turtle racing

Turtle Dove - Martin Standley 

It's been a while since our last January 1st 2019 effort where we tallied an all time record of 81 species in our new year's listing day.  It'll be nice to resurrect this tradition for 2022 and as it happens it coincides with the Michael Clegg memorial Yorkshire Bird Race on the 2nd of Jan (A character synonymous with Tophill and certainly an influence on myself as a young naturalist back in the 80's)

Previously the race had always been 'county wide' and involved a car based dash to score as many birds as possible - which alas we always left to others and merely welcomed any competing teams at the reserve.    

This year the challenge non-motorised, and as such we can put on a good show at the reserve as Tophill is always a diverse winter site.  As such at 10am on the 1st of Jan we'll be undertaking our first 'reserve walk' to recce the species ready for the 2nd.  

On Sunday the 2nd of Jan we'll be undertaking two reserve walks as the bird race proper - one at 10am, and one at 1:30pm starting from the car park.  Our volunteers will be guiding us in to any notable species and tallying a running score up - standard admission charge applies but all donations gratefully received on the day for the North Yorkshire Turtle Dove project in partnership with the friends of Dalby; 

The North Yorkshire Turtle Dove Project (NYTDP) is a volunteer-led initiative that works to help address the dramatic declines in our Turtle Dove population through:

• volunteer-based survey work/citizen science

• working with land managers to create/improve suitable habitat and improve land management practices

• engage local communities and schools to raise awareness and increase participation in practical conservation

 • Build links and share best practice with national and international partners.

We are very lucky to still have Turtle Doves in North Yorkshire, our work surveying these birds since 2016 has produced an estimate of between 50 and 100 pairs, the majority nest within the North York Moors National Park with smaller numbers in the Howardian Hills AONB.

In addition to helping Turtle Dove, the land management improvements, awareness raising initiatives and surveys has also improved the fortunes of other ‘at risk’ bird species within the project area such as Song Thrush and Yellowhammer. 

Turtle Doves need a reliable source of water because they feed their small chicks in the nest on milk created in their crop (known as crop milk). Without water their breeding success declines.

How Yorkshire Birders Can Help

In 2022 we have big plans to continue our work with Turtle Dove friendly farmers within our North Yorkshire Project area. We would like to provide more water by not only restoring more ponds but also by creating small drinking pools close to where Turtle Doves are still nesting.

We need you to form a team, get sponsored and enter the annual Yorkshire Bird Race on the 2nd January to help us raise money for these drinking pools/small ponds. It’s very simple the more money we raise the more landowners and farmers we can work with providing better habitat for Turtle Doves and other birds in our county.

All the money raised from this bird race will be spent on these habitat conservation measures.

We'll see how close to that 81 we can get... 

Phytoplankton has a lot to answer for

If you’ve seen the latest James Bond instalment you’ll be aware the scriptwriters had the task of tying together every storyline and character from the last 20 years into one resolution; As such that’s why we’ve been quiet at Tophill Low of late – irrespective of the tunneling works which are due to conclude for the new year, we have been doing the same; Just on the slightly less glamorous theme of Algae.   

In short;

We’re building a new facility in the Water Works between 2022 and 2024 to improve drinking water quality. 

We’re working in partnership with this scheme to minimise disruption to local communities which will see replacement O res and D res East hides in conjunction with long anticipated habitat improvement works, which will concentrate any disruption into a single intensive block.    

Please expect periods of partial or site closures in the first half of 2022 whilst this work is undertaken subsequent to which we can enjoy enhanced facilities and habitats. 

Detailed;

So where do we start? – you’d better grab a cuppa this will take some time;

The whole issue has its roots in nitrates.  This graph illustrates nitrate levels at the spring line on the Yorkshire Wolds above us and the head waters of the river Hull.   

