Annual General Meeting 2019

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the 2nd Annual General Meeting of 

Cromwell Bottom Wildlife Group will be held at the Mulberry Suite, 

Brighouse Sixth Form College HD6 1AY at 7.30pm on Wednesday 5^th June 2019

The evening will include a talk by Peter Lau of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust as well as an opportunity for a chat over some refreshments at the end of the meeting.

     

RASTRICK

BIG

LOCAL

2019

Please vote for project C

Wildlife, Woods and Water (Cromwell Bottom Wildlife Group) in the Rastrick Big Local ballot this year.

If you live in Rastrick and have a postcode starting with HD6 3, or if the school you go to has a HD6 3 postcode, [Year Six and above] then you are eligible to vote.

Look out for your voting paper, or go to: https://rastrickbiglocal.co.uk/project-c-for-2019-wildlife-woods-and-water-cromwell-bottom-wildlife-group/

where you’ll find details of this and other projects.

We want to:

1. Improve the public footpath through Reins Wood and Strangstry Wood with better surfacing, steps and signage from Lillands Lane down to the railway crossing and into the nature reserve.
2. Work on the nature reserve to keep open water in the lagoon, conserving special habitats for plants and all sorts of wildlife, extend our wheelchair accessible footpaths and provide an additional viewing point across the reedbed.

Everybody will benefit – wildlife AND people.

Find our more on our blog: http://cromwellbottom.blogspot.com/

and finally….. thanks for your vote!

Moth night sat 1st

Trap should be running from 9.00pm approx. - Assuming it is not raining - See you there.

Nesting Boxes

Earlier this year the Thursday volunteers spent a few sessions getting the reserve's nest boxes ready for this year's breeding season. This involved taking down damaged boxes, repairing them and putting these and new boxes up. As we have something like 100 boxes located around the reserve we also took grid references of all the boxes so that we could relocate them all. The majority of the boxes are designed for blue tits and great tits but we also have robin, treecreeper, owl, and sparrow boxes along with a number of bat boxes.

For the last 8 days I have spent time with Steve Downing, who is a licensed bird ringer. He looked into some of the boxes and ringed chicks where appropriate. Unless you have a license, it is illegal to open nest boxes during the breeding season or to handle wild birds. The window of opportunity to ring small birds is quite small. The chicks must have most of their feathers developed but still be in the nest. This opportunity only lasts a few days. Last week we found around 65 boxes with approximately 90-95% occupied but none of the chicks were ready for ringing. Since then we have ringed approximately 80 chicks. The brood size varied from 7 to 11 chicks per nest,  With the good weather we have had in the last couple of weeks this shows an excellent return and bodes well for a very good breeding season for these small birds this year.

Hopefully we will manage to get a lot more chicks ringed in the coming weeks. Each of the rings has an individual identification number stamped on it along with a telephone number. Should anyone find a dead bird with a ring attached then they should make a note of this number and ring the telephone number. If there are any obvious clues as to the cause of death then this should be passed on. This allows the British Trust for Ornithology to gather information on how long birds live for, how far they move from their birthplace and causes of death so that scientists can see trends and develop strategies for improving survival rates.

Mothing Trip to Tag Meadow and North Loop

I had a very pleasant wander around Tag meadow in the morning and North Loop with Alan Pullan in the afternoon. Still a bit early for most species despite the warm, sunny weather. Just two species of butterflies were ID-ed and six moths, however three of those were nice finds.

Highlight for myself was my first ever Mother Shiptons, one in Tag meadow and one on North Loop. Their habit of being skittish and landing in dense vegetation made photography difficult. You can just see the old hag's face on the forewings.

Another interesting one was this Small Yellow Underwing. Despite being a macro moth it's quite tiny with a wingspan of c20mm and therefore easily overlooked and under-recorded.

There were quite a few of these Common Rollers (Ancylis badiana) about as would be expected.

The same goes for this Bordered Marble (Endothenia marginana).

Much scarcer was this Vetch loving Northern Crescent Piercer (Grapholita lunulana). It's often difficult to pick out amongst the more common Grapholita species.

Two of these very small Triple-stripe Piercers (Grapholita compositella) were disturbed from the low herbage but were too flighty (and small) for photographs so this is one I took last year.

