Discovering Rushy Common and Tar Lakes.

Thanks to beautiful weather and brilliant volunteers many more children (and their parents) have been drawn into the joys of pond dipping and bug hunting.

Tar Lake was absolutely brimming with toad tadpoles, caddis fly larvae, black fly nymphs, young fish including roach and a pike that looked ferocious even though it was only two inches long, snails and water boatmen. And that was just some of the creatures in the water!

Along the shore and in the bushes were early damselflies, caddis flies, fabulous irridescent dock beetles, mayfly and brimstone and orange tip butterflies.

 

In the bird hide we could see about thirty common tern putting on their best aerial displays across the lake and setting up their nest sites on the islands. The pair of oystercatchers were working flat out to protect their four chicks from the carrion crow and by the end of the weekend they still have their full complement of four which are growing bigger and stronger and more able to defend themselves every day. A cuckoo was calling for much of the day and a lucky few saw one fly over the lake in the afternoon.

Great thanks to Harry, Jude and Angus for their enthusiasm on the lake side and to Keith and Alison for help in the bird hide. It was a great delight to be able to introduce so many people to the site as many of them had not visited before but will hopefully be back again soon.

Botany with the Ashmolean Natural History Society at Langley's Lane SSSI

We had a perfect day for our first session with the Ashmolean Natural History Society tutors Frances and Susan. After introductions to terminology and the basic naming of parts in the bird hide we took advantage of  the bright spring sunshine to sit in the beautiful meadow of Langley's Lane SSSI. We were surrounded by cowslips, green winged orchids, buttercups and many others not yet in flower.

Having got started on cowslips and three different species of buttercup we thought we had found an easy one with the green winged orchid. It was obviously an orchid and with the help of our hand lenses we could see the outer petals with the green veins hence the name of green winged orchid. But nothing is that easy and like many other species the variation in colour can be quite extensive, and the green winged orchid can vary from an intense purple to almost white.

 

It helps to be a botanist if you can get close to your subject and we all had to practise the classic botanists working position.

 

 

Thanks to Malcolm for some excellent photographs. He will be well placed for creating his own personal file of records which is an important part of becoming a fully fledged botanist. Luckily for several of us artistically challenged enthusiasts it is no longer necessary to draw the plants as digital photographs can do such a good job. But I think there is no replacement for the detailed observation that drawing requires even if the hand doesn't follow the eye very well.

Next month we will be looking at dandelions and other plants that will be in flower then as well as grasses and sedges. I think the tutors started us off very gently on Saturday.

Students clearing tree guards at Dix Pit

There isn't a great deal of work that is suitable for the Abingdon and Witney College gang at this time of year so they were really pleased to be able to do some work on the edge of Dix Pit removing some very old and battered tree guards.

Over the last few months they have become a very good team helping each other and working out the best way to do things together. We found that one of the jobs required was to stand up some smaller trees that were leaning over So a suitable sized rock was found to hammer the stakes back in the ground, ("don't forget the hammer next time Jane")
The students and staff always enjoy their lunch break and as none of them had been to the Devil's Quioits this was the obvious lunch spot. They all enjoyed the sun and space and found the stones and ditches very interesting as they have been studying  the First World War and life in the trenches.

 

The staff relaxed looking at the cloud formations and finding old bones that were probably mostly rabbit judging from the number running around and the burrows in the banks.

Another session after lunch shifted enough tree guards and stakes to fill my car for a trip to the tip and everyone said they would like to come back another day.  The students are never so happy as when they are outside and their work makes a real difference as it has to the appearance of these little copses of trees.

 

 

  

     Exploring Rushy Common Nature Reserve and Tar Lakes

Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th May 12.00-4.00pm

          

Rushy Common Nature Reserve 

Stanton Harcourt Road, Cogges.

nearest post code OX29 6UJ

 

Pond dipping, open bird hide, nature trail, bug hunt

       

Free Event: Booking essential

Contact Jane Bowley, LWVP Project Officer for more details on 01865 815426 or

email: lwvp@oxfordshire.gov.uk

From Reedbed to Roundhouse

The Lower Windrush Valley Project has recently joined forces with the Hill End Centre, situated on the Eynsham Road. Just a few miles shy of Oxford City Centre, much of Hill End’s 62 acres is classified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

Dan raking rotting reeds into habitat piles, ideal for Grass Snakes

As such, it is an important area for conservation efforts and was established initially as an outdoor school in order to allow visitors to “experience a simpler, quieter life; an opportunity to be closer to nature, with the space and time to explore, understand and appreciate the wonders of the natural environment.”

Therefore, the Centre offers activities such as residential stays, day visits, training courses, workshops and special events for many groups such as schools, community groups, the general public and businesses.



