Archive for the :: Millennium Country Park Category

Tree frog in tissue paper (image Jane Lambourne/Wassledine)

Do you know a child of between 4 and 10 years who might be at a loose end during the school holidays this year? If so a trip to the Forest Centre might be what they (and you) need.

The well-established and popular holiday programme of activities for kids will run once again through all main and half term holidays this year.

All sessions have a wildlife theme of some kind – flowers, bugs, birds, ponds… and there will be all sorts of activities – walks, stories, making, sticking. Everything indeed, to keep your child occupied and happy for an hour or two. Above all, these sessions are brilliant fun and your kids are sure to have a ball.

Here are the dates – to find out more about all but the first, you’ll need to come back soon or contact us nearer the time.

Brilliant birds and marvellous migration

Thursday 12 April 2012, 10am, 11am, 1pm, 2pm

Indoor games and activities to find out about the birds that are arriving in the Millennium Country Park. £2.50/child

 Wands in the willows, Friday 8 June, 10am     

Pond dipping and design, Thursday 26 July 

Sunshine and flower power, Thursday 2 August 

A story safari, Monday 6 August 

Buzzing about! Monday 13 August

Price and length of session vary. Because they are so popular, you’ll need to book early to ensure you secure the places they want – call 01234 767037 for booking (essential in advance) and for more information.

Easter trail at the Forest Centre - 8 & 9 April

Easter Sunday 8 April and Easter Monday 9 April; 11am-4pm

Get your wellies on and follow our Easter Trail at the Millennium Country Park. Solve a puzzling wildlife quiz to win a chocolate prize.

Last Easter was fantastic! More than 200 children, parents, uncles, aunts, grandmas and grandpas visited the Millennium Country Park to enjoy some wonderfully warm spring sunshine and our fun Easter Trail quiz. It was so successful that it’s happening again this year.

So don’t miss out; come to Forest Centre reception to get your quiz sheet and be ready to be sent out into the Country Park’s wilds (well sort of) to look for clues and answer questions. There’s a strong chance that you’ll win a prize – but that’s not the point. Get out and take the air and soak up the newly green world.

No need to book. £2 per child

Stop for lunch or a piece of cake

The Forest Centre has developed a reputation for producing great quality, tasty food at reasonable prices. If you’re here anyway, why not enjoy a leisurely lunch in our beautiful Lakeside Cafe and Bar; you never know, it might even be warm enough to sit outside and eat in the Park.

For more information call 01234 767037

The redshank - a typical wader of the wetlands (image Martin Green)

The Wetlands Nature Reserve in the Millennium Country Park is a fantastic place to walk and quietly enjoy a variety of wildlife. However there are certainly areas which could be enhanced to improve their appeal to wildlife and provide opportunities for people to get closer to nature. Thanks to a successful bid to WREN, we will be able to make a some really exciting improvements in the Park during the latter part of the year.

Throughout last summer I worked with my team and our Fundraiser to put together a funding application to WREN, to pay for improvements to the Wetlands Nature Reserve. As a small environmental charity, any significant projects or developments on any of our sites requires us to find funding from elsewhere.

A bid in three parts

The funding bid had three parts. The first is the installation of a new viewing hide on the edge of the Pillinge Lake. When the new path was laid last year, a spur was created leading to a site which is ideal for a new hide. This hide will be within a short walk of the Forest Centre so should allow people who are less mobile to enjoy a chance to get to a hide and the wildlife on the lake.

The second item on the shopping list is the creation of a number of ‘wader scrapes’ within Bottom Meadow. Wading birds’ favourite feeding areas are shallow water with soft muddy edges. Most waders use their beaks to probe the ground to find their food – invertebrates which live in the wet soil. To try and increase the available feeding habitat for waders in the Park and hopefully encourage them to breed, we will be digging out a number of areas within Bottom Meadow to create shallow depressions which will collect water and provide the all important feeding habitat. These new scrapes will be visible from the view points along the bund around the meadow.

Good news for sand martins

Lastly we intend to create an artificial sand martin bank. Sand martins are birds in decline. They nest by burrowing into the faces of cliffs and quarries and are currently almost wholly reliant on temporary gravel and sand workings. An artificial bank will involve building a wall on the edge of the Pillinge which will incorporate a selection of nest tubes, designed to mimic a quarry face. A purpose-built sand martin bank should enable a permanent population to flourish at the Country Park.

