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The former ochre works and Ravens Rock has recently been given Local Nature reserve status by South Gloucestershire Council. The Authority formally declared the site a Local Nature Reserve on 31st March 2005. The wildlife haven is one of seven ‘Wildspaces’ in South Gloucestershire and joins a family of over 1000 LNRs in England.
The local community of Wick are celebrating the recent signing of a 99-year Access and Management Agreement between landowners Cemex and South Gloucestershire Council. The agreement was endorsed at a ceremony on 10th February 2005 which was attended by Steve Webb MP, the Regional Director of RMC Aggregates (now Cemex), the Chief Executive of South Gloucestershire Council and the Chair of South Gloucestershire Council. Members of the Friends Group, local children and funding supporters of the project were all on hand to help celebrate this important milestone.
We are all waiting to see if the peregrine falcons return to their nesting site at Wick Quarry again this year. If so it will be the 10th year they will have successfully raised their young at the active aggregates quarry.
To mark the anniversary a unique project has been devised by the Wildspaces Partnership Project. This year for the first time a webcamera has been installed close to the nesting site. If all goes well we should be able to see the pair of peregrines night and day through the nesting season. As far as we know this is the first such camera in an active quarry.
The project involves the landowners Cemex, South Gloucestershire Council, The Hawk and Owl Trust, English Nature and Eco-Watch. The camera and its installation was funded through English Nature and DEFRA’s Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund.
A website is currently being built to enable local people and people from around the world to look in on the falcons.
Two underground tunnels have been given a make over to attract local bats to the reserve. With funding from English Nature the disused turbine shafts have been converted to enable bat to hibernate during the winter.
In a joint project between South Gloucestershire Council, the Friends of Wick Golden Valley, Cemex, the Avon Bat Group and the Batscapes Project, we have been able to create new habitats for the 7 different species of bats found at the site to use.
Notes from the Reserve
The weather over the past year has been very mixed. The spring was early and mild, even warm, and it then turned cold for several weeks. This had a disastrous effect on the Blue Tits’ breeding cycle by delaying their caterpillars, on which they depend to feed their young, so that when we cleared out the nest boxes later in the year there were dead young or addled eggs. Great Tits were also affected in my garden and the young survived on peanuts. In this area Blue Tits could have lost a generation for they do not seem to replace a lost clutch.
The spring was followed by a dry spell which terminated in heavy rain and flooding in many parts but we escaped most of this. The Boyd became very low in the autumn and is only now getting back to normal.
Otter spraints were again seen on several occasions and there have been reports of the otters taking carp from the ornamental ponds at Dyrham Park.
Dippers managed to breed under the bridge in the reserve, despite the low water levels, but moved as soon as the young could fly. Few have been seen since.
Bird species and numbers are continuing their sad decline with Willow Warbler, Greater and Lesser Whitethroat, Spotted Flycatcher and Cuckoo again absent, with a new absentee in our resident breeder, the Mistle Thrush, which failed this year. Tawny owls however did well and produced three young in Annie Baker’s wood.
Butterfly numbers numbers were fair, with the Brown Argus again appearing in small numbers but no White Letter Hairstreaks were seen or Large Skippers. Small Skippers and Essex Skippers were caught to be sure of their identity and it is nice to know that we still have them. Clouded Yellows were not seen and the Small Tortoiseshell is still not making up losses of the last few years.
Glow worms have shown a sharp increase with fair numbers seen on the bat walks. Bats have also made good shows on the walks.
Roe deer are still spreading with us and have been seen several times from Ravens Rock, where the wall is a good vantage point as it is for the ravens and peregrines which both nested and bred this year. Shall we lose them if the quarry starts to remove the rock face? It will be a great loss to the reserve.
Only three species of orchid flowered this year and some were under stress with the dry spells. Early Purples did well and are increasing their range. Pyramidal Orchid had a few blooms and the long standing group of Spotted Orchids in the grassland failed to appear, although a new single flower was found in the lower area of the reserve, which seeded and could start a new colony.
Don Hamblett
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