seed. The objective was to take away the swarf and so strip away the nutrients to encourage a more varied flora next year. We even hoped to get some hay from it, but the growth was so coarse and dense our equipment couldn't handle it. We used a contractor to finish the job, but there is still some tidying up to be done.

There are some bright-new signs in place at Barford Road, and more to come. There are also some litter bins to be placed near the play area and benches.

It's often a pleasure for us to go to Barford Road because we see things there that we don't see at Paxton. It's a great place to see lizards sunning themselves on the log piles that were specially made for them, and the park often attracts a few good birds. I saw a redstart there last month. The down-side is that we have to pick up litter and there is always tons of it; at least there was. The creation of the new foot-bridge over the river and the causeway that accesses it seems to have diverted a lot of "litter-louts" away from the Park. Now almost all of the litter at Barford Road is to be found around the entrance near Tescos and around the children's play area there. Hopefully the addition of more bins will help to reduce the amounts even here and the "six-bag pick-up" will be no more!.

Autumn Watch

2011-09-29T11:01:00.003Z

Dragonflies are still abundant in Autumn.
This one is a Ruddy Darter.

Family Autumn Watch: Although we are enjoying an "Indian Summer" just now, it's time to think about our Autumn Watch event. The Friends of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve, the Wildlife Trust and the Rangers have organised a big programme of activities for visitors of all ages. We will even have hot food on the go. The event is mainly based at our new Environmental Education Centre and runs from 10 am to 3 pm. There's no need to book; just turn up with your family and friends.

Help us get funding, Please! The Wildlife Trust has submitted our Out of the Blue project at Paxton PitsEnvironmental Education Centre for Natwest Community Force scheme funding andhave reached the voting stage. ‘Out of the Blue’ will enable us to runimpromptu activities in the environmental education area at Paxton Pits onsunny days in the school holidays when all else is quiet.

Voting has started and we need your help!! Log on to http://communityforce.natwest.com/here you register to vote. We are located within the Cambridge region. If yousearch on the Wildlife Trust for Cambridgeshire and zoom into the map youshould eventually find us (sorry the direct link doesn’t seem to work!)

Our profile for the Out of the Blue project for the NatwestCommunity Force scheme is now complete with photos (see link below). Voting has started so please spread the word as much as you can.

I have alsoincluded a link to share the project on facebook which you can pick up from ourmain project page too so please do encourage everyone who can to facebook ortwitter our page.

http://goo.gl/mIIVL

Ranger Matt Hall goes to Africa for charity.

2011-09-19T09:14:00.001Z

I don't normally post non-Paxton news on this blog, but I thought this might interest you all.

Double First for Matt andSarah: making their first visit to Zambia as world’s first WWCP ambassadors

WORLDWIDE CONNECTION PROJECT

Matt Hall

Matt Hall and Sarah Newton, co-leaders of St Neots Woodcraft Folk, flew out to Africa for the first time on 17 September on a mission to findgrassroots organisations interested in establishing informal twinning linkswith people in Cambridgeshire. They willbe staying in Zambia for two weeks and visiting the poorest parts ofLusaka. They will be taking somefootball kit, children’s books and medical supplies to donate to some of thecommunity groups that we’ve already been talking to online.

Our ambassadors were met at Lusaka airport by Ketty and Amos Lwabila,proprietors of Kumbayah Ministriescommunity school. In 2010, ourCambridgeshire WWCP group raised £750 to transport 96,000 servings of soup tothe school’s feeding centre. We alsoarranged horticultural training so they could start to grow their ownvegetables and this year they have had a very good harvest. Ketty wrote to David Bale, the Buckdenresident who created the WorldWide Connection Project: “Thank you very much for your endless efforts intrying to assist the Kumbayah children. We feel so honored to have beenconnected to new friends”

Our local WWCP planning grouphas met regularly in St Ives since January 2009, and has maintained an onlinedialogue with contacts in our partner area. We hope Cambridgeshire’s pilot partnership with “Lusaka, to the west ofthe railway line” will inspire other places also to start making contact withtheir allocated partner areas. Ourvision is of a worldwide network of informal partnerships and collaborations atthe grassroots of society. We hope thiswill help to create a world that is not only more connected, more aware andmore understanding, but through dialogue and collaboration, ultimately morepeacefultoo.

Text provided by our Voluntary Warden, David Bale.

End of summer?

2011-09-16T10:59:00.002Z

Female common darter

It's been a good week to be out and about. The sun is still shining, but it isn't as warm as it was. If you like to photograph insects, then this is a good time because they need to sit about in sunny glades to heat themselves up. Dragonflies are particularly photogenic just now and there are at least four kinds of hawker and both darters to be seen sunning themselves or darting around after hover-flies. Most damselflies are finished now but you should look out for the metallic-green Willow Emerald. It seems to be turning up all over East Anglia this year.

Lizard at Barford Road Pocket Park

Reptiles too are cold blooded, of course, so they need to sun themselves just like the dragonflies. A cool reptile is a slow reptile, so now is a good chance to spot one. At Paxton, look for grass-snakes but, if you go to Barford Road Pocket Park, you have every chance of seeing a lizard. I wish we saw them at Paxton too but, if you find one under a log rather than on top, it will almost certainly be a newt, not a lizard. Even so, there are old records from near Diddington, so if you find one, let me know.

Fox-and cubs Hawkweed

There are still colourful flowers to be seen everywhere. Yellow seems to dominate in September but the first signs of reddening vegetation are starting to show in the stems of willowherb and evening primrose. Once we get a frost, the reserve will transform to its full autumn palette, but let's not rush things. Already, fungi are popping up in unexpected places; often right in the middle of the path. I found a few field mushrooms and puff-balls in the meadow near the visitors centre and some large toadstools along the Ouse Valley Way this week. These fungi attract flies, some of which are attractive in their own right.

Sloes

To be honest, if you stand in one place and really look, you will find something interesting to photograph at this time of year. I have photographed a jungle of teasles, a shoal of fish, two flies, a toadstool, a lizard, some sunflowers, a dragonfly and an oak tree within an hour, all beautifully lit by the autumn sun. When not taking photographs, I just look. If the day ever comes when I walk past a comma butterfly or a buzzard without giving it the courtesy of a good keek (Scottish/Dutch word; look it up) please shoot me!

Acorns and galls

You must have noticed the huge number of berries this year, and the large number of people picking them. This week's high winds loosened many berries that fell to the ground where flocks of small birds are busily munching them up. Nothing gets wasted here; this applies to acorns too. Our oaks are covered in them and so is the ground beneath. You may also have spotted thousands of deformed, brown acorns on the ground. These are knopper galls, caused by a tiny wasp that lays its eggs in the oak flowers in spring. The adult wasp will emerge from the fallen galls next year. It seems probable that the wasp was introduced to this country when we imported Turkey oaks for timber production in Victorian times. Oak-marbles and oak-apples are also galls, made in a similar way, but the insects emerge in summer and the galls stay on the tree.

Our new, blue plough in action.

I took a walk along the edge of the arable on Wednesday. Our dominant crop these days is a mix of plants designed to provide seed and cover for birds in winter. The sunflowers are not the dominant ingredient by any means but they stand out because they are so big, confident and cheerful. They just ask to be photographed. Quinoa is also a very colourful plant and together the two make a delicious combination. Imagine a hundred yellowhammers and one or two bramblings sitting on top of them and you have a vision of what we are after. It's not unreasonable, is it? I was pleased to see a few real arable "weeds" such as cornflowers and corn chamomiles among the crop.

The Friends of Paxton Pits recently donated a generator to us so that we could use power tools in our yard. I'm pleased to say that it has already paid its way by allowing us to salvage an old reversible plough and use it to cultivate our fields. Ranger Matt Johnson rescued what was left of the machine from the nettle-covered corner of a farm and volunteer Davy Jones stripped it down to all its parts and rebuilt it from scratch. It works a treat. Our winter thatching-wheat will be sown this weekend.

Lafarge plant

Talking of stripping down machinery; this is the last week you will be able to see the old tar-mac plant at the Lafarge site next door. It is being demolished and removed. There is absolutely no news about the future of the site and we also have not heard when Bardon Aggregates will resume work at their quarry. 'Hard times indeed.

You can cheer yourself up with a walk round the reserve or join us for one of our events. This month, on September 28th at 7.45, the Friends of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve have taken over the Village Hall in order to accommodate a big audience for one of our showcase talks. The subject is "Polar Bears, Penguins and the White Continent" and the speaker is our own Trevor Gunton.

Veronica and Trevor Gunton
search unsuccessfully,
for penguins at Paxton Pits.

Trevor is of Viking stock (which explains a lot). No church hall is safe from him; he has spoken in almost every one in the country. His ancestors came from the Arctic to grow liquorice in Pontefract and Yorkshire Tea in the Pennines above Harrogate. Apparently these two staple crops fare badly in Norway but thrive here in the UK. After making his fortune in the family pillaging business he had a long and productive career at the RSPB where (at sword point) he recruited a million members. In retirement he has set himself the task of tracing his ancestors (best left alone in my view) by making many voyages to the Arctic. On these trips he has become a popular speaker and tour leader (there isn't a lot else to do), so much so that that he was approached to lead trips to the Antarctic as well. Although Trevor found no Guntons south of the Equator, he did find a lot of other creatures to beguile and amuse us. Don't miss this talk. Tickets are £5 from the visitors' centre.

Letter from America

2011-09-08T08:52:00.000Z

I've been away in New England, which explains why it's been a month since I posted a blog here. It was wonderful to be in a wild place with so many mammals and fabulous birds around us.

In August we gave the midweek volunteers a long break, but I hope they will be all be back this week to trim up the paths. There are some big tasks lined up for the winter, starting with a complete make-over of the wildlife garden at the visitors' centre. After several building projects and the installation of our sewage pump, the ground is very uneven and it looks un-cared for.

The Rangers have been keeping busy with a few projects on their own. The Hayden Hide has a completely new deck and, on the Meadow Trail, there is a new, long bench on the boardwalk. It's a great place to sit and watch wildlife going about its business on Rudd Pit.

Otter at Kingfisher Hide.
By permission, David Williams.

September is the month for migration watchers. Swifts have been gone for weeks now and waders have been on the move since July, but this is when you may see some more unusual birds. Last week and osprey and some black terns passed through. On a fine day you may see buzzards migrating. Our RSPB bird-ringing team has been seeing roving, mixed flocks of small birds, many of which are juveniles preparing for their first trip abroad.

We have had some reports of otters at various points round the trail, but some were probably mink. However, there can be no doubt that what David Williams, from St Neots Camera Club saw from the Kingfisher Hide was an otter because he sent us this photo of it.

If you like your mammals big and hairy, perhaps polar bears are your thing? If so, you are in luck because the Friends of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve have organised an event just for you. Please book in advance through the Visitors' Centre as seats are limited.

“Polar Bears, Penguins and the White Continent”

Wednesday 28^th September at 7.45 pm

Little Paxton village Hall.

On a more prosaic note, next week, the Lafarge tarmac plant next door is being removed. Please watch out for lorries and vans passing the visitors' centre.

If you want to know more about aspects of rural life in Maine, or just see my holiday snaps, go to My Blog

Stooks

2011-07-29T08:33:00.001Z

Stooks or shocks in Peter's Field.

If you have walked down the Heron Trail by Peter's Field this week, you will have seen that our winter wheat has been harvested.

Normally, "harvest" means dusting off the combine harvester, fuelling it up, then driving it around our little field for half an hour while it hoovers everything up. Grain goes into the hopper on top and chopped straw flies out the back. Thankfully, a cloud of dust usually obscures exactly what goes on in the field while deer, pheasants, rabbits and courting couples flee to the safety of the nearby woods.

The wheat we grow at Paxton is an old, long-stemmed variety called "Wigeon". It used to be grown in England for thatching, but most thatching straw now comes from Eastern Europe. Very few farmers still have the patience or the equipment to harvest the wheat in such a way that the straw remains as long as possible. You need a binding machine that cuts the wheat off at the base, lies it neatly on the "table" and ties it up with string, like a bunch of flowers. Our friend Roland Fletcher has such a machine and volunteer Davy Jones knows how to work it. Davy also knows how to make new parts for this pre-war, Heath-Robinson affair. The good thing about old farm machinery was that it could be repaired, or even made, by a local blacksmith and a carpenter, which is just as well as it is constantly falling apart. Ranger Matt Johnson was there to drive and to do the heavy work of stacking the sheaves to make "stooks" or "shocks".

Despite the drought, it's a pretty good crop this year because we grew clover in the field last year and then ploughed it in to add nitrogen to the soil. The stooks will have to dry out before the thatcher comes to collect them on Monday. He has a threshing machine that will retrieve the grain without mashing up the straw.

While the stooks are drying in the field, they will attract grain-eating birds and small mammals including harvest mice. Weasels and stoats will forage through them for mice and voles, then, when the crop is carted away, more grain will be spilled, so keep an eye on Peter's Field next week if you want to see wildlife.

If you spend some time at the River Viewpoint nearby, you may be as lucky as Ranger Kirsty Drew was this week. She watched an otter there at lunchtime!

More new sightings

2011-07-23T15:22:00.000Z

Ploughman's Spikenard

Our resident botanist is Jocelyn Gale, who also manages our indoor volunteer programme. Over the years, she has found all sorts of unusual plants around the reserve. This week she discovered a new plant growing along the Heron Trail, opposite our new Environmental Education Centre. Ploughman's Spikenard likes calcareous soils, so we wouldn't normally expect it to turn up on gravel. It's not a very eye-grabbing flower, but the name alone makes it worth seeking out. Apparently "Spikenard" was an expensive perfume, made from a Himalayan plant, but poorer folk could get a similar product from this member of the fleabane family. The roots were dried and used as air-fresheners, but please leave our lonely example to seed in peace!
Talking of perfumes, "musk" is quite a prominent ingredient in many of the scents that overpower you as you enter a John Lewis store, for example. Did you know that you could make a very expensive version from beetles?

Musk beetle

The Musk Beetle is a kind of longhorn beetle that we find at Paxton every summer. It's very big and glows with metallic colours of green, blue, brown and gold. In flight it looks like a mini dragon to me: Quite impressive. Photographers love them because they are very tame and obliging. They are large enough to photograph without special equipment as well as being quite spectacular to look at.

BTO Awards

2011-07-23T10:14:00.000Z

Ray Matthews has sent us the latest news about from the Quarry.

Bardon Aggregates’ Little Paxton Quarry has been awarded first place in both the Conservation and Community Involvement categories of the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) - EDF Energy Business Bird Challenge 2010. The biennial competition aims to find the country’s best industrial and commercial sites for birds.

In the Bird Count category, the Quarry recorded a massive 168 species, missing out on the top spot by only 3 species!

The company’s achievements in the Challenge result from a long-standing partnership with the Friends of Paxton Pits and Huntingdonshire District Council Countryside Services.

Kate Aldridge, Challenge Organiser at BTO said "Many industrial sites in this country are havens for wildlife and the BTO - EDF Energy Business Bird Challenge is a wonderful opportunity for the British Trust for Ornithology to showcase what industry is doing to enhance biodiversity. We offer our congratulations to all those involved in the management of Little Paxton Quarry; they are making a major contribution to conservation in the UK and thoroughly deserve this award".

During the year, fencing was completed in order to improve some of the grassland through grazing, an island archipelago was created to double the amount of secure habitat for wading birds, and breeding avocets were spotted on site for the first time. Once restored, much of the quarry will become part of the planned extension to Paxton Pits Nature Reserve.

Ray Matthews, Chair of the Friends of Paxton Pits added "We congratulate Bardon Aggregates on this achievement, and we are delighted to be working with the company to deliver a superlative restoration scheme. When open to visitors, this part of the extended Nature Reserve will be a fabulous birdwatching spot".

Little Paxton Quarry, which has been certified to the Wildlife Trusts' Biodiversity Benchmark since 2008, has also been shortlisted for the inaugural Natural England / Mineral Products Association Biodiversity Awards which will be announced in October. Staff and volunteers hope the site can make the 'triple' this year.

Still here?

2011-07-19T20:18:00.001Z

Blurry photo of a Norfolk Hawker.
Note the clear wings and green eyes.

The elusive Norfolk Hawker Dragonfly has been seen 4 times in all. I even saw it on Friday myself after Ranger Kirsty Drew and Lucy our volunteer located it for me. Of course I dropped everything and ran over to the Hayling, expecting to dip-out entirely, but there it was.

We watched it for about ten minutes holding a territory over some lilly pads that lay between the large mat of water soldier and the shore. If you want to have a look yourself, the location is close to the kissing gate at the village end of the allotment path. There is a promontory used by anglers there. As you approach the water from the main path the lilies are at your feet. Good luck, by the way!

Butterfly Survey

2011-07-11T19:10:00.002Z

This week has been brilliant for insects at Paxton Pits. Although we have cut some of the grass-land for hay, there are still plenty of sources for nectar in the margins of the fields and in the trees and bushes nearby. If you want to find bees and butterflies, than I recommend thistles, brambles, knapweeds and of course Buddleia bushes.