Collection of Reeds by Hill End Centre volunteers at Standlake Common Nature Reserve

 

It is for this reason that the Lower Windrush Valley Project and Hill End Centre has teamed up and are pooling resources to benefit both parties and the wider community.

The primary aim is to create an Iron Age Village at the Hill End Centre, using a combination of traditional and more recent materials. The Iron Age village will consist of several Roundhouses constructed using local, natural materials. It is here that the partnership begins…

The Lower Windrush Valley Project's Thursday volunteer team has recently been scything sections of the reedbed at Standlake Common Nature Reserve, situated on the Windrush Path between Standlake and Newbridge.

Scything took place on March 20^th 2014 with the aim of establishing blocks of reed of different ages. If a reedbed is unmanaged it will eventually dry out and turn into willow scrub. Opening up the reedbed also permits ingress by water fowl and aquatic species and increases the diversity of invertebrates living in the individual reed plants. The volunteers also created prime grass snake habitat by piling partially rotted reeds from last season’s scything into elongated mounds at the reed margins.

However, the majority of cut reeds were piled into large stacks and donated to the Hill End Centre for use as roofing material in the Iron Age Village.

The Hill End Centre team wasted no time and began work on the first roundhouse immediately. Using a combination of tightly woven willow and hazel branches, lashed together and nailed into place; the main structure of the soon-to-be roundhouse took shape.



‘Naked’ Roundhouse awaiting reeds for roof

The reeds collected from Standlake Common are bundled into tight ‘Yelm’s’ prior to being placed on the roofs surface.

Bundled Yelms – soon to form a waterproof roof for the Roundhouse

 

Yelms being added to roof

Once completed, the roundhouse will be one of several Iron Age Buildings within the wood at Hill End Centre. As well as the Roundhouses, there will also be a Workshop and traditional kiln oven, both of which are also currently under construction.

Workshop (foreground), Roundhouse 1 (background)

Functioning Kiln Oven; made using just mud, turf, straw and bricks

 

The use of the reeds by the Hill End Centre is a very welcome development for the LWVP with the knowledge that the reeds are being removed from the site and put to good use, as the finished Iron Age Village will be employed as a practical education experience for school children across Oxfordshire. Thus, providing the children with the opportunity to develop new skills in an old environment.



Partially roofed roundhouse

Finally, we want to thank David Millin and everyone else at the Hill End Centre for permitting us to photograph their brilliant Roundhouse! It’s going to look fantastic!

 

How to scythe a reedbed

 First get your scythes set up, then spread out and get stuck in. Luckily there was plenty of room to keep out of each other's way. We all agreed that this is by far the best time to cut reeds and we won't be doing it before Christmas again. But with the flooding it only leaves us with a very small window to tackle it before the birds start nesting. As it was the ducks were a bit put out but, as we had created a network of channels for them, I think the effect will be to their benefit once we were out of the way.

Cutting the reeds is really just the easy bit. All the wire netting that was put in to protect the young reed seedlings from grazing by geese  has to be removed as well and that is a lot harder than putting it in once the reeds and willows have grown through  it. Then the posts have to be pulled out and they have sunk into layers mud, if you are lucky they have rotted and break off at ground level; if not, it is a long process of pushing and pulling to loosen them.

 Harry is new to scything but looks to be a natural

 It was far too windy to set light to anything today so the piles of reeds will be left for grass snakes and a handy resting place for Colin after battling with too much wire netting and being blown across the site with piles of reeds on a hayfork. The load of reed acted like a sail so you had to tack across the site to get to the pile as if you were on a dinghy.

 The grass snakes are going to have a variety of piles to choose from as Dan made another one out of the pulverised reeds that we had left from our previous scything before the floods arrived. They had obviously been pounded by the water and formed into mats of reed debris that would have made good bedding for pets.

Now we will leave the place in peace and quiet and hope that the reed warblers and sedge warblers will be back soon. The reed buntings have been here all winter so will hopefully be scouting for nesting sites fairly soon.

Springfield School come to Rushy Common

Look over  there, what is that on the island?  And that one coming towards us? Lots of geese, great crested grebes and several cormorants kept everyone busy looking for new birds. Walking down the path we found seven nests from last year that are still in one piece.

 This swan did a beautiful sail-by giving plenty of time for a lovely drawing to be made and peaceful contemplation of its beauty.

Look there are lots of ducks over there shoveler, teal and wigeon.

The quarry workings are still under water so we could safely cross the haul road to view the works from the bridge over the silent conveyor belt.

 Watch out someone is watching you.

.

 Lucky that perching post was just there when a rest was needed.
 Then it was time to go. I hope you will all be back for a picnic in the summer.