There are various causes mooted but most would agree that this is the output of modern farming practices, be it from the second world war ploughing out of sheep pasture on the Wolds, to the continued application of artifical fertiliser to land.  The problem is in some cases, water (and dissolved nitrates) is reckoned to take 60 years to pass through the aquifer and emerge at the spring line.  The worry is that what we’re seeing now will not abate for half a century even if every farmer on the Wolds stopped applying fertiliser tomorrow.  In the impermeable valleys of the Yorkshire Dales, Yorkshire Water frequently owns the catchment, and we can stipulate what is applied and when to tenant farmers to secure water quality.  Unfortunately, on the Wolds it is diffuse from potentially thousands of private farms and all we can do is educate around the most environmentally (and cost) efficient ways of maintaining crop yields.  There are some success stories; YW have a great partnership with Birdseye that has seen cover crops used to bind and secure soils from pea fields susceptible to run off, and there’s possibly some connection with this abundant annual seed resource in the last couple of winters, and the vastly increased numbers of wild geese lingering in the Wolds and Humber? 

Nitrates causes a range of issues not just for us.  On some of the SSSI designated chalk springs species are being lost as what should be clean nutrient and competition free waters are instead growing prolific rank vegetation because they effectively have fertiliser in the water.  Down stream the river is often choked with blanket weed causing the fly-fishing community issues as trout runs need to be cut to allow the water to be seen, the boating community at Bethell’s bridge have a specialist weed cutting boat to keep the river navigable in summer, and at Hempholme Weir the Environment Agency has a weed boom and dredger installed every summer to keep the tilting weir mechanism clear of weed and functioning. 

For us at Yorkshire Water we have strict limits on nitrates imposed by the Drinking Water Inspectorate – the government regulator.  The purpose of the two raw water reservoirs ‘D’ and ‘O’ built in 1959 is to dampen out peaks of poor-quality river water, allowing us to abstract only water within tolerance and run off the 320 million gallon reserves if not of treatable quality. 

Unfortunately, now it is rare any water can be abstracted within tolerance.  As such to ensure water quality for consumers is maintained Yorkshire Water installed a £14 million nitrate extraction plant in 2015 within Tophill Low WTW which ensures we can maintain supplies within DWI limits. 

Whilst this ensures there is no risk to consumers, the problem still remains of accumulated nitrates within the reservoirs themselves, which being shallow and of crystal clear chalk water combine with summer sun and heat to perfect conditions for algae. 

Whilst not harmful itself there is a possibility this is having an affect on the SSSI wildfowl numbers.   Compare the numbers below – those in orange are counts from 2006-2010.   Those in blue from 2013 – 2018. 

It’s perhaps telling the disparity in numbers is all around the summer and autumn months when algal blooms are at their peak.  All observations suggest that invertebrate and fish populations are stable; One only has to watch the swifts last summer feeding on emergent insects from the water in these videos;

Or the great crested grebes in autumn gorging themselves on jack pike after jack pike to see there’s no ‘biodiversity collapse’ – if anything its supercharged with biomass.  Darren Smith;

Roy Vincent:

Perhaps the issue is maybe water clarity as the reservoir can resemble a ‘pea soup’ in late summer – this clip of D res demonstrates the strange alien world of algal ‘forest’ beneath the surface:

We’re hoping to get some more images from beneath the waves as its likely the biggest habitat at the reserve no one sees.

Some have attempted to manage algae with ‘shade balls’ to prevent sunlight hitting the water;

However – thankfully it’s not very compatible with the SSSI designation or our biodiversity / plastic waste aspirations! 

Currently there is a lot of academic work and research being channelled towards this conundrum looking at a whole array of factors and solutions to reducing the algae in the reservoirs. 

In the interim the problem is that the algae would create taste and odour issues unless we take measures to treat that.  Essentially we have a scaled-up version of the domestic water filter on your kitchen worktop which features a carbon/charcoal element to remove taste and odour.  One point of note is that when first installed we reckoned it'd make a cracking vantage point for raptor watching...