Horse Fly

Not all the insects you find are people-friendly. This very attractive local fly with bright green eyes will chomp away at your skin until you scream. A day later you might have an itchy lump the size of a small egg, or your arm may be fatter than your leg. If you swat it, it will shake itself a little and then fly away un-harmed. It's a horse-fly and it has developed a tough hide so that it can survive being swished by horse's and cow's tails. The only other super-fly that I have encountered that is tougher than a horse fly is the African tsetse fly. They can detect movement from far away, even inside a jeep, and then inflict a living hell on you. If you hit them with a rolled up newspaper or even an expensive Nikon lens, they will just laugh at you all the way to your insurers. People have driven off the road in a blind rage due to tsetse flies, but don't use this excuse for your bad behaviour in Little Paxton: We don't have tsetse flies here.

Red Admiral

Butterflies don't bite or sting and they are very photogenic. Find a good flowering bush or a shrub, stand still, set your camera to macro and fire away. Along with the butterflies you might see bees, beetles and other insects after the pollen, or predators such as hornets and dragonflies that are after the other insects.

This week I have seen a lot of red admirals on the Buddleia, and ringlets, small coppers, Brown Argus and Meadow browns out in the grassland. In the garden we have had both Small and Essex Skippers and in the woods there Holly Blues and Speckled Woods. In the hedge-rows there are Small and Green-veined Whites and the first Gatekeepers are on the wing.

Gatekeeper

So this is the best time to conduct a survey. "Butterfly Conservation" has organised a Big Butterfly Count that you can get involved with. Just download the ID chart and checklist from their site, go out and fill it in, then upload the results.

You may see some migrants such as Painted Ladies and Hummingbird Hawk-moths, both of which we have seen at Paxton this month.

Go to http://www.bigbutterflycount.org/ to get the full details.

.

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Norfolk Hawker

2011-07-10T21:37:00.003Z

July and August are the months of high summer. Blossom turns to fruit, birds moult and forget how to sing. The dominant sound is the buzz and hum of insects.

The biggest insects you can find are almost honorary birds: You can watch them through binoculars and photograph them through your telescope; and they now have English names, so you don't need to know Latin. They are relatively easy to identify and there are not too many species to worry about. Best of all, there are a number of recent field-guides to help you.

The "Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Great Britain and Ireland" is published by BWP and covers resident and migrant species. It is written by a former resident of St Neots, Steve Brooks, who now works at the London Natural History Museum. Every now and then it has to be updated because these insects are always on the move. Maps have to be redrawn and new species arrive in the UK almost annually these days.

Steve popped into Paxton Pits a week ago and walked the Meadow Trail where he was as surprised as I would be to spot a Norfolk Hawker. Now this species is confined to the Norfolk Broads and a bit of Suffolk so in his place I would have decided that I was mistaken, but Steve took the view that he knows what he's talking about so it's a male Norfolk Hawker! I'm guessing that this is the first record for Cambridgeshire. The nearest breeding site is probably 80 miles away at Strumpshaw Fen, near Norwich.

Actually it is quite an easy beast to identify. It looks like a Brown Hawker but instead of the wings being ginger, they are clear. In Norfolk I have seen it flying along water courses choked with Water Soldier. Is it a co-incidence that the Hayling Pit also has huge rafts of this plant?

I have been down to the Hayling Pit several times since, in search of this dragonfly, but it seems to have given up on finding a mate and moved on. Perhaps it will be the first Norfolk Hawker in Bedfordshire next. Another has been reported from Kent.

Diddington Fete

2011-07-02T18:13:00.000Z

On Saturday afternoon the tiny village of Diddington held it's annual fete. So did hundreds of other villages in England, so of course, rain was to be expected. Luckily the rain was all finished by mid-morning and a quorum of volunteers from the Friends gamely fought with our marquee to get it assembled by the kick-off: The score was Marquee 5: Friends 6 by lunch. We won!

This was a special fete because it celebrated the village's connections with the British Polish community.

You see, back in World War II, Diddington was at the centre of the biggest air-born offensive force ever, with newly built bases stretching from Kent to Aberdeen. The village was swamped by the second largest military hospital in the UK which was administered by the Americans and largely consisted of Nissen huts. It was surrounded by airfields and was actually cut in two by the A1 road. What a lot of people may forget is that it was also served by a railway.

Volunteers' treat.

I met a lady who was born in pre-war Poland. The Russians annexed her part of the country into the Ukraine and she was shipped along with her mother to Siberia. After the war they became "displaced persons" and were sent to a camp in Iran then to a hostel near Arusha in Tanzania. I have no idea why. It's horrific that innocent women and children were moved around the world like lost baggage. What moved me most was to think that these things still happen to people on a daily basis in 2011.

Happily, the story ends well. While Mum and Daughter were being shipped around the planet, Dad was fighting against the Nazis. After being injured, he found himself in hospital at Diddington where he made a full recovery. From here he traced is family and set up a home for them nearby.

On a more prosaic level , we like to attend local events like these for two reasons: our members and supporters expect to see us there, and we can reach those local people who perhaps never come into our visitors' centre. For myself, it's about finding a genuine connection with our neighbours.

If you want to find pictures of war-time Diddington, just look in Google Images for Diddington Hospital.

June 16th

2011-06-19T20:13:00.004Z

For one group of regular visitors to Paxton Pits, one date means more than their birthday, Christmas, their wedding anniversary or all three at once. That date is June 16th and it marks the first day of the new fishing season. If you look round the Hayling Pit on that day you will find an all male collection of camouflaged campers who have all been there since tea time on the previous day. Some look like they have been there since the season closed in March! The youngsters are possibly "revising for exams" and some of the older ones are (allegedly) "off sick".

There's another carp fishery near my home. You can tell when it's busy because of the row of vans parked along the road. Most of them boast company logos, so I'm guessing that these people are actually at work. I have overheard a fisherman answer his mobile phone, roughly thus:

"Hello? Yes that's me (long pause) ...(sharp intake of breath) .. Blimey, sounds really bad. It's on fire you say? Well, I'm on a big job right now but I could get round to you tomorrow". (A bleeping bite indicator is heard in the background).

If you go on a birders' "twitch" you might witness the very same phenomenon; all male, camouflaged cheaters on their employers, their wives, or both. But guilt is the lot of man, I say. Let him who is without guilt cast the first boilie.

This year the first day only seems to have produced two carp, but spirits are high and there's a better turn-out to be disappointed than in recent years.

I have to come clean here and confess that I am both a birder and an angler. You can read my angling blog by clicking on the title above or here.

I have had questions from non-anglers who are concerned that the anglers disturb wildlife, especially by dragging weed out of the lake. My response has been that we enforce a closed season (it's not law on still waters) to give wildlife a breather, but we have to allow fishing on Hayling and Rudd Pits because we do not own the fishing rights which have been retained by the landowner, Lafarge. Anglers pay quite a lot for the use of the lake so it would be unreasonable of us to make angling there more difficult than it already is. If the weed is piled on the water's edge, stranded invertebrates soon wriggle back into the lake. Another concern is the number of birds, especially swans, that get hooked, but here I'm afraid there is little to be done about this in such a shallow lake using modern angling methods. It's down to the vigilance of the angler.

In recent years we seem to have had a more responsible group of anglers on the Hayling Pit than we used to have. Litter is pretty minimal and they take their sport quite seriously. With a lot more youngsters arriving in the village because of new housing, the current group of anglers will need to be good role models.

There are actually four groups of anglers at Paxton. Those on Rudd and the Hayling Pits pay their club for an annual ticket while those on the Weedy Pit have to join a private syndicate. Both groups rent the fishing from Lafarge. A few years ago, we agreed to allow some limited access on Cloudy Pit for a new club called PE19. It was formed by couple of local enthusiasts with the aim of allowing some free fishing to local amateurs and visitors who might only be here for a day. Finally, part of the river bank is leased to St Neots Angling Club.

Not very friendly, but what does it mean?
It means No Fishing
and it means you,
oh man with the wire cutters.

As you can see, there is a lot of access for anglers at Paxton, on both still and running water. Even so, we suffer from poachers who insist on fishing in parts of the reserve where there is no access for the public at all. We are very serious about maintaining sanctuary areas on this busy reserve where shy species of wildlife such as otters can live un-molested by people or dogs.

The older pits like the Hayling were dug with very steep sides. These banks have some value for wildlife, but shallow, sloping shores are much better because they provide a gradual transition from wet to dry, benefiting plants and invertebrates and even vertebrates like grass-snakes and ducklings. That's the reason that we have excluded angling from all of Cloudy Pit except the steep shore near the visitors centre.

We have got off to a good start this year and I hope everyone will continue to stick to the rules.

Tight Lines!

Botanising the wasteland

2011-06-19T20:01:00.003Z

Large flowered Evening Primrose.

Arid sands and gravels can be great places for botanists. Just think of the Brecks, or the sand dunes behind the Norfolk Beaches. I've found helleborines and orchids in dune-slacks behind beaches in Wales and the South West and then, in another league, there's the fabulous, flowery machair of Coll and other Western Isles. And there's Paxton Pits.

Even without much rain, some plants thrive on sand where you might not expect much to grow. These are often really common plants that colonise almost anywhere by using siege tactics; they just saturation-bomb an area with seed until it gives in. You can see a lot of these plants along railway lines and gravel tracks. Other less common plants may be drought tolerant and can survive here where they have little competition from bigger plants. It's definitely not the place to be if you have big leaves and you don't like direct sunlight. You need a good root system to gather what water there is and a way of storing what you collect.

Biting Stonecrop

Biting Stonecrop is a kind of Sedum that often grows on rocks. The one in the photo was growing out of the kerb, it grows in the edge of the road too. It has been planted on the roof of our new education centre because it will not grow into some monstrous jungle that we would have to mow. It's thick, swollen leaves store what little water there is and the waxy coating on the outside stops it from evaporating away. The hot, peppery taste of this plant may explain why rabbits don't seem to like it.

Wild strawberries are fruiting right now. They are tiny compared to the ones we grow at home, so they don't require much water; just lots of sunlight. Among the strawberries you will find a small yellow flower that you might mistake for a buttercup.

Creeping Cinquefoil

It's creeping cinquefoil. As its name suggests, it's leaves come in fives and it creeps about over the hard ground by means of red, exploratory, root-like runners. Silverweed, rockrose and tormentil do the same thing on other sites.

The plant that we get asked most about is Viper's Bugloss. It's a great favourite for bees that are attracted to the blue flowers with red hairs on them. The whole plant is rather dry and leathery as well as hairy and so it can stand very dry conditions.

Viper's Bugloss

Rosebay Willowherb is often called fireweed, especially in North America because it colonises hillsides after forest fires or widespread felling. It used to be really scarce in the UK but became especially prominent along railway lines in the days of steam because hot sparks often ignited the track-side in summer. After the Blitz in London, huge areas of rubble were colonised by the flowers making it look like someone had brushed purple watercolour paint across the scene. Sadly, all the photos were black and white! I know a place in Peterborough that you would call derelict, until June when the flowers come out, turning it into a wild garden. Buddleias love these places too. If you find such a site, keep your eyes open for butterflies, moths and black redstarts.

Rosebay Willowherb

There are many other plants out here in No-man's Land; Weld, Perforate St. John's Wort, Common Stork's bill, Dove's-foot Cranes-bill and Scarlet Pimpernel, but I want to finish with the big, obvious one; Large-flowered Evening Primrose.

This plant was introduced from the Americas to be decorative. Some people ate the roots, but it was basically a garden flower. It loved railway lines and happily spread along them, eventually making it to Paxton Pits in the bed of some lorry, probably. It's near relative, the Common Evening Primrose is grown to provide oil for the cosmetics industry. Why Evening Primrose? The flowers are only half open in day time: They unfurl at dusk.

A blast from the past

2011-06-19T14:25:00.001Z

20 years ago, when I was the warden at the RSPB's Vane Farm reserve on Loch Leven in Kinross, a wee lass called Alyson used to look after my son Nick. She's all grown up now with two girls of her own, but we stay in touch. She just posted the following message on Facebook:

".....‎11.30 at night and I've just come in.... watched the bats, then found the otter playing in the river. Tried to get photos but just got red eyes!!! Got the lamp out to watch it play and saw the (roe) deer in the woods too. amazing night life.....just a shame no-one else saw it with me."

To which her friend replied, "Where d'you live? Farthing Wood?"

Vane Farm with the Lomond Hills beyond Loch Leven.

I know a few people round here who would pay quite a bit to share an evening like that. Last week her mum posted a message to say that she had redpolls in her garden and there are red squirrels in Levenmouth Woods for the first time that she can remember, so these will viewable from the house too. They have a good quality of life up there.

Vane Farm was brilliant in my time with breeding redpolls, tree pipits, pergrines and fulmars. It's even better now with kites and ospreys breeding round the loch and sea-eagles over wintering. All this only half an hour from Edinburgh!

Quite a few of my friends from Paxton have been, or will be, heading north this summer for otters, pine martins and the like so I suggest a quick stop at the Vane on the way to the Highlands might not be a waste of time. Of course, the best time to visit the loch is in winter when the geese are in.

MBE for Chairman of Friends

2011-06-11T11:48:00.000Z

Prof. Ray Matthews has been the chairman of the Friends of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve for the whole of my time as Senior Ranger here. In fact, he was involved in the interview process that resulted in me getting the job.

On Friday afternoon we received a blizzard of enquiries from the media, all trying to get hold of Ray who was on the Island of Mull with his family. It's a place not known for its good mobile reception! We kept saying that we could answer any questions about Paxton Pits but journalists kept telling us that they only wanted to speak to Ray and they couldn't tell us what it was about. We passed on Ray's mobile number and played guessing games.

It was ranger Kirsty Drew who guessed it first and we scoured the internet for details. Yes, it was the eve of the Queen's Birthday Honours List but only the Independent was posting it and the site had crashed. The official posting was in the early hours of Saturday morning and there it was on the BBC site. Dr Ray Matthews, MBE for "Services to Conservation". (See the BBC Cambridge news headlines.)

We are all thrilled. This is overdue recognition for the huge amount of work that Ray does on our behalf and I see it also as recognition for the Friends themselves, and of course for Pam who's support makes such an achievement possible.

Well done Ray! Buckingham Palace, here we come!

Visitors

2011-06-09T12:12:00.008Z

I just spent a pleasant couple of hours making a video with pupils from Samuel Pepys' School from St Neots. We walked to the River Viewpoint, past at least four singing nightingales and then conducted an interview session at Ray House Garden. One of the questions was about the number of visitors we get and where they come from.

I rambled on about the fact that we have well over 100,000 visitors a year and these include bird-watchers, dog-walkers, joggers and lovers. They come from all over the country and bring in a lot of money to the local community. I could see the youngsters' faces glazing over as I spoke so we tried a more practical approach, stopping each visitor and asking them where they were from.

The first two couples we encountered came from Essex and Cheshire. They come every year for our nightingales. Then we encountered a couple who came from Huntingdon, but had guests from Canada. I think I made my point!

Our May figures make good reading. This is the height of the nightingale season and therefore our busiest time of year. Though, due to the extra holidays, April was just as busy. In May we had 3823 visitors through the centre (In May 2010 we had 3543). 24 visiting groups brought 576 people and 9 educational groups brought 192 youngsters. Our own nightingale festival events attracted about 250 people.

April showers arrive late; in June!

2011-06-06T13:16:00.026Z

Stop Press: Our new Environmental Education Centre has just won an award from Huntingdonshire District Council for it's green credentials. The building is managed by our partners, the Wildlife Trust, to give people of all ages a taste of the wonders that Paxton Pits has on offer. In the design plan, we wanted to get as "green" a building as we could afford within the budget. We still don't have solar panels but I'm so pleased that we won this. I'm sure will win other awards when the plantings have matured and the landscaping comes into its own.

The showers we had this week were the only significant precipitation since the winter. The birds showed their appreciation by having a good bath and then singing their hearts out. There also seems to be a surge in nest building this week. This first rain started our annual swarm of baby toads around the Hayling Pit, particularly near the allotments. Please watch where you put your feet if it rains again!

The drought has been really tough on our snails. You can find thousands of shells in the shrivelled turf behind the Lefarge Plant. Even so, a few survivors like this banded grove snail popped out to enjoy the rain.

On Sunday we fielded our team of bird-counters for the second breeding bird survey of the year. Most of the birds were mapped in dense vegetation so the observers needed to be good at recognising bird-song. Even so, it was impossible to sort out all the calls, squeaks and ticks coming from hidden baby birds. It was a relief to hear a few turtle doves singing after a long silence. People were starting to complain that these uncommon birds had become extinct here. Apparently this is quite normal as the males take a big share in raising the young and don't have time for 'choir practice' until the nest is empty. If you would like to help with next year's counts, please get in touch with me.

Our bird ringing programme is run by RSPB staff in their time off, usually starting very early on a week-end morning. The ringing site is behind our yard at Ray House Farm, near the moorings. The scheme produces all sorts of useful data and often we get reports of birds that we didn't even know we had on the site, or we get definite proof that birds have bred. Recent captures include a Cettis Warbler (pictured) which we were not aware of there, although we have them on the Meadow Trail. They are incredibly noisy, letting out a scolding, explosive chain of expletives from dense cover, so its surprising we missed this one.

Of course, the main point in putting rings on birds is to catch them again. That way we might find out how long they live or where they go. Ringer Ian Dillon told me, "We also caught one Nightingale, which brought the biggest smile of the day from our visiting ringers Vic & Helen Inzani. This was an adult male first caught in June 2008 and re-trapped twice in 2010, but not trapped in 2009. A Garden Warbler plus 2 Great Tits from 2008 were also notable re-traps. The Garden Warbler is quite interesting having been trapped at least once each May since 2008 but never in any other month. Where does it go during June, July and August before it migrates south again?"

