Species monitoring on the reserve

 Species monitoring on the reserve

The winter months see our volunteer team working hard to maintain the different habitats across the reserve, whether it's removing diseased trees, planting new saplings or rejuvenating tern islands. From the middle of March habitat work has to cease as the breeding and nesting season starts in full swing with many of the woodland species building and using nests within a metre of the ground. Any habitat work would cause too much disturbance to our breeding species.

The focus therefore shifts to monitoring the variety of species that use the range of habitats that we manage. This is essential work as these surveys provide us with the information that is needed to decide which areas of the reserve need attention in terms of habitat management in the following or successive winters, it is the reason that we work hard all winter!

The staff, supported greatly by the volunteer team carry out a range of monitoring projects, the first of which starts in mid March. This is the breeding bird survey. The site is spilt into eight compartments and each volunteer is assigned one section which is then visited four times, once per month up to the end of June. Following guidelines set up by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO)  and with a few localised adjustments, each surveyor notes down every species of bird and their behaviour in approximately a two hour window around 6am, often using their expert knowledge of bird song and call to identify the species. These surveys are then mapped at the end of the breeding season to highlight the number and diversity of breeding birds across the site. Last year 62 species were confirmed to be holding breeding territories, 7 of which are red listed on the list of conservation concern and 25 species that are amber listed, as well as three species that are Schedule 1 species. This work took over 60 hours of volunteer and staff time. The 2024 survey showed an increase in breeding territories being held by 51 out of the 62 species when compared with the previous year.

Breeding bird survey takes place shortly after dawn

Another volunteer team helps the site to monitor the 144 nestboxes that are situated around the reserve. Of these there are 7 Tawny owl and 3 Barn owl boxes. Again, following BTO guidelines and contributing to the BTO nestbox recording scheme, the team regularly check and monitor the use of the boxes. An endoscope is often used to check inside the boxes as this causes less disturbance particularly if an adult bird is sitting on eggs. At the time of writing 58% of all the woodland nestboxes have showed signs of being used. The team monitor each box every fortnight, checking the contents for nesting material, presence of adult birds, presence of eggs and then nestlings. Great tits and Blue tits are the species that use the nestboxes with the occasional wren making use of a box. When owl boxes are checked the team collect any owl pellets that are present and have been sending them off to the British Mammal Society as part of their "Searching for Shrews" project which is using the contents of owl pellets to determine the presence and impact of the Great white toothed shrew in different parts of the UK.

Blue tit nestlings

Monitoring nestboxes using an endoscope

Alongside the breeding bird survey and the nestbox scheme, yet another volunteer team are involved in a Constant Effort Site (CES) ringing programme. This is a scheme that began at the reserve in 2009 and is the only CES site in the Tophill Low area. The scheme comprises a layout of mist nets that catch birds in the area around south scrub. This project, again one set up by the BTO means that the nets are in place every 10 days from late April through to August, hopefully recording breeding birds that return to the same breeding sites every year. The CES scheme is part of a national project to monitor productivity and survival rates of breeding birds in different habitats. Just this week a Willow Warbler was retrapped, it had hatched at Tophill Low in 2021, returning to the site after making an incredible ten trips across the Sahara in that time, an amazing achievement for a bird that weighs just over 9g!

Garden warbler caught during the CES ringing scheme

Birds aside, there are other species that require monitoring so that the site team can make decisions in terms of habitat management. At the beginning of April our butterfly monitoring team started to walk their transects recording the butterflies that they encountered along the way. The UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme didates that each transect should be walked once a week in the correct weather conditions, which are in temperatures above 13 degrees and with no rain, making the window of opportunity to carry out this survey quite restricting in our British climate. Each butterfly is identified and recorded and the sightings are sent to the county recorder for their annual report. A workshop was held this year to help volunteers get to grips with the identification of certain species that can be quite hard to distinguish especially when they fly past and don't land.

Marbled white on thistles in north scrub

As well as the butterflies, the grass snakes are also monitored, a survey that was carried out by John Pemberton this morning. He lays out a number of metal sheets (20) in various places around the reserve hoping to entice grass snakes to use them to warm themselves up before they head out onto the reserve to feed. The sheets are checked monthly between March to June and then twice between September to November. This new reptile survey was established as part of the National Reptile Monitoring scheme which is co-ordinated by the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust.

Grass snake by Roy Lyon

All our monitoring and survey work depends on the dedication and support of the volunteers that give up their time to carry out these surveys. The site team owe a massive thanks to all their hard work during the monitoring season as this information plays such a pivotal part in the planning and maintaining of the reserve.