For us on the nature reserve the only issue is at the Lagoon process water outfall near the boardwalks.  Many pass comment on ‘what the black mud is?’ – it’s the carbon filtration material; It’s inert and harmless as evidenced by both lagoons being one of the best places for kingfishers in Yorkshire (the sticklebacks probably taste really nice filtered!).  The was the original purpose of the lagoons - they are sediment traps so accumulated mud from the water treatment process is the expected output.   

However – the discharges from both lagoons are consented by the Environment Agency and if they fail on suspended solids exceeding their permitted concentrations at the lagoon outfalls into watercourses, then we are hit with substantial fines.  This is why management for wading birds was abandoned 15 years ago as the risks are too great in trying to lower the water levels to expose mud as it risks ripping up the bottom.

Unfortunately, both lagoons were never built with de-silting in mind in the 1950’s so have never been dredged, and the carbon dosing is compounding the issues.  As such to pre-empt a failure we now have to undertake this.  North Lagoon as a sediment lagoon is currently full.  The water has to settle somewhere so currently it all goes through south lagoon which has some capacity, but until north lagoon is rectified there is no plan b or option to desilt south.   

North Lagoon dredging

This job is scheduled to take place in Autumn 2022.  Preparatory works are to be undertaken this winter as the bund at the northern end has slumped not allowing the lagoon to be raised for settlement capacity and needs rebuilding.  As such in coming weeks contractors will be removing willows and failing alders from the bund, and installing a pipe bridge to allow access into the lagoon for plant after it has been dried this season;

As such expect some limited closures for preparatory works this winter and in the coming autumn for the work itself. 

Subsequent to this South Lagoon is the next to be tackled based on the outcome of this job – and will likely utilise infrastructure being installed off the back of the current tunneling program. 

That said all this is a remedy not a cure.  Ensuring the lagoons can function merely buys us time.

The Quality Scheme

This is a multi million pound upgrade and what we may term ‘Tophill Low III’ (following from Tophill Low II in 1999 and the original in 1959 – it’s the installation of new more efficient filter beds to deal with the algae issues at source in the Water Treatment works. 

This is forecast to run into 2024 and will not impact the Nature Reserve significantly barring year one – largely at our own request.

The reason for this is that there is no spare land for the new infrastructure.  The only location is an area of ground we commonly to refer to as ‘Mt. Tophill’.  It’ll be unknown to most regulars and features on no maps but it’s a heap of inert material left from decades of WTW construction works.   As the pictures below show it is probably the highest landform for 4 miles in any direction and as we have remarked ‘if it was in the right place it’d be a cracking vantage point for birding’ but unfortunately it currently only views the roofs of the surrounding private residences so isn’t an asset we can utilise;

As it’d become overgrown it had become home to many protected great crested newts – extensive surveys were carried out last spring to gauge the population size;

To manage that we brought in Nibbles and co goats last spring to browse and keep all the vegetation down and deter any birds from starting nesting within the habitat ensuring no nests would be damaged when the newt fences were installed in July;

Allowing safe rehoming of 22 great crested newts and 25 palmate newts from the mound - part of over 80 from the wider collection areas.    

This clears the way for much of that material to be removed from the build area.  Now with the volume of wagon movements that would come at huge customer expense, in carbon emissions and in disruption to local communities – but we have a need for it within the Nature Reserve which will benefit the habitats and visitor facilities and save all the above impacts.

Much of this material will remain as it will be a visual and noise barrier for adjacent residences.  The intention is that this will be landscaped and seeded with hay collected from the O reservoir hay meadows to deliver wildflower and insect rich hay meadow to compliment the reserve and may well see the goats back at appropriate times to graze the escarpment which it is hoped will become a pleasant outlook for residential properties on site.   

Hide Replacements

Over the last few years we have had a program of replacement for the 1980’s and 90’s stilt hides.  These were class leading and well-engineered in their day often by regulars whom still visit to this day:

Unfortunately, the materials have unavoidably deteriorated as they were built to the budget of the original 1993 Tophill Low NR launch.  