Only today I learned that a male lesser whitethroat caught by a cat in St Neots was ringed here on May 15th. They are supposed to stay here and nest, not go to town!

We seem to have more squirrels around than ever. Once in a while we see a black one. This one, which seems to be a young one, was on the bird table at the visitors' centre. Although they generally supposed to be more dominant than their grey siblings, this little chap was constantly being chased off by the resident greys.

Out in the arable fields I'm amazed to see anything growing as we don't have the ability to irrigate the crops. In fact we didn't even bother to plant our wild-bird cover mix until a week ago, but we don't expect much of a crop. Fortunately the wheat that we planted last autumn was well established and deeply rooted before the drought struck. There will be a lot of grain, but it will be a bit small. In amongst the crop on Peter's Field you can see red poppies, blue cornflowers and a few mauve corn-cockles. The daisy-like plants along the margin are corn chamomiles.

Our meadow would normally be waist high in grasses, rushes and wild flowers at this time. It looks like a brown playing field now except in the lusher margins near the trees. This where you can see some very fine examples of spotted orchids, especially at the foot of the steps that lead up to the Hayling Pit. Please don't trample them when you take photos. The rangers were horrified to find that someone had picked a hand full of them last week, then left them on a nearby bench!

Pip

2011-05-17T17:30:00.004Z

In the chaos of nightingale season I almost forgot about Pip. He was brought into my office early last week and then ignored in a box on my desk while we worked outside with the midweek volunteers. I looked in on him after lunch and he was gone: But I soon found him hanging upside-down from a neighbouring desk. He seemed sluggish and I didn't give much for his chances. These tiny mammals are likely to go the way of my tomatoes (all dead by the way) when we get a late frost.

I waited until the end of the day to see if he was fit enough to release. He didn't look like a fighter I must say: Just hanging-out in his box looking, frankly, boring. I walked him back to where he was found in the faint hope of a successful release. If he didn't perk up I was prepared to take him indoors again.

As soon as I put him on a tree he sprang to life. He didn't fly but he "ran" up the branch in a sinister looking bat-crawl, using his hooked wing-fingers and his hind toes. If I had been a bird I would have pecked him to death for just being batty. When he reached the top of the branch he promptly turned upside-down and went to sleep. Then he was virtually invisible.

Pip is a pipistrelle bat. We don't have many at Paxton so we like to look after them. I guess that most of the ones we see come from houses in the village, but a few live in old, ivy-covered trees on the reserve. This is not really a woodland site, but a few more bat boxes might help.

Actually we have two kinds of pipistrelle that have different voices, but they look the same in the hand. You have to point an electronic bat detector at them to tell the difference.

Countryfile

2011-05-14T09:28:00.010Z

After much feverish last-minute texting and e-mailing our team was assembled at Paxton Pits Nature Reserve. It was exactly 5.15 am and the weather was perfect; calm, still and clear as could be.

The team comprised of Delia Shannon, John Minnie and Keith Ridout from Aggregate Industries and Dr Ray Matthews (Chairman of the Friends of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve). I was present to act as guide and make the tea. We were all there to meet a crew from the BBC who had been staying nearby in St. Neots overnight to be ready for the early start.

Dean Jones was quick and businesslike; obviously in charge while Jim Blanche, who was festooned with boxes and wires, was busy from the off. A ludicrously big, furry microphone on a stick revealed him to be the sound-man. Methodical Dave Ronnie had a Volvo full of tripods and cameras, so no prizes there. And finally John Craven, who not only looked and sounded familiar but had a manner that made you think that you were picking up a conversation where you had left it yesterday.

We were off to hunt down a nightingale. Not just to hear it, but to capture it forever on film. As simple as that!

I had stood around for the previous hour and only heard one nightingale, a long way off. Although the weather was perfect, Ray and I were a bit worried as we passed three territories with not a peep. I parked my car near one bird that was singing in a half hearted way and he promptly packed up. We decided to push on to our favorite spot where four territories converge as this would give us a better chance of success and, ‘Bingo’, there was our bird, singing his heart out from the middle of a hawthorn. We couldn’t see him but we knew that if we waited he would move, and he did, three times, and always to the middle of another bush.

Leaving the crew with “Mr Bashful” I went in search of a more co-operative songster and found him in an ash tree near our farm-yard. Although I scanned the whole tree through binoculars I still couldn't see him. But then a young man on a bicycle peddled past, casually glanced up and pointed to the tree saying “Nightingale,‘See him?” I sent him back to get the team and the rest of the session went perfectly. That bird sang in the open for something like half an hour while the climbing sun gave him strength. It was John Craven’s first nightingale.

Ray and John (who look like twins) conducted a short piece to camera (several times) about the nightingales at Paxton and it was ‘in the can’ (as we broadcasters say).

Dean wanted a few shots of the sorting plant to illustrate what the Reserve would have looked like immediately after quarrying; the point being that we can create new habitat and wonderful places for people too. But we knew that, didn't we?

You can see the resulting two minutes of Paxton Pits at its best on the Countryfile Programme, on Sunday May 29th. Look out for a clip of John Craven speaking from Priory Park as well.

Nightingale Festival

2011-05-09T19:02:00.004Z

On Sunday morning a team of volunteers arrived back at the Visitors' Centre at 9.am. They had been conducting an early morning breeding bird survey covering the whole site. They will repeat this survey in June and we will use the data to make comparisons with previous years. It's a very useful tool for habitat management and gives us an idea of how some of our most prominent birds are faring.

As a result of course, you are going to ask me how many nightingales we have this year. The answer is that I don't know yet! However, things are looking pretty good. On Thursday night we held our annual Nightingale Serenade which was attended by over 140 people and 13 singing nightingales, all heard between the Centre and the River Viewpoint. On Sunday morning I found a new territory on the Meadow Trail (making three there) and Ian Langdon found three more on the sailing lake, as well as three at the top of Pumphouse Pit which we learned of early last week. Two are singing on the Ouse Valley Way near Washout Pit and there are at least three on the Haul Road near Rory's Wood. So, just from what we know so far, I make it 28 singing males altogether. This is roughly 1% of the UK population, I think.

While we were sitting in the centre comparing notes, four different birdwatching groups turned up at the same time. The Mansfield RSPB Group came by coach and the Cambridge RSPB Group

arrived in multiple cars. Other groups came from the Midlands in general and the car park was full of solos and couples with strange and wonderful accents, all here to see, or at least hear, nightingales.

People from Up North come here because they don't have nightingales north of the Wash really. Paxton is the most reliable and most northerly site and we have toilets! People from Down South come because the other best places are in Kent and and getting there involves a day and a half counting cones on the M25.

More to come......

Cooling off

2011-04-26T11:13:00.018Z

Easter Monday was warm and sunny; a great day for insects and flowers but too warm and bright for birds. By noon the reserve was pretty silent. The blackbird in the photo felt much the same as me; ready for a nap in the deck-chair. He was sunbathing and obviously enjoying it. Being covered in black feathers must be uncomfortable on a hot day, especially when you think about mites and feather-lice creeping about inside your duvet! Birds use a dust bath to treat their feathers, rather like wig powder. You may see a bird in a similar posture to this one, letting ants run all over it. They pick up ants and annoy them into squirting formic acid onto the feathers, which must be effective against parasites.

Hot, still days like Monday are not ideal for birdwatching as sunbathing birds don't sing or fly about. Tuesday was a bit too cool, but we saw nightingales singing boldly in the open. However, today, Wednesday, was ideal; cool enough to encourage singing and sunny enough to give good views. The clear skies brought in a fresh wave of migrants too, including a very obliging male whinchat.

Wednesday is always a patrol day for the rangers. We have to pick up litter, check that the paths are safe and that everything is working as it should. For me this is an excuse to walk the estate, birding and botanising as I go. It's always a delight to meet happy customers too.

I particularly like to photograph plants as they don't move much, but they can still be really awkward when they want to. Blue toothwort is a native of Southern Europe that grows with a few struggling primroses on the site of a long-gone cottage among the debris of the quarry industry, in the middle of the densest thicket on the reserve. At least, it seemed that way, in fact, these plants are probably the result of a bit of fly-tipping in the '60s. I had to crawl a long way through briars and blackthorns on my hands and knees just to see if it was flowering yet. It is parasitic on the roots of willows and poplars so it doesn't need any sunlight. In fact it has no green parts so it can't photosynthesise.

I went on to check on another strange plant in another thicket, but this one is green all over and needs lots of sunlight. Adder's-tongue fern struggles to compete with fast growing, leafy shrubs and so it tends to grow in areas where the herbage is kept down by grazing, but its a fine line to walk; too much grazing in April and all the ferns get eaten. We have built special pen for this plant that excludes the rabbits at this time of year. The ferns are finished by June but the other plants keep right on going so we let the rabbits back in the pen to polish them off during the winter.

While patrolling, I enjoy seeing the fruits of all the work we did in winter to maintain the scrub and grassland. Each nightingale that returns re-assures us that we are doing something right. Of course, nightingales are the flagship species here at Paxton but garden warblers, whitethroats, lesser whitethroats, grasshopper warblers and turtle doves are all equally picky about the quality of the habitat they need.

The mixture of live and dead hedge-laying that we completed before the spring is showing signs of success as the living thorn bushes sprout and flower while the dead sections hopefully provide a scaffold for hops, brambles, ivy and bryony to colonise. The woven structure of the hedge provides secure nest sites for dunnocks, blackbirds and thrushes while the nettles beneath hide the shiny eggs of pheasants and mallards.

I walked the arable fields and the Great Meadow in search of flowers, but the dry weather is taking its toll there. I don't think our spring barley is going to do much except feed the rooks unless we get rain soon. The ditches were the only really interesting places to look for plants such as celery leaved buttercup, but even the ditches would be dry if it wasn't for our wind pump.

Next week is Nightingale week. We have a full programme of events including talks and walks which you can find out about on our website or in the Visitors' Centre. 'See you there.

Easter week-end

2011-04-23T12:21:00.007Z

This spring continues to leap ahead of all expectations, except perhaps rainfall, which has been zero.

A benefit of producing blogs and newsletters is that you can look back on the same month in previous years. I've been through my photo albums too, and most of what I'm photographing now is usually stored in my shiny Mac computer under May!

Although some migrant birds are still arriving, most of the ones that will stop to breed with us seem to be here already. This week we have have added whitethroats and garden warblers to our list of breeding birds while black terns and wheatears have passed through.

If you overlook the Heronry Lakes on most days, you can witness a remarkable aerial ballet as the black-headed gulls and common terns that nest on the Sailing Lake feed low over the water. They are not fishing, but gracefully, almost casually, hawking for insects, just like swallows.

There are massive swarms of non-biting buzzer midges (Chyronomus plumosus) and caddis flies (Trichoptera) that hatch from the lakes and then make for the surrounding trees. When they first emerge, these insects are very vulnerable as they are weak fliers. Look for swarms of the midges in columns over bushes or fence posts. They look like smoke from a distance.

If you watch these swarms closely, you will see that they are composed of females. The larger males, with feathery antennae, come in to grab a mate every now and then. Of course the swarms attract predators too. Look for black St Mark's flies (Bibio spp) which have a pair of long dangly legs, used for carrying off midges for dinner. They always emerge when the May blossom is out, or at least on the Saint's day, but they were a week early this year. St Mark's Day is April 25th.

If you are keen on insects, then this is an ideal time to get out and look because there is something new every day. This Emperor Moth was seen in a Little Paxton garden this week. I see one most years at this time. Last year there was one in the little orchard by our tractor-yard. They are day-flying silk moths, and every bit as spectacular as the photo of a female suggests. It's hard to get a picture though because they hardly ever seem to land once they have warmed up enough to get going. I'm always amazed to see them as they should be on some heathery moor, miles from here.

Anyway, back to the gulls and terns on the Heronry Lakes! They can survive quite well on flies but the problems start when the chicks start to grow in the nest. They need something bigger with more calories per serving, such as fish fry. At the moment the fry are as tiny as insects. Anglers call them pin-fry. But as the chicks grow, so do the fry so that by June most of the small fish will be inches, not millimetres long. You will soon see the terns carrying fry to their chosen partner in courtship, then later to the fat chicks on the islands in the Sailing Lake.

Blossom

2011-04-15T15:59:00.008Z

It's the second round of blossom at the Reserve this year. The blackthorn and plumb flowers are just ending as the bird cherry and apple trees bloom. Next comes the hawthorn, or May blossom.

This is an exceptional spring for blossom, indicating that the trees are under stress. I remember that when the elm trees were dying in the 1976 drought, they put out the most seed I have ever witnessed. During the dry season in Africa and in South America I've seen leafless trees putting out acres of bright blossom. In a similar way, I'm guessing that the trigger here at Paxton is a lack of water.

Still on the subject of drought; we are now a step nearer to solving our water level problems at Pumphouse and Diddington Pits. Our friend John Minnie from the quarry came down and supervised the movement of two pumps for us but we didn't have anything strong enough to lift them. However, our farming neighbours the Rampleys from Southoe, sprung to our aid with a telehandler.

Ranger Matt Johnson moved a lot of the pipes assisted by myself. That's why I'm home with a bad back now!

The pumps we intend to use are electric, so we have to wait until next week for the electricians to wire us in. We will bury the wires to hopefully prevent them being stolen.

While Matt and I were involved in the pumps, Ranger Paul Claydon was leading a group of volunteers in the task of fencing the repaired path by Hayling Pit. The ground was like concrete and I'm sure he and the volunteers deserve a long week-end. Oh, what a co-incidence! There's one coming up.

April; come she will.

2011-04-09T16:03:00.013Z

This week we have enjoyed fabulous warm weather and witnessed the hawthorns transformed to leafy green while the blackthorns are now a riot of frothy blossom. Bees and other insects abound. And I've got a tan already!

We have just seen the first orange-tip and holly blue butterflies and, of course their food plants (lady's smock and ivy) are on the go too. At Ray House there are primroses and cowslips in flower, evidence that this was once a garden.

Access: The Meadow Trail is fully functional gain, but it might get muddy if we get an April shower. As a result of the recent work carried out by contractors for Anglian Water, the path is wider than it used to be. The loss of "edge" on one stretch makes it likely that people will fall into the Hayling Carr, so we will put up a bit more fence there.

Fungi: You might expect to find edible fungi in the autumn; that's what I thought anyway, so I was surprised to find an extraordianry looking mushroom growing by the Ouse Valley Way this week. It was a morel; very much sought after by the Hugh Fearnley-Whittinstalls of this world and worth perhaps £30 a pound. That's why I'm not telling you exactly where I found it. I left it there to reproduce and for others to enjoy.

Reptiles and amphibians are much in evidence this week. Grass snakes have been seen on Cloudy Pit and the Sailing Lake and we have seen and heard frogs on every patrol. On a visit to Barford Road Pocket Park I saw four lizards.

Birds: By winter's end, all our nightingale territories look destroyed by browsing deer and r

abbits, so we bite our nails until the birds arrive. The first nightingale arrived on April 4th. That's the earliest they have ever been heard here, but it's not the first time they have come on that date. Now we have four or more singing but I'm still having panic attacks. Will they stay? I hope our last minute efforts to hedge off some territories will pay off.

Other birds are settling in at the moment. Highlights include common terns, a grasshopper warbler and perhaps four singing Cetti's warblers. Other migrant birds might be seen passing through but not staying. Keep an eye open for wheatears, redstarts and whinchats. Lucky viewers at Welney saw a blue-throat last week. Please find one at Paxton for me!

Jobs: Now that so many birds are nesting we have to stop any habitat management and move on to maintenance jobs around the trails. There are a few piles of sticks and posts to clear away then we start mowing and trimming. There are pot-holes to fill in and fishing platforms to fix. We have just put in two new benches and a gate.

Comings and Goings.

2011-03-31T12:12:00.009Z

Sightings: Migrant birds have really started to arrive now. Blackcaps and chiff-chaffs are singing from tall trees all around the site and the first willow warblers have been heard. A lot of sand martins are catching insects overhead. Look among them to see the odd swallow or house martin. A walk along the Meadow Trail should produce at least singing Cetti's warbler near Rudd Pit. I haven't heard a sedge warbler there yet, but they must come any day now.

Faith Darlow has taken several pictures of the muntjac deer that come to the visitors' centre garden at dusk. The buck seems to have damaged his antlers and he has a pronounced limp. This could be from fighting, or an encounter with Faith, or a car, but he's still eating our bushes! Looking at the photo, I think he's just old like me.

Reptiles and amphibians are on the move too. I have heard frogs croaking on Hayling and Rudd Pits, smooth newts are in all the smaller ponds and I saw a grass snake swimming in the Sailing Lake.

On calm, sunny days you don't have to walk far to find insects, especially where the gravel banks have been warmed by the sun. We seem to have more mining bees than ever, and bee-flies are very much in evidence. This has to be my favourite insect. They are so funny to watch, looking like a child's drawing of a bee with a fat, round, fuzzy body and ridiculously small wings. Confusingly, they often fly backwards and look the same at both ends, except they have a long pointed proboscis at the front for inspecting tubular flowers like primroses and cowslips.

