Annual Open day - Sunday 9th June

Our annual Open Day is on Sunday 9^th June this year and we are busy making preparations for the day. Admission to the reserve is FREE for this event. The day will start at 10am and finish at 4pm with a whole range of conservation organisations taking part. There are twenty five organisations that will be setting out their stalls and be able to tell visitors all about the work that they do in the area and further afield. Organisations such as Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, East Riding countryside service, In Focus optics and Experience Community highlight the range of information available. See the list below for every stall.

	Organisation / Stalls
1	InFocus Optics
2	Yorkshire Coast Nature
3	Josh Harrison Photography
4	Tophill Low Membership Stand
5	Yorkshire Red Kites
6	TOAST
7	East Riding Hedgehogs
8	Netty’s cake stall
9	Fresh Water Habitats Trust
10	East Yorkshire Rivers Trust
11	Yorkshire Dragonflies
12	East Yorkshire Bat Group
13	Bishop Burton College
14	Natural England
15	Experienced Community
16	YW Education Team
17	YW Biosecurity Team
18	J & J farming
19	East Yorkshire Badger Protection Group
20	Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
21	East Riding of Yorkshire Council Rangers
22	East Riding Archaeology Society
23	RSPCA Wildlife Response
24	SCJ Training
25	British & Irish Scything Society & wood crafts
26	British Trust for Ornithology - ringing / Motus
27	Volunteers – Polytunnel
28	Volunteers – Pond dipping
29	Volunteers – Nature Trail
30	Volunteers – Nest boxes

Activities include guided walks, led by local Ecotourism company Yorkshire Coast Nature, at 10.30am and 2.30pm, as well as pond dipping sessions at the reception pond from 10.30am – 12pm and from 1.30 – 3pm. Throughout the day families can pick up a nature trail pack and follow the trail through a section of the reserve, finding clues along the way, with prizes at the end.

There will be refreshments available in the form of “Stuart’s of Driffield” fish & chip van, hot drinks and homemade cakes. Please bring cash to pay for our cake stall.

We also have our volunteer teams showcasing the work that they get involved in when they come to the reserve, whether it’s once or twice a week or on college placements. It’s a great chance to find out about the “behind the scenes” tasks that take place to maintain the range of habitats that we look after here at Tophill Low to create a reserve with a rich biodiversity. There is an opportunity to purchase nest boxes that have been made by our volunteers and also membership to the reserve can be arranged on the day.

Our polytunnel which is a hive of activity throughout the year, propagating wetland and meadow plants for restocking the reserve and donating plants to other wetland sites in the area, can not only be visited but there will be a selection of plants for sale. These will be in packs of 6 for £5 and we ask that visitors please pay in cash. Our team can tell you all about this exciting venture and how you can come and be a part of it as it enters the next stage with a new wetbed polytunnel soon to be installed, increasing the amount of plants that can be propagated. We are already planning days where volunteers can visit local areas to collect further seeds to increase the variety of plants that we grow.

We really hope that the local community take the opportunity of visiting the reserve on our open day as we showcase the success of this nature reserve and the partnerships that we have developed with other conservation organisations in the wider Hull valley.

Voulnteers at Tophill Low - Our nest box team

 

Nest box team activity update 9/5/2024

With the warming, drier weather the wildlife on site has been showing a lot of activity and the nest box monitoring team have been working to keep up with that pace. The team has continued to work together and welcomed new members to monitor the activity of the small bird nest boxes around the site. By 7^th May, most of the small bird nest boxes have had at least 3 regular visits this season with evidence that breeding activity is well established                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              We have been trying out new methods of less intrusive monitoring by using endoscopic camera surveillance. This has proven very successful as a way of checking for any nesting activity and is much less disruptive if we find a bird sitting on the nest rather than opening the nest boxes, of which 17 adult birds were seen in nest boxes on the last check.

 

     

 

We have taken advantage of the opportunity to form closer links with the team who ring birds on site, meeting up with them on 5^th May, when they were undertaking one of their surveys. This was a great opportunity for sharing information about the nest boxes and ringing procedures. We checked a few boxes together with the endoscope and having found an adult bird on the nest, were all impressed at the outcome when the ring number was checked.  This blue tit had laid 3 eggs at the time of nest box checking 2 weeks earlier and had been rung in the intervening period clearly without too much distress, as there were now 8 eggs visualised when the adult’s ring was being checked.

We have very good news that of the 130 boxes on site, 60% show some nesting activity, 25 have eggs visualised and there were 17 birds on nests as at their last visits, 7 of these had previous eggs visualised. There were also 6 naked chicks seen at the last check.

However, all these nests are providing a plentiful buffet for predators. In April a weasel was identified at nest box (and photographed), and other birds and their nests have been predated by squirrels, stoats and weasels. The stoat found was very quick indeed!

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Whilst some birds utilise the boxes, others have chosen to find their own accommodation. A pair of woodpeckers have been seen forming their own home and now sitting on the nest. A pair of resourceful coal tits utilised a nest box left outside a building and have raised a brood.

Although it was hoped that the Barn Owls which had been seen around site were going to use the boxes provided, there is no evidence of this. Two have been taken over by Jackdaws, one currently with 5 eggs and monitored by the box camera.

Tawny owls have been seen around the site, but at least one of the tawny boxes is being used by stock doves.

A big thank you for all the hard work that the nest box team is putting in to monitor a range of our woodland breeding birds.