Spring arrives at Tophill

 

Winter months are the time when the reserve team and the group of volunteers are the busiest when it comes to habitat management. Once mid March passes, birds start to nest and habitats cannot be disturbed. Visitors will see a range of habitat management tasks being completed as they walk around.

One such task was the cleaning and revamping of the tern rafts and nesting islands on south marsh east, which were first installed several years ago. During subsequent years, the original gravel has been colonised by vegetation precluding terns from nesting and as this species has been increasing in numbers in recent years, we’ve wanted them to continue to be successful breeders. Washing out all the vegetation and replacing with new gravel has taken hours of volunteer time, let’s hope that the common terns return this season. As well as our own tern islands, Yorkshire Water has funded the tern islands at Dumble Farm and Albanwise Farm further down the Hull valley.

Another new addition that visitors will notice on arrival at the reserve is the newly installed biosecurity washdown facility. Yorkshire Water takes invasive non native species very seriously as in the wider business this can lead to increase in costs to remove certain species from operational sites. As visitors and our reserve team move between nature reserves it is of vital importance that people do not carry with them, particularly on footwear and machinery, any trace of invasive non native plants such as Himalayan balsam or New Zealand Pygmy weed (often referred to as Crassula). Visitors can now scrub their boots on arrival and departure to make sure they are clean between visiting other sites. As a reserve team we can clean equipment in the new facility when moving between sites, making sure that Tophill Low remains free of these non native invasive species. Recently, the team arrived back from a tree planting project at our Cottingham water treatment site and made good use of the new facility.

Over in Cottingham the reserve volunteer team have been helped out by local volunteers to take part in tree planting. The site will become one of the area’s largest woodlands, as over 38,000 trees, of 23 different species, covering an area of approximately 25 hectares has been planted on Yorkshire Water land. An exciting project that the local community were keen to be involved in.

We also needed some trees planting here at the reserve as some oak saplings that were grown from acorns collected by Kingsmill students several years ago were ready to plant out. This time it was pupils from Oakfield school in Hull who took on the task of tree planting in D woods. This is needed as over the past few years there have been a lot of trees lost to ash dieback. Visitors will see several large trees felled near the path, their timber will be removed as well as leaving some to rot in situ. Thanks to the students for their help.

On a much smaller scale, but of equal importance, families joined the team during half term to build nestboxes and put them up in the woodland here at Tophill Low. This was part of the British Trust for Ornithology’s National nestbox week, a project that takes place each February to encourage people to put up nestboxes for woodland birds and to then monitor them to see which species use them to breed. These nest boxes will add to our existing stock and will be checked by our dedicated nestbox team.

Other tasks that volunteers have been involved in have been clearing the islands of south marsh west and replanting them with more native species, moving snowdrops to spread them out, many tasks in the polytunnels in preparation for the new growing season but also the arrival of sphagnum moss which we will be propagating in readiness to plant out on moorland in west Yorkshire. We have also constructed a new kingfisher nesting hole and bank on north lagoon as well as nesting islands for ducks, planted with a range of native wetland species that have been grown in our polytunnel.

With the wide range of volunteering tasks and opportunities available we always welcome new people to join us. We have four volunteer days each week so if anyone is interested (and is over 18) then please get in touch by email to Richard.Hampshire@yorkshirewater.co.uk.

School groups have started to come along for their school visits and have been enjoying pond dipping, looking at the birds on the reservoir and exploring the woodland habitat. Primary schools from across East Yorkshire and the city of Hull can book a free school visit on Wednesdays and Thursdays as part of Yorkshire Water's education programme. Teachers can book by visiting the dedicated website at Yorkshirewater.com/education. We also run family events in the school holidays, please visit our Facebook page or Eventbrite to book.

Wildlife on the reserve is showing the changing of the seasons as the number of wintering wildfowl using the reservoirs drop, leaving to return to their breeding grounds in northern Europe. Coot numbers have dropped rapidly over the last month and the number of teal and wigeon continue to decrease weekly. We still have a drake smew on site and the goldeneyes have been displaying and pairing up prior to their departure. Snowdrops were abundant in D woods in mid February but now coltsfoot are emerging and the first chiff chaffs arrived last week and can be heard singing along the nature trail and in D woods.

We have a “Signs of Spring” themed walk on Friday 14^th March at 2pm, a warden walk on 5^th April and family Easter activities on 15^th April. Please book via our Eventbrite page, search Tophill Low nature reserve. Booking is free, there is a cost of £1 per person on arrival. Please note no dogs are allowed on site and there are only toilet facilities, no refreshments.