Killer shrimps: Don't panic! They aren't that big and we have not found them at Paxton Pits yet. At regular intervals The Environment Agency lends us two shrimp traps to put out in Pumphouse Pit. We know they work because we catch shrimps in them, but thankfully not the dreaded killers which still seem to be confined to Grafham Water and another lake in Cardiff. Long may it stay that way.

News from the Quarry: The quarry remains closed. We have been waiting to hear when Aggregate Industries (AI) will return to complete landscaping and restoration work at Diddington Pit. They have been running pumps to drain down the lake ready for the work, so it is almost dry now. With waders and other birds getting ready to nest, this is crunch time. We either have to start landscaping and keep the birds off, or let them nest and forget the earth-moving until the autumn. AI have decided to let the birds breed so the pumps have been turned off. We expect the water levels to rise enough to create small islands in the lake that will discourage foxes. It's a race against time.

Meanwhile, in Pumphouse Pit we have the opposite problem; too much water. We are working with the gravel company to reduce the water levels there using the pumps that have just been turned off. I'll let you know how it works out.

Diddington Pit can either be approached from Diddington Village which lies just off the A1 between Paxton and Buckden, or by the public footpath from the Reserve to Diddington.

There is no public access into the quarry.

Despite not really being here most of the time, Aggregate Industries has still managed to win two out of the three national awards that the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) presents to the quarrying industry. During the qualifying period, they have carried out a lot of conservation work as part of the restoration of Pumphouse Pit and our volunteers and the Friends have insured that they have had a lot of community involvement in the site, so that's what the awards are for. Another quarry won the coveted trophy for the highest number of bird species seen, by just three! Anyway, well done AI, and well done us.

Sewage, sludge and slurry: (I just like saying it.) The footpath around the Meadow Trail will re-open on Monday after the contractors have finished tidying up. The ancient sewage pipe has been successfully replaced and the surface should be pretty flat, but it's very muddy at the moment. Once it dries out, our lucky volunteers will start wheel-barrowing gravel onto the surface. This might take a few days.

Goodbye Pat: It's hard to believe that our boss, Pat Knight is retiring. The Ranger Service in Huntingdonshire was his baby; he started it from a one man show at Hinchingbrooke to become the many-headed beast it is today. He even employed me! Forgive me for shedding a tear or two, but I don't think things will ever be the same again around here. Pat has been the one person to keep the District Council focused on its responsibilities for nature conservation and public access. His role in the Great Fen Project has gone largely unsung, and his skills in networking outside the District Council are unique. We are really going to miss his support but I know we can count on his involvement in a voluntary capacity for years to come. Bon voyage!

New Faces: For two weeks we have Robert and Lilly with us on work experience placements from school. They both attend St Neots Community College and are (I hope) enjoying their chance to escape from the tedium of the National Curriculum. They are making a photo diary of their stay that looks like being very revealing as it highlights the aspects of Paxton Pits that they find interesting. It will either be very short or (judging by the number of pictures they have taken) an epic!

Have a good week-end.

Mid March

2011-03-24T15:28:00.007Z

Have you seen our mammoth? The big hairy structure at the entrance to our Environmental Education Centre has been completed by the Green Team (Inspire) from Hunts Regional College. Go and have a look.

The Friends AGM was held last Friday night and was our biggest so far, with over 130 people attending. It was a really inspiring event for all of us.

I released our 2010 visitor figures on the night.

70 Schools brought 1428 children; 77 Groups brought 1369 people and 26 events attracted 1482 visitors. The total number through the Centre in 2010 was 37,303.

The last few days of fine weather have pushed spring into overdrive. The Rangers and volunteers have been out doing last-minute vegetation management jobs before the buds burst and the sap rises fully.

Many birds are already nesting so we have to avoid major projects that might disrupt them but the first summer migrants are only just starting to arrive. You may hear chiff chaffs singing from the tallest trees but it has been hard to find any other migrants. We have seen just one swallow and one sand martin so far.

Birds of prey are displaying high overhead in the blue sky. Today there were five buzzards wheeling and mewing above the visitors' centre and a male sparrow hawk was performing his ariel antics over the allotments.

Insects are very much in evidence at the moment. I took the photos of a peacock and a comma butterfly on a blackthorn bush yesterday, but there are lots of brimstones and a few tortoiseshells around as well. Today I saw my first bee fly of the year.

The blossom on our hedgerows is looking fabulous this week while on the ground you can see masses of violets, lesser celandines and coltsfoot flowers around the trails.

I have heard frogs croaking from both Rudd and Hayling Lakes and there are smooth newts in the smaller ponds, but I have not found a great crested newt yet. I've been looking for grass snakes in all the usual places, and finally saw one today from the road. It was swimming across the sailing lake.

This week-end we have a bird count on Saturday and a Friends volunteer work party on Sunday. To find out how to get involved in future projects, just ask in the Centre.

On the trail of the heron

2011-03-07T08:51:00.006Z

Martin Davies is one of our stalwart bird counters. He's out in all weathers at all times of the year and he finds a lot of the rarities that turn up in the quarry where he collects data for the BTO award scheme.

On Saturday morning he set out through the quarry and stopped at the foot of Island Pit where there is a sandy delta. It's a good spot for waders and loafing ducks so he was not surprised to see a heron there, but this one was sitting down! They really don't do that. It was clearly unwell but he could not get close because of the soft silt, so he called me at home. These things always happen at week-ends don't they?

I arranged to meet an RSPCA inspector at the Visitors Centre and then escort her through the quarry, with no real plan for a rescue. It was a good job I brought along a lot of keys: Bardon Aggregates' locks had all been removed by thieves and the Rangers had used some of our old, random padlocks to secure the site.

As we scraped our way through the quarry in the RSPCA's Berlingo van, Cherry the inspector told me that she had lost the sump-guard on an earlier job and that weekends were incredibly busy for her. She covers a huge area, 6 days a week, and nights too. Although you call a national number, they have a reasonable network of local inspectors. Our experience is that they turn out pretty quickly and have rescued quite a few swans at Paxton over the years.

We found the heron quite easily. It was laid out on the mud with its feet trailing; so they weren't stuck in the mud. Perhaps its legs were broken?

I knew that the silt was quite firm for some distance because I had seen motorcycle tracks in it. All the same, I took a lifebelt and paid out the rope so that I could be hauled back if I got in trouble. As soon as I was in the open the heron stood up and walked into the lake, so it's legs were OK. A frontal attack was going to result in the bird swimming away and probably drowning. We needed to turn it towards the shore. A boat would have been nice. The Fire Brigade has inflatable surf boards that they use in mud and on ice. Perhaps we should get one.

I moved off some distance along the shore and waded out as far as I dared, then using Cherry's net, I slowly drove the bird ashore where the bank was very steep. Unfortunately the mud was very deep there and I got bogged down a couple of times. The mistake was to stand still. You have to keep moving before you sink. (Actually, the mistake was getting in there in the first place!)

But we won! The heron scrabbled up the bank into the bushes where I could grab it and I waded back to land with two wellies full of mud, and a very poorly and distressed looking heron.

Neither of us thought the heron would last long, but Cherry took it to her colleague in Peterborough and then it was transferred to the RSPCA centre in Norfolk.

Update March 17th.

Contrary to both our expectations, "Spike" recovered quite quickly and was soon having a go at anyone who came near. Cherry returned him to Paxton for release from our car park on Weedy Pit. He flew off straight away, so it was definitely a worthwhile effort for all concerned.

Health and Safety note: Never try to rescue wildlife or pets from water on your own. Get help first. The experts don't take long to arrive and even if you don't come to a sticky end, you are most likely to drive the animal further from shore.

The March of Time

2011-03-03T15:33:00.005Z

I've been away for two months and just returned to work today. I'm amazed at all the work that has gone on in my absence. So far I have been round the Meadow Trail and Barford Road Pocket Park. Well done to the Rangers and all our volunteers.

PATH CLOSURE: Anglian Water has a team working on the Meadow Trail at the moment. They are replacing the entire sewage pipe that runs beneath our path from the allotments to the Ouse Valley Way, between the big ditch and the Hayling Lake. This work will take about 6 weeks and the path will be closed for the entire time. We apologise for any inconvenience, especially to our regulars from the village who use this trail a lot.

Weather: Spring is definitely springing this week, despite the cold, easterly winds. Cormorants are well into their breeding season now; the pussy willows are bursting out; there are masses of snowdrops and we found frog spawn at Barford Road. I haven't seen a newt yet but guess they are about already. It won't be long until we see and hear the first chiff-chaffs of the year.

The biggest transformation in my absence has been at the Environmental Education Centre where the paths, planting and landscaping are more or less complete. The Green Team from Hunts Regional College is working daily on building a giant mammoth near the gate. Hopefully this will scare the deer off our young trees!

Our rolling programme of hedging and fencing continues, mainly to protect nightingale territories that are in danger of vanishing along the Heron Trail and the Haul Road. Muntjac and rabbits open up the brambles then people follow and, before you know it, another clump of bushes has gone. On the meadow trail where deer and rabbits are almost absent, the opposite is the case. Here, most bramble patches are expanding.

FRIENDS' AGM: The guest speaker this year is Tim Mackrill from Rutland Water. He is in charge of the Osprey Re-introduction scheme there. The meeting, which is for members only, is on Friday the 18th of March in Little Paxton Village Hall. Of course, you could join on the night!

Springing up.

2011-01-24T14:32:00.004Z

I've been off work now for several weeks and have not got out much but the Rangers keep me up to date and I frequently check the Paxton website and Cambridge Bird Club for sightings.

My sister-in-law just arrived from Amsterdam to tell me that the geese are back on the Polders after leaving during December. That explains all the white fronts and pinkfeet seen inland here. Most of the smew that we see are also from Holland where they are called nonnetjes; little nuns.

On another domestic note; the birdsong just gets better and better. Our song-thrush is singing his heart out and there are dunnocks, robins and great tits singing too.

Looking round the garden I see many signs of spring. There's a fine show of "lamb's tails" and little green shoots all over the ground. A lot of these originate from our bird feeders, especially the niger seed which we put out for our goldfinches. Real gardeners would despair, but our yard is pretty wild anyway, so you wouldn't notice.

I checked on the snowdrops at Anglesey Abbey where they are just starting to flower, but mine are just poking up at the moment.

The photo was taken with a really cheap, retro camera that produces scratchy looking prints, like an old Polaroid. It's not a real camera, but an application called "Hipstamatic" on my iPod.

Bittern

2011-01-11T19:58:00.003Z

Monday, January 10th.

Simon Walker spotted a bittern today from the Kingfisher hide, looking north. He told me " The pictures are not as good as I'd like, but it was perhaps 150 yards away. We watched it on and off for almost half an hour, from 13:00".

What a lucky man! Although there are more bitterns in the UK than usual, they are still really hard to see. I would love to see one myself. I haven't seen one for a a couple of years now.

Twice before I've had starving bitterns in my hands. When they are exhausted they become an almost weightless bunch of feathers with a stiletto for a bill and a bunch of fish hooks for claws. One was at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Arundel and the other was found sitting in a red mini-moke on Praslin Island, right in the middle of the Indian Ocean, 1000 miles from land.

The birds wintering here are probably from Poland which is the European HQ for bitterns. Even there they are threatened by land drainage, so they are considered to be a conservation priority across Europe.

Back here in the UK, we used to be quite complacent about our success with bitterns. At RSPB reserves like Minsmere and Leighton Moss there seemed to be quite high densities. However, after making sound recordings of all our booming bitterns and analysing them by making sonographs, scientists discovered that there were far less males than we thought; they just moved around a lot.

Don't miss your opportunity to see a bittern this winter. Paxton Pits is a top spot.

Coming soon! I have just received the 2010 Bird Ringing Report fir Paxton Pits. I'll post it as soon as I can.

Waxwings at Tescos

2011-01-09T20:42:00.004Z

After driving around for days with two cameras, binoculars etc at the ready, I found myself at Cineworld in Huntingdon. Just as I drove in, I noticed a large number of birds in the trees around the KFC franchise; they weren't starlings and they weren't eating chips.

About 80 waxwings were crowded into a couple of bushes and no-one noticed them but me. The light was strong and in the wrong direction so I didn't get any pictures, but they moved to Staples' car park, and then to the Water Tower business area near-by. Berries were everywhere but it was water that held them in one place. I watched them drink at a puddle on the public footpath that goes from Staples to the Council Offices at Eastfield House, and on the roof of a container in the industrial park.

I took some pictures that you can see in the monthly collection here.

Wherever you live right now, you can see waxwings. Its a great year for them. Check out your local birding website.

If you want to find them yourself, look near the big, white water tower.

Redwings and Waxwings

2010-12-31T11:50:00.000Z

In the winter of 1963 I saw my first redwings. Those Scandinavian thrushes were everywhere. Before Christmas they were feeding on berries in the trees, but after the berries were gone they were always to be seen on the ground. That year, it was so cold for so long that they became desperately hungry and therefore approachable by the general public who had never seen them before.

This winter has got off to a similar start. The hawthorns are still full of berries and there are huge flocks of redwings devouring them. Where you have hedges on both sides of the road the birds play "chicken" with the traffic; constantly flying backwards and forwards at windscreen height. I suppose that they tug so hard at the berries using their full weight, that they fall off the hedge backwards and have to take flight. I saw a magpie carrying off a stunned redwing from the roadside, which explains why there are no bodies in the road.

Waxwings are also emblematic of harsh winters, but seen much less frequently here. They are birds of the Taiga; the great northern forest zone, that stretches across Eurasia, south of the tundra. They also occur in the corresponding Boreal forests of Canada, where they are called Bohemian Waxwings. Just now they are invading the USA in large flocks, especially in New England.

When I was a warden for the RSPB in Scotland, we used to see waxwings most years, along the railway lines in Fife. That's where I took the pictures. Aberdeen seems to be "Waxwing Central" and quite a few birds get captured and ringed there. One of those, a first year bird, has just been seen in Cambridge.

It's well known here that waxwings generally prefer supermarket car parks and industrial estates to the open countryside, but it makes sense to me. For a start there are ornamental plantings that often include rows of rowans and clumps of Cotoneasterbushes. It's also warmer here than in the countryside and there's a better chance of finding water that isn't frozen.

This winter may provide your best, once in a lifetime chance to see waxwings. I found mine with the redwings along the old Great North Road near Stilton. Go and find yours and don't forget to have a camera along with you. they are very tame and extremely photogenic.

Bicycle pump

2010-12-28T16:27:00.004Z

It's a dull grey day through the car window; December 28th 2010. The slow thaw has set in but it has hardly been light all morning, despite the fact that we have passed the solstice and the days are already supposed to be lengthening.

It's a day to stay at home by the fire but I'm at Tescos. I was hoping for waxwings but there are none in Huntingdon at all. I can hear bird-song though. There are masses of redwings in the hawthorns near by, but they are almost silent. What I can hear sounds like a squeaky bicycle pump. The tyre must be really flat because he's been pumping now for ten minutes. Pst-ting, pst-ting, pst-ting.

Of course, the sound comes from a male great tit and he will keep it up until the spring. Apart from robins, they are the only birds you are likely to hear in full song in December. However, any day now, you will hear a mistle thrush challenging the weather from a high song-post.

He's certainly cheered up my visit to the supermarket. There's usually one singing at the corner of the haul road where the Heronry Trail starts. Come along on January 1st and we'll try and find you one.

If you don't know your bird song well, try the RSPB website and go to the birds by name tab. There you can check out their songs and see a video of each bird. It's the best, and it's free.

If you have an iPod Touch, an iPhone or an iPad you can download a birdwatching app from BirdGuides (via the Apple Store) that does the same thing. The advantage is that its mobile and you can use it in the field. 'Amazing isn't it?

Bitterns everywhere.

2010-12-16T16:23:00.003Z

If you have never seen a bittern, don't miss out on the bittern bonanza that is happening at a wetland near you, right now. With all of Northern Europe frozen solid, there has been a big movement of all sorts of birds into the UK. Of course, the North of the UK is also frozen pretty solid, so that means even more birds for us.

A bittern has been hanging around Barford Road Pocket Park for over a week. Why not top up your Tesco points and your Christmas bird list at the same time? The park, which is managed by the Rangers from Paxton, is just behind Tescos in St Neots. It is usually a good place to see grey wagtails, skylarks, snipe and stonechats in winter.

Another Bittern has been seen at our Washout Pit and along the river by the boats. The lakes are likely to be frozen, but the reeds provide cover for roosting and the chance of a meal. However, streams and rivers nearby will not be frozen so your best chance of seeing one is when it flies from the river bank back to the reed-bed.

The bird tables are really busy at the moment. Bramblings are a real possibility among the chaffinches. Keep looking!

On a personal note, I still have not seen a waxwing on the reserve, but recent sightings in St Neots (and everywhere else) must make it a likely prospect.

On an even more personal note, I have been off work for the past week while my wife has had an operation. I want to say a big thank-you to our Rangers and all the volunteers who have made sure that everything has gone well in my absence.

Have a really good Christmas. Let's all get together on New Years Day when I'm aiming to put at least 50 species on my 2011 bird list on the first day, all at Paxton.

Pipe-work

2010-11-28T14:41:00.007Z

This week's topic is sewage. Where does it come from? Where does it go? I think we all know the answer to the first question.

At Paxton Pits the journey might start at the new Environmental Education Centre. Waste is sent along a new pipe to join ours from the Visitors' Centre and then it is pumped all the way along the High Street to a point near the pub where it turns left along the main pipe. It eventually joins a bigger pumping station near the allotments.

