While we are in Tier 4, sorry to say that Ron’s hide (at Lea Farm) will be closed and the bird walks cancelled.
The current government guidelines for Tier 4 imply that work parties are still allowed, so currently they will continue.
If there are any changes in the lockdown level or government guidance then we will update the web site to let you know how it affects you and us.
The work party on Sunday 22nd November is on, this is allowed by government rules as long as everyone follows the 2m distancing rule and has not had Covid-19 or had to isolate in the last 2 weeks.
We will adhere to the Government rules for Covid19, so once again we will reluctantly have to say that Ron’s hide will be closed from 5 November until further notice.
Also bird walks are also cancelled until the end of Lockdown 2.
As a thank you message to Network Rail Fraser Cottington put together a sped up compilation video of the marsh and reed bed excavations and added some nice music. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Our postponed Annual General Meeting is to be held via Zoom on Tuesday 22 September 2020 at 7.30pm.
A link to join the meeting has been send to everyone who has given us their email address, if you have not received the details and would like to join then please contact us.
As Zoom switches to whoever makes the most noise, then you will be muted during the AGM and unmuted when you are allowed to ask questions, so someone sneezing won’t cut off the main speaker. To be sure of this then mute you microphone if you are not planning to say anything (option in lower left corner of Zoom window).
Summerleaze Ltd, owners of the landfill and neighbouring Lodge Wood Lake and whom sold Lea Farm Lake to Ron Bryant, are assisting LWT by promoting our GoFundMe fund raising page on their website’s news page
Summerleaze Ltd have always supported FOLL before LWT was formed and we continue to maintain a dialogue and strong and special relationship
Our long awaited huge habitat expansion and creation project funded by Network Rail is underway, the reed bed along the West side to the North is already about 25% dug, the drivers of a large excavator, bulldozer and tipper are making great progress, lots of pictures and videos on our Facebook group
Our postponed Annual General Meeting is to be held via Zoom on 22 September 2020 at 7.30pm. A link to join the meeting will be sent a few days beforehand.
Please would you email secretary@lavells.org.uk if you plan to attend, saying how your name will appear on your zoom login, as we need to record attendees at the meeting.
If you join a Zoom meeting from a Windows PC your name will default to your user name on the PC you are using, you can change this name within Zoom. Your user name is the name you login with, or if you are the only one who uses the PC it is the one it prompts you to login as, when logged in to your PC – your user name can be seen in the Start menu just above Documents when you slide up to the person shaped icon above the power button icon.
Our existing Treasurer is looking to step down in the not too distant future, meaning LWT is looking for someone to replace him and help us manage our income and expenditure.
The role is not complex, Phil has set out an excellent set of documents making the job much easier, it just requires a diligent eye and someone comfortable with numbers.
If you can spare 1-2 hours per month and 2 hours for a bi-monthly for our Zoom calls please get in touch.
info@lavells.org.uk
After a gap of 8 days the Night Heron was found at Sandford Lake and stayed in view for nearly 1 and half hours, it was then seen arriving at Sandford again 3 days later (19th) and sat in a tree above the reeds near the hide for several hours in sheltering from the rain, allowing many locals to see this much wanted species.
And last night it was seen yet again flying in around 20.00 and sat near the same reeds close to Sandford hide.
You can see lots of pictures at Berksbirds
You can also see my videos on YouTube
We ask all visitors to please make a donation to LWT and at all times respect the birds welfare and the habitat managed by LWT and Dinton Pastures Countryside Service (DPCS), any behaviour by visitors that threatens the bird will not be tolerated.
Early morning 8th August a juvenile Night Heron, also known as Black-crowned Night Heron flew over low over Lea Farm Lake towards Dinton Pastures, but could not be found. Being crepuscular – active at twilight, it was probably heading to an unknown roost.
2 days later a local resident sent Fraser Cottington a picture of a ‘small heron like bird’ in the pond behind their house on the Western fringes of Dinton and the bird is immediately recognizable as a Night Heron, the story emerged that it was photographed by them on the 6th August, so local bird watchers are now frantic to track it down to see this very rare species, having only ever been seen three previous occasions.
The search continues and last night (10th), hopeful locals we treated with a consolation sighting of a Short-eared Owl flying over at dusk, a very uncommon bird indeed and especially now, as all previous sightings are in the winter, the last records being 9th Nov 2014 and prior to that 15th Nov 2005.
A blue ringed Common Tern E07, was seen throughout July, but it took me several attempts to get a good enough look at the ring to see the number. I have now checked and it is actually one of our own young hatched and fledged here in 2011. The cr-birding page provides all the data. So there you have it 9 years later it’s still coming, albeit with a limp right leg.
