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Ponies are back! We now have four Shetland ponies within the Mount Fancy compartment. It is important that you do please keep your dog on a leash whilst in this compartment. The ponies are free ranging and can easily get spooked by your nice well behaved dog that rushes up to them.
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At last a reasonable dry spell with light breeze. Chance for me to get out and back to our earlier coppicing site, gather up the brash and burn it. With Anna's help it was a pleasant day, seeing the area get back looking natural. Just waiting for wildflowers to re-establish themselves.
Just a small group of us made the time to make a big difference on Tuesday. A blazing fire made short work of all the brash. Too hot for jacket potatoes, shame. Compensated with plentiful mince pies. An easy days work so very enjoyable out in the open air whilst making a difference.
What a good day it was on Tuesday. A great team worked well together in perfect weather and completed the objective of releasing two fine noble oaks from suffocating hazel. We even managed to get a fire going that easily consumed all the brash that had been cut previously and on the day. Just the stools to trim down then protect with a wigwams of sticks to keep off the browsing deer with a final clear up of cuttings for another occasion. We could not quite manage the last few cuttings in the rapidly approaching close of day. Just to confirm that the Exmoor ponies that were in the Mt Fancy compartment, have been taken off the reserve. Discussions are on going as to how the reserve is to be grazed going forward.
It is official, Butterfly Conservation have declared a butterfly emergency. The numbers count this year have been alarmingly low. There are a number of factors, so read their full account below. It is what every watchers wildlife have been saying this year, there just anything like the numbers we should be seeing. Remember butterflies are early responders, so clearly one of the causes is climate change. The cold wet winter and spring was devastating for butterflies, not just them. Without caterpillars to feed on many fledgling birds also failed to survive.
This is why those weekly transect counts are so important, even when, depressingly, there is nothing to count! These records make for solid data the Government just cannot ignore. Add your voice and sign the open letter What a great day it was on Tuesday, weather held off, the bracken was young so easy to cut and the distant views as spectacular as ever. So our gang made short work of the 'mound', top end and then the bottom patch, both in Mt Fancy. Even time left to do some sapling cutting.
Reassuring to see that where the bracken has been routinely cut over recent years it has lost a lot of vigour. Several patches of devils bit scabious were a very welcome sight, maybe the Marsh Frits will return home!. A part of the transect Section 8 had to be abandoned as it had become too wet and boggy to sensibly walk weekly. A small select group of us had a successful day on Tuesday 13th to cut and clear a new linking path to complete this Section. Though it still has a wet patch at a stream crossing it is more manageable and with luck we can build a firm crossing point for them. All in all a pleasant and enjoyable day out in the open air rising to the few challenges presented.
We now have two young Exmoor ponies back in the reserve. They are called Cherry and Flumpy and are currently in the Shutes compartment. As young ponies they may well not be used to dogs, so do please keep your dogs on a leash. Let us train them right from the start and do not feed them, no matter how tempting. Should you see anything untoward then get in touch asap.
UPDATE as of 14th Sept the remaining two Exmoor ponies have joined them. So there are now four ponies within Shutes compartment. CORRECTION 19th Oak and Jubilee join Cherry and Flumpy and they will all be moved shortly into the MtFancy compartment due to issues with the water trough in Shutes. On Tuesday 9th July Fancy Volunteers were tackling bracken at Mount Fancy, on what turned out to be a damp and drizzly day. Two new volunteers got to use scythes for the first time, and soon got into the swing of things doing a good job cutting back the bracken. Opening up the ground to more light by tackling bracken during the summer months. This is helping to increase the amount of marsh violets being seen on the reserve, which improves the prospects of attracting a particular target species for the reserve, being the small pearl bordered fritillary. All in all a damp but enjoyable day, with real progress made on extending the opened up areas.
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AuthorHon Warden of the Butterfly Reserve Archives
January 2025
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