Photography competition winners 2024

Winners of the annual photography competition 

The entries for the 2024 photography competition have been on display over the festive period and visitors have been asked to vote for their overall favourite after the judges made their choices for each category. The results are in and the winning photograph is of a tawny owl which was taken by Andrea Mapplebeck. A difficult woodland species to see, let alone photograph.

This photograph was also the winner of the Best Birdlife category, where the highly commended photographs were Dave Ruffles for his grey wagtail, Andrea Mapplebeck for a Tawny owl flying and Jack Emmanuel for a  marsh harrier in flight.

The other winning photos for the different categories were 

Best Invertebrate

Winner Pat Hogarth – Willow Emerald 

Highly commended     Leanne Martin – Muslin moth 

                                      Steve Browne – Common darter

 

Best botanical

Winner Pat Hogarth – Cow parsley

Highly commended                Alan Gray – Lots of fungi

Les Frost – Sticky ink cap

Best Landscape

Winner Geraldine Gray – South marsh west

Highly commended     Danielle Clegg

                                      Alan Gray

Best wildfowl

Winner Steve Browne – Shoveler in flight

Highly commended     Jack Emmanuel – female teal

 

Best kingfisher

Winner Dave Ruffles

Highly commended     Andrea Mapplebeck

                                      Les Frost

Young photographer

Winner Artur (Children’s university group) Bee on daisy

Highly commended     Hamza (Kingsmill)

 

Best livestock

Winner Joanna Godfrey – goats with cattle egret

Highly commended     Les Frost

                                      Pat Hogarth

Best animal

Winner Steve Browne – Hedgehog

Highly commended     Geraldine Gray – Grass snake

 

Best wading bird

Winner Jack Emmanuel – Snipe

Highly commended     Pat Hogarth – cattle egret

                                      Dave Ruffles – little egret

 

Thank you to all the visitors who entered this year's competition and showed what a great variety of wildlife uses the diverse habitats that we have here at the reserve. 

And well done to all the winners. Time to start to take photos for next year!

 

Festive season 2024

Festive season approaches

North lagoon undergoes a facelift

The reserve at Tophill Low surrounds the clean water treatment works, with south and north lagoon receiving some of the excess filtered water. At the moment, north lagoon has been drained and in the new year it will start to receive water again and fill up. Now is the time to do habitat work to make sure that once the water level returns then so will the wildlife. Our fantastic volunteer team have been busy cutting down willows, building a new kingfisher nesting site, installing new kingfisher feeding perches and designing and positioning duck nesting platforms, along with weaving a willow screen so that as visitors walk past, they do not disturb the wildlife. Autumn and winter are the busiest times for habitat management on the reserve so it’s very much all go, and we would like to thank the volunteers for all their efforts throughout the year as we really couldn’t create such varied habitats without their help.

New kingfisher nesting hole outside north lagoon hide

Building duck nesting platforms on north lagoon

Visitors with a keen interest in photography were invited to enter our annual photography competition, which showcases the wildlife that uses the reserve. The exhibition of all the entries can be viewed over the festive season, which is being held in the classroom, downstairs in the main reception building. We are asking people to vote for their own overall winning photograph, the public vote. This image will then be used on our membership cards for 2025. Please do come and visit the exhibition and cast your vote, and perhaps be inspired to enter next year. The prize for the winners of each category is a full years membership.

Photo exhibition on display in the Holt

As visitors return via the nature trail route you may now notice that there is a second polytunnel in situ. This is yet another venture for the reserve and the wider Yorkshire Water biodiversity team. This new polytunnel will be set up and dedicated to growing on sphagnum moss, ready for replanting the many upland areas that Yorkshire Water owns and manages as their water catchment areas, mostly situated in the west of the county. So rather than relying on other sources for this valuable plant to restore upland areas, helping to store more carbon and soak up more water, keeping water back from areas at risk of flooding, we will be growing it ourselves here at Tophill Low. Exciting times. If any visitors would like more information about our plant propagation scheme or indeed want to be involved please talk to one of the wardens or our team of volunteers.

New sphagnum polytunnel

The wildfowl on the reserve at the moment looks stunning as the male ducks look splendid coming into their breeding season. Male goldeneyes and shovelers were seen yesterday displaying in front of east hide, which overlooks D reservoir. Males will pair up as soon as they can before heading back to their breeding grounds, look out for the goldeneyes throwing back their heads onto their backs to impress the females and compete with other males. The male shovelers put all their energies into pushing their beaks along, just under the surface of the water, stretching out their necks, in front of the females to entice them.  Another visitor on D reservoir, which was blown inland from the east coast after the recent storms is a black throated diver. These birds are usually found in small numbers along the coast during the winter months, having bred further north in the sea lochs of northern Scotland. On the sea they are hard to find and difficult to view so it is a delight to be able to have the opportunity of seeing this bird in front of the main reception hide. Look out for a bird that is similar in shape, size and colour to a cormorant but has a much ‘deeper’ body, whiter throat and its bill is broader and dagger like, helping it to feed on the reservoir fish!

