Summer & autumn all at once

Summer & autumn all at once

South marsh

Our volunteers do a range of tasks throughout the year, when it comes to July everyone knows that there's one job that needs to be done and that's hay cutting, And we have a lot of it to do in order to keep our wild flower meadows in the best condition, which means as well as cutting the grass we also have to rake it all up and move it off the meadow, quite a task in the heat. Grass snakes should benefit from the hay piles that you find around the reserve and it keeps the meadows poor in nutrients which encourages more wild flowers.

Hay raking in south scrub

Hay raking

With summer holidays and accompanying good weather our family events programme has been busy. Families have joined the education team to find out about butterflies and the Big Butterfly Count, investigate the invertebrates in the pond and rummage around the woodland on a nature ramble. Children and adults have been able to have fun and learn together at the same time, taking time to wander slowly and really look around at the tiny treasures of wildlife that inhabit our nature reserve here at Tophill. Bookings for the next academic year are now being taken so anyone involved in the primary sector can head to our website at https://www.yorkshirewater.com/education/teachers/availability-booking/ to book their FREE school visit. A great chance to look at the water cycle, local flora and fauna, adaptations and classification; all part of the science national curriculum and all covered in our sessions.

dragonfly craft on family event

Colour matching activity on family event

RSPB Bempton cliffs is a popular destination for holiday makers visiting the area and wanting to view the seabirds. In order to keep the interest of the general public who visit, once the seabirds have left then each year they have a "Wild Event" to showcase other wildlife. As one of our partners in the area we were pleased to head there and promote the reserve and its wildlife and encourage more visitors who may want to explore the brilliant wildlife sites that East Yorkshire has to offer.

Volunteers helping out at Bempton Wild weekend

Even though we consider the months of July and August to be summer in the natural world, autumn has already started and birds are beginning to move south from their breeding grounds and head to their winter feeding areas. The screaming parties of swifts, a regular sight on lovely summer evenings as they fly through the streets hunting insects, have all but disappeared, their stay here in the UK being very short lived. Swallows, house martins and sand martins are gathering on the roof tops and wires, ready for their journeys south, often feeding over the reservoirs where freshwater invertebrates continue to emerge as adult flies, juicy meals for hungry migratory birds.

Exposed mud attracting passage waders on south marsh east

Elsewhere on the reserve, on the southern marshes, passing waders are dropping in to feed on the exposed mud, fuelling up for their own migratory journeys. The marsh has never looked so good to these passage waders and its all down to how they have been managed in recent years so that conditions are optimal to attract wading birds to visit and feed before moving on. 

A big thanks to our volunteer team who have helped keep the marsh an area of open water. The team has done this by strimming the margins to keep down brambles and sprayed the reed mace and phragmites to also keep the margins clear. This allows birds flying overhead better sightlines to see the marsh. The pollarding of the nearby willow, ash and hazel has removed many predator perches, enabling a safer feeding area for waders. Pollarding also encouraging more song birds, which prefer nesting in the lower canopies that pollarding creates. The gravel islands have been washed in previous years to rid them of organic material that encourages vegetation, keeping them clear for nesting common terns and black headed gulls. 

The herd of goats manages the grassland areas for us, grazing the banks down, again improving the sightlines for the wader. The water in the marsh is continually being replenished from the water treatment process, as no one wants invertebrates in their drinking water, so after being filtered out they end up in south marsh and become wader food as it is full of daphnia and other invertebrates. It is important to keep the water flowing in and out of the marsh by clearing the ditches, another task carried out by the volunteer team and we can slowly alter the water level by management of sluices. Overall, the management makes a perfect stopover for these passage waders.

Dunlin by Margaret Boyd

Common sandpiper by Margaret Boyd

Green sandpiper by Margaret Boyd

Snipe by Margaret Boyd

The species that we have had in the last few weeks are dunlin, black tailed godwit, green and common sandpiper, snipe, lapwing, curlew, ruff, avocet, little and great white egret, redshank, golden plover and ringed plover. Quite a variety and coming close to the hides for good views for visitors, so please come down and have a look for yourself.

