Page 24 - br-jan-2021 (1)

January 2021 January 2021

To many of us the Little Egret and the

Kingfisher will be familiar sights along
Bere Stream. Buzzards and Kestrels are
frequent visitors at Souls Moor over the
winter period as earthworms are forced
to the surface by the rising water table
and provide easy and nutritious
pickings. There are also other visitors
that we only see at this time of year, for
example redwing and fieldfare. These
are migratory birds arriving at our shores
from Scandinavia to escape the winter cold there. They may be seen on hedges,
scrub and woodland feasting on berries, and on grassland and field margins
looking for worms, slugs, leatherjackets and sometimes grain.

In our gardens there will be plenty of the more familiar birds, such as pigeons,
crows, starlings, sparrows, blue tits, robins and wrens. All a delight to see and hear.
Alongside those, you may be fortunate to see such as goldfinches and long-tailed
tits. The goldfinch is one of our most highly coloured birds, with a bright red, white
and black head, and gold wing bars. They frequently move around in groups – a
group of goldfinches is known as a ‘charm’. Long-tailed tits similarly are often to
be seen in groups. The name for a group of long-tailed tits is a ‘volery’. The long-
tailed tit is quite different in appearance from other tits, with (as its name
suggests) a long tail and its pale pinkish white underside and its marbled black
wings and head.

We would be very interested to learn about the wildlife (be it birds, mammals, fish,
butterflies, reptiles, amphibians etc, common or unusual) you’ve seen locally.
Please send details of sightings to us at the email addresses below. We are
fortunate to have a wide range of habitats around the Parish (woodland,
meadows, heath, streams etc) and it would be good to build up a picture of the
wildlife resources we have in the area.

Conservation Working Parties

As you may know, one of our tasks in late 2020 was to fence off part of the pond
at Souls Moor. The pond was dug for two reasons. One – to provide the ponies
with a constant source of water; Two – to establish a new wildlife habitat as the
still water of a pond is beneficial for plants and amphibians that cannot survive in
the moving waters of the river. The pond has been a success on both counts.
However, the surrounds to the whole pond are being trampled by the ponies,
which means that marginal plants are having difficulty in establishing. To
overcome the problem we have fenced off part of the pond and its immediate
margin to prevent trampling by the ponies when they return next year. Easy
access will still be available to much of the pond to allow the ponies to drink.

24 45