Ellington Banks: 30-01-2018

Newt Quarterly

The  journal for newt lovers everywhere.

This week was a good one for the great crested newts that live in the ponds on the MOD training area of Ellington Banks near Ripon. Although an area of land that is used for military purposes seems an unlikely home for such rare creatures, thanks to the efforts of MOD ecologist John Black and a 22 strong band of NCVs, it continues to be a sanctuary for them. They don’t seem to mind the army cadets running by, all dressed up in camouflage gear. Nor does the sound of rifle shots put them off. A suitable pond is a suitable pond and as long as the training happens outside the pond’s boundary fence then the newts are happy.

So what is it that the NCVs were doing to ensure that the newts (and many other plant and animal species such as Skipper butterflies) continue to thrive in their unusual abode? The simple answer is – removing and burning encroaching alder, birch and willow from the wildlife rich limestone grassland at this Site of Importance for Nature Conservation - an ongoing job for the last three years. If the ponds get over-shadowed by trees then the newts won’t be happy. They need sunlight to survive. So far results are good. In May 2017 no fewer than 11 of the 12 pond eDNA samples contained traces of newt DNA. 

In order to ensure that the sun’s rays penetrate the watery depths this is what has to be done......

First up - a health and safety briefing about leaving 

any smoke grenades found lying around severely alone!
Note the record turn out of NCVs - Ellington Banks is obviously a popular venue.

 The nature of the task ahead - 

 - lots of lopping and sawing was needed....

 ...so lots of lopping and sawing was done.

I spy with my little eye 2 NCVs.

And there's a pile more over there!

Graham soon had a good bonfire on the go...

...and everyone contributed plenty of fuel to keep it burning all day:

 The bundle carrying approach.

  The dragging technique.

 Teamwork in action.

The standard bearing method.

Most people took their coffee break sociably by the fence.
Another had to miss out on all the fun...

The loneliness of the long haul fire watcher.

On a couple of occasions the chainsaw had to be brought to bear. 

Stand back folks - there she goes.

James moves in for the final kill.

Gradually a hectare of land was cleared. 
(That's 2.7 acres in old money.)

Ponds were revealed...

...and interesting fungi came to light.

Other wildlife related news:

Last Friday a group of 5 volunteers from the NCVs, the Nidderdale Birdwatchers and High Batts Nature Reserve spent a very noisy evening in the company of the 6th Ripon Scout group. It wasn't that the scouts were misbehaving. Just the opposite. They were doing exactly as they were told. 

During the course of their weekly meeting they managed to work in pairs to build no fewer than 40 nest boxes, using the kits that some of the NCVs had prepared for them before Christmas. This in addition to making bird feeders and spending half an hour learning about bird identification! It was a very enjoyable evening which involved large amounts of hammering, and Baden-Powell would have been proud. It is unlikely that any lasting damage was done to everyone's eardrums but it was probably a near run thing, and they all looked a little breathless at the end.