The journey then continues beneath the allotments and under the Meadow Trail for 150 metres along the East side of the Hayling Pit, across the Little Meadow and so to the river. But the story doesn't end there. The pipe crosses the river to the treatment plant on the other side.

The section of sewer on the Reserve is very old and seems to spring a leak most years, especially after heavy rain. Anglian Water have bitten the bullet and decided to replace the whole section, probably this month.

This means that the affected path will be closed, possibly for a few weeks. Diversion signs will be in place as soon as the work starts.

But we have not finished with our sewage yet! What happens at the treatment plant and after that?

At the plant, the waste is simply sorted into solids and liquids. The solids get shipped out for landfill or incineration and the liquids are purified and sent back to the river. Then it gets really interesting.

Downstream of us, at Offord, there is an Anglian Water pumping station that takes some water out of the river and pumps it up to Grafham Water. Then it is filtered, treated, sent back to our taps, and guess what? We drink it!

You might have fond memories of sewage treatment plants. Old fashioned treatment plants used to be great places for birds, and for tomatoes. When I was an RSPB warden in Scotland, I managed to get a trip on the "Gardyloo". (The name comes from the French "Garde de l'eau" which is what you would shout just as, or just after, you threw the contents of your po out of the bedroom window into the communal drain, or your neighbours, below.) The boat made a circuit out of Leith into the Firth of Forth, passing by fabulous birding sites such as the Bass Rock and the Isle of May. You could get great views of gannets, puffins and seals while you left a brown trail across the blue waters!

Fact: Did you know that the catacombs in "The Italian Job" movie were actually filmed in the sewers beneath Coventry?

Bin and Gone and Went.

2010-11-19T12:49:00.003Z

Who would steal two 1100 litre wheelie bins, and what would they do with them? Ours were stolen on Sunday night. I say "ours," but one belongs to Biffa Waste and the other is the District Council's. They are the big, four-wheeled type, like the ones you find overflowing out the back of pubs and cafes.

The lady at Biffa didn't sound too surprised. It happens quite a lot, apparently, but it was a new one for HDC. Our bin lady told me that tourists often send pictures of our domestic bins back to her from their holidays on the continent. I found a news item about a bin from Peterborough being used to mix concrete in Bulgaria. Apparently they lose thousands from Peterborough every year and other towns report the same problem, but the big ones don't generally go missing. The local police said it was unusual, but issued us with an incident number all the same.

The Rangers have three theories about the small domestic bins migrating to Europe;

They are homing bins. They are manufactured in Germany, after all. (Don't ask me why.)
When people leave the District, they might pack their gardening tools or whatever in the bin and take it with them.
They are stolen en masse and sent back to Europe by the container load.

Before you write in, I know we are in Europe, but don't be pedantic.

As for the big bins, your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps they get re-sprayed and rented out by a rival firm? Are they crushed and re-cycled? Are they used to send stolen car-parts and computers abroad? Perhaps they even get used to smuggle people.

I know that a growing sport in the area is to hold a caravan destruction derby. Blowing them up on t.v. seems to be some people's idea of fun too. Perhaps they race the wheelie bins, film them and then show them on You Tube? I'm going to look.

Well, what do you know? There are videos of people doing all of the above with your domestic bins, but not much about the bigger "dumpsters," except that people line them up and then fail to jump over them with skateboards, motorcycles, etc. 'Seen one? You've seen them all.

New Gates

2010-11-06T18:05:00.007Z

November is well under way, yet it looks like September to me.

I've been off with the 'flu, but returned to work on Friday to find that the biscuits I left on the desk are now really stale! This shows how little time the Rangers have spent in the office; normally biscuits are devoured in seconds. However it might just illustrate that I am the most prolific biscuit-dunker in the office, not the two Matts.

I was keen to get back, for a number of reasons:

I missed the gossip from staff, visitors and volunteers

I have been stuck indoors and missed the fantastic autumn colours

I was really upset that Ian Langdon saw the waxwings and not me

I wanted to see how the new landscaping was getting on

Friday's staff meeting was about redundancies and budgets; so, un-missable.

Friday was our seasonal ranger, Michelle's last day.

Other stuff! (see below)

I'll try to fill you in as much as I can, without anyone taking legal action. We are all a bit dizzy from the pace of change at present.

As for gossip; I did hear that the village church is in with a chance of getting its bells fixed. Check out the "People's Millions" (or something like that) on TV and vote for them, frequently. I also hear that the bells did not get stolen along with the lead and copper off the roof. If the French ever do invade, you might be glad of those bells.

The recent high winds cleared away a lot of leaves but the colours are still amazing. This is your last chance to get out your camera and capture the most colourful autumn for years. If you go further out and about, I have never seen so many field mushrooms in the fields as there are right now.

Talking of trees, we have David Oliver, our contract tree surgeon, working on various diseased and dangerous trees along the Heron Trail and the moorings. The high winds fortunately didn't cause us any problem there. However, we try to keep as much dead wood up on the trees as we can, except along the paths.

There have been no more waxwing sightings this week, but they are turning up in small groups across the county. The best places to look are the plantings around supermarkets, factories and offices and along railway lines. They love berries and a drink of water, but they are very mobile. In the USA they are called Bohemian waxwings because of the way they randomly turn up, or not. Look out too for rough-legged buzzards. Our local common buzzards and crows tend to give them a hard time by drawing attention to them.

The photographs show how the paths and banks are progressing around the new environmental education centre (or, as I prefer, 'Nature Lab'). We were determined to avoid straight lines because children just run along straight paths to the far end. Curves make for more surprises and slow them down. Aesthetically, to me there is no argument that curves just look better than straight lines. Sigmund Freud probably had a lot to say on the reasons for this. However, curves are a lot more difficult to make out of planks of wood and square sheets of fabric. The new gate complex looks great to me. It's much more logical and safe, and it looks like the entrance to somewhere interesting (which it is). One regular visitor said that it looks like a garden centre, which is a bit of a compliment really. Before the changes, it looked like the entrance to a quarry.

If you have read the local papers, you will be aware of the profound cuts to be made in the District's provision of services for the public. We in Countryside Services are expected to make cuts of 40 to 50% over the next three years. We have already agreed to cut some publications such as leaflets and brochures, charge for others and cut down on loss-making events. We have also found ways to increase income, but the council has set a target of 33 redundancies in our division, which includes 14 posts in the CCTV office. Our section won't be immune from redundancies so this will mean that those who remain will have more to do.

You may have met Michelle on patrol or around the centre. Her job was created as part of a (previous) government "back to work" scheme for people who have been unemployed for over a year. She has been replaced for the next six months by Andrew who is a marine biologist. Sadly, the scheme is not expected to continue after that. It has given me great pleasure to see these young people regain their confidence and learn job-skills. Both Michelle and Andrew are capable and competent people who deserve a proper job.

As for the "other stuff"; don't miss next week's thrilling episode in the Ranger's Blog.

Volunteers and visitors

2010-10-18T12:23:00.007Z

We are extremely proud of our volunteer figures, but our visitor figures always seem low. This is because the majority of visitors in "low season" are locals who do not normally pop into the building to be counted. Based on data from our car counter, we reckon that perhaps 25% of our visitors come into the building.

In September 2344 visitors came through the centre. Our midweek volunteers put in 62 man/days and our indoor voluntary wardens put in 53 man/days. At current rates this amounts to 1,200 volunteer\days a year.

On top of this, we have a team who carry out bird counts, ringing and other monitoring on our behalf. And we have the work of the Friends chairman, committee members and trustees. At a guess I would put this at over 200 man\days a year. In addition, the Friends organise winter Sunday work parties, and these amount to at least 50 man\days of volunteer work. There are also the hours spent providing supplies such as bird food, and managing accounts, events, guided tours and other group bookings.

So, I estimate our total volunteer effort to be well in excess of 1,600 man/days a year.

Most of our volunteers are retired. Indeed, some are really quite elderly. However, we do have a few younger volunteers. At any one time we have two or more (currently 4) day placements from Shuttleworth Agricultural College. We also take work experience students from the two high schools in St Neots, and a few others as well. (at least 6 pupils a year doing two weeks each.)

This month we have Paul and Cheyenne, re-christened Thing One and Thing Two, from St Neots Community College.

We occasionally take placements from the Amber Centre, which deals with young people at risk. Our midweek volunteers always include some young adults with special needs (currently 5) working with a dozen or so grumpy old men!

Many of our volunteers are muli-taskers who help us out in several ways. Some volunteer for other places well. They are exceptional people and we are proud of them all. They bring a real family feeling to the reserve as they not only support us, but each other as well. Some really good friendships have been formed, but no weddings, yet!

While Bardon Aggregates are inactive on the site, we have put off work in the northern extension and have concentrated on the new education area, which used to be the vehicle depot for English China Clay. Every week you can see the garden taking shape with new raised beds, a pond and even an amphitheater. There will be raised ponds and all sorts of areas to be explored along new paths that take a sinuous course around the site. The District Council has set aside £7000 for landscaping the area, which will be open most of the time

to everyone from next spring. This week the entire gate complex at the entrance to the Heron Trail will be re-designed.

Last week we put in a new kissing gate on the Meadow Trail to facilitate access for push-chairs while keeping cattle in the meadow, where they belong. At some time in the future we will replace the steep steps with a ramp so that electric buggies can get round the entire trail; outside of "mud season" of course.

School Bus

2010-09-26T15:51:00.007Z

I have always been fascinated by all things American. I even married the first American who would have me. One regret is that I never got to travel to school in a big yellow bus and do all the crazy things that cool American kids do in the movies.

On Thursday I finally had a dream come true and rode in a yellow school bus. It was small and British, but it was yellow. My fellow passengers comprised mostly of Countryside Rangers and other staff from Hinchingbrooke Country Park, so I felt too inhibited to moon out of the back

window, or exchange my gum with the girl in the next seat, using only our tongues. I settled for singing out loud to my iPod until all the seats near me were empty.

This was a double treat for me, because the yellow school bus was going to Lakenheath, which is really part of the USA despite the fact that the signs say RAF Lakenheath. If you turned up in an RAF uniform, the next thing you would remember would be waking up in Guantanamo Bay wearing an orange jump suit. I was looking forward to a stack of blueberry pancakes with maple syrup, white Land-o-Lakes Wisconsin butter (whipped up), hash browns and Canadian bacon on the side; followed by a quick swipe of my credit card at the PX store.

I'm guessing that the RAF sign is to remind the USAF that they can't actually keep the place if we ever fall out with them. The same applies to Ascension Island and Diego Garcia, I suppose, but probably not Virginia. Anyway, my hopes were dashed when I found out that we were going to RSPB Lakenheath (a bird reserve) instead.

Just beyond the air-base there is a strange, little border town called Brandon; like West Yellowstone but with less taxidermists; famous for its traffic jams in summer, and also for its Country Park where we stopped for our picnic lunch, in the rain.

The purpose of our visit was to compare notes on how to manage a country park during a recession. Brandon is on the extreme edge of Suffolk; a long way from the HQ in Ipswich. Suffolk County Council has just made the national news by declaring its intention to privatise nearly all of its operations in order to save 30% of its costs. You might expect the result to be a saving of something like 90% but they will still have to subsidize many, if not all of the companies or trusts that they hand over to. For example, Brandon Country Park is likely to become a Trust, with the Town Council taking a large share of the responsibility, but with core funding still coming from the County.

We asked some tough questions about profitability and were told some very interesting facts. My summary is that you can't actually make money from a country park, but you can offset some of your costs. The Visitor Centre has over 140,000 visitors a year who come to the shop and the cafe. They spend only about £1 a head (the same as at Paxton Pits) despite the facility to use credit cards. When they introduced car park charges, their takings went down. However, no two sites are the same. Our Hinchingbrooke staff will be returning to talk about cafe management. Meanwhile, I thoroughly recommend an autumn visit to see birds such as firecrests and a wealth of forest fungi.

If you want to see some really rare birds, then the RSPB reserve at Lakenheath is the place to go; but in May, not September! Cranes breed there, but at the moment they are enjoying a break at Wicken Fen. It is also the premier site for golden orioles but they are long gone at this time of year. Well over 100 pairs of bearded tits breed there but disperse in autumn, so we didn't see very much at all, except a few late hobbies chasing the last dragonflies and a very distant marsh harrier.

The RSPB site manager is Norman Sills who moved over from Titchwell to design and manage the project. He gave an interesting talk about the hydrology and design of the site and some useful tips for reed-bed creation at Paxton. He is not keen on hides, saying that we live in stone boxes, travel in metal ones, so why go to the countryside to sit in a wooden one on a day off? He has used a bus shelter design to provide cover from the elements and somewhere to put interpretation. (see picture.) This design could work well at Diddington perhaps?

Talking of bus shelters; there's my bus now.

Education store

2010-09-24T14:04:00.005Z

Today our Wildlife Trust education officer, Debbie McKenzie, took delivery of a brand new storage container for the environmental education centre. The container is made by "Sitesafe" who are based in Cleveland.

In advance of delivery, we had to prepare the ground and make four concrete bases for the corners. This work was led by our volunteer, Davy Jones, who supervised the installation of the container which was dropped neatly and accurately onto his chalk marks by Paul the driver/crane operator from Northallerton.

It was all over in minutes, so Debbie cut the ribbon, declared the container open, and put the kettle on.

We are busily landscaping the surrounding area, including an amphitheatre, and will eventually re-design the gate complex. Drainage work is almost complete and we will be building the pathways in October before planting out our trees and shrubs.

All this work is a continuation of the Environmental Education project that is funded by the Aggregate Levy (through Natural England) and the Housing Growth Fund, with co-funding by the project partners, Hunts District Council, the Wildlife Trusts and the Friends of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve.

Night of the killer shrimps.

2010-09-16T19:09:00.005Z

Last week the Environment Agency sent its biologists down to Paxton Pits to look for an invasive alien. The "Killer Shrimp" - Dikerogammarus villosus was discovered in Grafham Water by anglers who noticed that it was three times the size of our native freshwater shrimp (it can be up to 30 mm long).

It is native to the Black Sea region, and has already entered the Rhine system where it is upsetting the ecology by eating everything it can. This shrimp is a predator, while our native one is basically a detritus feeder. It could have come here in sailing boats that have competed abroad, or in the kit of travelling anglers. If so, it could easily spread to other sites such as Rutland Water. It might also be moved by birds.

Having identified the beastie, Anglian Water and the Environment Agency were keen to make sure that it was only in the reservoir and not in nearby water bodies such as Paxton Pits, or the River Great Ouse. So far Grafham seems to be the only site in the UK. It is a big worry because I have no idea how the shrimp could be removed without killing off everything else in the lake.

The shrimp was not found at Paxton, but the biologists did report that they found blue-green algae and a highly invasive weed from New Zealand called Crassula. We know about both of these, but there is nothing we can do to remove them.

We also know that we have Zebra Mussels in our lakes. These come from the Black Sea too. They were carried in ships' bilges to the Great Lakes in the USA, then back to the Thames. They are an economic pest because they block pipes at power stations, pumps and even on engines.

On the land, we made an effort to eradicate some more aliens this week. We found some quite large clumps of Himalayan Balsam on the river bank and pulled it all up. We also tried to eliminate two colonies of Japanese Knotweed (see photo, left) by pulling and burning. I'm sure we haven't seen the last of it though.

Some of our neighbours in the village have been using the reserve as a dump for their garden waste. I hope the examples above illustrate the dangers of introducing non-native species which can become invaders.

Environmental Education Centre Launch

2010-09-12T17:44:00.008Z

Last term, our new Education building was used almost daily by schools and many of our outdoor volunteers enjoyed a barbecue there in the summer, but on Friday morning we held the official launch for our partners and sponsors. Then, on Saturday our award-winning children's' group had their own launch with a bat-and-moth evening, which must have been fun. There will be future launch events for educationalists and other users of this excellent facility.

The site was once the vehicle depot for the English China Clay Company, so it is appropriate that core funding came from the "Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund" which is basically a tax on gravel extraction. The money, levied on every tonne of gravel that comes out of the ground, is given to "Defra" (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) to fund their work, but some of it is given to "Natural England" ('used to be "English Nature" ) to hand out in grants. ('Still with me? It gets more complicated so hang in there, there will be questions at the end!)

The other half of the money came from the "Housing Growth Fund" which is provided by Westminster to create suitable green-space for areas like ours that are put under pressure by large volumes of "new housing".

The partners are Huntingdonshire District Council, the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Peterborough, the Friends of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve and Cambridgeshire Horizons (I had to look this one up on the Cambridgeshire County Council website: Here you go.)

Horizons' five core objectives are to:

Coordinate development and infrastructure implementation.
Overcome barriers to sustainable development.
Secure and manage funding for infrastructure.
Ensure developments employ high quality sustainable design.
Communicate the wider benefits of the planned development to the wider community.

Representing the partnership, the Chief Executive of the Wildlife Trust, Brian Eversham, and the Chairman of Huntingdonshire District Council (HDC), Councillor Jeff Dutton, cut the ribbon together.

The building, which arrived in the spring on the back of 4 lorries, was constructed by Pinelog in Derbyshire, comprises of a classroom, office and toilets. It was designed by Barry Le Baille, the architect with HDC, to be a green building and features a wood burning stove and a green Sedum roof. The site is perfect for delivering our education objectives, with all the main features of the site close at hand, but we still have a lot of landscaping to carry out before next spring.