Some hides like the South Marsh and back to back hides are built on stable concrete slabs and have survived well and should continue to do so with regular maintenance;

The two lagoon hides and Watton NR we were able to build new sub-structures beneath them and give a new lease of life despite their old telegraph and larch log legs failing. 

However, where we have had elevated hides requiring major refurbishment, we’ve had to make tough decisions on their future.  Such as the old south lagoon inlet hide – their time had been and passed and no longer looked over good vistas due to habitat change and were but a liability to pull down:

  

The former D res north hide was occasionally useful in the right light – but the majority of the time it faced due south into the sun.  To get the height to see over the walls it needed to be on stilts all of which were rotting and which would need rebuilt at a cost of many thousands with a fairly precipitous set of steps which won’t satisfy the equality act, or our own aspirations for an accessible site – all to support a hide which would have had a minority of occasional users;

 

As such we elected to do something totally different and construct the Izzard hide instead;

And its fair to say that has yielded much more interest and visits to site than a refurbished D would have.  That’s not to say we have written off the idea of a D res north hide.  We still have ideas for the future that would deliver the originals intended function much more effectively…

The original North Marsh hide was something of a horror show by 2008;

And was successfully replaced in 2009 with the current well-loved structure – and was our first use of earth to create a permanent, low maintenance accessibly entrance to an elevated hide;

In doing so we also created habitat in the form of the D woods pond:

We scaled this up for the former D res car park hide in 2017;

Creating both the reception hide;

And the associated pond from the disability access ramp creation;

Whilst we have tried to limp on some of the others we have reached the end of the road with them – and modern regulations such as CDM and safety controls such as working at heights mean we can’t undertake some of the jobs we’d have previously jumped in with volunteers and done;

Much loved by gull enthusiasts – we recognise East Hide is a viewing location which needs to stay and cater for serious birders giving a commanding vista of the D reservoir.  Alas its rotting supports, asbestos roof and non-compliant access mean we have to look at replacement rather than refurbishment.    

As such the plan is to develop a replacement in the same location at the same height with similarly birder orientated design; But with the addition of a disability access ramp which much like the reception hide will be afforested with a more sensitive mix of berry bushes and understorey.   It is our aspiration one day to introduce dormice to Tophill Low; This is years away, but that target means we have to bring all the woodlands and understory into a quality that’s equally excellent for a host of woodland plants, birds and animals. 

We’ll also be moving the path back away from the SSSI reservoir to reduce disturbance.

This is going to mean some limited felling of pine and larch trees, and therefore initial closures for this around new year.  Subsequently there will be a prolonged closure whilst earthworks are undertaken from February which may restrict access to the whole northern site, and subsequently through D woods until we have new paths in place in spring. 

The finished product should be a stable hide that is accessible for all, much reduced in maintenance and SSSI disturbance and gives a lot more interesting walk and more diverse habitat than previously. 

The other hide due for replacement is ‘L’ hide on O reservoir and is the more ambitious project of the two;

This hide when built was started on the right concept – it’s on a mound – but unfortunately it wasn’t quite high enough and set too far back from the reservoir so never really worked; The near side of O res is always hidden so you can only observe wildfowl and gulls on the far side of the res. 

Likewise if it was a little higher then you could get a view of the river towards Hempholme and Leven Carrs and the new habitats there along with their burgeoning crane and raptor communities – but it’s not quite there.  It also is still built on legs and has no disability access and is all on failing supports again so it’s one we need to start over with. 

So, the idea is to go higher and add to this mound and incorporate disability access. 

We’re still developing the precise details on the hide or viewing area specification itself but the intention is it will deliver commanding views of O reservoir and the surrounding scrub and wetlands.

We want an open aspect that will make this a brilliant vantage point for surveying raptors and wetland birds through the river Hull corridor such has been had in the past here. 

This elevated position will also be host to a MOTUS array.  Read here for full details. 

