Have you seen any colour ringed Tree Pipits in the Forest of Dean?

Local ringer Rob Husbands is carrying out an RAS (Re-trapping Adults for Survival) study over at least the next 5 years. Tree Pipits have been Red-listed due to a steep national decline and projects of this sort will, it is hoped, help to determine how many birds survive to return to their home ground and for how long.

Rob has trapped and ringed a number of adult birds and so far, 25 pulli (five broods) in the core of the Forest at the following sites – Woorgreens/Crabtree Hill, Staple Edge, Moseley Green, Lightmoor, Edge Hills, Drybrook Road Station and Steam Mills.

Rob needs help primarily with sightings of birds like the one illustrated above, but also with nest finding if anyone is suitably qualified, confident and careful enough to be able to do so.

Contact Andrew Bluett at gnsmembership@btinternet.com with sightings or offers of help which will be passed on to Rob for attention.

There is surprising floral diversity between one hay meadow and another: some have never been ploughed and exhibit a wide variety of hay meadow flowers; others were ploughed up (often in the Second World War, or more recently for maize) and even now show a much impoverished flora; some have in the past been agriculturally “improved” and/or subjected to herbicide treatment, often to control docks and other “weeds”, (though many are now under conservation management by the farmers themselves, so that the slow improvement should continue); still others hold water much longer and tend to be invaded by grasses like Tufted Hair Grass (the local name “Bullpate” illustrates the thick tussocky base that farmers hate so much because it’s so hard to uproot) or Reed Canary Grass, that rapidly invades wet open spaces and is no more popular; some fields were still very wet, with some standing water.  The best traditional hay meadows had lost the pink flush of Cuckoo Flower, that was so obvious and attractive a few weeks ago, and was now replaced by a more orange tinge from the Sorrel that has developed in recent weeks; many of these fields also had good showings of the grass Meadow Foxtail and, here and there, the occasional plant of Water Dropwort: I think that at this earlyish stage the latter were all Sulphurworts, but this will need to be checked by better botanists than me.  Many of the fields had good stands of Meadowsweet and Great Burnet, two plants which seem to re-establish themselves quite quickly in these meadows.

Birdwise, the morning began well, with three excited Cuckoos chasing one another and giving all three calls: the usual song, the gurgling call they sing in June, and a third guttural croak; we still don’t know which species they parasite locally, as there simply aren’t enough locally breeding Reed Warblers or Meadow Pipits; maybe Dunnock or Robin??  For breeding waders it was a disappointment however: no sign of Lapwings or Redshanks, no Oystercatchers (though a Song Thrush was doing a passable imitation of the call); only one calling Curlew was heard, though at this time of year, when they probably have small young on the ground, they often go very quiet.  Among other hay meadow species, one might have hoped for Quail or Yellow Wagtail early in the morning in June, but neither showed itself.

Great Spotted Woodpeckers were present, many of them quite noisy, as they no doubt have young birds in holes in the oaks and willows.

As for songbirds, the ringing operations suggest a decline in Sedge Warblers on the reserve itself this year: in all the hedges and rough grassland, only three singing males were found; on the other hand male Whitethroats were singing everywhere, ten at least, often with an aerial song-flight thrown in, and many were churring as though they might have young; one of the other key songsters of the area, the Redstart, was in evidence, with at least three singing males in ancient pollarded willows outside the reserve. Sadly, there was no sign of singing Grasshopper Warblers, after a bumper year last year, nor of Reed Warblers, which in the absence of reeds sometimes sing from withies; but plenty of Willow Warblers were singing, as well as the odd Chiffchaff and Blackcap in the taller hedgerow trees.  And of course, many Skylarks singing strongly overhead, and fair (though not large) numbers of singing Reed Buntings, with their ridiculous grandiloquent three note song.  Maybe the constant wet conditions throughout last summer affected both Reed Buntings and Sedge Warblers last year, preventing them from raising clutches?

The precise location was OS map ref: SO 8026 2056. There are a cluster of plants covering about 10 square metres, not in huge abundance but enough for me to notice them.  The habitat is a meadow one, on the western crest of a ridge above the Leadon, the other flora being a mix of buttercups, sorrel and various common grasses.  It hardly seems the ideal location of a wetland plant, but it is only 200m or so away and above the Leadon’s floodplain.

I am in the process of joining the GNS.

Posted on behalf of John Putley.

Historically the valley was an industrial landscape based on coal extraction, both deep mine and opencast, clay extraction (for Coleford Brick & Tile Co) and railway and colliery dram tracks. Large areas in between were either bare where waste material was accumulated or clothed in thin Sheep-cropped grass. This provided an ideal habitat for Woodlark, a few pairs of Wheatear, Chats & Pipits. In the years after World War 2 R J B Christian found some 28 pairs of Woodlark in the valley and adjacent ridges, Snipe and Reed Bunting breeding in the boggy areas and Red Backed Shrike in the plantation edges (Sketches of Dean’s Birds, Christian, 1999).