The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Peterborough runs the Paxton Pits Education Programme from the new centre and, with HDC, they are starting a Little Bugs Club for pre-school children, a Greenwatch group for 12 to 18 year olds as well as adult learning workshops and health walks.

Debbie Mckenzie, Huntingdonshire environmental education service manager for the Wildlife Trust said “We’re thrilled the classroom is officially open. This marks the beginning of our new educational and community programme. As well as providing a classroom it will be a great base for staff too.”

Councillor Colin Hyams, Huntingdonshire District Council’s executive councillor for operational and countryside services said: “This new environmental education centre is a great example of partnership working, with much improved facilities for schools and wildlife groups. It provides the ideal base for children to learn about and enjoy the local wildlife that is abundant at Paxton Pits Nature Reserve.”

As the senior ranger at the reserve I would like to add that I have always felt that the Reserve offers a wonderful resource for educators which is often under-valued. I was a teacher myself once, and, like Debbie, was an education officer with the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, before working for the RSPB as a warden. I have always wanted to see the place used by teachers who could see beyond the science curriculum, and this has now begun to happen.

Despite the current economic recession, I'm proud to say that Paxton Pits Nature Reserve is on the brink of an exciting era of expansion in both the geographical and the cultural spheres. It's very exciting.

Nice weather, for ducks.

2010-08-26T10:48:00.005Z

Another English bank holiday approaches. After a few days of heavy rain, the ground is sodden with large puddles everywhere. The river is rising and could flood by the week-end. If you are popping in to the Reserve, bring your "wellies".

The floods are not likely to be huge at this time of year, but our guest flock of 18 Wiltshire horned sheep looked a bit worried when I counted them today. Their paddock is close to the river and often floods. They are all this years lambs and are on loan to us for a few weeks. Their job is to clobber thistle and ragwort.

If you do come down to visit, go slowly. The bushes are not only full of berries but also birds. If you come across a roving flock of tits and other small birds, just stand still and watch them. What at first might appear to be a handful of blue tits can turn out to be a convoy containing over a hundred small birds, including warblers, gold-crests and tree-creepers. I would love to find a redstart or a whinchat; both are about at this time of year.

Budget Consultation

2010-08-09T12:22:00.005Z

Have your say before the budget review.

Over the next three years, Huntingdonshire District Council (HDC), has to make a saving of at least £3m. This represents about 20% of the total budget. Economies will be made in staffing, partly through a voluntary redundancy scheme. Other cuts will be made in management and administration and in "non-essential" services. Unfortunately this includes our department "Countryside Services".

We look after Paxton Pits Nature Reserve, Hinchingbrooke Country Park, Holt Island, Barford Road Pocket Park, St Neots Common and a host of other small sites, for the benefit of people and wildlife. We have high standards of safety and maintain many miles of footpaths to give access for all. We achieve our work to the current standard by managing a large number of volunteers.

If you use our services at all, please take part in the online consultation by following the link in blue. http://www.huntingdonshire.gov.uk/News%20and%20Communications/News%20Releases/2010/July/Pages/Balancingthebudget-startoftheconsultationprocess.aspx

It will take you about 20-30 minutes to fill in as you have to think quite hard!

The closing date for responses is 27th August 2010.

The consultation is not restricted to people living within HDC’s district.

This online questionnaire gives you a good idea of what various combinations of services might cost in additional community tax. It gives you the chance to make your views about the Council’s role in conservation and outdoor recreation in the district that much clearer.

A short paper version is also available, but this is less useful for our purposes. You can get one from the rangers by e-mailing paxpits@paxton-pits.org.uk

Thanks.

Man falls down well.

2010-08-04T18:18:00.001Z

On Monday I had a call from the Hunts Post regarding a "man trapped down a well at Paxton Pits". You can imagine my panic, not just regarding the consequences, but also the fact that I knew nothing about it at all and neither did my staff.

We made some enquires and learned that the Fire Brigade had cut their way through an entrance gate belonging to Aggregate Industries. Adding two and two together, we figured that the incident must have been in the quarry so we called Bardon Aggregates.

However, it turned out that we have a voluntary firemen in our division at HDC and he told us that the incident, which happened on Saturday morning, was in farmland between the quarry and the A1 pits. This land is farmed by Rampleys of Southoe.

So, if you see a newspaper story that says that the incident was at Paxton Pits, it was NEAR Paxton Pits.

I understand that the man concerned is fine. He got stuck down a hole (probably an old irrigation point) in a field, allegedly trying to get his dog out.

Crisis over

2010-07-27T18:52:00.002Z

This afternoon, contractors working for Anglian Water completed the clean up and repair on the Hayling Lake path. The trail is now open and safe to use. After a brief shower at lunchtime, there was a slight smell, but the damp brought out small numbers of toad-lets that scoured the place for insects.

URGENT!

2010-07-25T10:24:00.004Z

On Sunday 25th July the Meadow Trail is CLOSED around the Hayling Lake due to a sewage leak. Anglian Water staff are dealing with the leak and the Environment Agency has been called in to look after the lake and its fine stock of carp. As yet, we don't know how badly effected the lake will be. It will depend on prompt action by the agencies concerned. Please avoid the area for now.

There is a pumping station at the allotments and the main pipe runs under our path all the way to the Ouse Valley Way. The pipe then crosses the river to reach the treatment works on the other side.

This pipe is very old and leaks every year at some point, but first reports indicate that this is a bigger leak then usual.

Paxton in June

2010-07-22T09:25:00.003Z

In June, almost two and a half thousand visitors came through the visitors' centre, 230 school parties came and 9 other groups came on organised visits. Regular visitors will appreciate that these figures represent only the tip of the proverbial iceberg; many more visitors come to the reserve outside our opening times. People from the village are only minutes away from their homes so they don't need a cup of tea from us. Dog walkers, cyclists and joggers very rarely pop into the centre, so an educated guess would suggest that we really had over 8000 visitors in June.

During the summer term we usually have a few secondary school pupils on work-experience. Due to an administrative error on my part we ended up with three young lads from Longsands School at the same time. (We normally only take one, or sometimes two, so as that they integrate with us rather than texting each other all day like they do in school!) They were just great, though inseparable. At the end of their two weeks, they presented us with a photo diary of their visit. I still miss them.

Our midweek work parties helped to keep the trails open without disturbing the wildlife too much, but because it hardly rained all month, there wasn't much grass to cut. We got on with fencing up at Diddington.

Pumps

2010-06-19T18:36:00.006Z

It's a truism that water is the source of life, "aqua vitae", but we take it so much for granted: You just turn on a tap and clean water comes out. We may use this amazing resource to flush the toilet, wash the dishes or take a bath, but perhaps you only drink the bottled stuff? I bought a small bottle of water at John Lewis for my son for well over a pound. He didn't like it so I ordered a similar sized glass of milk; 45p! If I was a dairy farmer I would start a riot. Basically bottled water is 3 times as expensive as milk in a carton. This cannot be right. Apparently it takes gallons of water to make one pint of bottled "spa" water.

At Paxton Pits, the Reserve is mostly in the Great Ouse flood plain, yet we annually suffer from drought. The mix of vegetation on restored gravel is similar to that you might find in Palestine. We basically live in a desert. I have been to places in Kenya and Idaho where you can see beautiful rivers that flow through deserts, with only a margin of a few feet where plants grow, illustrating the problem of trying to make water flow up-hill, even when you have a lot of it.

My task is to slow the downhill flow of water into the River Ouse before it escapes us. My problem is that gravels are very permeable and water soaks away at an alarming rate. And we have the lowest rainfall in the UK (or there-abouts).

The gravel company next door has the opposite problem. Once you get down a few feet, water flows into the gravel as fast as you can pump it out. In the old days they just let the quarry flood and then dredged the gravel out using barges. Today they rely on huge pumps, powered by diesel or electricity, to keep the water out while they extract the gravel using excavators.

On Thursday, I had a day dominated by pumps. At Diddington Pit, Bardon Aggregates have been pumping the water away using a 9" pipe and an electric pump the size of a large van, in preparation for landscaping in the late summer. Because we have nesting waders there, we are trying to hold the water levels steady at the current height to avoid flooding their nests. If the water goes down, the islands will be accessible to foxes, so I check the levels daily and decide whether to pump or not. Unfortunately, I can only pump water out, not in, and I can't make it rain, so it's a bit of a nail-biting exercise.

On the same day I had to top-up our new education pond. using a brand new 3" pump. This uses about a litre of petrol in an hour but shifts a lot of water. 'A great bit of kit, and very cheap, but noisy. It takes about 30 minutes to set up and about the same to put it away, and we need to run it every two weeks.

By contrast, I finished the day in the Great Meadow where we run a cowboy-style wind pump. It was an absolute delight to watch it turning and see cool, clear water gushing into our ditches.

When we installed the pump, we had hoped to keep water levels so high that the fields there would become rushy with a fair amount of standing water. We had plants and wading birds in mind. However, the water levels cannot be maintained at that level, even following a flood. Even with the pump running, it is difficult to get the level much above that of the river, so we concentrate on the ditches, trying to keep some water in them at all times.

The result is like a linear garden pond. The ditches now have plants like celery-leaved buttercup, water arrowhead, water plantain, water crowfoot, lesser reedmace and flowering rush. We have dragon flies and damsel flies. This year we have a lot of frog tadpoles. The ditches have attracted a host of birds including green sandpiper, snipe, jack snipe, little egret and even great egret. Moorhens and mallards breed there. It's just a fabulous place to be; all becasue of a few inches of water. (Oh, and we also use the water for our cows.)

If you want to have as much fun as I did on Thursday, you could do worse than create a small pond in your garden. But don't put any fish in it or that's all you will have; fish.

Toad invasion

2010-06-14T19:42:00.003Z

Today, volunteers John Green, David Devonshire and Roy Allen patrolled the Meadow Trail looking for litter, signs of mammals, dog poo and vandalism. They found thousands of tiny toads, especially by the allotments on the side of the Hayling Pit. The same phenomenon occurred last year, in July. Before that, we hardly saw a toad for years.

I have always thought that the loss of toads and frogs was down to the fact that we have very few ponds with no fish in them. However, we do still have a quite a few such ponds, in the Hayling Carr and along the Haul Road leading up to the quarry. Was pollution a factor? Was it disease?

Right at this moment, consultants for Lafarge are carrying out a survey of Great Crested Newts, and they are finding quite a few, and so are we. So are the newts increasing by eating the frog and toad spawn?

I don't know all the answers but it pleases me to see that we now have a kind of balance where some ponds are dominated by smooth newts; some have great crested newts, some have both and some even have a lot of frogs. Some ponds have loads of fish, and even large ponds like Cloudy Pit, have frogs, newts, and fish living together. The answer must be to have as many small ponds as possible so that fish, amphibians, reptiles and insects all get their optimum choice of home.

This year's toads are coming from a mass of small ponds in the woodland area at the back of the Hayling Pit. Please keep your eyes on the path in front of you. With every step you might be killing dozens of baby toads, especially on damp days in June.

This month at the Pits

2010-06-09T14:24:00.004Z

I just totalled up the figures for May. We had 3543 visitors through the centre (4045 in 2009). In addition we had 193 people attend our Nightingale Festival. Our Spring Watch event attracted 450 visitors who were supported by 50 volunteers. It was such a delight to see so many families walking in from the village.

When you relate these figures to the weather, we didn't have a great spring and there were frosts in the middle of the month so we were really lucky to see so many people. The construction work was a bit of a hindrance as well because there was some disruption to power and access, and a serious lack of car parking space.

Anyway, the construction bit is finished; well, nearly! We are now connected to the sewers and everything works, all the way from the Classroom to the Visitors Centre and hence to the mains. The old septic tank can now be filled in.

Meanwhile, the classroom is operational; and the first school to use it was Little Paxton Primary School, who came on Tuesday 8th June. There is a massive amount of landscaping to be done, and the phone line has not been connected yet, but the Wildlife Trust's education programme is up and running.

The late frosts had an effect on plants and insects, and probably birds too. Our spotted orchids in the meadow got started early but the rosettes were damaged by frost. The heads finally pushed up this week and we have a massive amount of flowers now. I think that's the pattern; like London buses or tube trains on the Circle Line, everything held back then all coming at once.

Villagers are very fond of the swans that breed on each lake. We have nine cygnets on the Hayling and I think the same number on Cloudy Pit. The locals also love the nightingales, which we thought might be down in number this year, but, after a few late comers we seem to have about 28 territories. The same applies to turtle doves which, though late, have exceeded expectations.

If you walk the Meadow Trail this month, you are almost certain to hear (or be deafened by) a Cetti's warbler. This year we have at least four singing around the trail, and another near Diddington. It's a fairly recent coloniser from the continent. Unlike most warblers, they often stay all year round, but you never see them. If you do, they are like a long, chocolate coloured wren.

Little egrets (small white herons) have been around for some years now, but have not bred yet. They are starting to play with sticks though, so maybe next time?

Our next event for the public is on June 19th when the Friends will host a Wildlife, Cream Tea and Music event. 'Sounds good to me. Why not come along?

The big hatch

2010-05-28T15:31:00.004Z

Hatching time to birdy people means lots of baby birds. Our cygnets and goslings are appearing now and most birds have big chicks or are on their second brood. However, the spectacular event this week is the emergence of millions of damselflies. There are clouds of them in the air. Armies of nymphs are marching from the water to a suitable post where they can get up in the breeze and hatch. They all look the same at first; green, then pale grey with weak wings. After a few hours in this teneral form, they take on the bright blue of the adults. Most are common blues and azure damselflies, but near Cloudy Pit you may find red-eyed and even small red-eyed damsels.

I photographed some damsels hatching at the Kingfisher Hide and spotted a caddis fly there too. They hatch from the surface of the water and come to the trees to harden up.

Later, on my way back to the office, I came across a group of photographers gathered around a bush. The focus (pun!) of their interest seemed to be a hornet which was sunning on a leaf. However, it turned out to be a moth that imitates a hornet. It's called a hornet clear-wing moth. It lays its eggs on the base of poplar trees and the larvae live under the bark. You can often see the holes where the fat larvae have emerged at the base of the trunk. Unfortunately, these holes allow disease into the tree and we have had to call the tree surgeon ion to treat several of our large poplars in the last year. It's an amazing piece of evolutionary mimicry though.

Blossom time

2010-05-26T13:17:00.010Z

This week the May blossom on the hawthorn trees is in full bloom. It can be pink or white, but always has a strong fragrance that attracts a lot of insects. The scrubby habitat at Paxton is dominated by hawthorn, and that is a good thing. The thorns and dense growth provide protection for nesting birds, particularly warblers, and then the berries are devoured by the first winter thrushes of autumn.

In my last blog I mentioned that bird cherries also attract insects, particularly moths whose caterpillars devour the leaves. Well, it has already happened. The two pictures of bird cherry trees were both taken this month. It's amazing that they survive at all.

On the insect front, we are seeing a dense hatch of damselflies and damoiselles this week, but not many dragonflies yet. If you see one, it is likely to be a hairy dragonfly.

The picture shows the shed skin of a dragonfly from the pond by the visitors' centre. Most of our damselflies are blue, but there are several kinds out now, including common blue, azure and red-eyed.

Orange tip butterflies are still around, but this week the smaller butterflies have been putting in an appearance. Today we found common blues and an exquisite little brown argus, and yesterday there were small coppers and holly blues on the wing.

If you are able to get there, and butterflies and plants are your thing, I recommend a trip to "Hills and Holes" at Barnack, near Stamford. This is green hairstreak butterfly time there. Meanwhile, back at the Pits, there's a lot more interest to come in June.

This week was a good one for birds too. On Monday an osprey few over the centre and on Wednesday we saw a black tern. Today we have an American blue-winged teal. Our nightingales and Cetti’s warblers continue to sing and the lesser whitethroat that lives on the mound near the car park is singing again. It sounds a bit like the start of a chaffinch song.

On Sunday, the Friends of Paxton Pits held their Family Spring Watch event, which attracted over 500 people. It was a huge success due to all the volunteers who helped and due to the support of staff from the Wildlife Trust and the District Council. It was particuarly nice to see so many families from the village, arriving on foot.

Our building works are now in the final stages. This week the electric pumps will be connected to our sewage system and so we should be able to abandon our septic tank next week. The new Education Centre is almost finished apart from a few snags and the telephone line should go in next week.

May days

2010-05-05T19:06:00.012Z

We enter May with some trepidation. Will the nightingales all come back? Will we have a lot of orchids this year? Will the classroom ever be finished? Will we get our sewage connected?

I hope the answer in each case is YES! Either way, we will know the answers soon. That's what's so special about spring; the apprehension, the expectation and hopefully, the fulfillment, all in a matter of a few precious weeks. If you travel to the USA or Europe, you might find that winter turns to "Mud Season" which turns to summer, almost immediately. Our spring may be short this year, but it is definably spring.

The most defining visual aspect of spring in the UK is blossom, which also stimulates the olfactory organ, otherwise known as your hooter. We have fountains of white and pink blooms all over the site. Blackthorn (top) is followed by apple, then hawthorn, but some trees are only really noticeable at this time and become invisible in summer. The best example of this is bird cherry (pictured below); a tree I associate with limestone in the Yorkshire Dales. If you visit the river view point you will see dozens of them on the island and more dotted about the site. They have cherry-like leaves, but flowers in spikes like a privet hedge. Unlike the privet flowers, those of the bird cherry have a wonderful vanilla smell; almost intoxicating.

