Bird count on April 28th 2016

Here is the link to the bird count spreadsheet.


click here

 Notes

- Keith, Mike m and Martin

- sunny but cold and windy later

- Summer visitors are basically around, though most of the birds seem to be male.

- lots of redstarts, including a couple inspecting nest boxes. only a couple of females noted

- thought we had a cuckoo, but not confirmed

- buzzards out in numbers, with single kestrel and sparrow hawk making it more interesting

- one Canada goods on one of the old lodge fields. maybe this one cannot fly?

- Willow warblers, Chiffchaffs, blackcap, whitethroat singing away.

- only one nuthatch, but plenty of tree creepers heard and one seen

- two swallows seem to be hanging around and maybe the usual pair at Gilly's stable

- siskins and redpolls around and singing

- more song thrushes than usual and two lots of mistle thrushes. plenty of blackbirds.

- not that number of tits and finches, but most species present

- lots of pheasants. where do they come from?

- some very well marked stonechats which look like Siberian to me. big eye stripe on female rather like whinchat. very black make with big white rump

- no ravens, probably flown, and no woodcock

- rabbits, squirrels and about 50 deer.

- saw the leucistic blackbird along the top

- a few woodlark and tree pipit. more than usual bordering skylarks

- normal crows, herring gulls, pigeons

- newts spotted in two ponds


Martin

Bird count on March 24th 2016

 Here is the link to the bird count spreadsheet.

click here

 Notes

- cold and dull with rain threatening at the end of the day

- male hen Harrier over pippingford and possibly again near slope

- nice big flocks of fieldfare and redwings

- woodcock in four places

- no spring arrivals, other than more meadow pipits

- stonechats coming back

- plenty of neighbouring skylarks

- at least 4 buzzards, with raven regularly chasing them away

- 2 linnets were nice. siskins and redpolls on small numbers, though none of the crossbills that we have been having recently

- mike m, Ron, Keith and Martin

martin

2nd January 2018 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

John, Keith, Bob, Stuart, David a, Neil, Terry, Ian, mike m, Alan, David w, and Martin

Activities:

- looked ponies and gave them last of the feed
- John did some ditch work
- cleared drain under road and along side till the water started flowing more strongly
- collected 25 tubes and some stakes from ol2, and stored behind shed
- did some bramble clearing in front of shed. It is a bully and monoculture, and aim to clear 50% to the ground. Arising taken down to bonfire site
- cut and split large number of logs. Brought in a load of logs to finally dry.


Observations:

- noted that weather forecasts were very varied. Actual weather was horrid after an hour from start
- salt licks by bench not yet used
- water butt completely full


Martin

26th December 2017 ... weekly volunteers

holiday

19th December 2017 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

John, John new, Keith, Bernard, Ian, mike p, mike m, David w, David p, Neil, Ray, Alan, Stuart and Martin

Activities:

- looked and fed the ponies
- marked up some trees for mark and co to fell
- collected some holy berries and peat as perks
- cut some logs for firewood
- cut some birch on ol2 to open up around some tubed oaks trees, and had bonfire of brash arising

Observations:

- ravens courting with barrel rolls
- Dartford on the plateau again
- found a top for the water butt. Pointy top hat
- lots of sugar
- lots of redwing and fieldfare
- found a pond like feature on ol2. May dry up. Will clear birch to allow sunshine.


Martin

12th December 2017 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

John, John new, mike m, Ian, David w, Alan, Bernard, Jonathan, Stuart, Keith, and Martin

Activities:

- looked the ponies
- explored some of the mowing from last week, while looking
- bonfire behind tool store, using existing brash and pollarding and coppicing in and outside the wood
- splitting and sawing most of the big logs inside the store. Brought in some more smaller logs to dry
- helped get a white van back on the road, having got stuck trying to turn round.

Observations:

- very cold but clear sky and little wind. Fab views
- lots of ice on the reserve, snow stuck to the sides of trees
- discussed change in parking, using the outside of the road by the cottages and then a chicane and parking further along on the south side.
- discussed arrangements for Xmas. No boxing Day session, but ok for 2nd Jan

Martin

5th December 2017 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

John, mike p, mike m, David p, David w, Keith, Bob, Pat, Alan, Terry, Ian, Stuart, Bernard, Neil , Jonathan and Martin. Mark and Andrew brought the tractor.