The group first walked up to the Steam Mills Lake past Dam Green in the Northern Quarter area viewing two very recent, and therefore bare and undeveloped ponds along the way. Whilst there was much fishing activity, a number of water birds were evident including Greylag Goose, Coot, Mallard, Tufted Duck and Lesser Black Backed Gull. From there the party walked down the track towards the central area of the Linear Park as far as Laymore Quag and the large open meadow beyond Lennetshill Plantation. The return was via a secondary track leading to the Forest Vale Industrial Estate road and back to Winner Garage.

This walk which follows the lines of forestry and old railway tracks took in a variety of habitat types, conifer plantation, deciduous and mixed woodland, open scrubby grassland, industrial buildings, the lake and ponds, boggy areas (Laymore Quag) etc and produced a respectable list of species.

Fresh-water or Swan Mussel shells (Anodatea cygnea) were discovered by the lake, the largest being some 10cm long, Pond Skaters were evident on all the water bodies especially in the ditches and puddles, Butterflies were represented only by Small Tortoiseshell. Birds were more abundant with Tree Pipit, Willow Warbler and Chiff Chaff, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Robin, Great, Blue, Long Tailed and Coal Tits, Blackbird and Song Thrush, Buzzard, Wren, Dunnock, Swallow, Blackcap, Lesser Redpoll, Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Jay, Wood Pigeon, Pied Wagtail, Green and Great Spotted Woodpecker. Neither Raven nor hoped for Goshawk appeared but towards the end of the walk, a solitary Hawfinch flew over towards the Crump Meadow Inclosure.

Juliet Bailey identified a series of flowering plants – Field Horsetail (Equisetum arvense), Pussy Willows (Salix sp), Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna), Colt’s-foot (Tussilago farfara), Dandelion (Taraxacum aggregate), Field Wood-rush (Luzula campestris), Daisy (Bellis perennis), and Barren Strawberry (Potentilla sterilis). Some remnant Heather was also noted at one point.

It was considered that flowers are very late this year – at least a couple of weeks behind normal, and that the flowers seen on this walk were later than in the Vale by about a week, presumably because of the altitude (approx 140 metres / 450 feet above sea level).

LUP are a not-for-profit organisation, and all royalties will come back into the county for bird conservation.

2 Ring Ouzel
4 Singing Willow Warbler

Bill Smyllie Butterfly Conservation Reserve.

2.30pm a Cuckoo. Digiscope record shots below.

Posted on behalf of Ken Cservenka.

 From the Draft Minutes of FODDC Meeting 11^th April 2013, (subject to approval at the next council meeting).

 The following questions have been received from Keith Morgan, 4 Wilkes Meadow, Broadwell, Coleford Glos GL16 7DT:

 Responses from Councillor Patrick Molyneux, Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Regeneration:

 Q a) Was the Council aware of the urgent instructions concerning the use of machinery and equipment from the HCA to their contractors to demolish buildings at the Northern United site and the steps they had to take to respect the many rare bats and their habitat which are protected by law?

 A a) The Council was not party to the instructions between the HCA and their contractor. It was aware of the requirements of the demolition notice issued by the Council and the subsequent licences granted by Natural England.

 Q b) If the Council were aware of this urgent action did they do anything to prevent it?

 A b) The Council has well established enforcement policies and protocols. Action would only be taken where it was expedient to do so.

 Q c) If not why not?

 A c) The Council had given consent for the building to be demolished. The applicant had stated that this would be done by November. Clearly the demolition occurred more recently but it was not expedient to take action as the activity had been licensed by staff at Natural England who were thus content for the work to go ahead.

 Q d) Was pressure put upon National England to revoke an earlier hand demolish licence and replace it with a licence to ‘demolish quickly’ by use of machinery?

 A d) No

 Q e) Was all this urgent action the result of having to meet funding deadlines?

 A e) The HCA as the landowner and developer has confirmed that this work is progressing in accordance with a detailed timetable. There is no funding package dependent on the demolition of these buildings.

 Q f) Was FoDDC involved in the reporting of these matters in the local Press and the threat of legal action?

 A f) No

 Q g) If FoDDC are innocent of all this and are appalled by it, what action do they propose to take?

 A g) The work being undertaken is to allow delivery of the Cinderford Regeneration Board’s vision. This will see the inward investment of some £100M, the creation of new jobs and new homes to meet local needs. We are determined that this vital development will be done sustainably and in accordance with stringent mitigation criteria. Members of this Council have given strong support for the regeneration of Cinderford as it will be good for both the town and the entire District. We are working very hard to achieve our aim.

 Supplementary question

 He (Mr Morgan) asked if the council was aware of the destruction to the bat colony recently caused by the demolition of buildings on the site.

 Response

 He (Cllr Molyneux) replied that the HCA had obtained all relevant licences from Natural England, which had been consulted throughout the process. At all stages the Council had followed the advice of experts. 

Comment: It would be very interesting to hear Natural England’s take on this situation but there isn’t a forum for that. The answers given by Councillor Molyneux are not entirely satisfactory, but they are hardly surprising. Perhaps he should be asked whether or not he beats his wife..?