Wildlife

Spring is finally here and the wildlife at Summer Leys is really starting to burst into life. We are starting to see many of our beautiful wildflowers on the reserve beginning to bloom, including the usual magnificent display of cowslips on our butterfly meadow. Synonymous with spring, these cowslips are of great value to wildlife, providing an early source of nectar for our pollinators. One of these are our butterflies, which are really starting to get active for the warmer months, and we managed to spot a range of species on our recent Youth Rangers session, where we were carrying out a butterfly survey. We managed to spot seven different species, including 7 individual brimstones flying in one section, which was lovely to see. This data will help us monitor butterfly populations on site, with help from other surveys throughout the year.

In April we also had a busy week of wildlife, with some really wonderful birds visiting the site. We had a Kentish plover, a white stork and two cranes- all in the same week! The reserve was filled with birders coming to see if they could get a glimpse of them. More information on these rare sightings can be found in our news article here.

More recently we have had brief sightings of a tree pipit and a bearded tit. It is also time for our summer migrants to start returning to the reserve, and the sand martins have been particularly active around our nesting bank. We have also seen the return of our common terns, and sightings of hobbies and cuckoos too.

The popular grass snakes are making an appearance again, and we were lucky enough to spot two mating on our recent Youth Rangers session. It is quite common to see the grass snakes basking in the sun on the reserve, so make sure to keep an eye out when you’re next visiting, although please do make sure to keep quiet and view from a distance so as not to disturb them.

Conservation

Since our last update back in January, which you can find here, the reserves team have mainly been carrying out various methods of tree removal. One of these is removing some Ash trees that were showing signs of ash dieback, including a large one located in the car park. Ash dieback is a common issue among our ash trees, and research shows we could lose over 80% of ash trees in the UK. The associated fungus overwinters in leaf litter on the ground, particularly on ash leaf stalks. It produces small white fruiting bodies between July and October which release spores into the surrounding atmosphere, which can blow tens of miles away. They land on leaves, stick to and then penetrate into the leaf and beyond. The fungus then grows inside the tree, eventually blocking its water transport systems, causing it to die. The trees then become unstable and unsafe in public areas. By removing trees we are reducing the risk of the disease spreading whilst keeping everyone safe. More information on ash die back can be found here.

The team and their volunteers, and also our Youth Rangers group, have also been carrying out coppicing around the reserve. This technique involves cutting back trees to their base to create a ‘stool’ and to allow new shoots to grow, which is a great way to help improve the health and biodiversity of this area, by opening it up to more sunlight to allow more species to flourish. There is already a wonderful sea of ground ivy in areas previously coppiced within our Education Area, so it is great to see the effect it can have.

Works have continued to remove trees and scrub around the scrape to improve areas of nesting habitat for our wetland birds such as lapwing and redshank. Alongside this the team has also been busy hedgelaying, which provides the same benefits as coppicing whilst creating a sturdy barrier throughout the process. Cutting hedges at the base promotes new strong growth which will revitalise the hedge as a whole, and replace any parts which may die off. The hedges created provide shelter, food, and allow wildlife to move about between different areas.

Visitor Centre and Education

On the 1^st April we reopened our doors to the visitor centre, just in time for Easter holidays. Going forward we will now be open April-October, Friday-Sunday (plus bank holiday Mondays). This will allow our team to run the centre as efficiently as possible, closing on our quieter days to allow us to focus on our community engagement, whilst still providing a presence on the reserve. If you have any queries whilst we are not on site, please send them to summerleys@wildlifebcn.org and we will be happy to help.

We have held some events at the centre since opening including our popular Youth Rangers group. These monthly meetings a great opportunity for young people to get involved in some practical conservation work, meeting like minded people and making connections within conservation. As mentioned, in February we coppiced a section of our Education Area. More recently we have also made some willow hurdles, and last week we carried out a butterfly survey around the reserve.

We are excited to be starting our Little Bugs Club at Summer Leys soon. These toddler groups are a great way for little ones to explore and learn about nature, in the heart of a beautiful nature reserve. We will be running these groups on selected Wednesday mornings, for more information please visit here.

Pop in to the centre to have a browse of wildlife gifts, our new display of skulls, bird nests and more, chat to us about wildlife on the reserve and grab a nice hot drink and some baked goods from Sarita’s Bakes in Great Doddington. We will also be stocking our popular ice creams and ice lollies again soon so look out for those!