We have created a booking system to use Ron’s hide to meet Government guidelines, social distancing, keeping occupant levels to 2 households and maximum 4 people, plus trace and track. Members have to log in to see the link
Fraser Cottington launched a GoFundMe page to help raise money to pay for the new hide we really want to build overlooking the new marsh and reed bed at Lea Farm Lake’s North East bay.
Created 23rd July, generous donations have poured in from members and people wishing to remain anonymous too, as of today the amount raised is £2,015.00 and we hope we can keep spreading our message out to the wider bird watching community and local residents too.
The link to our page is here GoFundMe please share the link to this page with anyone you know who loves birds and enjoys Dinton Pastures. Please do make a donation.
The aim is to raise £20,000 to add to LWT’s £8,000.00 and as soon as we hit our target we will commence the Environment Agency consent and Wokingham Borough Council planning applications. If everything goes to plan by late July 2021 we will be commencing construction and finished before the winter.
The proposed new hide, is set to be made out a 40ft sea container, like Ron’s will be on stilt legs to provide optimal viewing and ensure it cannot be flooded. A similar example can be found here but ours will be fully contained and locked.
LWT volunteers were out in force Sunday 26th July preparing the Lea Farm Lake site for the diggers, marking out with tall pegs what must stay, what must be avoided and there is more work to be done 9th August after the grass areas behind the existing reed beds has been cut.
Then 17th August the diggers arrive and it’s full on huge excavations and some 2+ weeks later we’ll have a new marsh and the shallows for our single largest reed bed.
I’ll be posting regular updates here, on Twitter and on Facebook as things progress.
I have received information about an orange colour ringed Little Egret seen at Lea Farm Lake 26th June. It was ringed as a ‘pulli’ 10th May 2019 at Stanborough Lakes, was then seen 16th August at Moor Green 2019 and then at our lake 414 days after it was ringed, some 58 kilometres from it’s origins.
LWT launched a fund raising campaign using GoFundMe platform as a simple, efficient way to raise £20,000 to go towards a new hide overlooking the Network Rail funded Phragmites reed beds and marsh, which commences 17th August.
LWT has around £8,000, but we need at least £20,000 to cover everything else, this campaign is live right now and the sooner we share and encourage all our friends to support their local conservation charity, the sooner we can all be enjoying the birds that will soon be using the habitat we are creating
Please donate today
Following the latest government advice we have now re-opened Ron’s hide at Lea Farm, but under a strict booking only basis to members so that we can limit numbers for social distancing and to manage track and trace.
The maximum people allowed at any one time is 4 people from 2 households
The remaining hides are the responsibility of Dinton Pastures Countryside Service, whom opened these hides and have also requested a limit to occupancy, but as public hides everyone must observe social distancing themselves to remain safe.
Another colour ringed gull – Blue ring B=W, was seen 21st June and a Bristol ringer named Peter Rock came back with news of it being ringed at the nest (no exact location but around Bristol) 24th June 2019. So a minimum of 83 miles in a straight line. Getting ring numbers can create another interesting angle to bird watching, for many of us it is fascinating to learn of a birds origins.
Sad news that someone has cut 4-5 holes in the hedgerow at different points between the hide and the green bridge and even worse, then sprayed weed killer at each cut, the end result has been mass die back of nettles and shrubs.
This kind of act is hard to fathom, accept or explain, because the cutting clearly suggests it was done by someone wanting to view birds, so if they are a member it makes me sad such actions could be done by a so called supporter of LWT.
This has been reported on our WhatsApp groups and we ask everyone to remain vigilant and report anyone acting suspiciously, or if you witness vandalism contact Fraser Cottington and the police immediately.
With Covid-19 making it impossible for our members to enjoy the hides, offering any views into Lea Farm Lake has been impossible. It is still important to LWT that our members know the work of just a few has made a big and positive impact, the raft that was repaired and towed out by Alan Rymer and Ron Bryant and within 24 hours Terns were showing great interest, as of the last 2 weeks new fewer than 23 pairs have settled and should be hatching the first young any day. I took this short video when there were 18 bird settling in, a further 5 pairs squeezed themselves on shortly after.
On 7th of June, I was carrying out my usual security check of the hide, checking on Common Tern colony and carrying out a general quick check of everything. All spring an increasing number of Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls have been loafing on the shingle island from 06:00.
This time a 3CY Herring Gull had an orange ring on it’s left leg, with the number S3VT, I was able to send this information to the BTO’s EURING website and they came back with the details. The North Thames Gull Group ringed the bird at Ockendon landfill in Feb 2019. http://www.ntgg.org.uk/cgi-bin/map.cgi?p=recmap&t=r&r=GV77863
Now that Lea Farm lake and its surroundings have been acquired by the Trust we are now in a position to invest in some large scale habitat creation. With support from the Trust for Oxfordshire Environment and with generous funding from the Network Rail’s “No Net Loss of Biodiversity on the Greater West” Programme, we will be creating a large additional wetland area around the lake.