Essentially recent advances to telemetry and miniaturisation have allowed the development of transmitters which don’t have the prohibitive bandwidth hosting costs of satellite tracking systems.  Currently blackcap is the only species sanctioned for trial in the UK as the BTO is correctly taking a cautious approach to rolling out the technology – but in the states they have successfully been attached to all manner of birdlife, and even dragonflies, monarch butterflies and bats.  Due to the low energy transmission the system relies on a transmitting animal passing within a few km of a receiver station.  So, the more stations there are, the more likely it is to be picked up.  The networks are extensive in the Americas but embryonic in the UK.  Yorkshire Water’s Biodiversity team have funded the installation of three MOTUS arrays in East Yorks at the Deep in Hull, RSPB Bempton Cliffs and Tophill Low, which will be in addition to established arrays at Spurn bird obs and the LDV NNR.  

Going forwards this scientific emphasis will be linked to the bird ringing station at Tophill Low which will be re-housed in a relocated shed with more interpretation on returns and their work. 

Data needs to be transmitted and the receiver powered so this is to be incorporated within an overhaul of the reserve’s failing 30-year-old camera coaxial and power cable which will allow reliable powering of the predator fence around SME, the moth traps and nocmig audio recordings.  Essentially this new hillock will be something of a Tophill ‘Menwith Hill’ with an array of wildlife monitoring and tracking technologies all focused upon it.  The intention is to get a reliable and high quality picture signal back to the reception hide so we can scan the wetlands remotely.  Likewise we’re hoping high speed internet will finally make it to Tophill which will finally allow us to get that footage out.  When lockdown started in 2020 we attempted to stream footage but the internet was so slow we could only get a few fragments out of the barn owls before we had to give up on our near dial up speeds:

The hide mound will entail a larger footprint and we’ll be extending back into the woodland behind.  As we’re felling elements of it, we have taken the opportunity to fell the lot and start again with similar dormouse / scrub woodland habitat.  Currently its scots pine which is none native to the area and ash which is suffering badly from die back.  None of the weedy trees here are growing strongly in the wet heavy clay soils when you consider they are the same age as those in D woods, and nor do we want them to.  

In D woods we’re embracing canopy trees with the heronry, sparrowhawk nests etc and all they bring – but at the southern end of the site we want low dense nesting habitat and scrub for warblers, bullfinches and wintering thrushes which complements our wetlands, and eliminates predator perches to benefit nesting wetland birds.

If we’re on with tree works, we want to do the rest whilst mobilised.  So that means also the ash avenue which is at the very south of the site around and beyond Watton NR hide;

This avenue is a self-generated row of ash which is now suffering from die back and in time would become a hazard to pedestrians on the public bridleway.  It is too small to be a viable woodland and simply acts as a vantage point for carrion crows (complete with their nest /dining table set within it) fragmenting valuable reedbed and grassland on South Scrub and Watton NR.  We are intending to take this down to pollard height – trees which survive the current ash die back can regrow as dense warbler habitat we will maintain with volunteers.

To reach and extract timber without negatively impacting on stewardship meadows we’ll be cutting new rides through the rank hawthorn scrub similar to that which we did in 2009 to further diversify and create valuable edge habitat – continuing our Higher Level Stewardship work to take S Scrub from bad on the right below – to good on the left; 

JJ Hopkins, 1996

On exactly the same concept is the pollarding of the copse adjacent to South Marsh East.

We’ve already been undertaking much with volunteers this winter on SMW and need to bring these trees into a size maintainable with hand tools.  

Some of you may remember the lockdown scenes where the local common buzzards undisturbed by visitors were using these tall trees to launch attacks which effectively wiped out much of the breeding birds on the marsh in 2020.  The more open the vista – the earlier warning nesting birds get of attack and can collectively mob and deter predators.    

The intention is to get it away from 40 foot predator perches; 

And instead managed as dense pollard woodland as we've already done a lot previously with volunteers - home to blackcaps, garden warblers, bullfinch - rather than carrion crow and buzzard;

The same applies to the same predator perch / un-biodiverse / stunted pine plantation next to east pond.  This is to go leaving the hawthorn scrub for warblers augmented by more native species. 

