Issue No. 15 Winter 2002

As the only full-time member of staff at Fowlmere, the responsibility for the reserve falls fairly and squarely on me, but a huge number of other people play a part in running the reserve. If you are one of those, I offer my grateful thanks to you for your contribution to another successful year. Even if you have not been able to help in a practical way, your support as a RSPB member is still greatly appreciated.

Our tried and tested team of five part-time field teachers (FTs) completed another successful season, welcoming 1300 pupils, parents and teachers to our curriculum-based education programme, although Christine finished slightly early to prepare for the birth of Ellie in August. Congratulations! But the FTs’ interest doesn’t end when the teaching stops – their ongoing commitment to the reserve is amply demonstrated by their attendance on the weekly work parties outside the teaching season, and in running Fowlmere Wildlife Explorers.

If you have ever visited the reserve on a Thursday, or at the weekend in the winter, you will be aware that much of the physical work is done by volunteers. Eighty individuals contributed 2949 hours of their spare time in the last financial year, and new attendance records for work parties were set – 12 people turned up one Thursday, and 25 came on a Saturday in October. Maintenance of the visitor facilities, habitat management, and generally keeping the place tidy were the main activities, but special skills such as the maintenance of machinery, chainsawing, and computing also came in very useful, and many of the wildlife records are contributed by volunteers.

It is difficult to run many events with only one full-time member of staff on site, but our policy of encouraging people to use the reserve as a venue for their own events worked well (if you like barbeques!). Loyal supporters past and present gathered for the 25^th anniversary of the Cambridge RSPB Members’ Group in July, and in October Cambridge Conservation Volunteers celebrated their 40^th Anniversary with ‘Try a Task’ followed by a moth-trapping, bat-finding, social event.

Having the educational equipment on site allowed us to offer pond-dipping to nine diverse groups of Cubs, Brownies, Wildlife Explorers, Little Owls and a birthday party! The reserve continues to attract casual visitors as its reputation as a pleasant walk spreads, and we were able to recruit 54 new RSPB and WEx members during the year, which is an exceptional achievement.

Apart from the routine maintenance of two miles of visitor trails, four hides, and assorted boardwalks and footbridges, we had to make a special effort to clear 25 trees from the paths after the October storm. We resurfaced the access track and car park, replaced one of the legs supporting Reedbed Hide, and started the replacement of the older sections of boardwalk near Reception. We are very grateful to Rugby Cement, the Countryside Commission, South Cambridgeshire District Council and the Countryside Stewardship Scheme for grants towards these improvements. We also received a donation in memory of Neville Clarke, with which we installed a new design of picnic bench that is suitable for wheelchair users.

We are very sorry that several visitors have had items stolen from their cars this year. Despite the close attention of the police, we have not been able to do anything about this problem apart from displaying a warning sign by the car park. Our advice (whenever you leave your car unattended in the countryside) is to take your valuables with you, leave your glove compartment open, and lift the parcel shelf so that the interior of the boot can be seen.

Some jobs we do every year, such as mowing our chalk grassland meadows and clearing encroaching reeds from ditches, ponds and meres, but other jobs are done less frequently. This year we have put a lot of effort into clearing the ditch that runs along our northern and eastern boundary, including replacing the culverts by the car park, as it affects the drainage of our neighbours’ land. We have also continued the long-term projects of restoring the chalk grassland and the chalk stream, often using the products of scrub removal from the former habitat to improve the latter. Of course, some events cannot be predicted, and we will be clearing the results of the October storm at least until Christmas.

Cambridge Water Company has continued with the study of the effects of water abstraction from boreholes near the reserve, by monitoring water levels at various points, and organising a botanical survey of key areas of grassland, reedbed and fen. This has shown that some of our meadows are very rich in chalk grassland species, justifying the effort we put in to mowing them each year.

Sometimes visitors complain about the lack of birds at Fowlmere, but those who come regularly are rarely disappointed, and this year was particularly good for the variety of species seen.

