Wood Pigeon must have had an excellent breeding season this year.
I thought my previous record of 40,137 on the 4/11/2020 of birds observed moving south from the watch point was a one off!!
But today (Same date 4/11) the weather and visibility were excellent, and a record was set of 41, 897 in 4 hours of observations.
Has we are aware the water in our wildlife pond at Raw Nook NR drains away unless there is content rain.
Funding was secured and a company was employed to fix the problem in the summer. Unfortunately, this did not happen, and the work was scheduled for the last week in October just as we had very heavy rain. Therefore the rain water had to be drained before work could commence.
A decision was taken to reschedule the work for the spring/summer period 2023 when the pond will be dry.
My concerns are that if the company let us down this summer…will it happen again ? However, I am determined that our wildlife pond will be repaired as promised…. ‘ Like a dog with a bone ‘ springs to mind!
On a different note it was a real shame I had to speak at the Oakenshaw Residents meeting last week regrading the on going problem of Dog Fouling at Raw Nook NR and TH Beck.
Thankfully the Council has now put up signage at the sites which is great news and the Wardens have and will patrol the areas.
Hopefully the irresponsible dog walkers will start to pick up their dog’s poo and take it home rather than polluting OUR nature reserves.
The last few days have been busy at the watch point with the annual dispersal of Wood Pigeon to the south.
The dispersal starts around the last week in October and lasts into early November.
Whilst huge numbers move south the reason why they do this at this time of the years, well, is still not fully understood.
However, the Bradford area is well situated to view this event and Low Moor along with Oxenhope gets some excellent counts of birds. At the watch point many birds move directly overhead but the majority are observed moving mainly to the east of Low moor.
Counts so far this autumn as has follows:
25/10/22 = 11,637…… 26/10/22 = 2,904……30/10/22 = 11,518…..31/10/22 = 16,122
Our good friend Peter Gurney YWT has certainly left a lasting legacy at Low Moor Banks. Firstly, it was his suggestion to give the name Low Moor Bank to the site, which was always referred to as ‘ The old tip site’. However, he has now installed a lovely new information notice board for the site.
In spring and summer, I would certainly recommend a visit to the site which is located on Dealburn Road, Low Moor Bradford BD12 0RG.
I keep wildlife records for the site however, I cannot get up there as often as I like as I am kept busy at Raw Nook NR & Toad Holes Beck. However, I have found some interesting finds like breeding Lesser Whitethroat, Six-belted Clearwing + Blackneck moths, breeding Small Heath butterflies and several species of Orchids. So if you do visit would you kindly pass any records on to me, please as sadly like a lot of places in south Bradford development is always a worry.
Just to finish I have been busy with vis-mig ( watching visible bird migration ) during the last few weeks with thrushes coming into the UK from Scandinavia and Wood Pigeon on their annual movement south. Here are a few special sightings viewed from the watch point:
19/10: 4,017 Fieldfare moving S + 906 Starling moving S/W
22/10: 2,497 Fieldfare moving S
25/10 11,637 Wood Pigeon moving S
On Tuesday the 18th of October it was our annual Fungi Walk at Raw Nook NR with our friends at YWT Sarah, Peter with Kat Woolley (YWT fungi expert) leading the walk. However, we had another guest expert joining us, Ian Forward from the Mid Yorkshire fungus Group..so basically a Dream Team!
The weather prior to the walk had been good for fungi so hearts were beating…
I explained to the group that our site list stood at 84 species of fungi so if the experts could find a further 16 new species that would be fantastic for our urban site.
Almost straight away in the meadow Verdigris Agaric – Stropharia aeruginosa was found which was a site first.
Further along excitement grow further when a Saffron Milkcap – Lactarius deliciosus (Below) was discovered.
In actual fact the meadow produced an array of fungi attributed to the excellent meadow maintenance work done by Peter from YWT according to Ian ( Fungi expert)
Moving on from the meadow we entered the wooded area of the reserve.
As well as learning as much as I could from the experts I was ‘Trying’ to keep a list of all the finds and it wasn’t long before there were squeals of excitement as new species like Clustered Domecap – Lyophyllum decastes, Elfin Saddle – Helvella lacunosa and the tiny but lovely Orange Bonnet Mycena acicula were found.
However, as the species list grow, there was a special moment that will last a long time not only in my mind but the excited experts as well.
