The RSPB Community

Blean Woodland Festival 27th May - 2nd June 2013

Sue Parker — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:21:00 GMT

The Blean Woodland Festival 2013 is a week of events for all the family during half-term. It includes events at Bigbury Camp, walks at different times of the day and in different areas of the woods, a woodcraft skills workshop, a wild art drawing day, a family cycle ride and storytelling in the woods.

The main event is the Fête of the Blean on June 2nd , a free family activity day, to be held at Canterbury Academy, Knight Avenue, Canterbury, CT2 8QA from 10am to 4pm.

Family activities there will include: wild art, clay modelling, ‘Have a go’ archery, face painting, woodcraft, willow weaving, rag rug making, falconry display and flight demonstrations from the Hawking Centre and lots more! Kaddy Lee Preston will make a guest appearance. There will be local food and drinks available (including local beers and ciders), live music from Jazz Omnibus, Ronnie Haar, High Tide, Ben Penny and Morris Dancing with Dead Horse Morris, Broomdashers and Half Pint.

In the Academy buildings there will be a conference throughout the day with a series of talks from local wildlife and archaeology experts. The full conference programme can be found at: http://www.theblean.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Detailed-conference-programme.pdf

For further information contact The Blean Project Office on 01227 719506 or email info@kentwildlife.org.uk. Full programme details can be found at: http://www.theblean.co.uk/festival-planner/

Wood anemones

Sue Parker — Sun, 12 May 2013 16:57:33 GMT

Now that spring has finally arrived, there are lots of spring flowers in the woods, including celandines, bluebells and wood anemones. Wood anemones area among the first and form a beautiful carpet of white wherever they establish themselves. They are native plants, whose Latin name is anemone nemerosa and they are also known as windflowers, thimbleweed, smell fox and helmet flower. There are also a number of cultivated varieties for the garden, some of which have blue flowers, but it has to be remembered that the plant is poisonous and can cause sickness and skin irritation. The Ancient Greeks believed the wood anemone was a gift from the wind god Anemos (or Eurus), sent to herald his coming in spring.

Photos of wood anemones in Church Wood:

Below are two recent photos taken by the Warden. The first one shows wood anemones again and the second a view of the treetops taken during tree surgery. Both show how bare the trees still were only a short time ago at the end of April.

Butterfly surveys in Church Wood

Sue Parker — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:33:43 GMT

Blean Woods takes part in the United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS), which is run as a partnership between Butterfly Conservation and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. The scheme monitors the abundance and trends of butterflies throughout the UK via weekly ‘transects’.

A transect is a fixed route, split into sections, which is walked every week from 1^st April to 30^th September in suitable weather conditions: dry, with a minimum temperature of 13^oC with at least 60% sunshine, or over 17^oC if cloudy. The route is walked at a slow, steady pace and all butterflies seen within a fixed distance (2.5m either side, and 5m ahead) are recorded. Counts are ideally made between 10.45am and 3.45pm when butterfly activity should be at its highest.

A weekly recording sheet is used to note the date, time, temperature and windspeed, as well as the percentage of sunshine and the number of each species seen per section. A new online entry system has been set up for 2013, to enable the recorder to enter this information directly onto a UKBMS central database. At the end of the recording period, the data from over 1,000 sites, including 6 in the Blean Woods area, is used to compile an annual report. As butterflies are recognised as good environmental indicators, this data is also used for wider research, such as the assessment of site conditions and the impacts of climate change.

Further details about the scheme, including the annual reports, can be found at www.ukbms.org. At the moment there are not many butterflies around but I hope in future blog posts to report on their progress throughout the summer. Photos below are of the heath fritillary (left) and the ringlet, both taken in Church Wood in previous years.

Spring migrants

Sue Parker — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 15:05:57 GMT

The British Trust for Ornithology reports this week that some migrant birds are now arriving - birds such as swallows, chiffchaffs and blackcaps have been seen in our area. On the whole the birds are arriving two to three weeks later than normal. However, now it seems that spring is finally here, hopefully that should encourage them to make the last part of their journey. Birds which generally arrive in the middle of April have not been delayed as much.

