Author: PeterBET

After the formal business of AGM on 12^th November 2016, BET members were treated to a wonderful presentation by guest speaker Higgy – a local naturalist, wildlife photographer and life member of YACWAG. Higgy talked about the beautiful wildlife haven he has developed in his back garden in Yatton.

Starting in 2010, Higgy has transformed a garden that was “basically boring and uninspiring” into an oasis that has been visited by 22 species of butterfly and 45 species of birds – and the BBC.

 Higgy explained how he went about incorporating each of the key elements needed by wildlife to flourish:

• Water
• Food
• Shelter

Using recycled materials where possible (including an old bath) he has created 9 ponds, bridges, log-lined walkways, and of course beds planted with flowers carefully chosen for the wildlife they attract. He also had an objective to make the garden attractive and fun for the family and so has incorporated seating and play areas, to make a remarkable garden.

Higgy’s presentation and story were accompanied by fantastic wildlife photos taken in his garden, like these:

The full story of the garden and more of Higgy’s amazing photos can be found on his Blog and Website:

http://higgysgardenproject.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.somersetwildlifephotography.com/

We are grateful to Higgy for such an impressive and inspiring talk and hope that our members are encouraged to follow his example, even in a small way.

Peter Speight

Trustee

Grass Identification Course – July 2016

POACEAE (or GRAMINEAE) IDENTIFICATION COURSE

Poaceae is a large family of monocotyledonous flowering plants to which most of us don’t give more than a passing glance. We might notice when the lawn needs trimming, or comment on the sweet smell of new mown hay but poaceae, or grasses, tend not to catch one’s eye like more brightly coloured ‘wild flowers’.

When Tony Smith from the Bristol Naturalists’ Society visited the NEWT reserve at Moorend Spout to help with some plant surveying in June, he realised that several of us were struggling with identifying grasses and kindly offered to run a day course. This would be the first joint venture for the North Somerset Nature Net (NSNN), with attendees from YACWAG, NEWT and BET.   BET’s cabin would be the classroom, and on 11^th July, after waving off the BET Monday morning work party, eight of us settled down for some serious study.

As the essential parts of grasses are so small and have a specialist vocabulary, Tony had brought along his ‘visual aids’ – large scale paper models showing the structure of grasses – and a training booklet which would enable us to key out the different families, and eventually to identify the grass in question.   Tony patiently guided us as, armed with hand lenses, we poured over samples and compared their ligules, lemmas, glumes and spikelets, and were introduced to other more prosaic technical terms such as ‘pink stripy pyjamas’. After lunch we ventured into the meadow for the challenge of some field work. Tony assured us that by following his training booklet, and with a little more practice we could all become proficient. To this end, he offered a follow-up day for more field work from which two of us were able to benefit.

I shall certainly look at grasses differently in future and recognise that in a traditional meadow there are so many more species than the ubiquitous rye grass that so predominates in fields scalped for silage. The vernacular grass names are lovely – crested dog’s-tail, sweet vernal grass, timothy, yorkshire fog, cock’s foot, foxtail, to name but a few – though I do struggle with the Latin ones. (I know I should try harder with them as they do help to group families of grasses).

It was a very useful day and we are most grateful to Tony Smith for giving so generously of his time.

Carrie Riches

Spring Bird Walk – April 2016

On Saturday 30th April, Trevor Riddle, with John Croxton, (both from YACWAG) led a walk to help us to identify birds on our reserves by their song.  As the canopy thickens with new leaves, it is quite difficult to see birds amongst the trees and, in the open, they fly so very fast!  However, their presence can be indicated by their song, if one can recognise it but, as most have a song, an alarm call and contact calls, it is quite challenging as many seem so similar.

While some such as the chiffchaff are quite unmistakable, others such as the great tit have a confusingly wide range of songs or calls.   At this time of year it is further complicated by the calls of baby birds!  In the lower part of Jubilee Stone Wood we know that there are often nuthatch so we watched and waited until we finally heard the one calling. Frustratingly we didn’t actually see it as they are such smart looking birds, but Trevor confirmed that it was definitely a nuthatch.