Activities:

- cut birch and burnt old and new brash in ol2
- John and Stuart did bit of work in the ditch along the road.
- some Xmas trees gathered
- did some mowing of tracks and heather
- Jonathan and Martin did some log splitting in the shed
- looked the ponies

Observations:

- Martin and Andrew continued mowing on the wednesday
- Alan and Neil birthdays, and mark brought some Xmas biscuits for the team. So far too much sugar consumed
- aurora is 'complaining' about amount of mud generated by our parking given the number of people coming nowadays.  Need to consult.

Martin

28th November 2017 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

John, mike m, David w, Ian, Bernard, Ray, Pat, David p, Alan, Anda, and Martin

Activities:

- looked the ponies and the cattle
- installed the diverter for the water butt
- gorse bonfire along the road, finishing the clearance of the tall gorse from the small gate to the roller stand
- helped return a dog 'Scout' to owner


Observation:

- cold, but some sunshine
- kestrel, redwing, meadow pipits, stonechat,
Bullfinch
- corral has been put up to take cattle away


Martin

21st November 2017 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

John, Jonathan, mike m, mike p, David w, Terry, Ian, Ray, Anda, Bernard, Keith, Neil, Stuart, and Martin

Activities:

- looked the ponies and cattle
- two gorse and brash fires. One near small gate along road and the other near the corral on Reynard's way. Gorse cut from both sides of the fence along the road and along Reynard's way. The brash piles near the orchard of birch were burnt
- some bracken peat was dug for perks
- some logs we cut and bagged for perks
- the fire beater stand near the cross roads was remade with a new bit of chestnut to give extra length and depth.

Observations:

- a little windier than expected, and a few bits immediately around the fire burnt safely.
- nice weather for fire
- pat sent message that she was under the weather
- kestrel
- cattle settled down in the smoke and watched us. They would be eating the ash and charcoal later.
- discussed cattle probably moving of site shortly

Martin

14th November 2017 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

David new, Terry, mike p, Keith, Bob, Pat, Ian, Stuart, Ray, Neil, Bernard and Martin

Activities:

- looked the ponies and cattle. We had to do this twice as we got 13 cattle and no ponies first time round.
- dug some bracken peat for perks
- cut back some bramble in front of the shed
- had a gorse bonfire with cuttings from the road side and just over the fence just beyond the wood at the side of the cottages. Used an old bonfire site and a new one
- felled a few birch in the wood near the fire site, thinning the mature trees. Processed these and burnt their brash


Observations;

- A Dartford was heard
- redwings, fieldfare, meadow pipits, raven
- weather better than forecast with little wind and no rain


Martin

7th November 2017 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

Mike p, mike m, Ray, John m, John new, Terry, Keith, Pat, David p, David w, Jonathan, Alan, Stuart, and Martin

Activities:

- cut up some logs
- put some stone and bricks on road to strengthen curb
- filled bags of bracken peat at roller stand
- cut gorse and had bonfire at the ride junction
- ring barked two pine near there
- looked the ponies and cattle
- mike took broken fire beater for mending
- John did some pulling of gorse and pine saplings

Observations:

- rain and drizzle that was not forecast
- fieldfares, redwing, missel thrush, brambling, 
- all perks taken

Martin

31st October 2017 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

John, new John, Bernard, mike m, mike p, Anda, David w, David a, Neil, Ian, Terry, Pat, Alan, Ray, Keith, Bob and Martin

Activities:

- looked the ponies and cattle
- John did work in ditch
- three gorse bonfires on south heath, burning old cuttings from the ditch and a large patch of gorse near the iron gate.
- remedial work on the berm near the style
Cut up the fallen beech branch along beeches avenue, making brash pile and log pile
- cut down four sycamores in ol2, making wood pile
- filled bags of bracken peat for perks
- collected dung from behind the cottages for perks
- cut down some birch in wood behind cottages to thin out trees. Wood pile and multiple brash piles ready for fire.

Observations;

- record number of volunteers
- not too cold, pretty windless
- Dartford warbler
- redwings
- lizard out on the road
- red admiral

Martin

24th October 2017 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

John, Jonathan, Neil, Stuart, Keith, Pat, Alan, mike m, mike p, Ian, David w, Bernard and Martin.

