You may have seen Debbie Carter, a licensed dormouse handler, on the Wiltshire Woods edition of Countryfile on 2 November, but if you missed it, catch up on the last 10 minutes of the programme found here.

​Debbie was in Oyster Coppice checking the dormice boxes with Caroline Longley (Wiltshire Wildlife Trust) and Charlotte Smith from the Countryfile team. They found dormice and caught some footage on camera, much to everyone's delight. TisTalk interviewed Debbie this week, so you will soon be able to hear all about her experience. 

The topic this month is Pine Martens in the New Forest and will be presented by Marcus Ward, manager of the Guided Tours side of Wild New Forest,  a not-for-profit Community Interest Company which was established in 2016. They "support the conservation of threatened and poorly understood species in the New Forest by conducting surveys and research, sharing the data generated with key stake holders in the New Forest." They also run a Wildlife Explorers group for young nature enthusiasts. 

​If you scroll down on the Guided Tours website you can see Marcus on BBC Countryfile. 

The talk will take place in Victoria Hall on Thursday November 13th at 7.30pm. The bar opens at 7pm.

No need to book. As usual, free for members and £2 for visitors.

With the abundance of fruits, seeds, and berries in the countryside this autumn, the migrant birds which visit us during the colder months should be in for a feast. This may make them less reliant on our bird tables. Thrush species, especially the redwing and fieldfare will particularly favour the hawthorn and holly berries which glow red along the hedgerows and through the woods. Only when they have exhausted all that supply will they move onto the open fields to look for food there. These birds will have travelled large distances from their breeding grounds to wintering areas; other species make much shorter journeys. Solitary birds, small groups, or whole flocks may arrive in an area overnight and then just as quickly move on.

By keeping an eye on the skies for a while on a regular basis it is possible to pick out those movements which are local – for instance short flights by cormorants between lakes in the area – and longer distance – for instance the continuous movement of swallows gradually working their way south at the end of summer.

Birders call watching such movements visible migration, or vismig for short. This contrasts with nocturnal migration or nocmig.

If you want to experience some nocmig for yourself at this time of year, keep your ears open when walking through the village after dark. Especially on nights with low cloud, one can often hear the calls of redwings passing over-head. Their distinctive, high-pitched “tseeep” call is easy to identify but they are by no means the only species to migrate at night. Many others, of which we may be blissfully unaware, will pass through under cover of darkness. Increasingly, recording devices are being employed, especially at coastal bird observatories, to monitor birdcalls through the hours of darkness. Then, with the help of the ever-improving bird call ID applications such as Merlin, it is possible to pick out which species have been passing over while we are asleep. This is telling us more about bird movements than we could previously determine from daylight observation and bird ringing.

Abrupt and significant changes in weather or food supply can prompt major movements of birds. It is always worth looking, listening, and considering where the birds around us have come from and are going.

​Andrew Graham

About 20 members were met by Jonathan Thompson and Matt Somerville and ushered into the classroom, where Jon gave us a brief overview of the nature reserve.

After buying the 30 acres of newly-planted deciduous plantation, Jon has been working hard to increase the diversity of habitats with small-scale re-wilding. Jonathan explained that, at Underhill, this means mimicking the effects of the large native animals currently missing from the local environment, such as wild boar, beaver and wild cattle. For example, ring barking trees to create dead-wood habitats and opening the woodland, to let light penetrate the forest floor.

We then split into two groups; one led by Matt and the other by Jonathan, before a half-time change over. Matt started by showing us the inner workings of a natural beehive, teaching us about Propolis, which is like a bee glue, with amazing qualities, which bees use to fill holes with and prevent pests taking over. Matt makes something like a hundred natural hives each year, in two styles: Rocket and Log types. We walked onto the reserve to look at several of the log hives, one of which was humming with bees. Wild honeybees have recently been classified as endangered, and it was terrific to have a deep dive into their life and ecology by a real expert.

Jonathan took his group to see newly dug ponds and scrapes which had just started re-filling with water after the summer’s drought. Holding water year-round, whatever the rainfall is, the lake has a large population of amphibians and lots of other wildlife, Jonathan has even seen otters. Near the lake is an example of ‘conservation hedge-laying’, a really thick, wide and tall hedge, where each stem has been cut half-way through at the base and pushed over to forty-five degrees. One of Jonathan’s students has surveyed the invertebrate community in this one hedge and has written a paper on it. Also, a book has been written about it, by a local author!
​
Finally, Jonathan took us down to a small stream where the students of the John Muir award scheme made dams, to simulate the activities of beavers. These dams hold up the water, creating pools, which clean the sediment and enable a new community of wildlife to exist.

