Visit to Rush Furlong and Haxey Turbary

Report of visits on Saturday 22 April 2023 by Nigel Bowler

The visit was led by Matt Cox, North West Lincolnshire Warden and expert who has spent the last seven years managing the reserves in this part of the county. We started with a tour of Rush Furlong, a site well known for green-winged orchids. The site had originally been just one acre based on the strip farming that survived in this part of Lincolnshire and over the years, the Trust have acquired other strips of land around it initially to act as a buffer and protect the site but later to allow the meadow habitat to expand. Matt explained that on some of the land it had been necessary to remove hawthorn and willow to restore the more valuable grassland.

In addition to the green-winged orchids which have now spread over much of the site there was a spectacular display of cowslips and Alison managed to find adder’s tongue for us all to enjoy. The most unusual sighting on the first part of the morning was the male emperor moth which we saw at the side of the road.

We then moved on to Haxey Turbary where Matt explained that the site had previously been for the local community to dig peat for fuel. During the tour he pointed out evidence of old workings. The site is well known for royal ferns and the difficulties that they have overcome in propagating and then growing these on was explained. The site is now largely birch woodland and even previously cleared areas have been recolonised. It does make it a good site for warblers. We heard blackcap, chiffchaff and willow warbler. Alison found climbing corydalis a woodland and heath specialist which survives among the bracken which dominates some of the site later in the year. The bonus for us was hearing a curlew calling from a nearby field.

Thank you to Matt for leading and members for attending. Best of all was getting a dry morning after so much wet weather.

The Nottinghamshire Dormice Project

Report of the meeting held at St. Stephen's Methodist Church, Gainsborough, 15 March 2023, with speaker Lorna Griffiths, Nottingham City Nature Recovery Officer.

Hazel dormice are a native species of small mammals, whose numbers have been in sharp decline. Although they often hibernate at ground level in grassy nests, their needs are found in the woodland and hedgerow canopy, which must provide all season food, from hazel catkins in spring, which provide nectar and pollen to invertebrates such as caterpillars, and then fruit and nuts. Lorna has been engrossed in the monitoring of the thriving colony of dormice at Treswell and Gamston Woods in Nottinghamshire and is interested in similar work at Chambers Farm Wood in Lincolnshire,

The results of her committed monitoring of these sites is providing new insights into the lives of these rather engaging creatures. Dormice hibernate from October until March and are often nocturnal, have bushy tails, double-jointed ankles, and sticky feet which allow them to live above ground, often in the canopy. Reintroduced ten years ago into Treswell Wood, monitoring now is partly by checking the many nestboxes designed for them and placed in the wood on tree trunks – which have a cunningly designed rectangular 13mm entrance to deter small birds such as wrens and blue tits from moving in, which might otherwise affect the long term bird ringing scheme results which is also being carried out in Treswell wood.

Recently Lorna has begun to fit PIT tags to individual dormice, which will greatly increase our knowledge of the activities of these small creatures, as they are most elusive.  These tags enable individuals to be recognised, and thus details such as how long they live, how many litters per year , what their typical range is, and the pattern of dispersal, and importantly, what their preferred habitats are. Volunteers are rigorously trained by Lorna, who relies on a band of helpers to monitor the project.

Lorna's dedication has already provided a valuable data set. She has recently been using a scanner similar to a metal detector to check the woodland floor to locate the nests and the tagged dormant individuals without having to disturb them.

Details of forthcoming events organised by the Gainsborough Area Group can be found on our What's On pages.