Hen harriers provided the highlight of last winter, with three giving really close views as they drifted over the reedbeds in January and February. Equally attractive (to those who could find it!) was a jack snipe just a few yards from Reedbed Hide in April. Waders are never seen in numbers, but there was a good range of species during both spring and autumn passage. Common snipe, lapwing, golden plover and green sandpiper are most commonly seen, this year being joined by redshank, greenshank, little ringed plover, whimbrel and woodcock. Jack snipe caught our attention again later in the year, when two took up residence by the mere in September and October.

Kingfishers returned to fledge two broods from their hole in the root plate of a fallen tree, gadwall nested again for the second year, and greylag goose was added to the list as a breeding species. We thought we might add a second new breeding species when a Savi’s warbler started singing in the reedbed, but it obviously didn’t attract a mate as it stayed only a few days.

Migration is always an exciting time, and while we don’t see the numbers or the rarities of the better-watched coastal sites, something of interest usually turns up. A wood warbler sang for a day by the nature trail in April, a male garganey appeared on the mere in June, and the same evening a quail was heard in one of the meadows. One of our best autumns followed, with peregrine, osprey, short-eared owl and hen harrier supplementing the more usual records of merlin, buzzard and marsh harrier, and lots of passerines including nuthatch, tree pipit, wheatear, whinchat (3), redstart (4), grey wagtail (6) and ring ouzel.

As I write, it’s not just the temperature and the thick fog that tell me winter is here again. Redpolls occasionally join the flock of siskins feeding in the alders by Spring Hide, one or two bramblings are roosting in the ivy with the chaffinches, fieldfares and redwings (up to 500!) feed on the abundant haws, and a merlin chased ‘a little brown bird’ through the bushes by my office last week.

Visitors often report seeing mammals, usually in the form of fallow and muntjac deer, but I was surprised to see the first Chinese water deer for the reserve in October. We also had our best year for otter sightings, at least eight, plus lots of other evidence of their presence.

Large and colourful groups are understandably easiest to record, but I would like to know more about the invertebrates on the reserve. Thanks to regular visits by several local mothers (that’s moth-ers!), moths are our best recorded non-avian group. The reserve list now stands at 318, of which 15 are Nationally Scarce (b) species including the BAP Priority square-spotted clay. A search for this species in August by a specialist was unsuccessful, so we will try to find the caterpillars in March; apparently they are restricted to nettles in the drip zone beneath hawthorns!

Too late for inclusion in last year’s newsletter, I discovered that in 2001 the reserve was the only site in the UK where the very rare golden hoverfly was found by an entomologist working for English Nature. This spectacular species, nearly an inch long, nectars on ivy flowers in the autumn, and a specimen was probably seen by one of our Field Teachers in September.

The Field Teachers have also been recording amphibians this year, as we are concerned that numbers of frogs and toads have fallen considerably recently; they didn’t find many! A recently started programme of water quality monitoring may provide some of the answers.

The RSPB completed the first purchase at Fowlmere on 3 January 1978, which makes 2003 our Silver Jubilee! As I write, there are no special events planned, but we will be remembering our 25 years at the Christmas Social on 11 December, and on other occasions as the year goes by. National Moth Night is early next year, on 12 April, and Cambridge Bird Club will be holding a barbeque on 8 August.

This winter, after we have finished clearing up the storm damage, we will be extending the reedbeds on the land we lease from Cambridge Water Company, continuing scrub clearance in the chalk grassland and reedbed, and widening the ‘bridleway’. Please join us!

Two tree sparrows were in the field by the car park on 24 November;

the most recent previous records were in August 1993 and April 1990!

Have you been to the reserve lately? Check the latest visiting arrangements on our website www.rspb.org.uk

Fowlmere Warden: Doug Radford

Fowlmere Reserve Office: Manor Farm, High Street, Fowlmere, near Royston

SG8 7SH

Telephone & fax 01763 208978

Newsletter production: Brian Hockley and John Bevan

RSPB Regional Office, Norwich:

Telephone 01603 661662

We would like to thank Pat Rowley and the management of Grant Instruments for very kindly printing this Newsletter.

The RSPB works for a healthy environment rich in birds and other wildlife. It depends on the support and generosity of others to make a difference. It has joined with bird and habitat conservation organisations worldwide to form a global partnership called

BirdLife International.

The RSPB, The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire, SG19 2DL. Telephone 01767 680551

Registered charity number 207076