​Peter Shallcross

Connor Goddard, Head of Freshwater from Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, will be talking to us about restoring rivers on Thursday October 9th at 7.30pm in the Victoria Hall, Tisbury.

About 7 years ago, part of the River Nadder near Salisbury was restored by Wiltshire Wildlife Trust. This link will take you to a brief video explaining what they were doing then.

Improvement Works On The River Nadder In Salisbury
Come along and find out what has been happening since! The bar opens at 7pm.

No need to book. As usual, free for members and £2 for visitors.

​How is The Nadder doing? This is a question I ask frequently, as I am sure you do too. Often, after heavy rain the river is full to overflowing, its water is brown and muddy. For months during this summer, it has been clear but with reduced flow. Are local sewage works discharging polluted water into it?

The Environmental Agency (EA) reduced their testing some time ago, so it's difficult to get a clear idea. The quality of river waters are measured in different ways, taking account of biological factors (such as invertebrates and fish), chemical (harmful to humans) and hydromorphological elements (such as flow and depth and habitat quality). Ours, overall, is categorised as moderate to poor.

The Wiltshire Wildlife Trust recently won some funding to train volunteers so they can go in pairs each month to count water invertebrates of the eight main groups of pollution-sensitive invertebrates (or Riverflies); such as Caddis flies, Stoneflies, Blue-winged Olives, Shrimps and Mayflies. If the numbers drop suddenly from the baseline then a pollution event may have happened and the EA is notified.

In fact, so far this monitoring is showing that numbers are quite good. This is reflected in the abundance of life we can see above the water. Salmon are present and spawn lower downstream from Tisbury. The fishing clubs, instead of releasing farmed Rainbow Trout, are concentrating instead on enhancing the habitat on their stretches of river to encourage wild native Brown Trout to breed.

All this is encouraging, but what about the muddy water? Where is it coming from?   What’s in it? Who to blame?

Farmers and some farming practices are certainly at fault, so the local farmer’s group The Nadder Valley Farmers Group (of which I am Chair) decided to set up a water quality testing programme. We obtained a year's worth of funding from a grant from Farming In the Protected Landscapes grant scheme and set out to sample our river at 20 sites, weekly, for 52 weeks. The Wessex River Trust provided the expertise all the way through from its inception and Tracy Adams, our conservation advisor, tested each week for Phosphates and Nitrates, and less often as well for E. coli and sediment.

Well, we have completed the year, and would like to present to you the results on October 23rd in Tisbury, at 7pm in the Victoria Hall. Booking is essential. Please see Focus magazine p32 or contact us for details.
​
Peter Shallcross

The first of our series of autumn talks was given by Dr. Tom Lewis, Conservation and Research Manager at Longleat, who came to speak to us about his conservation work on 11 September. This followed on from our excursion to see the beaver territory at the estate earlier this year.
 
Most of us living locally will know of Longleat as a Safari Park, where they also do a popular light display over the Christmas period. What most of us don’t know is that there is more at Longleat than that! And thanks to Tom we gained a better understanding of what is going on there, and the role that large estates like this can play in local nature conservation.
 
Tom started to become interested in conservation by joining bird ringing groups and witnessing the disappearance of willow tits. He then spent some years abroad working in conservation projects in exotic locations, and saving species from extinction. Back in the UK, after two years at Longleat, he has witnessed the re-occurrence of two key native species which have been virtually absent for centuries: beavers and pine martens!
 
None of these two species were released by the Longleat estate. They either made their way there from other locations where they have been reintroduced, or were unofficially released by unknown persons. But the important thing for us is that they are welcome there and thriving, and perhaps we will have them soon established in our immediate area too (if we don’t already!).
 
Tom showed us some stunning aerial footage and told us how every 200 metres of waterway at Longleat now has evidence of beavers. Beavers have transformed small streams of barely 1 m width, fast flowing in winter but which used to dry up in summer, into wetlands with bodies of water of about 20 m wide and which retain water throughout the year. The slow moving waters now support minnows, toads and newts for example, and the species that feed on them.
 
One of Tom’s jobs was to find out how healthy the beaver population is, so he set up trail cameras to try to find out how many beavers were actually living there. Although his first attempts were not very successful at recording beavers, many other interesting species were recorded. The birds included: kingfishers, herons, grey wagtails, egrets, canada geese, marsh tits, jays, crossbills, sparrowhawks, spotted flycatchers… The mammals, foxes and otters. We saw beautiful footage of all these creatures displaying natural behaviours and were finally rewarded with the beavers and their kits, 4 babies in 2024! 4 babies is the upper range of beaver litters, and Tom attributes the high number to the quality of the habitat. It seems this year only 3 beaver kits were born, and one was sadly found dead.
 