All too soon the flowers die and look rather sad, then the whole tree is defoliated by moths which leave behind a "dead" tree, covered in bags of cobwebs, known as "bagworm" across the Atlantic. (I know these things because I am married to an American.) The culprit (not my wife) is actually a rather attractive insect called the buff-tailed moth. The trees look dead but seem to be able to recover from feeding millions of caterpillars, then go on to feed berries to the birds in late summer , yet they come back to flower each year, better than ever.

The sound of spring is undisputed. Apart from the ringing of garden-centre tills, we rejoice in the sound of birdsong. Nightingales are the top choristers at Paxton, or are they? A lot of people would put their vote against the humble blackbird. It's song is subtle, hinting at melody, neither sad nor exultant, but expressive all the same. I think that we take the sound of a blackbird, robin or thrush too much for granted. Rarity makes a bird sound more exotic.

I'm getting a bit blase about nightingales, despite my better instincts. I'm revelling in the less familiar sounds of uncommon birds such as grasshopper warbler and Cetti's warbler, both of which are having good years at Paxton.

Grasshopper warblers (Groppers for short) have a high pitched, reeling song, all on one note that is just about on the threshold of my middle-aged deafness, (thank you Jimi Hendrix). Just hearing them presents a challenge and seeing them is even more tricky. We usually get a pair or two breeding on the site, but this year we may have more than that, assuming they all stay.

By contrast, Cetti's warblers are not at all hard to hear. Take a stroll around the meadow trail and you may be accosted by this bird yelling at you "Chip, cheerup, cheerup-up-up" , just as loud as a nightingale, and more strident. Seeing them is even harder than seeing nightingales. They skulk in brambles and they look like large plain chocolate brown wrens, but this is irrelevant; you won't see them!

A trip to the Reserve is becoming an annual spring pilgrimage for thousands of people from all over England who come to see, hear and photograph the birds. We are really pleased to see them all, but we are worried about how much pressure the place, and the birds, can stand. Please be a responsible visitor and keep your distance. Stay on the paths and give the birds, and the plants a bit of space.

Thanks.

More Signs of Spring

2010-04-14T13:06:00.008Z

Nightingales, terns, cuckoos and sedge warblers all arrived this week. Although birds are the dominant interest at this time of year, there is a lot more to see on the Reserve.

Among the plants, something new literally 'pops up' every day. Every year we find a new plant, or one that has not been seen for some time. Some years are brilliant for a particular plant which may appear in abundance, but not for another which may not show up at all.

This spring we have had an amazing show of yellow flowers such as coltsfoot and lesser celandine. I even found some leaves of greater celandine or King-cups in the Great Meadow ditches, but they are not flowering yet. In Paxton Meadow, near the Visitors' Centre, we have the best show of cowslips so far. They are just coming into flower now.

Soon we will be looking for mustards such as Lady's Smocks and Jack-by-the hedge (garlic mustard). Orange-tip butterflies, which lay their eggs on these plants, are already on the wing.

This is a very exciting time for anyone interested in insects. Unless you are a real expert, you can usually find an insect that you have not seen before. Once you spot one, you then go on to find hundreds of them. So it is with mining bees. Look for small holes with piles of soil around them, particularly in banks or the small cliffs behind fishing swims. Mining bees (I call them J C Bees) are very small, dark coloured bees. You can see the pollen sacs on their legs.

In the same areas you can find digger wasps, which are also very small, but have the typical ant-like, vespine body, in three obvious parts. Solitary bees, which typically look like dark bumble bees, are much larger, but make holes in the same cliffs.

A cliffside mixed colony of insects will attract predators and parasites, so half an hour's careful observation of a sunny bank can pay dividends.

Just now is a good time to see bee flies. These fuzzy creatures have a long proboscis so that they can feed on nectar from flowers, particularly primroses and cowslips. They look quite predatory, but they are harmless, unless you are a solitary bee. On Monday, I found a dozen or so bee flies in the meadow near the big steps. They were carefully quartering the ground like hover flies, but there was not a flower in sight, so they could not have been feeding. There were a few bumble bees in the same area and I came to realise that they were looking for holes made by solitary bees. They lay their eggs in the hole and the larvae parisitise the young bees.

Easter Flowers

2010-04-02T08:20:00.008Z

I nearly always carry a camera with me at Paxton. Sometimes I take no pictures at all, but most days I take few. This week the first true spring flowers caught my eye.

Lesser Celandine by the houses on the Hayling path. When getting close to flowers use your macro setting and watch what you are kneeling in!

Goat Willow in flower at the Visitors' Centre. Although the pollen can be wind borne, on warm days, early bumble bees are often busy on pussy willow.

Speedwell adds a welcome bit of colour in the quarry.

This year is a remarkable one for the amount of Coltsfoot flowers to be seen. These are near Diddington, but there are more on the shores of Hayling and Rudd Pits.

Wild Arum, Lords-and-Ladies, or Cuckoo-Pint along the path near the houses on Hayling Pit.

This week there will be a lot more blossom to photograph. Hopefully the butterflies will come out again if the temperature rises.

Spring arrives; and a few other things do too.

2010-03-22T18:24:00.005Z

At the start of last week, the Woodland Trust invited BBC Radio 4 up to Archer's Wood near Peterborough after they had put out a press release to draw attention to the fact that our snowdrops, lesser celandines, wood anemones and other plants are flowering earlier these days. Sadly, although the trend is correct, this year proved to be the exception and they found nothing but a few fat buds.

It was much the same at Paxton. We had a bit of pussy willow and a few newts in the ponds, but by Friday we were beginning to see real signs of spring. The weeping willows were sprouting, wild arum was up, coltsfoot was flowering and the first butterflies and bees were on the wing.

By Saturday, there was even more to report, with up to 20 sand martins catching midges above the Kingfisher Hide and chiff-chaffs were singing there too. Some lucky people heard the first black-cap singing and, even more special, there was a singing firecrest in Wray House Garden. A Cettis warbler was hear near the allotments.

For me it is the arrival of the first true spring migrant birds, such as sand martins, that confirm that all is well with the world. However, we normally see them in the first week of March. I suspect that Spring has been bottled up somewhere south of the Pyrenees and the waves of migrants have all bunched up, so we can expect a lot of arrivals at once.

It's like that with buses isn't it? Here at Paxton, instead of a succession of developments, we have a whole bunch of projects on the go at once. The top one is the new Education Centre which arrived on four lorries on Tuesday. By the end of the day, it was up and you could see just how big it really is. This week the Sedum roof goes on, followed by the veranda.

Meanwhile the service trenches are being prepared for the classroom (electricity, water and phone) and for our sewerage system. Later, a 3 phase supply will be installed to run our new pump. It should be all over by May, when we will be into our nightingale season. Bookings are coming in thick and fast.

PLEASE NOTE: There will be some disruption to electricity and access to the centre. Sometimes this will be for an hour, sometimes a day. Please "hang in" with us until it's all over.

Work starts on Environmental Education Centre

2010-02-24T18:44:00.004Z

On Monday, our contractors arrived to mark out the footings of the new "Environmental Education Centre". I must say, I prefer the name to "Countryside Classroom", which sounds schoolish, but I would really have liked to call it "The Nature Lab".

Call it what you will, it's huge! We looked at the array of wooden pegs and thought "This is much bigger than we originally planned". However, it's not really as big as all that; a great deal of the space is taken up by the wrap-around balcony and the disabled access ramp.

Before all the marker-pegs were in the ground, the pile driver arrived. I was most amused by the name of the company which is "The Severn Bore Piling Company". Perhaps we should have a competition to dream up witty names for pile drivers. "Piles R Us"? "Totally Boring"? Let me know your thoughts when you see me. Please don't write in.

Moving swiftly on. The next event on the site will be the arrival of the little Portakabin to be used by the construction team. This will be on the hard-standing at the start of the Heron Trail. Meanwhile, next week, work starts on the services trench which will run all the way from the new building to a point quite a long way up the High Street where we will be plumbed into the mains sewers.

Although you can't see it, the building itself is already under construction, in a hangar in Derbyshire. It will be dismantled and brought onto the site in Mid March, ready for fitting out.

I hope you are all pleased with the design. It will match our vistors' centre and the "living sedum roof" will be an interesting feature, planted with stonecrops like the ones that grow all over the bare gravel nearby.

Of course there will be a bit of a mess for a while, but it will be worth it! Meanwhile, school visits and all our activities will continue to be based at the Visitors' Centre.

The building will be manned by the Wildlife Trust who will run the education programme. Most of the funding comes from the Aggregate Levy, which is a tax on gravel quarries, managed by Natural England. The Wildlife Trust, Hunts District Council and The Friends of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve are all partners in the project which will deliver a wide range of activities, not just for children and not just biology.

Digging a hole

2010-02-07T21:31:00.015Z

To quote Bernard Cribbins: "There we was, a-digging this hole, hole in the ground, so big and sort of round it was......"
And a very nice hole it was too. I was looking down to the bottom, about 4 metres, and thinking back to the 1950s. In those days we lived in the shadow of World War 2. We still had rationing and they still tested the air raid sirens every week. The planes I saw were Spitfires, Dakotas and Sunderlands, and the best fictional adventures always featured children being evacuated to the country to escape the Blitz. We played on bomb sites, exploring the rubble in cellars; picking up bits of shrapnel, and hoping to find an incendiary bomb.

I jokingly asked my colleagues how we might tell the difference between a British bomb and a Jerry one. They said that it wouldn't matter; they both make a hell of a mess. I asked what the German was for "Bang".

The small mechanical digger kept chugging away and we watched as the bucket broke through the deep, compressed, sandy coloured, gravel bed and eagerly sank into the blue clay below. Having watched the big diggers at work in the nearby quarry, I expected the clay to come out in one sticky block, but it was soft and loose so it fell apart. It smelled pretty nasty too.

I took pictures of the hole from various angles because it revealed the classic geological profile that tells the story of the valley. The clay is about 450 million years old and contains marine fossils of ammonites and ichthyosaurs. The gravel, which sits on top of it, only came along in the last ice age, just 12,000 years ago. So what happened to all the layers between? It seems that a previous ice age extended much further south. During the Big Chill in 45,000 BC, a glacier pushed right up the valley of the Ouse and the Ivel, past Sandy and Biggleswade and on to Stevenage. (I'm always amazed that the A1 and the railway remained intact.) That big glacier carved away the greensand and the chalk at the bottom of the valley, exposing the blue clay.

I was eager to get my hands on the first dollop of blue clay to come out of our hole, hoping for a decent fossil. I found something pointy sticking out of the pile, possibly a belemnite? When I had it in my hands, it was obviously a big bit of ammunition, still in its cartridge. I put it down carefully, took some photos and asked "What do we do now? Call 999?"

The digger operator knew just what to do "Run like Hell!" We decided to clear the area, including the nearby visitor centre. Most people thought that we were joking and had to be told twice. Our health and safety officer didn't hang about though; he went back to Huntingdon very swiftly.

The Fire Brigade arrived within minutes and cordoned off the area. They were soon supported by the police and then, after an hour, the bomb disposal team arrived from RAF Wittering. This left us a lot of time for conjecture. Had we uncovered a WW2 ammo dump? If so, how big a bang would it make? Had a plane crashed here in the war? Or was it just a single item buried when the field was back-filled in the 60s?

Every now and then we were surprised by dog walkers who had broken through the cordon, perhaps they considered that being blown up was better than having to retrace their steps? More likely a simple knee jerk reaction to being told what to do? 'Foolish, all the same.

The bomb disposal squad cleaned up the shell and brought it out in a sand bucket to be disposed of later. It was probably from an anti-aircraft unit based locally. It's difficult to find out more because, although we were surrounded by airfields and the area was bombed in the war, with craters appearing in the common and a possible incendiary fire in the village, the censors kept information to a minimum. Careless talk costs lives..... Subsequently in the 60s, the field was excavated for gravel so all the debris and detritus has been moved around.

What about the hole? 'Can't have anyone falling in it can we? "The hole's not there, the ground's all flat and beneath it is.... " Who knows what?

Oh, I didn't mention what the hole was for. The plan is to join our toilets to the mains so we don't have to empty the septic tank every month. This means putting in a big, expensive pump, but it will save us a fortune in the future. We were digging a test hole to see what the substrate and water table are like. I asked the military man if it was safe to dig more holes and he cheerily answered. "You just can't tell, but if you find anything, give us a call."

"Can we have our bomb back please mister?"
"No its mine!"

Pond Life

2010-01-21T19:58:00.003Z

Today we made some real progress on the new education pond, and by Saturday afternoon you should see some water in it!

The pond was originally dug out for us by Bardon Aggregates but it needs an expensive liner to make it water-tight. We identified a local company in Oundle called Water-Line who use a special liner composed of a fabric sandwich containing Bentonite, which is a volcanic ash that forms a thick clay when you wet it. If the fabric is punctured, the clay quickly closes the gap. Our liner will arrive at 8.00 am tomorrow, so your trusty rangers will be there at 6.30 am to start the pump so that the liner is installed on an almost dry bed.

The liner is being paid for jointly by the Aggregate Levy Fund and The Friends of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve. The pump was kindly loaned to us by Bardon Aggregates.

I'll keep you posted on progress.

Nightingales in December?

2010-01-14T12:32:00.004Z

Ian Dillon from the RSPB has just sent me the Paxton Bird Ringing Report for 2009 which we will put on the site soon. However, I thought you might be interested in his latest attempt to ring nightingales... in December! Of course he didn't try this at Paxton, but at Kogyae in central Ghana.

Ian writes:

"Ghana was great- wacky birds, animals, plants and insects. Not as many European migrants as I'd hoped but we did catch some - 45 birds of 9 species - but sadly none that had been ringed in Europe, never mind at Paxton. We did catch 3 nightingales and I've attached a photo which shows nightingale habitat in the background - dense almost impenetrable, way above head height grass with sparse tree cover."

Ian says that a second team has just left the UK (provided the airport was open). It will be very interesting to hear about their findings in due course as many of these areas will now have been burnt out, through semi-controlled local burning to prevent large scale wild fires but also to force wildlife out into the open for shooting. We expect large changes in the bird communities in these sites as a result so it will be interesting whether they still encounter nightingales there or where they have moved to.

New Year 2010

2010-01-07T16:57:00.002Z

We have entered the New Year with all of our lakes frozen over and a powdering of light snow. Night-time temperatures are falling to less than -5 deg C and mid-day it is only about freezing point, so it is a very hard time for wildlife, especially mammals that cannot migrate away. For this reason, we have had a lot of mammal sightings this week. I have seen up to three different foxes and four deer on a single patrol. Yesterday I saw two weasels and another was reported. These animals are normally very shy and practically nocturnal, but hard times have forced them out.

The whole of the Nearctic and Palearctic regions, from Texas to Beijing, are experiencing unusually low temperatures. In the Atlantic, the Gulf Stream is weak and the high altitude Jet Stream is much further south than usual. This means that our habitual stream of mild air from the Caribbean is not reaching us and we are being subjected to high pressure continental air instead. Imagine a big, stationary lump of cold air, like a pile of porridge over Norway. As it sinks to ground level, it spreads out over the North Sea and eventually reaches the East coast of the UK. That's the simple view. Now stir the porridge slowly anti-clockwise to represent the spin induced by the rotation of the Earth, and that explains why the wind might come from the South West, but still bring snow from Norway.

For birds this is a hard time too. Seed-eating birds such as finches will still find food at this time, but dry seeds make you thirsty. Where is the water? Waders cannot probe the frozen ground and wildfowl cannot swim on frozen lakes. Many winter birds migrate South West taking them to Ireland, Spain or Portugal. A lot of continental birds might waste valuable time coming to the UK when we are already frozen. If they hang around here they may die. They have to move on, but Ireland is already freezing as well.

This week has brought a high number of bitterns to the UK. They have been seen standing around on the ice looking weak and exhausted at places like Rutland Water, the London Wetland Centre and Paxton Pits. These birds probably originate from Poland but normally winter in Holland. The Big Freeze has moved them on, only to find that we too are frozen up. They don't stand much chance of survival.

I remember the winter of 1962-63. We had snow pretty well from Christmas to March, and that was in Southampton! Small birds like wrens and Dartford warblers froze to death at night. Kingfishers moved to the coast where the sea also began to freeze. It took decades for the populations of small birds to recover from that one winter.

On the positive side, 1963 (pre-binoculars) brought me my first redwings which I could recognise from my 5/- (25p to you young-uns) hard-back copy of the Observer's Book of Birds or from my 1/3d copy of the Ladybird book. The birds were so starving that you could walk up to them.

I hope it doesn't get that bad, but I also hope we see some unusual birds before it's all over. I'm really enjoying the sight of bearded tits on Rudd Pit and I saw a brambling there today as well. I'd love to see more bitterns, and perhaps waxwings?

On a Health and Safety note. Please keep off the ice. Even if the freeze continues, the thickness of the ice will not be consistent. As a rule, the ice is thicker over shallow water and thinner over deep water, but you can't trust it. Stay safe.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

2009-12-31T00:29:00.002Z

We almost had a white Christmas. The Reserve looked wonderful and there was a lot of wildlife to see. Trevor Gunton found me two water rails near the Kingfisher Hide and I found a snipe there too. The place was stuffed with thrushes. Blackbirds, song thrushes, fieldfares and redwings were all on the meadow at once. Then, to cap it all, Jamie Wells found three bearded tits at Rudd Pit.

