By Sara Messenger of Bradley Stoke’s Three Brooks Nature Conservation Group.
I can only apologise now that your Thursday morning walk on the reserve will no longer be a quiet solitary affair should you stumble upon the newly returned Bradley Stoke Green Gym. We’re the Liquorice Allsorts of the conservation world – while we are all different shapes, genders and ages, we are all the same in that we are so relieved at finally being allowed back out. Although we know the restrictions put in place were aimed at keeping us physically safe, mentally we have all greatly missed the camaraderie, the friendships, the satisfaction of seeing a good job done and the laughter that resounds through the woods every time we meet.
Although my creaky knees may not have been physically up to it, our attitude certainly was up to ‘hitting the ground running’ and on our first week back we headed off to Primrose Bridge where one team cleared the stream blockage and any overhanging cover, while also checking for any remaining signs of the pollution that had earlier blighted the brook. Meanwhile, the other team made a log pile hibernaculum with the wood, repaired a hedge, cleared the ubiquitous bramble that seems to spill out over every path, and litterpicked.
Our champion litter picker Paul found a purse with debit cards and £45 cash in it, which has now been returned to a stunned but very grateful owner. Michelle told us that she lost her purse 18 months ago after leaving it on her car roof and had long given up thinking it would be returned, let alone returned with all its contents. I did suggest that as it was obviously her lucky day maybe she should buy a lottery ticket!
Our second week back was no less productive when we completed an almost identical set of tasks at the other end of the brook, although we managed to include the planting of another row of rowan trees donated by local company CGI. And we finally got to meet group members Stephen and Lorna’s son Oben, who at just 8 weeks old we are counting as our youngest and, strangely, quietest Green Gym member.
There is a large dead tree that crosses the stream that at one time it was suggested we remove. However, as it was the favourite roost for a pair of collared doves, we left it alone and I’m glad we did as Dave told us when his boys were little, they used it as a favourite landmark and now his grandchildren can do the same. The stream bank is already covered in wild garlic whose smell often turned my thoughts to lunch until the wind changed direction slightly and we caught the rather less pleasant smell of a dead fox. We have recently found dead several ‘healthy’ looking foxes, rats, squirrels and on The Common East, four hedgehogs and a couple of pigeons and can only wonder what at could be causing this. I understand that during lockdown rats became unwelcome visitors to many gardens and poison was put down, but I am wondering if now other animals are now picking up either slug pellets or the rat poison, which is killing both them and those that predate on them.
Pond life
Some of us have newt licences and have undertaken a couple of surveys. Although I missed the survey of the ponds on the reserve, I’m told they were like ‘newt soup’. I’m hoping that meant there were a lot of them, not that they were floating with carrots in chicken stock! However, I did get to survey the pond on The Common East and we lost count of the number of newts there. No great crested newts but plenty of smooth and palmate newts and many of the females were gravid or pregnant. Although this pond doesn’t look ‘tidy’, it is a very healthy pond as shown by the number of newts, ramshorn snails, tadpole and other larvae that we found. We also found several goldfish had been put in, but as they will eat all the efts (baby newts) we hope to remove them to another pond soon. Dewfalls is another pond we manage, although it has been dry for the last couple of years. However, when two of us went over to plant a small hedge there, with more trees from CGI, we discovered it has water and according to the neighbours has had so for the last month. We couldn’t see any newts in the daylight, so will return one evening to do a proper survey. As this was one of our best great crested newt breeding ponds we are hopeful at least some of them will have returned.
Saturday group
The Saturday group have also returned and have already managed to pull up nearly 2,000 Himalayan balsam seedlings and have spread bark on the very muddy lake path. We had a very enjoyable day, we found an odd ‘nest’ in the reeds which might have been made by a roc or possibly deer bedding down, and we were kept entertained by the large number of families who were taking part in the Easter trails put on by the church and the football club and we absolutely did not help everyone find a picture of orienteering post no. 5 or the phone number of fox welfare!
Our bird ringer Aurora was also out during the workday and while I was there she ringed a wren, a robin, a blackbird and a long-tailed tit, I’m nowhere near as knowledgeable as she is so shall leave it to her to tell you next month more about what she does.
• How to contact the Three Brooks Nature Conservation Group…
t: 07497 006676
e: info@three-brooks.info
w: www.three-brooks.info
Facebook: Three Brooks Nature Conservation Group
This article originally appeared in the May 2021 issue of the Bradley Stoke Journal magazine (on pages 8 & 9). The magazine is delivered FREE, nine times a year, to ALL 8,700 homes in Bradley Stoke. Phone 01454 300 400 to enquire about advertising or leaflet insertion.