The ones that have arrived, or are permanent residents have been looking for nesting sites and building nests as usual, but with very few leaves on the trees and few insects about, not many birds are laying eggs and, in general, this seems to be two to three weeks later than normal as well. By contrast, the winter thrushes such as redwing and fieldfares have been late to leave. It remains to be seen how the very cold and prolonged winter weather has affected bird numbers as a whole. Very few butterflies have been sighted yet either.

If you see any of the expected migrant birds or any butterflies in the woods, or even the first spring flowers, please add your sightings to the forum, which will help to build up a picture of wildlife in the woods in this delayed spring.

More on the reptile survey

Sue Parker — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 15:53:14 GMT

The following information is from the Kent Reptile and Amphibian Group Treasurer:

The Kent Reptile and Amphibian Group (KRAG) have teamed up with RSPB to try and find out more about the reptiles found in the Blean National Nature Reserve. Despite all of the things that are known about the history, archaeology, bird, tree and plant species of The Blean, relatively little surveying for reptiles has ever been done and our picture of what species are present and where they live is pretty sketchy.

The geology and soils of The Blean can be quite mixed and there are a number of areas that might be suitable for reptiles. We have verified records for common lizards, slow-worms and grass snakes but have never definitively confirmed the presence of native adders and this survey hopes to shed light on this particular mystery. The adder is declining in numbers in Kent as it is across the country and there are fears that without concerted conservationefforts this once common species may be relegated to the ranks of a British rarity or even become extinct. It has already disappeared completely from several counties in England.
Understanding their distribution is the first step on the road to securing the conservation status of the adder.

Over the winter corrugated tins and felts have been placed in carefully selected spots around the wood which warm up in the sun and provide heat traps where reptiles can bask to warm themselves up before heading off to forage in the undergrowth. If you come across any of these tins please leave them undisturbed but if you would like to be involved in the surveys then please contact the Warden, Jason Mitchell, at jason.mitchell@rspb.org.uk.
If you spot any reptiles or amphibians KRAG would be really grateful if you could let them know as sightings can easily be sent to us through the website:
http://www.kentarg.org/form/3-comprehensive-online-submission-form

Below is a photo of a rare melanistic adder. (Melanism is a development of dark-coloured pigment in the skin and is the opposite of albinism).

Is spring on the way yet?

Sue Parker — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 18:01:41 GMT

The birds that visit the woods in the winter are still very much with us - the woodcocks, siskins and winter thrushes. However, the migrants are getting closer as there have been reports from central France of cuckoos calling and swallows being seen.

Earlier in the month, a volunteer who checks on the livestock once a week, Brian Bundock, saw four comma butterflies in the wood. A recent photograph of snow in the woods and a comma butterfly last summer, both taken by the Warden, are below:

Meanwhile, The Kent and Reptile Amphibian Group (KRAG) have placed a number of reptile refugia around the Reserve ahead of a survey this spring and summer. Refugia are small sheets of roofing felt or corrugated metal placed on the ground which create warm sheltered areas to attract reptiles. After several claimed sightings over the years, the survey hopes to prove whether or not adders are present in the Reserve.

Mainly volunteers again

Sue Parker — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:38:39 GMT

Gradually the first signs of spring are emerging in the woods, and birdsong is increasing. The Warden reports that he saw his first butterfly, a peacock, on the edge of the large heath last week. The volunteers are currently cutting down four year old sweet chestnut trees, whose stumps are then treated to stop regrowth, with the aim of reducing the tree’s dominance in the woods.

Two volunteers left recently: Les Edwins, who had been working once a week for the last six months and Isabel Morgan (Izzy) who has left after a shorter time to take up a permanent RSPB job as Project Officer at RSPB Hazeley Heath. A photo below shows them at their farewell lunch in the woods to wish them good luck in the future.

