Volunteer Traning Day - Wildflower Identification with Dominic Price

Middle Heath Enclosure - Owlbeech Woods

Yesterday saw the fourth of our now annual volunteer training days in Wildflower ID run by Dominic Price of the The Species Recovery Trust. This is an excellent opportunity for some of our volunteers to gain valuable ID skills with the long term aim of getting some more help with our Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) survey work.

A group of 17 all met at Owlbeech Woods bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ready for an exciting morning exploring the heathland restoration project and learning how the heath is developing as it becomes more effectively managed. Some of the first species we looked at were Pill Sedge and Green-ribbed Sedge both of which were growing on the recently scraped areas and were good indicators of this dry area of heathland. We then moved into one of the vehicle tracks which has a nice open sword with lots of bare sandy soil. This gave us the chance to look at some lovely heathland species such as Heath Milkwort, Tormentil and Heath Bedstraw. We also looked at lots of different grasses and learnt some field tips for doing some of them vegetatively such as Yorkshire Fog below which has a 'stripy pajama' look about it on the stems. Hopefully one which all of the group will remember!

Yorkshire Fog - Holcus lanatus 

It was excellent to see so much Brown Bent on the scraped areas which I was really pleased about on a management level. We then moved to the boggy pools which are mainly in the Middle Heath Enclosure which produced a different sweet of species such as Bulbous Rush, Compact Rush and Yellow Sedge all of which were seemingly easy enough to identify by field characters such as the reddish base to the Bulbous Rush and the tennis ball-like tightness to the Compact Rush flowers.

Wet Meadow - Warnham LNR

After a well earned lunch at Warnham LNR we headed out onto the Wet Meadow compartment of the Reserve and found a totally different mix of wetland clay-soil specialists which was a nice change from the heathland in the morning session. Here we noted lots of remnants from its intensive agriculture days such as Perennial Rye-grass and the like. Cock's-foot was much more abundant here and much of it which had not been grazed was flowering as in the picture below.

Cock's-foot - Dactylis glomerata

There was a great deal more by way of flowering plants at Warnham than compared to the heathland which was no surprise due to the nature of the soil. Species in flower included Devil's-bit Scabious, Yarrow, Soft Rush, Hard Rush, Lesser Spearwort, Red Bartsia to name but a few. We also had the chance to learn how to ID Common Fleabane both by leaf and the more obvious yellow flowers as below.

Common Fleabane - Pulicaria dysenterica

Many thanks to all of the volunteers that attended and I really hope you got something out of the day and also have remember some of the ID tips that Dominic imparted on us. A huge thanks also goes to the wonderful tuition of Dominic it is always a memorable day out and we very much look to welcoming him back in May 2018. A summary of most of the days species can be found below - I am sure I am missing plenty!

Species List - Owlbeech Woods

• Common Bent
• Sweet Vernal Grass
• Yorkshire Fog
• Pill Sedge
• Green-ribbed Sedge
• Dwarf Gorse
• Bulbous Rush
• Yellow Sedge
• Compact Rush
• Purple Moor Grass
• Tormentil
• Heath Milkwort
• Heath Bedstraw
• Brown Bent
• Common Ragwort
• Common Cudweed
• Common Heather

Species List - Warnham LNR

• Hard Rush
• Meadow Buttercup
• Creeping Buttercup
• Redshank
• Floating Sweet Grass
• Jointed Rush
• Broad-leaved Dock
• Water Pepper
• Common Bulrush
• Timothy Grass
• Fen Bedstraw
• Water Horse-tail
• False Fox-sedge
• Reed Canary-grass
• Greater Plantain
• Thyme-leaved Speedwell
• Common Nettle
• Creeping Bent
• Water Star-wort
• Water Plantain
• Silverweed
• Common Fleabane
• Lesser Spearwort
• Creeping Thistle
• Knotgrass
• Teasel
• Tall Fescue
• Red Bartsia
• Meadow Vetchling
• Field Bindweed
• White Clover
• Perennial Rye Grass
• Spear Thistle
• Water Forget-me-not
• Common Ragwort

Riverside Walk 2017

Paddington Bear™ - At Warnham LNR 

This weekend saw the annual Riverside Walk around Horsham's beautiful countryside take place. This fantastic event is run by the Horsham Town Community Partnership and the charity chosen to support in 2017 was Action Medical Research.  The walk began at Horsham Rugby Club and passed through three of the Countryside Teams sites. The first stop was at Chesworth Farm for a well deserved drink and toilet stop. As you can tell from the photos below the blisters had not set in to any of the participants yet!