Next, Tom told us about his pine marten work. Pine martens were discovered in the estate through some unusual poo, and this was later confirmed by trail camera footage. Tom has since been trying to establish how many are present and he showed us some interesting footage of 2 playful pine martens having a romp this year. Recently, a pine marten with a tracker from Exmoor (the Two Moors Pine Marten Project) has been found in the New Forest by Wild New Forest, showing how large distance movement is possible.
 
Tom mentioned future plans in his work, including analysis of bib patterns (the white marks on the chest of pine martens, unique to each individual) and DNA of scats. He fleetingly mentioned dormice footprint tunnel surveys, bat surveys, wild boar and bird counts. We are happy to hear all this is happening at Longleat and would like to hear more in due course. There is other information on their conservation projects in their website: https://www.longleat.co.uk/things-to-do/animals/conservation/uk

Inés López-Dóriga

On the 3rd September, a group of about 15 members visited Rachel Hall at Gutchpool Farm, Gillingham.

After an introduction to the farm’s history and the management changes that Rachel had carried out since taking charge, about 10 years ago, we were taken on a walk to see for ourselves.

The first thing that is striking is the variety of habitats that have been created. Firstly, a beautiful stream, lined with alders and willows is crossed, leading to a newly created wetland corridor in a grassy field. The corridor has been re-created using old maps and LIDAR remote sensing so that instead of water run off from the top of the farm rushing through large drains into the river, it now gently meanders its way above ground, getting caught up in woody obstacles and long grass until it eventually emerges into a small pond. Only then is it allowed into the stream, without causing a flood.

In the next field, Rachel has planted wide rows of trees in lines separated from each other by wide strips of grass. This agro-forestry benefits the sheep that Rachel farms, giving them shade and leaves to eat, in addition to the usual grass. Rachel explained how the tree leaves have medicinal properties and help keep the sheep healthy by natural means.

Just beyond was a spring-sown ‘herbal ley’, which is a planted mixture of grasses and herbs such as plantain, chicory, birds-foot trefoil and several clovers. Despite the drought, and very little rain since sowing, the herbage was growing really well.

The contrast between the arable farming just 10 years ago and Rachel’s regenerative methods of farming is transformative for the soil. The sown herbs are deep rooted, helping drainage and leading to the build-up of organic material.

Next, we walked through a surviving part of the ‘Park Pale’; a bank and ditch enclosure surrounding what used to be the royal deer park of Kings Court. This remarkable survivor features rare flowers and many old and veteran trees, a brilliant corridor for wildlife.

Approaching the top of the farm, we stopped to admire the expansive views towards Alfred’s Tower and Silton. The field here is the most difficult to farm, with deep sticky clay, ruined by arable farming, with the topsoil ploughed under. Rachel has had success establishing another herbal ley and already the soil is improving. Future plans include reinstating more hedges to create more wildlife habitat, as well as making it easier to graze the sheep.

As we started to return, we talked about the several ponds which are home to Great-Crested Newts and many other species of birds and animals. Finally, we passed through a path with young trees on either side, which soon become a small copse, creating more wildlife habitat.

As the light faded, we all sat down to tea or coffee and ate home-made cakes Rachel had baked and had a lively discussion about the problems of modern farming and solutions, as demonstrated to us.
Thank you, Rachel, for an engaging and fascinating afternoon.

​Peter Shallcross

​© Fera

This field trip is not suitable for those who are allergic to bees.

We are fortunate to have the opportunity to meet Matt Somerville and fit one more field trip into our calendar. Matt's passion is making beehives, supplying them all over the country to establish colonies of wild bees. This event will cover the ecology of wild bees and their importance as pollinators. Jonathan Thompson has several of Matt's hives on his nature reserve, which is worth visiting in its own right. View the fascinating short film about Matt's way of making the hives here.

Please contact us to book a place and tell us whether you'll meet us at the Nadder Centre, Weavelands Road, Tisbury for car share or meet at the Underhill Nature Reserve. Details below.

Visit to Underhill Nature Reserve. Organised by Peter Shallcross.  
Meet at the Nadder Centre car park for 3:30 pm departure or at Underhill Nature Reserve, East Knoyle, SP3 6BP at 4 o'clock.   What3words //bearable.whispers.echo

Anticipated end time: Concluding at 6:30 to 7.00 pm with return to Nadder Centre by 7:00-7.30 pm. 

Distance, Difficulty and Footwear: There will be less than ½ mile of walking, some of it uphill. The walking could be very uneven and wet. Walking shoes/boots are advised.

Our apology that Focus September magazine has the wrong date. We are going on Sat 27th September!