 I was hoping that we would hear or see marsh tits as we know they have nested on the reserves but we were not that lucky, nor did we spot any treecreepers. We did hear the slightly wistful song of the robin, the explosive energy of the wren and lots of chaffinches, chiffchaffs, tits and glorious blackcaps.

 Trevor and John were very patient with us but we all concluded that we definitely need more practice!  The most satisfying way is to visually identify a bird, then watch the beak move as it sings and try to remember the sound!    It was a lovely sunny morning to be out and we enjoyed the increasing numbers of spring flowers as well as the birds. Trevor and John were very complimentary about the management of the reserves and hope that as insects proliferate in the various habitats, so will the birds.

We are most grateful to Trevor and John for sharing their expertise and time.

More photos can be seen in our album: https://flic.kr/s/aHskzm2LHR

Carrie Riches

Dry Stone Walling – Summer 2015

This summer, BET’s volunteers rebuilt the old dry stone wall at the top of Jubilee Stone Wood, next to the car park entrance.

This is one of the remaining sections of wall which ran the whole length of Cheston Coombe lane but most of which has collapsed and disappeared.

There were signs that this stretch had been rebuilt in the past but it was in a very sorry state and had a lot of rubbish dumped along it.  We decided that the JSW reserve warranted a smarter entrance and so over a couple of months our dedicated volunteers applied their skills on Monday mornings and tackled the rebuilding.

After a couple of sessions just clearing away the debris and removing tree roots, we took most of the wall down to ground level and reset some of the bottom foundation stones.

Then the fun began – rebuilding the wall stone by stone.  This can be a frustrating job as the stones are never quite the right shape!  But under the guidance of our more experienced wallers, week-by-week the wall rose until we had used up all the available stone.

Lots more photos of the progress and magnificent final result can be seen in this album.

Hopefully the wall will survive for many years and will be admired by passers-by and re-inhabited by local wildlife – like the slow worm in the photos we encountered between the stones!

Wildlife Event – 5th/6thJune 2015 

After several months of planning, BET hosted a most successful two-day wildlife event and Bioblitz in our woodland reserves. The event had been well publicised via flyers, local newspapers and social media. The good weather helped to make sure we had good attendance from existing members as well as attracting new families and visitors.

We were also very fortunate to have the support of a team of brilliant nature experts who shared their knowledge in such an enthusiastic and informative way. We had over 200 visitors and everyone went away buzzing with excitement at what they had seen and learned!

The event started on the Friday and over 100 schoolchildren from Backwell Junior School came for walks, pond-dipping and bug-hunting. The experts really brought the woods to life for the youngsters.

On the Saturday over 100 more people of all ages came for a programme of nature walks, bird-spotting, more bug-hunting, pond-dipping, etc, plus children’s activities (colouring, badge-making, etc) and rural crafts, notably green woodwork and pole-lathe turning.

Other attractions included a Barn Owl, a Tawny Owl, a Kestrel and four Kestrel chicks (which everybody loved) plus musicians and displays about local wildlife.

One aim of the event had been to celebrate BET’s tenth anniversary – and this was achieved with a lot of tea and cakes, including two specially-made birthday cakes.

Underpinning the event was a Bioblitz with the nature experts identifying over 400 different species (plants, mammals, invertebrates) on the Backwell site, ranging from the huge (oak trees) to the impressive (peregrine falcons, buzzards) to the very small and quite unusual (24-spot ladybird, ‘pseudo scorpion’ and flea sedge). The full list of species, which has since been added to over recent months, can be found here:Nature and Wildlife menu

We would like to thank all the experts and helpers over the two days, plus the Backwell Scouts for the loan of the marquees and other equipment.

You can see lots more photos of the event here:  Album

Event sub-committee:
Carrie Riches
Martin Brasher
Peter Speight
Ian Chambers