Hawkeye ‘Jess’ suddenly let out a loud gasp which had us all scurrying to her location.
She had found the find of the day a Bird’s nest fungus Crucibulum leave by the fence near the railway line.
The walk started at 10.00 and should have finished around 13.00. Smiling faces were leaving at 15.00! But for me it was home to input the finds. And I got a surprise with 53 species identified of which 22 were new species which brings the total for our reserve to 106 species.
The full species list can be found here: http://www.lowmoorwildlife.co.uk/fungi/
Despite these excellent figures to have expert mycologists like Kat and Ian say comments like’ What an excellent site this is ‘ Well for our group…that’s the icing on the cake!
Many thanks to Kat Wooley, Ian Forward and ‘Hawkeye’ Jess for a brilliant day and helping to add 22 new species to our fungi list
A Little Egret flew S/W over the watch point this morning.
Whilst this is my second record of the species, the first one was seen over the Cleckheaton area in 2003 which is out of our recording area.
However, today’s bird was in our recording area and can be counted which brings my species list to 134.
Goldfinch numbers are increasing as birds move south. Yesterday 95 were counted mainly moving to the S/W
Redwings have started to come in early this year. I picked up the first birds on the 26/9, 43 coming in from the N/E and moving S. Then a further 168 came in mainly from the N on the 1/10. The Redwings arrived in the country on a favourable wind from Scandinavia. On the 29/9 a party of 6 Grey Heron moved S which is expected at this time of the year as some to the coast for the winter.
I received some excellent news about a pair of Stoats at Caldene fields by the small stream. They were seen coming out of a small wall together. My last sighting of the species was way back in February 2012 at Raw Nook NR. This elusive species could well be breeding in the area as they can be very difficult to find.
It was a sad day on Tuesday the 20/9/22 for Raw Nook, Bradford council’s first local nature reserve and our conservation group as it was the last day the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust would be involved in our urban nature reserve due to them moving on to new projects.
We as a local community have a lot to thank the YWT for not only for their excellent conservation work but also for the overall input into our environment and biodiversity. We (Low Moor & Oakenshaw Conservation group) have also gained valuable conservation management knowledge from both Sarah Goldsmith and Peter Gurney.
I remember talking to Sarah back in 2019 when we first met on site about my sighting of a Nightingale in Raw Nook in1989 and how I termed the area ‘ Nightingale Way’. Sarah with bright eyes and her enthusiasm, leave it to me!! Then a couple of years later Sarah put up some ‘ Rubbing Posts’ with a Nightingale on one of them..at the exact same spot! Brilliant.
There were also many enjoyable events that were run by the YWT in our area enjoyed by many people. I remember one event at Toad Holes Beck when I talked to Peter about not be able to find a Bee Orchid at TH Beck”
About an hour later I returned from my lunch and was met with a smiling Peter who had just found (You guess it) a Bee Orchid!!! Brilliant news!
I am sure I speak for all our local community in sincerely thanking Sarah and Peter for all the improvement they and YWT have made to our nature reserve and wish them all the very best for the future
Here are just a few! of their improvements…
I have received a reliable report from a local resident who saw a Badger at 5.30am in Low moor whilst on his way to work on 16/9/22.
Over the years I have been told of odd sightings of the species in the Low Moor/Oakenshaw areas.
Due to the sensitivity of this sighting no reference will be made on social media.
I would welcome any relevant sightings/information of badgers in our area which will be passed on to the West Yorkshire Ecology services.
As we are all aware the pond at Raw Nook Nr has been leaking since about 2018.
This has caused the pond to retain some water when it rains only for it to drain away within a few days if there was no further rain.
This has had a massive impact on our wildlife with my records indicating a massive drop in breeding dragonfly numbers and the death of hundreds of tadpoles as and when the pond dried up in spring.
I like others (The YWT) have campaigned to get the pond repaired. To me the problem was the clay at the bottom of the middle of the pond had cracked during the baking hot summer of 2018 causing water to seep away.
So, with the help from our friends at YWT Sarah Goldsmith and Peter Gurney who organised funding it looks like the work to repair the pond will start towards the end of September.
This is excellent news for our biodiversity and I’m hoping that next spring the pond will have hundreds of tadpoles which will develop into frogs, newts and dragonflies will return to breed once again.
More updates to follow…