The Friends of Chesworth Farm Drink Stop

The Friends of Chesworth Farm were on hand to replenish liquids and offer a toilet break before the 250+ participants of all ages carried on their 13-mile mission. From here the throng of walkers, joggers and disabled ramblers meandered their way around the outskirts of Horsham to Warnham Local Nature Reserve where the lunch stop and live music from The Toons were provided and very well received. Paddington Bear™ also made an appearance here to meet and greet and give moral support to the participants, he of course was accompanied by his trusty marmalade sandwich! The 1st Roffey Scout Group also did a fantastic job with providing the range of marquees and tents for the fatigued walkers to enjoy a well-earned perch!

                                                           A well earned lunch break at Warnham LNR

The walkers then continued on their merry way taking in the wonderful countryside and wildflower filled meadows as they neared the end of the trek. Leechpool & Owlbeech Woods was the last of the Countryside Sites that they visited and by now the peleton had diminished somewhat as people started to feel blisters, aches and pains of a hard days exercise! There was still lots of smiley faces which is the main thing and everyone seemed to have enjoyed the day.

Owlbeech Woods - Nearing the end!

This was yet another brilliant event and I would like to congratulate Jane and her team from the Horsham Town Community Partnership for running such an well received event. In total over £1500 was raised for a very worthwhile charity by the walkers with Frank Talbot raising over £800 on his own! What a star! A truly brilliant effort by all and a pleasure to be involved with the event once more.

WELL DONE WALKERS!!!

Owlbeech Woods - Bird Survey

Mike Ayling carried out some survey work up on the heathland today and also carried out a bird count for us. The full list of species seen is below:

Black-headed Gull 1, Blue Tit 3, Carrion Crow 5, Coal Tit 1, Goldfinch 2, Great Tit 2, Jackdaw 2, Mallard 3, Robin 7, Stock Dove 1, Wren 3, Blackbird 5, Bullfinch 1, Chaffinch 2, Dunnock 1, Great Spotted Woodpecker 2, Green Woodpecker 1, Magpie 4, Pheasant 1, Song Thrush 2, Woodpigeon 13, Yellowhammer 1

Eddie Bew was also on the heath this morning and he recorded the following:

House Sparrow 4, Blackbird 11, Starling 3, Robin 11, Woodpigeon 9, Nuthatch 2, Mistle Thrush 3, Great Tit 4, Blue Tit 4, Mallard 2, Great Spotted Woodpecker 2, Song Thrush 4, Common Buzzard 1, Carrion Crow 6, Magpie 8, Green Woodpecker 1, Jackdaw 1, Dunnock 2, Bullfinch 1, Redwing 1, Long-tailed Tit 2

Grey Squirrel 1, Roe Deer 2

Owlbeech Woods - Bird Survey

Eddie Bew carried out his regular bird survey of Owlbeech Woods which produced the following birds:

Starling 1, Magpie 3, Carrion Crow 3, House Sparrow 5, Blackbird 7,Woodpigeon 5, Great Tit 2, Mallard 3, Robin 8, Marsh Tit 1, Blue Tit 8, Chaffinch 4, Pheasant 1, Nuthatch 1, Wren 1, Long-tailed Tit 6, Song Thrush 3, Dunnock 2

1 Grey Squirrel

Owlbeech Woods - Bird Survey

Eddie Bew carried out a bird survey of the heath which produced the following:

Starling 2, Blackbird 7, House Sparrow 6, Woodpigeon 10, Blue Tit 11, Robin 14, Magpie 9, Song Thrush 6, Goldcrest 5, Mistle Thrush 3, Green Woodpecker 1, Great Tit 6, Jay 2, Chaffinch 2, Great Spotted Woodpecker 2, Goldfinch 8, Treecreeper 1, Dunnock 6, Carrion Crow 6, Long-tailed Tit 12, Common Buzzard 1, Redwing 30, Nuthatch 1, Coal Tit 2

Roe Deer 2, Grey Squirrel 4

Owlbeech Woods - Volunteer Task

Leechpool Woods

A stunning morning greeted us as we set off early for a morning of heathland restoration with Horsham Green Gym at Owlbeech Woods. The ground was frozen solid and there was an eerie mist which clung to the trees as Sam, Judith and I headed up early to start the fire. The task today was to head to Redwood Hill Enclosure and uproot/pull the invasive Downy and Silver Birch which had been sprayed in late summer. 

Redwood Hill Enclosure - Owlbeech Woods

This morning we were bathed in sunshine as the ground began to defrost and there was a definite warmth in what the sun had to offer...spring is on its way...maybe! This mornings task was attended by nearly 30 keen volunteers which allowed us to get through a lot of the birch in the target area. It will only take small group in the near future to finish off the south-east corner of Redwood Hill Enclosure which will make a huge difference this summer. We have recently been able to get a tractor and mower into this area which has meant we can manage the area more effectively in the future. The use of mower as well as our sheep and cattle is that it focuses on one particular area more intensively whereas the livestock do a more 'all-round' job. 

