Current plant life

An abundance of Orchids have been spotted at the Ben Rhydding reserve today (see the featured picture of a Marsh Orchid). They are also flowering at the Sun Lane reserve where we were lucky to spot several Brimstone butterflies and a Comma this morning. The Brimstone’s seemed to be thriving among the Alder Buckthorn trees; the food plant for their larvae. Sun Lane currently has an abundance of Birdsfoot Trefoil, which is good news for a possible Common Blue revival. We will be keeping our fingers crossed for this year.

One of our aims at the Ben Rhydding reserve has been to try and promote a wider variety of native plants for birds and insects and we have already planted many plug plants and spread wildflower seed in a coppiced area of Hawthorn. We are happy to report that, after a long period of little plant life, the latter has sprung into life with new flowers making the most of the extra light now available to them. In a bid to try and understand what sort of plants the reserve would support, Steve Peel, of Natural England and a regular volunteer with us, has also analysed a series of soil samples for us. We were most grateful for his efforts since the information will be very valuable in our continued efforts to enhance the site’s biodiversity.

Workgroups

Our rescheduled February work group took place on 21 February, Our main focus was soil sampling with Steve Peel. We took soil core samples across a range of different habitats. Analysis of these samples we will give us a  better idea of the suitability these areas for introduction  of more native species either through seeds or plants.

We also spent time building up the dead hedge by the entrance fence, clearing the paths of bramble, hawthorn and willow and lastly restoring the area that has been damaged by bottle diggers.   It’s very frustrating to see the damage that has been done in area that’s very important for our colony of rare White-letter Hairstreak butterflies.

Little Egrets

Little Egret
Little Egret

Following some good records in 2014 we have had regular sightings of 2 little egrets on the river and opposite bank  since the beginning of February – who knows may be they could be back and breeding in Wharefdale for the fist time in a very long time.  With sightings of pairs of goosander, dipper and oystecatcher spring is here!

Photo by Mark Hockey from a previous year