Snow is a real gift if you want to track mammals. There were fox, rabbit, deer, otter and mink tracks on the frozen lakes. One fox strolled across Weedy Pit, in full view.

I took some pictures of the snow from my skis (yes, really!) on the 23rd and have posted them at http://s595.photobucket.com/albums/tt37/paxton-pits/Snow%20December%202009/

We have a big open day on New Year's Day. I'm hoping for good company, great views and lots of birds. If you can't be there, I hope the New Year finds you in good health.

Tree o'Clock

2009-12-07T21:07:00.005Z

On Thursday (3rd) we finally moved into our new office and the public can now spread out all over our pristine extension. I've never seen the Rangers spend so much time indoors, but it's a real luxury to have somewhere for staff to meet in private. It certainly has improved communications between the five of us.

We will get by on the furniture we have for now, but more will arrive next year.

On Saturday (5th) we took part in a national effort to plant as many trees as possible in an hour. At Paxton, we decided to invite our children's nature club (affiliated to Wildlife Explorers and the WATCH Clubs) to plant 40 hawthorns to create a new hedge at the visitors' centre. It was a bit of a mud bath but we actually planted 50 trees in only half an hour. We could have planted a hundred, but, to be honest, the children had become more interested in mud pies by then. And why not? We were proud of our effort.

Meanwhile, up at Hinchingbrooke Country Park, they had planted 400 trees in 40 minutes! Conegear Park planted 255 in the same time. 'Just amazing.

The secret is in preparation, of course. We needed to provide the trees in advance and prepare the ground. We also had to fence rabbits (and deer) out of the area, otherwise we would have to plant them all again next year.

Next Sunday we have our carol concert, organised by The Friends. Do come along.

Nearly there!

2009-11-12T15:23:00.001Z

Our extended visitor centre is due to be completed on the 20th or soon after. This week "Pinelog" and the electricians are working on the inside. They have also put a window into our kitchen for us, re-using part of the old window that was removed from the end wall.

Next week the shutters will arrive for our new windows and doors. At the same time, the inside will be painted with fire retardant varnish. As the fumes are unpleasant (and mildly toxic) the centre will be closed on Monday and Tuesday (16th and 17th. November). After that there is some landscaping to be done. The final task will be to lay down the flooring. This is left until the end so that the screeded concrete floor has plenty of time to dry through, and of course to prevent the new floor from being scratched by ladders etc.

We can't wait! However, once we are into the new building we will have to close for another day to treat the floors.

Reserve extension:

Our midweek volunteers are currently putting in about 50 man/days a month, mostly up on the new land which will not be ours for many months yet. However, there is a lot of work to be done before the public are allowed in. This week we have been cutting viewpoints on Island Pit to improve the views and to enable accurate wildfowl counts. On Pumphouse Pit we have been putting up a new fence to protect the bund and looking after the trees on the north side by removing old tree guards. The County Council has completed their work on part of the footpath that runs along the north side of Pumphouse and crosses the new footbridge near the Anglian Water Depot. This path, which runs from Diddington to the Ouse Valley Way, is now open for use.

Half Term 2009

2009-10-21T14:41:00.010Z

Visitor Centre Extension
Work on the extension to the visitors’ centre is proceeding on time. The old end wall will be removed next week and the contractors will be putting skylights into the old building too. For this reason, the centre will be closed on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of Half Term (28th-39th October.)
The reserve and toilets will be open as normal.

Forest Schools
We are always keen to try new ideas in Environmental Education. Most of the Rangers had a taster day with the Wildlife Trust last year, but Matt Hall has just returned from a residential course in Somerset and is taking the lead on Forest Schools at Paxton. The concept comes from Scandinavia where even pre-school children are taught outdoors much more than here. It’s less about wildlife than about teaching life skills.

Ranger Training Day
Every year Hunts District Rangers go together on a training day. This year we visited Stanwick Lakes and Sywell Country Parks in Northants.

We had a very useful day comparing notes.

Stanwick Lakes is run by the Rockingham Forest Trust and is physically like Paxton Pits, consisting of 4 miles of old gravel workings along the River Nene. The most obvious difference is that they have a huge play facility that can attract 500 cars on a Sunday. The saving grace for wildlife is that the site is big and divided in two by the river. We saw thousands of golden plover and lapwings there.

Sywell is an old reservoir, now managed by Northants District Council. It has a small arboretum and a pleasant walk with hazel woods where badgers were much in evidence.

Progress at Pumphouse.
It could be a year or more before Pumphouse and Diddington Pits come into our hands but we are already getting the site ready for visitors and for the birds. Last month the Friends paid for the erection of two sections of fox proof fence across the bund between Pumphouse East and West. The bund has since become a favourite loafing area for wildfowl. We have been removing willows from the shore to make it difficult for carrion crows to hunt and we have made a new footpath along the north shore, giving two spots where you can view the lake.

There’s a lot more to do; we have to put in stock fencing so that our cattle can graze the open areas and prepare more access, ready for the day that it’s ours.

In the mean time, it is very important to minimise disturbance. The lakes are nationally important for wintering wildfowl. Record numbers of Tufted ducks were counted last week and goldeneyes arrived this week.

Events.
Our events leaflet for 2010 is almost ready for printing. Meanwhile, our next event is a Star Party on Saturday 24th October, run by The Friends of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve with staff from “Green Witch”; a local company that sells optical equipment. Please book on 01480 451568. The event starts at 7.30 pm and costs £5.00.

Building a Bigger Reserve

2009-09-21T19:39:00.008Z

This week we are making progress on so many fronts that its hard to know where to start. I'll try and remember everything.

Up at Pumphouse Pit we have been clearing willows that grow on the water's edge in advance of the rising waters. The water is coming from Diddington Pit which is being drawn down in preparation for landscaping. Next week-end, a work party, organised by the Friends of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve, will continue to clear willows from the shore to stop them from being used as perches for predators such as crows. This will be important during next year's wader breeding season.

On the north shore of the pit there is a footpath which joins the Ouse Valley Way to the village of Diddington. Cambridgeshire County Council has funded a new bridge and will provide some fencing. Our job is to improve the path itself, providing a short diversion to give a view of the lake.

From now on there will be two Pumphouse Pits; East and West, divided by a large bund. Pumphouse East, with its islands and undisturbed shores, will be inside the reserve while Pumphouse West, soon to be filled with water, will be in private hands. We want the bund to be a secure area for wildlife, free of disturbance from predators such as foxes, and from humans. To achieve this the Friends have funded the construction of fox-proof fences at both ends of the bund. Our contractor, from Ramsey, started work site today.

Meanwhile, back at base, we are well into building an extension to the visitors' centre. The ground has been cleared and foundations have been laid. "Pinelog" (the construction company) have impressed us all by arriving on time with no fuss and staying tightly on schedule (so far, at least).

Managing our grassland requires grazing to reduce nutrients and produce a healthy but varied sward.

While our Highlanders on the Great Meadow are running out of grass, we have excellent grazing on the meadow near the visitors' centre. On Friday, nine heifers were brought in to graze the grass until Christmas. They are mostly South Devon crosses, but one is a Hereford cross breed. The logic behind this is two-fold: These cattle are less scary than our Highlanders as they don't have horns and are used to the public walking by them. At the same time, we want to keep guest graziers involved so that we can operate in a flexible manner in future, rather than going it alone.

Already, our bull and the younger bullocks have moved up to the Great Fen at Holme. The "girls" will follow later but we are awaiting the birth of a couple of calves. Actually, one of them was born on Saturday morning. He's a strong little chap and is being licked, almost literally, into shape by his mum and the young females in the herd.

Change can be challenging for all of us. Many people look to the reserve to provide peace and stability in their busy lives and they worry that any change might be for the worse. I understand this, but I'm really very excited that we are moving swiftly towards a bigger and better reserve, able to cope with increasing pressure from visitors while giving lots of undisturbed space for wildlife, and little chaps like the one on the left!

Quarries and Quagmires

2009-09-11T09:36:00.010Z

On Thursday we hosted a training day for the Countryside Management Association (CMA). This is the only national association for Rangers. (It used to be called the Association of Countryside Rangers). Ten rangers joined staff from HDC, including rangers from Paxton Pits and Sudbury Meadow, for a look at all the ways we are expanding at the moment. Ray Matthews represented the Friends, and led the afternoon session while Ian Langdon did a sterling job on behalf of the voluntary wardens, with teas and coffees coming over the counter before we even ordered them!

Our visitors came from all over the Region, and beyond, including Epping Forest, Suffolk, Langdon Hills, Herts and Middlesex, Cambridge and even Staffordshire. Roger Cole, who is based at Writtle College, represented CMA.

Of course, we are immensely proud of what of what we do and want to tell people about it, but I was also keen to get ideas from the group. We took care to identify the specialties of our visitors and pump them dry!

The format for the day was simple; get out and look around! We found six buzzards over the Visitors' Centre straight away. In the morning, after an intro from me, Matt Johnson led the discussions about livestock and grazing as we walked the Meadow Trail. Roland Fletcher spoke on the management of the Great Meadow, the windpump and our arable scheme.

After lunch, Ray organised a safari up to Pumphouse Pit where he has been working with Bardon Aggregates to landscape the islands and shores while we eagerly await the day when it will all be ours! In our bright yellow jackets and helmets (health and safety requirements while in the working quarry) we certainly failed to blend in with the wildlife! All the same, we saw hundreds of lapwings, thousands of gulls and three little egrets. On the way back, we found two Mediterranean gulls, a black necked grebe, three dunlin, two ringed plovers and a redshank or two, despite the hi-viz, but only by using a spotting scope. It was good to see a small tortoiseshell about the place, and Matt Johnson found a brown argus.

I was pleased to see that no-one rushed off at the end and there was a lot of discussion going on. Cakes and biscuits were eagerly consumed.

I hope our visitors enjoyed the day as much as we did.

Rangers paddle for charity

2009-09-05T12:23:00.004Z

It's strange what comes into your head at three a.m when you are supervising your son's art session in the kitchen after giving him breakfast at 2.15. (Murder? Sedatives? Ed.)

My son Dan, who is 15 years old and attends Samuel Pepys Special School in St Neots, has a rare genetic disorder called Angelman Syndrome (AS), caused by an error on chromosome 15 and resulting in severe learning difficulties, sleep disorder, epilepsy, challenging behaviour and lack of speech. It was once called Happy Puppet Syndrome, because people with AS generally have a happy, smiling disposition (or it's the end of the world and they are inconsolable) and they have co-ordination problems.

Through genetic research, such as the human genome project and the work of Harry Angelman himself, we know a lot about the causes of Angelman Syndrome, but, for parents, teachers and carers, all this is a bit academic and we have to take all that as a given. We need help to understand and cope with the symptoms of the condition and to give our children the best opportunities for a long, happy life. There are many hurdles along the way.

In the UK we have found the Angelman Syndrome Support, Education and Research Trust (ASSERT) http://www.angelmanuk.org/ to be really helpful. Every two years they organise a national conference at Loughborough University where we meet other families and attend lectures, exhibitions and workshops. This month we will attend a regional get-together in Hertfordshire.

My fellow rangers and the volunteers at Paxton Pits are well aware of Dan's condition and the effect on me. I often have to come to work late or leave early and I'm always tired and so it has an effect on them too; more work.

Instead of complaining, they have decided to help by raising money to promote awareness about Angelman Syndrome and to give support to parents, carers and teachers. I'm extremely proud and grateful.

Two of our rangers, Matt Johnson and Matt Hall volunteered to paddle my Canadian canoe from Bedford to Ely, and the rest of the staff, visitors and volunteers put up the sponsorship. The target is £600; roughly £10 a mile. They completed the trip this week, in 4 days, so it's time to pay up! The money will go to ASSERT.

I saw the lads on Friday, looking a bit stiff and grizzly (so no change there.) They have survived. They have conquered the thundering cataracts of the Great Ouse and reached safety at last. I don't think they can stand up straight yet though. Sitting down also seems to be a problem.

You can still contribute by going to our on line sponsorship form, www.justgiving.co.uk/mattandmatt

If you want to know more, contact us at paxpits@paxton-pits.org.uk

Thanks to Matt and Matt and all of you who sponsored them.

Wildlife Gardening

2009-09-05T11:32:00.005Z

Due to family illness and holidays, I missed August at Paxton and was largely confined to quarters. It certainly made me appreciate the value of a garden, and I found every opportunity to hang out the laundry so I could scan the sky for hawks. To get outside more, I even washed things that didn't need washing. I regularly see hobbies, buzzards, sparrowhawks and kestrels over Brampton and this week I added a peregrine. Kites and ospreys have turned up in previous autumns. However, mostly the sky is empty, but the garden itself has lots of wildlife such as frogs, butterflies and dragonflies to point my camera at.

Returning to the Reserve on Friday I was delighted to see that the wildlife garden has just kept on blooming, and it's attracting a lot of insects. If you pop down there this week, have a look behind the bench at the patch which we sowed with wildflower seeds. It's dominated by white, daisy-like corn chamomile with the odd blue cornflower, purple corncockle and yellow corn marigold. There's even the odd late poppy. All of these flowers are bringing in the hover flies and few butterflies too, particularly commas at the moment.

The pond attracts dragonflies all summer long. At the moment we have a lot of common darters, which are red. We get ruddy darters too which are similar to common darters, but have a narrow waist in their tail. The most common autumn dragonfly is the migrant hawker which strays a long way from water, often chasing flies around woodland and gardens. They move north through Europe in summer, reaching us in August, but they don't breed here. I love the way they check you out to see if you have any flies on you. I presume they acquired this habit by following cattle, horses or deer.

In the next few weeks, we may get a few more migrant insects, but most of our flowers will have finished. The bird table will attract more birds, but the garden will get more disturbance than usual. Work is about to begin on our extension to the visitors' centre. The hybrid poplars that overhung the centre have already gone and the spindle bush has been moved. We will still have access to the centre and the garden but the contractors will use the path on the far side of the building.

Jeff Hall

2009-08-11T07:11:00.005Z

It is with deep sadness we heard of the passing of Jeffrey Hall who passed peacefully away in his chair on Thursday. Jeff was a very active voluntary warden at Paxton; a lively, happy go lucky chap with a smile and joke for all. He will be very much missed by everyone.

His funeral will be held on August 24th at 3.15pm at Bedford Crematorium.
Donations to British Legion and FPPNR please. Flowers can be sent to Anglia Co-operative Funeral services in St Neots.

New Summer Contract Ranger

2009-07-02T18:43:00.004Z

Please welcome Rebekah O’Driscoll to our team of Rangers.

Rebekah has spent a year working at the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust Centre at Welney. In September she returns to University in Bristol where she will spend her final year and complete her thesis on the effect of spring flooding on moths in the Ouse Washes. She is here to provide holiday cover for the rest of us and to give extra support to our voluntary wardens.

Meanwhile, Ranger Roland Fletcher is touring the district with a new tractor, making hay while the sun shines (and boy, didn't it shine?) We miss him. Back at Paxton, he has cut and gathered in the hay from our paddock and this will be used to give supplementary feed to our cattle in the winter.

Earlier, Roland and volunteer Davy Jones were tut-tutting about the state of our cereals that they had sown, but after a bit of rain and a few repairs to our rabbit fence, they don't look so bad. We also spent a day cutting the tops off thistles to stop them seeding. There should be plenty of grain for the birds this year and some for the cattle. Have a look in the barley at Peter's Field where you will see some lovely blue cornflowers.

2009-06-21T14:14:00.001Z

BTO Awards at Sizewell

2009-06-14T19:03:00.004Z

On Friday, Ray Matthews (Chair of the Friends of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve) and I were invited to attend the award dinner of the BTO Challenge. This scheme is aimed at large industries like power generation and quarrying in order to encourage habitat creation, particularly for birds. It's held very other year and Bardon Aggregates usually win one of the categories "Community", "Conservation" and, of course, "Birds". Sometimes they win all three!

The birds category was won by Abberton Reservoir this year who had the highest score ever. They beat Rutland Water by one species, which Tim Appleton (Rutland Warden) is determined to beat next time. Look for him and his cheque book at cage-bird shows this year! To make up for the loss, the BTO awarded a Rutland a special award for their big extension to the nature reserve, created in advance of increased reservoir capacity. Little Paxton Quarry won the conservation award this year.

Delia Shannon, who is the Biodiversity and Community Engagement Manager for Aggregate Industries (Bardon's parent company), drove us all the way to Suffolk and back, so that Ray and I could enjoy the food, wine and walk.

The awards were held near Sizewell B Power Station and we were very well fed and watered by the power company who sponsored the awards this time. They also won one themselves, and very rightly so. At Sizewell we were treated to a walk through coastal woodland and marsh where we had good views of kingfisher, marsh harrier, grass snake, green hairstreak butterfly, Norfolk Hawker dragonfly (yes, I know we were in Suffolk) and southern marsh orchid, bog-bean, lousewort, cotton grass and quaking grass, all in the same meadow!

In the top photo, you can see Delia, Ray and I receiving the award on behalf of Paxton Pits, from Andy Clements who is Director at the BTO. Below you can see a marsh orchid with the Sizewell B Power Station behind.