BITTERNS BREEDING AGAIN AT NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE NATURE RESERVE

CHAIRMAN'S POSITIVE UPDATE AT OCTOBER AGM OF COUNTY WILDLIFE TRUST 

Far Ings nature reserve where this year at least one pair bitterns nested successfully

BITTERNS have again nested successfully in North Lincolnshire.

This was confirmed at Saturday’s annual meeting of the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust where members were provided with the graphic proof - a photo of two young birds making what was their first flight over a reedbed at the Far Ings reserve at Barton-on-Humber.

This 2017 achievement is a welcome pay-off for the Trust which made enhancing reedbed habitat one of its recent priorities following this iconic species’ breeding absence in recent years.

Sadly access to this hide  had to be closed temporarily

following vandalism -  a recurring problem at the Far Ings reserve

It also came against a backdrop of increasing disturbance from vandals, plus dogs and their owners, which continues to prove challenging for reserve staff and volunteers.                                                   

Elsewhere in the Trust’s reserves portfolio, there was a slight dip in nightingale numbers at the Whisby nature park, near Lincoln, while high tides and adverse weather had a devastating impact on breeding little terns at Gibraltar Point.

The 90 or so members and staff who attended the meeting, held at the Whisby education centre, heard an upbeat presentation from chairman David Cohen on the year’s activities.

The new visitor centre and cafe at Gib is proving highly successful as is the new reserve created on the site of the former airfield at Woodhall Spa.

Hobby, osprey and peregrine have been sighted overhead at the latter and whimbrel are occurring on passage.

The reserve is also proving an important habitat for wintering snipe and curlew, and there are high hopes that, before long, it might boast breeding ringed and little ringed plovers.

Breeding hope for ringed plovers at new reserve

                                                         

Since last year’s AGM, the Trust has acquired, thanks to a legacy from former president Ted Smith, of the 50-acre Swinn Wood, near Alford, reckoned to be “one of the finest woodlands in the county”.

The chairman praised the quality of recruitment initiatives which has seen membership rise to 27,000-plus.

Another ongoing success story is that of the grey seals which continue to breed in record numbers at Donna Nook.

When the arrival, earlier this month, of the first 2017 pup was posted on Twitter, the Tweet quickly achieved some 150,000 “hits”.

Before fielding questions, Mr Cohen reminded members of the risks created by Brexit, especially if directives designed to safeguard wildlife are forfeited. However, he noted that departure from the EU could also provide an opportunity for Parliament to draft new, hopefully more effective legislation

It is up to members to lobby their MPs to seek the best possible outcome.

The meeting also heard important contributions from treasurer Peter Stapleton who provided a succinct update on the Trust’s finances and from chief executive Paul Learoyd who provided further insights on the positive work being done by staff and volunteers.

In reply to a question about the sperm whale strandings  of early last year at Skegness, Wainfleet and elsewhere in northern Europe, the latter  noted that research was ongoing.

The whale washed up early last year on the Ministry of Defence site at Wainfleet which is managed by the Trust

                                                      
He further observed  that noise and windfarms were not, at this stage, thought to have been contributory factors in the disorientation of the animals which caused them to swim into the North Sea which is too shallow a habitat for them to survive in.

Another important part of the meeting was a tribute to the later David Robinson, president and long-term stalwart of the Trust, who died on July 24 this year after a short illness.

It was delivered by vice president Geoff Trinder who offered not just an appraisal of the serious academic work, as an author and lecturer, of Mr Robinson, but also a medley of a amusing anecdotes - for instance, when he once drove his car into a dyke at Epworth Turbary.

Rather than observe a minute’s silence, he asked the membership to provide a round of applause.

To conclude the formal part of the meeting, members re-elected Roy Harris and John Redshaw as trustees and elected Matthew Capper, Robert Oates and Amy Rose.

   

Later in the afternoon, there was an informative - and entertaining - illustrated presentation from the Trust’s newly-appointed conservation officer Tammy Smalley, of Skegness, whose previous career included a spell as an ecological consultant and seven years apiece as a marine specialist with Natural England (formerly English Nature) and as The Wash estuary project officer.

In her new role, she will be helping to spearhead the Love Lincolnshire Plants project (which is being financed to the tune of £499,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund).

This will help not only to safeguard some 9,000 plant specimens (held in storage) but also to promote a greater interest in flora within the county

The ambitious initiative will be supported by a team which will include project manager Aidan Neary and two yet-to-be appointed community and education officers.

The Trust’s partners in this ambitious venture are the Lincolnshire Naturalists’ Union, the Natural History Museum, the Sir Joseph Banks Society with the University of Lincolnshire as an associate partner.

Tammy provided a lively whistlestop tour through the history of plant research and literature in the county, highlighting in particular Joan Gibbons whose Flora of Lincolnshire was published in 1975 and updated 10 years later.

Alarmingly, she noted that some two thirds of the county’s plant species had declined or become extinct between 1970 and 1991.

Notable casualties have included common club moss, matted sea lavender and cranberry, the last of which was once abundant in Wainfleet and Friskney but is now confined to just one or two sites in the county.

On the plus side, greater water parsnip appears to have come back from the brink and meadow saffron has been discovered for the first time since 1836 at a site in South Lincolnshire.

It was an inspiring talk in which Tammy pledged her  commitment to “strategic engagement” in order to persuade the county’s developers and planning authorities of the value of conservation.

She ended by vowing to do all that she could to inspire young people “so that we can find the young botanists of the future”.                                                     

Project partners (left to right): Richard Jefferson (Lincolnshire Naturalists’ Union), Fred Rumsey (senior curator at the Natural History Museum), Aidan Neary (project officer, Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust), Tammy Smalley (head of conservation, Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust) and Liberty Gray (University of Lincoln MSc research student)