Last week we were delighted to hear that the bid had been successful – we are able to go ahead with the project, later in the summer or early autumn to avoid  disturbance to breeding birds.

Benefits to visitors and wildlife

The completion of this project should make a significant improvement to the Wetland Nature Reserve and give visitors even more to see. The small ticket charge we have in place for visiting this part of the Park helps support the specific habitat management required through the Nature Reserve. If you become a Friend of the Forest, an annual ticket to the Wetlands Nature Reserve is just one of the benefits you can enjoy.

Anna Charles, Head Ranger anna.charles@marstonvale.org

Cutting common reed in the wetlands (image Don Morris)

Reed beds occur as natural habitats in floodplains, estuaries and any waterlogged areas. European reed beds are usually dominated by common reed (Phragmites australis) when water levels are consistently high, but can support a range of other pant species particularly if water levels are lower. Reed beds were once extensive, particularly in the now arable fens of the east of England. Through the 17^th Century there was extensive land drainage leading to major deterioration of the existing reed bed. In the years running up to 1970 this land drainage intensified leading to further loss of this important habitat. It has been estimated that up to 40% of the UK’s reed beds were lost between 1945 and 1990.

Vital work has been carried out through more recent years to improve the condition of existing reed beds through correct management of both the water levels and vegetation. Reed bed management and creation has been given a high priority in conservation organisations and a steady increase in the thatching industry has resulted in the high demand for good quality thatching reed, so presenting opportunities for increasing the amount of reed beds in the UK.

The Millennium Country Park has around twenty hectares of reed bed, including their associated open water. These were artificially created when the Park was formed. Since then limited resources have meant that the reed beds haven’t always been managed in the best possible manner.

Reed beds benefit from rotational cutting and removal of the reed. The plan within the Park is to cut an area of reed bed each year. This removes old growth and leaf litter, which if left can have a negative effect on the health of the reed bed by raising ground levels and hindering water movement. By cutting a different area each year we are also creating a mosaic of reed ages throughout the reed bed complex which is advantageous to wildlife as different species require different conditions to thrive. More high profile species which thrive in reed beds are bearded tit which has successfully bred in the Park on a number of occasions, bittern which utilises reed bed edges for feeding and myriad small birds like reed warbler and reed bunting who feed and breed within reed beds. There are also a whole host of invertebrates which make reed beds their home.

This winter I was put in touch with a contractor (also an ex-warden of Wicken Fen a high profile area of reed bed) with the right equipment to cut the reed bed. Tim brought a fantastic machine with a cutter bar on the front but which is adapted to bundle up the reed and even tie each bundle with a length of string. Due to the fact that much of our reed bed has not been actively managed there is currently no commercial value in the reed so unfortunately our only option is to burn it as the material must be removed from the reed bed. As Tim motored through the reed bed bundles were produced at a vast rate of knots. As usual our fantastic and dedicated band of volunteers was on hand to help. Fires were started and the bundles of reed were gathered up and burnt. Even with ten people going full pelt collecting up and burning the bundles, we couldn’t keep up with Tim who nonchalantly said that he was only in first gear!

It was an extremely hard day’s work and I think all of us (other than Tim) were glad to finish. Despite the exertion, it was such a satisfying day and I am really pleased to have made our first step towards managing this vital habitat in the right way. We now need to get our water pump running to flood up this reed bed which will provide the important wet conditions needed for the new crop of reed to grow through spring. I shall be watching with interest throughout the growing season to monitor its progress.

Thank you to all the volunteers for such a heroic effort- see you next year!

Anna Charles, Head Ranger anna.charles@marstonvale.org

Felling poplar (image Don Morris)

We recently warned you that we would be felling potentially dangerous poplars in some parts of the Millennium Country Park. The work is now underway. So if you see men with chainsaws up trees – you’ll know what’s happening.

As previously reported, there may be some brief disruption to access around the Park, but this will be kept to a minimum.