Les said how much he enjoyed working as a volunteer: ‘You get to work outdoors, learn lots of new practical skills and meet new friends who have similar outlooks on life. I'd recommend it to anyone of any age, whether they have any experience or not and whether they are keen on wildlife or just enjoy the countryside. And, at the end of the day, when you can look back and see that you have achieved something useful for wildlife, well, that's the icing on the cake!’ Les and Izzy can be seen below;

Photography project

In autumn 2012, Samuel Wiles, a student on the Photography (Contemporary Practice) course at the University for the Creative Arts in Rochester took a series of photographs of some of the people (volunteers and others) who work in Church Wood, their tools and some atmospheric views of the woodland. These were compiled into a beautiful photo essay called ‘The Payless Cut’ which can currently be seen on his website http://samwiles.co.uk/the-payless-cut/. It’s well worth a look.

Beginning of the dormouse season

Sue Parker — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 15:39:49 GMT

This week has seen the beginning of the annual dormouse season with the clearing out and repairing of their nest boxes. This is done while the dormice themselves are hibernating, usually in the roots or boles of trees. As dormice are a protected species, they can only be handled by someone with the relevant training (which takes two years) and in the case of the Blean Woods NNR it is Dr. Martin Anderson. There are 70 boxes scattered around the woods, some of which may be visible in the winter but of course if you do see one they shouldn’t be disturbed. Throughout the summer the boxes will be checked on a monthly basis when the nocturnal dormice use them to sleep during the day. Any found are weighed and sexed, which helps to build up a picture of the health of the general population. Quite often the first spring survey reveals a large number of blue tit and great tit ‘squatters’ and their broods or even a shrew or wood mouse, which is always a bit of a bonus!

Seasonal work in the woods

Sue Parker — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 17:17:23 GMT

At this time of year, the volunteer workers you may have seen in the woods are usually coppicing. Trained chainsaw cutters take down the trees and the others follow behind stacking the logs and brushwood in neat piles. A lot of the trees coppiced in this way are non-native sweet chestnuts, which have been planted in woodlands across Kent since the 18th century, when they were used as hop poles, and later as pit props. Now the wood is often sold for burning in domestic stoves; decomposing piles of brushwood provide a haven for both birds and insects. In a few years, the new tree growth provides ideal conditions for birds like nightjars and nightingales.

A new beginning for the Blean Woods blog

Sue Parker — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 16:47:42 GMT

This is the first posting of what I hope will be a regular update on things that are happening in the woods, either reports of what people have seen (not just birds but butterflies, flowers or anything else of interest) or the work that’s going on there. I hope this will encourage other people to log on and contribute, either by contacting me or via the forum. In the future I also hope to add more information (like forthcoming events) to the rest of the Blean Woods section of the website. To start things off I have been told that there are quite a lot of siskins and redpolls in the woods at the moment, particularly at the Monkey Court Common entrance. A pair of bullfinches and a female hen harrier have also been seen recently.

Incredibly early season for heath fritillaries

Michael Walter — Mon, 23 May 2011 09:53:13 GMT

Our rare butterfly, the heath fritillary, has broken all records by appearing on 12 May, my earliest ever sighting by ten days. This is about five weeks earlier than was usual in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and represents an amazing response to the warm spring this year. It's too soon to know when the peak is going to be, but it's bound to be markedly earlier than last year, when it was around 29th June. So, if you're visiting the wood in the coming weeks, look out for this lovely orange and black butterfly in sunny areas, especially if the caterpillars' foodplant, cow-wheat, is growing nearby.

Golden oriole

Michael Walter — Tue, 10 May 2011 10:26:00 GMT

Heard the fantastic, fluty song of a golden oriole in the wood this morning. I wasn't able to see this beautiful bird, but can only hope it will stay around for a while.

Signs of spring

Michael Walter — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 12:33:00 GMT

Hazel catkins have been out for some weeks already, but one of the key indicators of spring to look out for each year is the re-emergence of wood ants. They spend the winter underground, but on the first day that warm sunshine strikes their domed nests, up they come. This year I saw the first ones on 8th February, a small cluster of black bodies on top of the nest, basking in the warmth.

Winter tends to be pretty quiet for birds at Blean, but there are quite a few woodcock sheltering in the wood at the moment. They feed mainly by night, but may be flushed from the ground during the day.