Activities:

- looked the ponies, but only found 9 cattle
- cut more birch in ol2
- cleared the gutters
- sawed some logs in the shed
- inspected the work that they are doing at the stud
- Alan dug some Bracken peat at the roller stand
- mended a loose bow saw


Observations:

- pretty nice weather in the wood. Warmish. But damp.
- ravens
- discussed the water butt

Martin

17th October 2017 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

John, Bernard, mike p, Terry, Ian, David w, Neil, Anda, Alan, David p and Martin

Activities:

- looked the ponies and cattle
- John pulled some small pines along m1 after coffee
- Alan filled and took some bracken peat from piles at roller stand
- Ian and Terry collected some chestnuts
- all cut birch in ol2, making log piles and brash piles

Observations:

- marsh tit calling in ol2
- greenfinch
- overcast, warm, but only rain at lunch time
- visitor handed in lost dog tag for song (the wolf). This left on front door.
- number of bucks with good antlers
- raven


Martin

10th October 2017 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

John, Neil, Jonathan, Ray, mike m, mike p, Bernard, Ian, Terry, David w, David p, Keith, Pat, Stuart, and Martin

Activities:

- looked ponies and cattle
- moved ponies onto main reserve. Difficult.
- removed the old signage from the kissing gate area. Installed new notice board.
- moved the old signage wood and concrete posts back to the tool store
- collected dung from area near the car park
- John did some work in ditch
- mike p did work along m1 clearing out the track drainage slots
- John did some pine pulling along the m1
- moved some logs from old piles into the tractor shed to dry
- installed the concrete post as a rail for the log pile immediately behind the shed
- went along the track in ol2 checking for nasty stumps, and then chain sawing them down to ground level. Kyle and mark, doing the sawing and driving.
- did 4 trips moving the piles of logs in ol2 back to shed and putting on log piles. Drove right round ol2, coming out at the cricket pitch. Recovered the piles with plastic sheeting
- bagged up logs already cut for taking away as perks

Observations:

- all dung and logs taken
- Pat got her damsons
- plenty of stonechats around
- Jonathan has new old car
- good weather for this work
- Peter did not make it this week
- big pile of wood | trees | branches on cricket field ol2 side.


Martin


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3rd October 2017 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

John, Keith, David w, mike p, mike m, Alan, Pat, Ian, Terry, Stuart, Bob, Jonathan, Bernard, Ray and Martin

Activities:

- looked the ponies and cattle
- did a tidy up of the berm on south heath after the ponies has done a bit of trampling down the dam
- cut back more vegetation on schmond pond
- some work on the ditch
- cutting back bramble up to the car park
- joined Martin Alison's fungus foray
- agreed with mark some more felling of pine trees and routes for the tractor mower
- pulled up some rhododendrons near Jilly G

Observations:

- ring ousel
- wheatear on south heath

Martin

26th September 2017 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

John, Ian, mike p, mike m, Ray, Jonathan, Anda, Keith, David p, Alan, Terry and Martin

Activities:

- looked the ponies and cattle
- training on use of wire tensioner
- pond work on the existing ponds, 13th, muddy and Irish, and a bit of work on boggy bit when we could not find muddy pond.
- clearing path drainage along m1

Observations:

- grey wagtail
- tree creeper
- southern hawker, common darter
- fox moth caterpillar
- grass snake under tin near Jilly g
- plenty of raft spiders
- bright green spiders
- Terry got a bootfull in muddy pond, very near where Neil originally went in
- Martin's boot repair failed
- Jonathan's banger is no more. WO

Martin

19th September 2017 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

John, Bob, Alan, Ian, mike m, mike p, Stuart, Jonathan, Bernard, Terry, and Martin

Activities:

- looked ponies and cattle
- created an Irish bridge over the muddy pond in the track down from the bench, using trees that we got from thinning pine around the bench and bracken behind the bench
- cut various new channels to divert the water, and cleared out the existing ones
- cut some birch near frog marsh pond, and laid branches on the fans of that pond and amex pond to stop pony erosion of the dams
- choose a route for new fire break across from the bench to Jilly's. Walked the route to check for difficulties. Two slit trenches need to be avoided.


Observations:

- a Dartford warbler was heard calling
- ravens having fun
- buzzards calling
- meadow pipits have arrived


Martin

12th September 2017 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

John, Keith, mike p, mike m, David new, Steve, Terry, Bob, Jonathan, Stuart and Martin

Activities:

- looked the ponies. Found groups of 6 and 9 cattle. I don't think we really found more than 9. Who knows where the rest were.
- put up the nest box near amex pond
- did pond work on most of the ponds nearby, beeches, one stump, amex, John and frog marsh ponds
- did reptile survey of the rings
- cut down a birch for logs to slow flow of water from John pond (new name)
- dug out chunks in the channel down to frog marsh pond, to increase diversity
- looked for sundews with no success
- filled bags with peat at the roller stand. Most taken


Observations:

- a frog near frog marsh pond. First recent authenticated one.
- 2 kestrels
- southern hawker, keeled skimmer, common darter
- speckled wood
- Steve is returning to almost full time work, and so we will see rather less of him for a while




Martin