Usually this type of approach would not be the ideal scenario as it leads to the habitat all being of one age a bit like a lawn and limits the biodiversity in the area. Those of you who visit the heath regularly may have seen some rather random bits of mowing particularly in this enclosure but also in Broom Heath and Middle Heath. This is an attempt by us to get a range of ages to the heather in particular but also to create some bare areas for the heathland invertebrates to thrive in by scuffing the surface with the mower. 

Before

Above you can see how effective the group were this morning; the first photo shows how the area looked as we started to uproot the birch at the beginning of the task. Some of the birch were huge, up to 15ft in height with root balls of well over 2ft in diameter but this was nothing to our band of merry men and women and they made light work of all that we could throw at them! The photo below shows how the enclosure looked just before we ended today's task. We now expect the Bracken to try and take a foothold here but that little problem is for another task later in the year!

After

It was a fantastic morning both weather-wise and productivity-wise so thank you very much to all the excellent volunteers who came on this mornings task. Also of note whilst pulling and burning the arisings we had our first Great-spotted Woodpecker of the year drumming as well as a few nice fungi. Although it felt warm enough we weren't lucky enough to see an early Red Admiral but our fingers are firmly crossed!

Leechpool and Owlbeech Woods - Bird Survey

Mike Ayling carried out a bird survey on the heath this morning which produced the following list of species:

Black-headed Gull 29
Blue Tit 2
Carrion Crow 2
Great Spotted Woodpecker 1
Herring Gull 4
Jackdaw 2
Robin 2
Woodpigeon 28
Blackbird 2
Bullfinch 1
Goldcrest 1
Great Tit 2
House Sparrow 4
Magpie 4
Song Thrush 1

Owlbeech Woods - Bird Survey

Eddie Bew carried out his regular bird survey at Owlbeech Woods which produced the following:

Robin 5
Magpie 7
House Sparrow 4
Carrion Crow 3
Blackbird 6
Chaffinch 2
Wren 2
Jay 2
Nuthatch 3
Great Spotted Woodpecker 2
Green Woodpecker 1
Long-tailed Tit 6
Blue Tit 4
Goldcrest 2
Bullfinch 1
Great Tit 3
Coal Tit 2
Pied Wagtail 1
Blackcap 1

Owlbeech Woods - Bird Survey

Eddie Bew carried out a bird count on the heathland at Owlbeech which produced the following birds:

House Sparrow 8   

Blackbird 12   

Magpie 5  

Robin 6  

Wren 2

Great Tit 1   

Chaffinch 1  

Song Thrush 1

Carrion Crow 3  

Great Spotted Woodpecker 1

Jay 2   

Redwing 4   

Long-tailed Tit 6   

Coal Tit 2    

Treecreeper 1

Jackdaw 10  

Goldcrest 2   

Dunnock 1   

Common Buzzard 1    

Nuthatch 1

Owlbeech Woods - Heathland Pools

Black-tailed Skimmer - S. Card

The new heathland pools which Horsham Green Gym excavated over the autumn and winter are really starting to achieve what was hoped for. Over the past few days seven species of dargonfly and damselfly have been recorded including Emperor, Four-spotted Chaser and the immature male Black-tailed Skimmer photographed above.

Owlbeech Woods

Longhorn Beetle - Rhagium bifasciatum

Longhorn Beetle - Rhagium bifasciatum

Given the lovely warm weather we have been experiencing over the last week or so I was eager to get to the Middle Heath Enclosure at Owlbeech to have a look for a few invertebrates. I also wanted to do a count of the Green Tiger Beetles so I wandered up there this week. When I arrived I was surprised to see how much the water level in the top pond had dropped but soon enough I was finding a few Green Tiger Beetles when two of the stunning Longhorn Beetle Rhagium bifasciatum flew past and landed on an old pine stump.

The second of the heathland ponds which was dug by Horsham Green Gym is really starting to mature and has filled up nicely with water. The hope is that the large pond shown in previous blog posts and this smaller pond will attract plenty of insect life and eventually provide a good habitat for dragonflies as well as a drinking pool for Crossbills in the winter.

Whilst on the theme of Horsham Green Gym I must also add that they have recently taken on a large project in partnership with Horsham Town Community Project in re-vamping the Horsham Riverside Walk. As part of the project Green Gym have been installing a number of Oak benches at various points along the walk. Here is the latest of these which is on Forest Walk in Owlbeech Woods.