Posted: Tuesday 7th March 2017 by Northants Reserves
A summary of what the Northants Reserves Team have been up to over the last month (warning: very cute photo of cows below!)
Over the last month the Northants Reserves Team have been frantically finishing off the winter work; clearing trees and scrub from various reserves including Rothwell Gullet, Twywell Hills and Dales and Bradlaugh Fields. Our management on these reserves helps to prevent scrub from encroaching into grasslands allowing room and light for the wildflowers to grow. This then provides a more suitable habitat for invertebrates while still leaving patches of scrub for nesting birds. At the end of February, we stopped our clearance work as this is the start of the bird breeding season.
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Last month Storm Doris also hit our reserves and various tree works needed to be carried out on storm damaged trees and unfortunately, one of our bird hides at Titchmarsh nature reserve was damaged beyond repair. On a more positive note, we have launched a couple of new tern rafts (on a rather soggy day!) at Titchmarsh and fingers crossed they will be used by breeding terns in the coming spring.
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Over the next few months, we will mainly be carrying out fence repairs to make sure that our grazed reserves are suitably secure for our livestock. We graze our reserves with rare breed sheep and have recently purchased some new Highland cattle which are currently doing a great job on our Collyweston and Old Sulehay reserves. Definitely worth going to visit them if you love cute, furry animals!