Read more

For further information please contact Anna Charles- Head Ranger at anna.charles@marstonvale.org or 01234 762614

Bittern in the Millennium Country Park (image Martin Green)

Our annual early February bird walk always has a title with a cold theme because we hope that it will coincide with a period of extreme cold and possibly snow which will bring  unusual species to the Park. In the past we have often been disappointed with the weather, but not this year. At 8am a group of hardy souls met in the car park and it was cold, very cold, a terrifying Arctic minus seven! 

We set off on our walk with lots of extra layers of clothing, gloves, hats etc. with hopes of some unusual sightings. We were not to be disappointed and the group was soon admiring a bittern that was catching the early morning sun along the edge of Stewartby Lake. In past years during extreme cold weather up to six of these rare herons have been seen around Stewartby Lake. (Last year Neil Wright helped the bitterns survive by supplementary feeding with sprats). Paul Wright then identified a little gull which flew from Stewartby Lake to the sewage works where it fed with a couple of hundred black-headed gulls. Little gulls are very unusual in winter in Bedfordshire, more usually seen during the spring and autumn migrations.

We needed to keep moving to keep warm and started to make our way to the Pillinge in the wetlands. On the way we saw a number of species including fieldfare, redwing and chaffinch although small birds were difficult to find, probably because the cold conditions had sent them all to our garden feeders.

The redwing - a winter visitor to the Country Park (image Don Morris)

The pillinge had a good variety of grebe, gull and duck species on it: pochard, wigeon, tufted, mallard, teal as well as herons, cormorants and coots. I counted twenty-four moorhens which had been frozen out of their normal reedbed habitat. What we were looking for were two species that had been first recorded earlier in the week. Tony somehow managed to find the first; a female common scoter which was fast asleep. This is a drab grey looking bird with off white cheek patches which should have been bobbing up and down somewhere around the coast. The second was just as difficult as they spend most of the time diving for food. Three female smew had arrived on site about the same time as the scoter. They belong to the sawbill family; the bill has a small hook at the tip and teeth along the sides which gives a better grip of their fish prey. The females are very smart birds with grey upper parts, a red brown head and brilliant white cheeks.

Breakfast was beckoning so we made our way back to the Forest Centre. On the way we flushed a woodcock and had some good views of snipe which again had been forced out by the cold to look for food.

The walk, for once had lived up to expectations. The rest of the day was just as exciting with a whole panoply of unusual species putting in an appearance. Thirteen Bewick’s swans, Mediterranean gull, forty-four pintail, common sandpiper, redshank and four Egyptian geese, what a day!

Bob Hook, Volunteer

Bearded tit at the Country Park, it's possible! (picture Martin Green

It may be frozen and gloomy but you can’t cower inside until until May; can you?

What might lift the spirits and get the blood pumping is to come to the Country Park for a walk. We have a fantastic network of paths including 5 miles of surfaced trails for cycling if you’re feeling really active. From a long hike to the shortest stroll the Millennium Country Park offers wonderful views and a variety of meadows, woods and water. At the end of a walk the Lakeside Cafe is the place for a cake, hot soup and coffee.

If you’d like to join others, why not come to one of our guided walks? This weekend there are two.

Feathers in the freezer – a bird walk

The Bird walk   will happen on Saturday 4 February 2012, 8am – 11am and costs £3/adult, £2/child. £1 reduction for Volunteers and Friends.  Life’s tough at this time of year and there’s always a chance of rarities in the Country Park. Our volunteer leaders are the people to tell you what you are looking at or listening to.

No experience of birdwatching is necessary because leaders know everything necessary to introduce you to the wonderful world of birding.  Bring binoculars if you have them although these are not essential as there are usually some spares and often the chance to look down telescopes.

Wrap up warm- birders often spend ages rooted to the spot waiting for something to happen! There are some rough paths and short lengths of gradient over 1:6. Please book in advance but pay the leader on the day. Call 01234 767037 to book a place.

Sunday Stroll, a Gentle Sunday Walk 

5 February at 10.30am
Come and join us in the Country Park for a gentle walk to hear how the Park was set up and a little about the surrounding area.

The walk will keep to hard surfaced tracks in the Park which are mostly level but have short sections of gradient up to 1:9.

Call 01234 767037 for more details.
Cost £1, payable on the day – no need to book. Meet at reception. Walks last approximately 2 hours.                              