Just four butterflies were seen all day: One Peacock, one Green-veined White and two unidentified whites.

Moth Night sat 18th

9.00pm start - at the cabins, unless we have heavy rain.

See you there.

MOTH NIGHT SAT 4TH MAY

Yes already it's time for a fantastic night out down Cromwell Bottom - practicing net swishing.

 

We should be getting a good selection on warm evenings from now on.

 

Arrival time - after 8.30pm, lamp start up will be towards 9.00pm.

 

See You there.

Are you interested in fungi?

this could be for you.....

click the link to our Facebook page to see details of a talk in Huddersfield on 29th April - sorry i can't make it work in this post!

Direct Link:  https://www.facebook.com/HudCafeSci/photos/gm.959404237783862/2151856111567435/?type=3&theater

Moth Night 20th April

Yes two weeks have passed & it's that time again. This Saturday is looking good weather-wise, it should be a warm night & we are anticipating the species on the night should be pretty good too.

 

See you there 8.30pm onwards

 

 

Watch your blossoms at night now - It will be one of very few food sources available.

Refreshments at the Cabin

Please note: The Cabin will be open for refreshments on Easter Sunday and Monday 21st and 22nd of April. Pop in for a cuppa and a slice of cake.

Thank You Brighouse Ladies!

Huge THANK YOU!!!

David [vice-chair] and Rosemary [treasurer]went along to Brighouse Ladies Circle recently to receive a cheque for £3150 - another boost to our plans for a viewing platform.
As Chair of BLC for the past year Hayley has been leading her members in some really ingenious fundraising. We're so grateful for all your efforts ladies and the money will be well spent! Hayley is also one of our very active volunteers at CBWG so we benefit from her time as well as her fundraising talents.

[PS - if you're interested in joining BLC have a look at their Facebook page - never a dull moment!]

TESCO Bags of Help

Thanks to all your little blue tokens we have been awarded £4000 from TESCO towards our project “A View for All”. You really pulled out the stops for us and we’re now refining our plans for a viewing area with easy access so that everyone can enjoy the fantastic atmosphere of the reedbed. We’ll probably start work after the birds’ breeding season is over.

Here's how the view looked today in the sunshine

This is the "before" photo -
wonder how the finished project will look?

In the meantime we’d love to hear from any nature loving wheelchair users out there – to make sure we’re doing our best for you to enjoy the reserve. The design of the viewing area isn’t finalised yet, so if you have any particular advice for us or you’d just like to know more about it we’d be grateful if you’d get in touch. Drop us an email, to newsfromcromwellbottom@gmail.com or leave a message on our Facebook page.

Or - of course - you can talk to any of the trustees/volunteers down at the cabin on Sundays.

Thank you!

Bird and Butterfly survey 11/04/2019

Great tit, goldfinch, great spotted woodpecker, common buzzard, carrion crow, grey heron, bullfinch, chiffchaff, robin, mallard, wren, meadow pipit, sparrowhawk, woodpigeon, cormorant, jay, blackbird, dunnock, moorhen, coot, blackcap, chaffinch, reed bunting, nuthatch, coal tit, long tailed tit, little grebe, Canada goose, kingfisher, greenfinch and grey wagtail.

There have also been sightings of shoveler and common sandpiper recently but they were not seen today.

A very good selection of butterflies were seen: orange tip, peacock, brimstone, comma, small tortoiseshell and speckled wood.

Short visit Stock Dove,Nuthatch,Jay,Bullfinch,Reed Bunting.

Moth Night Sat 6th

Yes it's time again - see you Sat night around 7,30-8,00pm.

Spring

A blast from the past down at Cromwell Bottom....


http://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/content/articles/2007/04/13/cromwell_bottom_springwatch_2007_feature.shtml

Tansy info Required

Last August we trapped this Tansy Plume (moth) by the cabin - a first record for Calderdale. The identity is "beyond reasonable doubt" but it would be nice to find out if there was any of it's foodplant growing on the reserve to tie in with this record.

So, does anybody know of any Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) patches on the reserve or close by?

Orange Underwing

The first of the day flying moths are out at the moment , I saw 8 today at least flitting about the canopy in the lagoon area and in Pixie Wood. If you are patient they occasionally come down from the trees and rest on the path or bramble .