We’ll finally get round to extracting the timber from O reservoir wood felled for tree safety works last winter which will be planted up with species more faithful to the river Hull than Balsam poplar.  So that means alder / downy birch / alder buckthorn / sessile oak wet woodland species as future willow tit habitat.  The felling of the poplars at O res was due to them collapsing across the road to O res two years ago;

And unfortunately, this is a forewarning of the rest of those at Tophill Low.  They were planted as a cash crop in the 1960’s with the promise of ready money from match wood.  Unfortunately, there’s not much market in matches now – and we are left with a legacy of trees which are poor for biodiversity, short-lived and worst prone to either root lifting or the crowns shearing and collapsing unpredictably as above.  We had already started this program back in 2011 when we felled over 600 of them at what is now Hempholme Meadow:

In the recent storms Arwen and Barra we conducted office work from home not due to Covid, but because of the risk posed by these trees above the warden offices.  We’ve tolerated them as long as we can – but again if we are mobilised for serious forestry, now is the time to make that hard decision to remove them where they are close to paths and roads.  They are big and impressive trees, and it will be a loss from the Tophill Low’s landscape, but it is the right time to make that call.  It’s unfortunate they weren’t planted as oaks etc back in 1966, but forestry at that time meant cash return – not biodiversity, landscape value or carbon capture.

So, the car park will look different.  We’d have liked to have done something like carvings etc – but unfortunately the wood is light and porous (and hence good for absorbing paraffin in matches) and any work would rot within a few seasons.  So, the best we can do is replant with more sympathetic, stable and biodiverse trees – likely oak as its deep tap root penetrates the 1950’s landscaping well as evidenced by some great specimens in D woods which dwarf the supposed quick growing pines around them. 

And to complete the picture we will be felling remaining poplars around McBean hide and re-pollarding willows which we last did in 2011 and have become too large for our volunteers to tackle and again are all shearing unpredictably.   

All material harvested will be utilised as biofuels for renewable energy and any income used to offset the much higher costs of this work (as the felling and extraction is complex and costly, so we’d like to reassure that all work is being undertaken for habitats and safety and is not for any financial gain).  

One additional benefit of the poplars being removed is that it removes the risk from the area around the butterfly border to make space for an exciting new development.  For the last few years we have had a small polytunnel setup for propagating woodland plants.

And subsequently we have been using it to propagate the rare greater water parsnip for a Yorkshire Water commitment to re-establishing colonies along the river Hull corridor:

Amy and the team have been busy with in recent months on Skerne Wetlands and Leven Carrs;

Unfortunately this old facility has been lost to the footprint of the quality scheme but in recompense we will receive a new polytunnel inspired by the excellent facilities at Nosterfield Nature Reserve we visited this summer;

Our intention is to develop a purpose made facility for collecting and propagating wetland plants to re-establish around Tophill Low, river Hull and Yorkshire Water sites in coming years.  Once up and running this will be an exciting new volunteer opportunity amongst several others we’ll be promoting in coming months…

And to support this we're in the process of upgrading the volunteer welfare facilities post covid.  Previously up to 15 volunteers were crammed within a 10x10' office - so we're installing new temporary facilities pending the 2025 quality scheme completion, whom are borrowing and refurbishing or replacing the former wildlife centre / social club as their contractor welfare facilities, which we will receive back as a swish and permanent home for Tophill Low's volunteer operations.  

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All this work may all seem dramatic – but Tophill Low is a working and dynamic site which it always needs to be remembered is primarily a drinking water production site for Hull.  It’s easy to walk it and romanticise it is ‘wilderness’ or ‘untouched’ whereas in reality it is another step in its evolution.  To keep this within perspective here is Tophill Low within many of our lifetimes in 1946 as a pastoral farm (complete with the former Lowe – which gives us our name - the small hillock / island in the Hull Valley bulldozed in 1959 to create reservoir embankments);

The whole site almost without exception was levelled in 1959;

 

This is now the car park!;

By 1979 the site was still barely vegetated – many of the trees we’re managing now did not exist; South Scrub is pure grassland, the south marshes were yet to be excavated and we even had a cricket pitch still!;

This is from the mid 90’s with poplar trees much less intimidating and another substantial thinning at the time (hard to make out to newer visitors but this is now the car park entrance and toilet block).

