Ramble Round the Reserve

Join us for a nature ramble round the reserve at Cromwell Bottom. Saturday 27th October 10:00am start . We hope to finish at 1:00pm for lunch in cabin.

Meet at cabin. Suitable footware and warm clothes necessary.

Moth Night Saturday 27th

If you are not too tired after your Ramble - The Moth trap will probably be running from around 7.00pm I reckon. It gets earlier & earlier now. So 7.30pm onwards at the Cabin if you wish to try your hand at catching them! 

"TREE WALK" SUNDAY OCTOBER 21ST

Bel Hale, our tree expert will be taking a walk around part of the reserve. She will show us how to identify some of the trees we have on site. This walk is suitable for all ages. Dogs on lead please. Refreshment available in the cabin. Start 1:30 until 3:30 pm. All welcome. Meet at the Cabin.

LEAF MINES FROM OCT.16TH

Had quite a productive walk around Tag meadow yesterday adding around another ten species or so to this year's moth list.


My highlight was several mines of what will probably be Large Midget (Phyllonorycter emberizaepenella) in Snowberry, not one I've recorded before. A long, underside mine causing the leaf to fold longitudinally with upper surface mottling. I'll try and rear some through.

Perhaps more uncommon is the Fern Smut (Psychoides filicivora). It mines the fronds of Harts-tongue Fern using the sporangia to build a case out of which provides pretty good camouflage. Not recorded in Yorkshire until 2008 but has spread somewhat since.

A more abundant species were a few of these Large Birch Pygmy (Ectoedemia occultella) in Birch. You can see one of the larvae feeding in the right hand side mine.

Other mines found were (for Barry's use mainly):

Tischeria ekebladela

Ectoedemia albifasciella

Stigmella glutinosae

Stigmella continuella

Stigmella atricapitana

Parornix devoniella

Phyllonorycter rajella

Nice to see a bench planted on the meadow for us weary travellers!

Charlie.

Cromwell Bottom Work Party Saturday 13th October. Volunteers Needed

This Saturday 13th of October we will be in the lagoon cutting, raking and burning reed, albeit dependent on the weather. Wellies needed!

You may also be pleased to know I’ve also acquired 8 brand new grass rakes since the last work party, which will be stationed down at Cromwell Bottom!

If the weather really does take a turn for the worse, our fall back option is planting wild flowers within the North Loop meadow. Either way, please come prepared, and I hope you can make it on Saturday. With thanks.

Refreshments in the Cabin, and Later . . . Stay for another Moth Night (see post below)

Meet at 09:30

Kind Regards,

Robin Dalton

Area Countryside Officer – Lower Valley

Moth Night!

Yes two weeks have passed & it is time to get the trap out again!

The Moth trap should be up & running from about 7.30pm this Sat 13th - assuming it does not lash it down. Meet at the Cabin from 7.30pm onwards.

On the 29th we had 7 new species for our records at CB :

Barred Sallow, Frosted Orange, Pinion Streaked Snout, Dark Swordgrass, Lunar Underwing, Streak, & Red Line Quaker.

Nearly all were good lookers, the Frosted Orange being exceptionally marked - I wonder what will visit us this time?

Thanks a bundle!

Thank you so much  to the anonymous person who left some bags of sunflower heads  at the feeding area last week.  The birds - and quite a few mice - are enjoying your gift!

Here we go again!

Now that our AVIVA benches are in place for visitors to the reserve we're on the funding trail again - and this time it's for some help for our volunteers who are out in all weathers, and tackling some major jobs which need some serious tackle. As our plans get bigger so do the tasks we undertake - and the tools and equipment just get heavier! Although we don't like to admit it, we're not all youngsters, so a lift with the bigger loads is definitely appreciated which is why we want to buy a small tractor to use with a trailer (already donated) for lots of jobs:

• to get strimmers to our meadows
• take a heavy pump and a generator to our dams and ponds when needed 
• carry tools for path maintenance
• cart bundles of trees for planting
• carry all the equipment for our annual autumn cut in our reedbed - one of the most exhausting tasks of the year.

We are hoping to get a grant of £5000 so we will be asking for your votes on the AVIVA website from 23rd October onwards. 

It's great to have a supportive membership and we know you'll pull out all the stops - so please spread the word with your family and friends and get them to support us too. We'll need well over 1000 votes to be in with a chance - last time we only scraped home because another project dropped out.

Thank You!!