The project is part of Lavell’s Wetland Trust’s vision for a protected wetland corridor along the lower Loddon Valley. This proposal will create and manage three wetland habitats in the middle of the Loddon Gravel Pits Biodiversity Opportunity Area, where Lavell’s Wetland Trust (LWT) is establishing a high value habitat link between Dinton Pastures to the south and Sandford Country Park and the Hurst and Twyford Lakes area to the north. Dinton Pastures Countryside Services partners LWT in the project, which will enhance the connectivity between Dinton Pastures and Lea Farm Local Wildlife Sites.
The plan is to create two new areas of reedbed and marsh around the north end of the lake and to manage an area of wet woodland that lies between the Lea Farm Lake site and the Lavell’s Lake wetland area of reedbeds and scrapes and another area of wet woodland to the north of the lake. Once established, the reedbed will provide habitat for a wide range of bird species, such as wintering Bitterns, breeding Water Rail, Reed Warbler, Reed Bunting and Little Egret (a rare breeding species in Berkshire, which we hope may breed in the area shortly). The marsh will provide a much greater area for breeding and wintering wildfowl, waders and other open wetland birds. Breeding bird species likely to benefit include: Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Little Ringed Plover and Redshank. Wintering species that will benefit include: Wigeon, Gadwall, Teal, Lapwing, Snipe, Jack Snipe and Meadow Pipit. The marsh will also provide a valuable stopover site for migrant waders. The wet woodland areas will be managed for their populations of Loddon Lily and the nearby scrub for warblers and Nightingale.
The necessary permissions have been obtained from Wokingham Borough Council and the Environment Agency and, subject to relaxation of the coronavirus control conditions, we aim to start work in August 2020. Work will continue over a three-year period, though we hope to have the main landscaping and associated work completed by spring 2021.
An outline of the changes shown here Project plan
LWT’s fourth donation from the Waitrose green token scheme has just been received. A wonderful £310 from Wokingham. Thanks to members who shopped there, this is a sizable addition to our funds.
We are hugely grateful to trustee Ron Bryant, who purchased Lea Farm Lake from Summerleaze Holdings last year and has now gifted it to Lavell’s Wetland Trust. This is a key step in fulfilling the Trust’s vision of a protected wetland corridor through the lower Loddon valley. Owning the lake gives LWT the confidence to invest in extensive wetland habitat creation around it and in providing members with more facilities to see and enjoy nature there.
We aim to start the wetland creation work later this year and hope to be able, in a few years, to add a second hide to view the new habitats. To bring this to fruition, the Trust will be calling on its members to join in work parties and to help with fundraising.About this more anon!
Fraser Cottington is now running a YouTube channel about the birds at Dinton, Lavell’s and Lea Farm Lake.
Visiting most mornings, he makes new videos about the latest birds, lasting between 4 and 13 minutes, at least those which can be filmed. For the many who are in lock down, it is offering a way to see what is going on and a refreshing insight into the regularly changing picture and Fraser is passionate about sharing his offering insights, fun, facts, history and knowledge of birds here.
Here is the link to his channel Find of The Day
Those unfamiliar with YouTube, millions of people use this platform to share experiences, educate, entertain and engage with the world.
Hi everyone, I am very excited to publish this summary of 2019’s amazing birds, please feel free to download this summary. I hope this inspires a great many of you to come and visit us and enjoy the stunning variety of species that drops in over the year. Click here to download the PDF https://lavells.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Bird-Report-2019-Final.pdf
As a Charitable Incorporated Organisation LWT must submit an annual report to the Charity Commission. Our report for the period 2/2/2018 to 31/12/2018 can read here.
LWT has been awarded a grant of £42,000 by Network Rail to develop the wetland habitat around Lea Farm Lake. This will allow us to create an extensive reed-bed and a large area of marsh and shallows along the east shore of the lake. Around most of the lake the bank shelves steeply into deep water, so there is little marginal vegetation and shallow water for wading birds. The grant will enable us to landscape the shore around the northern half of the lake, lowering the level to create reed-beds and extending the east shore to form shallows and islets. Subject to planning permission, the landscaping work will start after the 2020 breeding season and take about a month. Then all hands to reed planting!
What a fantastic turnout at FOLL’s EGM yesterday evening (Tues July 17th). 67 wonderful members voted for the resolution that allows us to transfer FOLL’s assets to the new Lavell’s Wetland Trust (LWT). The future looks bright!