Photo by Lee Johnson

 Also on the reserve is the return of a male smew, a smart white and black, small, diving duck which has been frequenting the Watton nature reserve part of Tophill, but occasionally seen feeding on D reservoir. In amongst the hundreds of shoveler, teal, tufted duck, goldeneyes and pochard there is a pair of red crested pochards.The males have a bright red bill and a stunning set of orangey red head feathers, whereas the female, like most ducks have a more subtle plumage; sexual dimorphism is typical in duck species. Elsewhere cattle egrets are becoming a regular sighting feeding in around the goats on north scrub and Hempholme meadow, so too, great white egrets, two often being seen along the riverbank. Visitors have been lucky enough to spot Jack snipe from south marsh west hide, usually right in front of the hide! Another exciting newcomer to the reserve has been several sightings of bearded tits feeding on the reed mace on the southern marshes.

Smew by Margaret Boyd

If you are planning to visit the reserve over the festive season, the reserve is open from 9am to 5pm, every day except Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Admission is £3.50 for adults, £2.50 concessions, £1.50 for children. Please note there are no refreshment facilities and dogs are not allowed.

Best wishes to all our volunteers and visitors for a peaceful Christmas and a joyful new year

From

Margaret, Richard and Amy

Annual photography competition 2024

Calling all wildlife photographers

As the end of the year approaches this is the ideal time to look back on all the wildlife experiences that you have captured as a photographer and enter our annual competition. Not only is this a chance to win a years FREE membership to the reserve but it is a great chance to share your photographs with everyone. Sometimes our visitors don't get to see all the wildlife that inhabits the reserve so please share your photos with us.

There are a variety of categories that can be entered, whether your photograph is of a common woodland bird, the comical marsh frog or one of our livestock grazers please sort through your collection and send your entry in to the reserve.

The categories are

Best bird life

Best kingfisher

Best animal

Best livestock

Best wading bird

Best landscape

Best wildfowl

Best invertebrate

Best botanical/fungi

Best young photographer

Best in show (decided by public vote)

We are taking entries from 1st to 10th December, then all photographs will be on display from 14th December in our classroom, the Holt, so that visitors can view all entries and vote for their favourite overall winner which will be used on next years membership card.

There are a few rules so please read them below, any questions then just ask and good luck! We are really looking forward to seeing some of the amazing photographs that have been taken here at the reserve throughout 2024.

Terms of entry

• Any picture entered must have been taken between 01/12/2023 – 10/12/2024. Entry open to all visitors and members and it must be their own work.

• Exhibitors may enter every eligible category if they wish, but entries are limited to 2 images per photographer per category.

• All pictures must have been taken within the Tophill Low recording area (I.e. the Yorkshire Water owned site, Watton Nature Reserve or the Approach road to Angram Farm).

• Photo post processing is permitted.

• Photos can be submitted from 12pm 1^st December and entries close at 12pm on the 10th of December 2024. No early or late entries will be considered. Entries must remain in the exhibition for the duration of the exhibition. The exhibition will start on the 14^th December and run until 5^th January.

• Competition results will be announced at 5pm 20^th December 2024 via the Tophill Low Nature Reserve blog. Public vote submission will be shared on social media on 3^rd January with the winner being displayed in the Reception Hide and could become the new Tophill Low membership card for 2025/26.

• All pictures must be no larger than A2 (or 420mm X 594mm) including any mount. No wooden or glass frames will be accepted. They must be clearly labelled with your name on the reverse, no images with names on the front will be considered so public voting is fair.

• ‘Best Young Photographer’ category is open to ages 17 years and under. Direction and guidance permitted from an elder – but photographs must be taken by the younger.

• Photos will be displayed and judged by a team assembled at the discretion of the Reserve Warden. It will be the judging panel’s decision, and they may refuse entry to images considered not to meet the criteria. The panel’s decision is final.

• The judging panel will not involve any exhibitors in the competition.

• ‘Best in Show’ will be chosen by public vote via public ballot. The ballot starts on 14^th December and closes at 5pm on the 3^rd January 2024. No late votes will be counted. The vote is limited to 3 selections per voter. Your 3 selections can be taken from any category.

