On Tuesday I was up at Kitts Grave with the volunteers clearing a ride through the scrub/woodland. Although it does not look much like it from the pictures below, we did clear quite long length!
Looking N before we started
Looking N near the end of the day
Looking S at the start
Looking S at the end of the day
Actually, looking again it hardly looks as if we were there at all! If you visit you will see a difference though.
This part of the Martin Down NNR is a fabulous mosaic of scrub and chalk grassland, we have been cutting scrub in order to maintain this mix of habitat, since without control the woody plants would take over completely. It may come as a surprise to many that trees will actually grow over most of lowland Britain without being planted, in fact stopping them doing so need active intervention. Our longer term plan is to introduce a light grazing regime in the hope that we can maintain the mosaic without the constant need for cutting.
Despite the fact that trees will grow unbidden, they are also under threat and this fact formed the backbone of today’s work. We were out at Blashford looking at trees that will need to be cut as a result of ash die-back disease. This non-native fungal disease was imported into Europe with nursery trees and looks like killing 95% or so of all ash trees. Where these are away from roads, buildings etc. this will provide a big increase in deadwood habitat and so not an entirely bad thing. However a lot will have to be felled to maintain safety and we have to check them for potential bat roosts before any work can be planned.
As we criss-crossed the reserve we came across various fungi including this puffball type, full of spores.
puffball fungus full of spores
We also found what I think was a slime mould on an alder stump, an especially bright coloured one at that.
orange slime mould (I think)
At dusk this evening I went over to Goosander Hide to see how many goosander came into the roost, the answer was at least 63, with a bonus side order of at least 24 fallow deer on the shore beside them.
Goosander roost and fallow deer in the near darkness.
My goosander roost picture may be rather poor quality, but wait until you see my last offering! The long-tailed duck that has been on Ibsley Water for a number of days now finally had enough of the northern shore and appeared in front of Tern Hide today, an ideal opportunity to get some pictures of it at last. My best effort is below, it illustrate perfectly the perils of digi-scoping.
long-tailed duck……almost.
Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve 
Oh dear…..Diving duck 😉 Well done the volunteers, and so many deer!
Glad you left the Kitt’s Grave cut back until after we’d collected record numbers of Hazel nuts and STILL left vast majority to Suirrels, Mice etc.
I think our impact upon the amount of hazel was minimal! Although hopefully enough to get a bit more light along the path edges to improve the habitat diversity.