Thirty years of Tophill Low - Open Day 2023

On Sunday the 11th of June we have the welcome return of the Tophill Low Nature Reserve open day.  It doesn't seem like it, but the last was 4 years ago pre-covid!   

It also marks 30 years since the (public) opening of the reserve in 1993 so worth celebrating.  

Admission is free from 10am to 4pm with extra car parking laid on a short walk from the reserve (blue badge holder parking available on request).  A perfect day out for any level of interest for all ages and abilities - something for everyone including food and drink! 

As ever we're giving the opportunity to a great range of friends of the reserve to showcase their work too - at the time of writing these include; 

    

Membership, displays and native wetland plant sales 

 Displays and children's activities 

 Displays on their work and possible chance to meet a bat!

Driffield & Langtoft Hedgehogs     

Awareness of hedgehog conservation and care - inc a possible chance to meet one

  

 Stands and activities 

East Riding Archaeological Society - history and exhibits 

 Bird ringing demo and motus stand

 New and used binoculars and telescopes to try and buy 

 Displays on the Trusts river conservation projects in East Yorkshire 

Awareness and information on Invasive Non Native Species in Yorkshire and how you can help 

Humberside Police Wildlife Crime prevention officer - displays and police vehicles 

 Wildlife photography 

Yorkshire coast nature wildlife tours 

 Accessible access advocates 

 Sustainability team 

Awareness and displays on badger protection 

Yorkshire Dragonfly Group - displays and information

Conservation farming 

 Tophill Low research group 

 Tony McLean Wildlife photography

 J&J goat meats 

For one day only! A return of twitchers take-away for drinks and refreshments 

FE/HE college running courses in Wildlife Conservation and Animal Management amongst others 

*All exhibitors subject to personal / work commitments - attendees may change.  

 Become a Nest Box Volunteer

We have a fantastic volunteering opportunity here at the reserve for interested people to get involved and become an active member of our fabulous volunteer team.

We have a dedicated welcome day on Tuesday 30^th May to bring new people on board, everyone is welcome.

Our nest box volunteers help to build, position, monitor and record the variety of species that use the numerous nesting boxes across the reserve. We have a range of small nest boxes in the woodland that are particularly for small birds such as tits and robins but that is just the start. You may have noticed the larger boxes for tawny owls and barn owls on the reserve, but we also have specialised boxes for treecreepers within the woodland and tern boxes on the islands in the south marshes for our visiting common terns.

Treecreeper nest box

And it’s not just nesting boxes for the birds we also have a range of bat boxes and in recent years have established a stoat monitoring scheme that relies on boxes being visited by stoats.

Bat box

Stoat Box Survey

The remit of the volunteering team is to keep the reserve and other Yorkshire Water wildlife sites supplied with suitable numbers of nest boxes. These are made in our workshop on site, often to specific dimensions according to the species. The team then sites the boxes on the reserve, wherever there is a need for them and from then onwards the team is responsible for checking, cleaning, maintaining and most importantly monitoring the use of these boxes.

Nest Box Team Survey

The records that the nest box team collect are then shared with a range of organisations. The BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) organise the nationwide nest box scheme, to which we send Tophill Low data. Similarly, any records of bats using the bat boxes are sent to East Yorkshire Bat Group. Volunteers may choose to join the bat group when they monitor and survey the bats. Projects, such as the study on stoats, helped to map the population size on the reserve of this mustelid, helping contribute to data collected from only a handful of other sites in the UK. This project is something that could be developed further in the future. Any new members of the team would be supported to enhance our nest box provision if it fitted into the reserve management plan and could continue to collect important data, either for the reserve or for national surveys.

Stoat Box Survey

We are entering a new phase with our nest box team, and we want this group of volunteers to lead on this dynamic aspect of our volunteering team.

Please come along on Tuesday 30^th May from 10.30am to meet the site team and hopefully join our volunteers.