What has always been consistent as now is that there are areas of the site which are not worked or disturbed; allowing wildlife to colonise and fully exploit all the new habitat opportunities the dynamic environment Tophill Low offers.  So, expect some disruption over coming months.  Undoubtedly it would have been great to undertake this during the lockdowns etc to minimise impacts – but as you’d imagine contractors and plans have equally been delayed during this time.  We’re still yet to attain our pre-flooding / pandemic visitor and volunteer numbers so we’d rather condense all this and complete it so we can get back to a permanent normality. 

As such there will be closures to parts of and potentially the whole site depending upon contractor activities.  We will try and advertise work schedules on the blog so visitors know what to expect when planning their visits.  When we know more on the impact and scale of this we will be determining the effects on the costs and schedule for current March 31^st membership renewal date.   

In the first instance we will be closing South Scrub and Watton NR hide with effect from approximately Tuesday the 4^th January until further notice due to initial forestry and access work.  The tunneling program is winding down with one crane now being dismantled; but we see restrictions on the O reservoir access continuing into Jan.

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As you'd imagine planning that lots takes some of our time - but what do we do with our spare?  Well we also have another project besides Tophill - our Water Work for Wildlife project:

We're aiming through this program to enhance biodiversity on many other sites in Yorkshire Water's ownership that fall outside the statutory duties of SSSI management.  Perhaps one many Yorkshire birders will be familiar with is Rodley Nature Reserve - still an active Yorkshire Water site with former active land leased to trustees whom have done an excellent job of managing the site for nature over the last 20 years.  One area they requested assistance with was re-landscaping their duck marsh so we were able to assist with re-landscaping it in March to essentially create another South Marsh East in North Leeds:

This project has been really well received by the wildlife and visitors alike - and has reportedly been the 'habitat to go to this season' so a great result and certainly a team we'd like to forge closer links with.  Another project we've been working on down near Barnsley has been restoration of a great crested newt pond where the species was only hanging on with the pond over-shaded and desiccating:

We were able to successful clearance work alongside reservoir engineering to completely overhaul the pond and look forward to seeing how many newts utilise the new much improved habitat:

Heading up to the North Yorkshire Moors we have undertaken some great management work on another one of our reservoirs in conjunction with the Freshwater Habitats Trust and British Dragonfly Society:

And then heading west near Harrogate we have been digging a whole lakeland landscape within windblown glades in one of our woodlands to host a re-introduced population of water voles:

Some of our sites simply need recognising for what they are rather than big works - this site close to Hull is one we've recently taken back into direct Yorkshire Water management as its a cracking floodplain meadow with bags of potential for botanical interest - not to mention breeding lapwing and snipe:

And there is plenty more in the pipeline - how about a site with 120+ goosander?

Or how about a bit of rewilding before rewilding was a thing?

And some other gems from the wider Yorkshire Water estate:

So all in all exciting times and lots to look forward to - more details on all these projects in due course...

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As such we're looking forward to the new year and some back to basics Tophill birding.  Normally we'd have our own Tophill bird race on the 1st of Jan - but given the Michael Clegg memorial bird race is on the 2nd we have decided to put together a Tophill Low team for that - so feel free to join us (with sponsorship money!) for guided walks at 10am and 1:30pm to try and record as many species as possible on the day.  We'll also be doing a recce on the 1st Jan as a nod to our own tradition.  This will all be subject to the unknown of covid restrictions so please keep an eye on the blog for more details nearer the time...  

Thanks for everyone's continued support over the last year in very challenging circumstances on many fronts - it is appreciated.