Another highlight recently, on 2nd August, was the arrival of a Caspian tern, believed to be the second record for the reserve. It was initially observed by a couple of visitors feeding over D reservoir. It was later picked up resting on south marsh and was seen by a number of people before it left later that evening. The largest tern in the world and only a few records each autumn in the UK, it was a very good record for Tophill, only a shame that it didn't linger so that others could come to see it.

Birders watching the Caspian tern on south marsh

Caspian tern by Margaret Boyd

It's GOLD for Tophill

We won GOLD! A fantastic result for the Tophill Low team for their first ever foray into horticultural exhibiting at the Driffield Show this year. Our fabulous display was focused around the wetland and meadow plants that the team of volunteers has been propagating over the last couple of years, showcasing the area’s native species that can be found in the Hull valley, of which Tophill Low is a part. We have a whole range of plants growing in the polytunnel at the reserve and in the new wetbeds but collecting everything together, displaying and labelling all the plants was a real team effort. So, a huge thank you to all our volunteers who helped out in the preparation of the exhibit, whether in the horticultural tent or behind the scenes and those that helped out on the day. Talks given by John Barnard, one of our volunteers and Amy Watsham, the assistant warden on wetland plant propagation and how to establish a wild flower meadow were very well received by an interested audience, hopefully inspired to do more themselves. Visitors to the reserve can always come and chat about what we do and also get involved if they are interested.

Last month we started surveying the butterflies around the reserve and have begun to see the areas where they seem to be doing well, O reservoir grassland and north scrub are favourite sites with good numbers of meadow brown and ringlet butterflies being seen on several occasions. The marbled white butterfly, which is a rarer species on the reserve has also been spotted in several areas, preferring to feed on certain grasses, such as Yorkshire fog and also flowers such as knapweed and red clovers, seemingly preferring purple flowers. Meadow brown butterflies lay their eggs around a variety of course grass species such as Cock’s foot, common couch and meadow grasses. It’s this kind of detailed knowledge of food preferences that helps our management of the different areas of the reserve to encourage greater biodiversity. Carrying out such surveys can confirm whether the practical management is a success or not. As well as keeping our own records for the reserve we will be submitting records as part of the annual Big Butterfly Count which takes place between 12^th July and 4^th August. This is a great citizen science project that can get all the family involved, whether in your garden or on a walk to the park, taking only 15 minutes of your time. Head to Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count website to take part. Families joined our education guide this week to help count butterflies along the butterfly border and around the nature trail whilst other volunteers continue to regularly carry out butterfly surveys throughout the summer.. Butterfly declines can be an early warning of other wildlife loses, so monitoring has never been so important.

Marbled white butterfly by Margaret Boyd

As well as the Big Butterfly Count taking place at the moment, last week was National Moth week so we held a moth night to coincide with the event and to introduce some of our visitors to the delights of the amazing moths that use our nature reserve. We have a small team of volunteers who set out the two moth traps whenever they can throughout the year, these are behind our offices and at the south end of the reserve. At this time of year it can take quite a while to empty the traps in the morning, counting and identifying the overnight haul. Last Friday visitors were shown what had been caught and were delighted to see the range of colours and patterns that these fantastic creatures have that are usually overlooked. Thanks to Martin for your time and passing on your knowledge to our visitors.

Pine moth by Margaret Boyd

Chocolate tip moth by Margaret Boyd

Chocolate tip moth by Margaret Boyd

Some of the bird sightings in recent weeks have been of waders passing through on their migration south to their winter feeding areas. These are known as passage waders or migrants: they stop off at good feeding sites, to refuel before their continued journey. South marsh is a magnet for hungry waders as the mud and shallow water is rich in invertebrates. Recently visitors have noted common, green and wood sandpipers, dunlin, black tailed godwit, snipe, lapwing, ruff, greenshank and spotted redshank dropping in to feed. Also, on south marsh there has been a great white egret and several little egrets and feeding over the D reservoir several little gulls, again a species passing through on migration from their breeding areas in the countries that border the Baltic sea in northern Europe, wintering south in the Mediterranean. Two quail were heard calling from the fields along the approach road as dusk fell last weekend.

We are open throughout the school holidays, with several family events taking place which can be booked via Eventbrite, search Tophill Low. As well as the events there is always plenty to spot along the nature trail which is a short walk for smaller legs! Please note the only facilities we have are toilets, so a picnic is a must. Adults pay £3.50, children £1.50, under 5’s are free.