1st Chiffchaffs have arrived

I had a walk around the reserve this afternoon with some of the volunteers and was pleased to hear a reasonable number of chiffchaffs around. These are the first spring migrants I have seen this year.The beauty of this time of year is that we also saw a male siskin which is slowly making its way back to Scotland. There were also at least a pair (probably 2 pairs) of little grebe on the lagoon. A short visit to the bird feeding area yielded a surprisingly large number of bullfinches (at least 10) but few other species? Maybe the other species were checking out all the nest boxes that we have built and erected! A walk around north loop gave us a flock of ~20 linnets which suggests that the wild flowers are starting to attract good numbers of finches. Hopefully some will stay and breed. I know our chairman is hoping for breeding skylark.

There were various reports that there may have been lesser spotted woodpeckers about. If anyone saw/heard this elusive species then please let us know. I'm also on the look out for willow and marsh tit. We seem to have plenty of willow trees about so why are willow tits so hard to find?

Moth Night!

This Saturday 23rd March.

Actual kick off will be around 6.30pm due to getting lighter now, arrivals anytime after 6.00pm.

Usual rules - If cold wear warm clothing, If you fancy wood walking checking the goo, boots or wellies may be useful.

Lets try for even more new ones to the site list - Last time it was an Oak Beauty & this suspected Clouded Drab.

What new ones can we get this time?

Moth Night this Saturday March 9th

Another this Saturday usual place at the Cabin 5.30pm to 6.00pm start time assuming it doesn't lash down. Wear warm clothing & some boots or wellies if joining possible muddy wood patrol.
See if we can record a few more new to our List of species.

Bird sightings 28/02/2019

Had a couple of hours walking around the reserve this afternoon and spotted the following birds:
grey heron, grey wagtail, mallard, teal, goosander, moorhen, cormorant, black headed gull, Canada goose, blue tit, great tit, coal tit, long tailed tit, goldfinch, bullfinch, redpoll (30+), nuthatch, sparrowhawk, wood pigeon, reed bunting, chaffinch, wren, robin, blackbird, dunnock, carrion crow and magpie.

There were also reliable reports that great spotted woodpecker, dipper and kingfisher were present.

No summer migrants yet but shouldn't be long now.

Moth Night update

Well a very successful night was had - shame only 4 turned up on such a warm evening, species recorded this weekend were:
Common Flat-Body (Agonopterix heracliana) 18+
Dotted Border (Agriopis marginaria) 1
The Satellite (Eupsilia transversa) 20+
The Chestnut (Conistra vaccinia) 12
March Moth (Alsophila aescularia) 7
Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi) 10+
Brindled Pug (Eupithecia abbreviate) 1
Black-Headed Birch Leaffolder (Acleris logiana) 1
Beautiful Plume (Amblyptilia acanthadactyla) 1
Red-Letter Flat-Body (Agonopterix ocellana) 1
Pale Brindled Beauty (Phigalia pilosaria) 1

A few pictures of some of the above:

 The Chestnut

 March Moth

 Common Flat-Body

 Common Quaker

 

 Pale Brindled Beauty

 The Satellite

 Brindled Pug

 

 Beautiful Plume

Red-Letter Flat-Body (courtesy AndyC)

& we found this spider - Coelotes atropos - tube web spider

A lot of early moths there from such a warm week which brought them out.

Moth Night!

This Saturday 23rd, start time 5pm onwards - Again should be completed for approx. 9pm.

If cold please wear warm clothing & if you wish to join the wood wandering please wear footwear for muddy conditions. Bring a torch.

See you there Saturday.

Large Midget emerges

Anyone interested in botany will be familiar with the clump of Snowberry growing by the public footpath behind the cabin. Last September I finally found some lepidopterous mines on it which turned out to be those of the Large Midget (Phyllonorycter emberizaepenella). They are not common miners in the UK and are the first of this species I have seen anywhere. They are underside mines which cause the leaves to pucker as shown.

Shortly after collecting a couple of mines the larvae spun these neat, rugby ball shaped cocoons.

After the pupae had over-wintered in my garage they were brought indoors about a month ago and the first adult emerged this morning - all 5mm of it.

The area behind the cabin seems quite rich in leaf mining moths for some reason, it often produces good finds.