Why not finish the morning off with lunch in our Forest Centre Restaurant? Call 01234 767037 for details.

Hornet clearwing moth (image Devegg Rudd)

During February there will be some noticeable tree felling in the Millennium Country Park. Anyone who has visited the Park will know that most of the woodland on site is still very young and made up of a diverse mix of British native tree and shrub species. However, there is a significant number of mature trees on site; mostly poplar.

Poplars are fast-growing and naturally short-lived and ours are approaching the end of their lives. The aging process is being hastened by the larvae of the hornet clearwing moth (Sesia apiformis) which create extensive tunnels, generally at the base of trees. The larvae feed on live wood and exposed roots; a process that severely damages trees and leaves them susceptible to being blown over in high winds. Damage caused by the larvae is obvious in severely infested trees that have fallen; the base is reduced to something resembling honeycomb.

Last winter all our mature trees were surveyed by an arboriculturalist for health and condition. This survey will guide the management of these trees in the coming years. It identified a number of trees in particularly poor condition. This, coupled with the fact that many of the trees are in close proximity to well used paths and the railway, means they must be felled for public safety reasons. Some will be pollarded (cut at two metres or more above ground level) where it is safe to do so, to retain standing dead wood. A good proportion of the felled trees will be left to rot down naturally. Dead wood is a hugely important but often overlooked habitat which supports a wide variety of invertebrates as well as the small mammals and birds which feed on them.

This work is scheduled for February to ensure it is completed before the bird nesting season begins and it is likely that a proportion of the poplars on site will be felled each winter in the knowledge that their condition will only deteriorate further in future.

Areas currently dominated by poplar will be restocked in the coming years with the same mix of native species which has been planted in the rest of the Park.

There may be some minor disruption to some of the paths while the work is carried out but short diversions will be marked to ensure this is kept to a minimum.

For further information please contact Anna Charles- Head Ranger at anna.charles@marstonvale.org or 01234 762614

Forest Volunteers take a break from the bashing (image Don Morris)

I’ve done a lot of scrub bashing in my life (really a lot) and it’s usually quite fun as long as the duration of each episode is limited. One can have too much of a good thing and clearing dangerously prickly hawthorn bushes for days on end in bitter cold and often wet conditions is far from my idea of a good time. Last Sunday’s bash was however, the best ever.

For one thing the weather was fantastic; about as beautiful a January day as I’ve ever experienced. Sharply cold and as clear as a well crafted blog post. Somewhere in the region of twenty five Forest Volunteers showed up at the Forest Centre to spend the morning clearing hawthorn from part of the Callow Mounds. And there was the second good thing – a morning scrub bashing. About long enough to work up an appetite and feel like you’ve earned a sit down, but not so much that your hawthorn hatred gets out of control. Followed by a lazy Sunday afternoon doing not ever so much.

This was our more or less annual Volunteer task and lunch at which the Marston Vale Trust is pleased to offer a small token to say a sincere thank you to the legion of people who help us out doing all sorts of things through the year. The token was lunch and everyone enjoyed it thoroughly.

I had a previous lunch appointment so missed the food, so I will use this opportunity to say thank you to all the Forest Volunteers who make the Forest happen. Without you all we would be unable to make such huge progress each year.

And another thing that made it for me was Anna’s scallops (or were these scollops?) Usually on these occasions one is presented with an area of bushes and asked to cut down bushes. Here we were asked to create scallops, gorgeous curves breaking into the depths of the tangled thorn which can only become beautiful refugia for our butterflies come the spring. Thinking while scrub bashing was a revelation – brilliant!

Guy Lambourne

Martin Green appeared in the office this morning having got some good footage of great northern divers on Stewartby Lake. These birds overwinter in the UK, more commonly around or off the shores of the Northern and Western Isles as well as Cornwall, before returning to breeding grounds in Iceland and Greenland in the spring.

Although they aren’t seen frequently on inland freshwater lakes at this time of year, it’s not unheard of. Indeed, I see there are records posted today at www.birdguides.com at Grafham, Cambridgeshire and Rollesby Broad, Norfolk.

Martin promised to get his video on Vimeo. When he does, I’ll get a link up here.