• Tophill Low Nature Reserve reserves the right to use the images supplied in the promotion of the site and could be used for the 2025 membership card. Credit will be given to the photographers wherever appropriate.

• A prize of a season’s free membership will be given to the winner in each category. If you win more than one category, you will still only receive one membership. The upcoming membership season start is 1^st April 2025.

 

Grand Designs and bird friendly building design

 

Chances are you are here off the back of the Grand Designs series 25 first episode on the Old Coastguard Station at Flamborough head.  The producers of the popular Channel 4 program contacted us in 2020 as the featured project has large glass panes in a migration hotspot and planners had stipulated anti bird strike glass.  

Our own project started many years earlier off the back of the need to replace some of our ageing hides and a visitor centre that were beyond repair and needed replacing.  A big problem for us was that in an age of social media, potential visitors were seeing amazing wildlife images but on arrival their first experience on the reserve was this:

People make a judgement about a site within the first ten minutes of arrival, and unfortunately that was frequently negative leading to user conflict.  We needed to get people of all abilities connected with the nearest habitat as soon as possible - and that meant more light and better visibility - but how to do that when we have a Site of Special Scientific Interest underneath us? 

With our architects Group Ginger of Leeds we looked at some of the research on mitigating bird collision risk.  The British Trust for Ornithology in 2004 estimated 100 million birds were killed by window strikes with glass in the UK, of which based on ringing data approximately 1/3rd die.  And research by Dr Daniel Klem in the US suggests that between 100 million and 1 billion birds are killed annually by glass representing potentially 5% of the breeding population second only to cats.  This image by Patricia Homonylo won 2024's Bird Photographer of the Year Competition featuring over 4000 casualties of glass collected in Toronto as a means to draw attention to this under-discussed issue:

Birds don't see the same triggers such as dirt or frames that we do.  Particularly when startled, they immediately go for open sky or dense vegetation.  Both of which can be reflected by glazing.  The American Bird Conservancy have a really good guide on the problems and potential mitigation of glazing here.   As a rule the 'falcon cut outs' many of us try out of guilt at a casualty on the patio doors don't work.  Advocated is Dr Klem's 2”x4” guideline – that birds are unlikely to fly through a horizontal gap less than 2 inches high, or through a vertical space less than 4” wide.   This can be manifested by installing external barring physical or etched onto the glass and many buildings have been retrofitted.  

However for our facility to be at one with nature that would mean our windows would look like; 

or 

Less than ideal for viewing. 

As such Group Ginger specified Ornilux glass.  It works on the basis that birds see in the ultra violet spectrum.  For us if we get it at the right angle you can just about see the etching internally;  

It does take the edge off optics to be fair (which is why we still have the conventional birder hide next door with 'old school' shutters for serious observers).  But for the casual user it's barely perceptible.  

This image shows the effect from the outside better; A cryptic pattern that comes across as an impenetrable barrier to birds;

It's fair to say whilst it has not eliminated bird strikes, it has certainly reduced them substantially for the frontage of glass.  Other measures we took included ensuring there is no open illumination of the building which could either confuse migratory birds or scare wildfowl on the reservoir.  So we use floor level cinema lights that give enough vision at dusk to move around with:

The book cabinets and units in the room are carefully located to block any through light.  That eliminates a temptation for birds to 'fly through' or see a human silhouette:

Even the log burning stove has no glazed frontage so there is no light emitted:

Continuing the Yorkshire theme the build was project managed by Mason Clarke Associates and built by Houlton of Hull, with all but three of the main suppliers sourced within Yorkshire.  

As a result the building achieved the Royal Institute of British Architects Yorkshire and Humber building of the year in its class; with myself on behalf of Yorkshire Water also picking up client of the year in 2018, pictured with then Conservation, Access and Recreation team leader Geoff Lomas: 

And subsequently it went on to receive a Yorkshire Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors 'Highly Commended'.  Subsequently the building saw its busiest year ever in 2023/4 and has consistently had over 1100 per annum attending Yorkshire Water funded education workshops.  

 

With this background and its locality to Flamborough the program's producers were keen to feature Tophill Low as a case study for the episode as an example of bird friendly building design, and a day was set in 2020 for filming with Kevin McCloud (all complying within covid guidelines at the time).  Whist a fun day and recognition for us, it is a great opportunity to bring this under acknowledged topic to a wider audience. 

 As Dr Klem referenced it, “if you accept my lowest attrition figure of 100 million annual kills at glass in the U.S. you would need 333 Exxon Valdez oil spills each year to match the carnage.”