SUSTAINABILITY
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FEATURES<br />
The ‘never a dull moment’ adage is<br />
forever true on the reserve where a<br />
significant list of species has been<br />
identified by visiting professionals and<br />
knowledgeable enthusiasts alike. The<br />
volunteer pool is enormous with some<br />
60 people turning out on a ‘worky-day’;<br />
over 35,000hrs of volunteer time have<br />
been committed over the past three<br />
years, which costed out at just £5 per<br />
hour would equate to £175,000 of work.<br />
The impact on the habitat is quite<br />
amazing, and as examples large<br />
swathes of conifers planted in the 1950s<br />
have been taken out and replaced with<br />
native mixes, and hectares of willow<br />
carr have been coppiced and pollarded<br />
in rotational blocks.<br />
Education continues to play a<br />
prominent part in the activity schedule<br />
with more than 25,000 school children<br />
from as far away as York, Scarborough,<br />
Leeds and Durham taking part in<br />
tailor-made educational visits. Classes<br />
have included dissecting owl pellets,<br />
building bug houses and other<br />
interesting topics related to the<br />
species recorded on the site. Work<br />
experience opportunities for many<br />
local youngsters have been provided,<br />
and more than 1600 local Community<br />
Groups have taken advantage of the<br />
four miles of pathways and boardwalks<br />
that are open to all.<br />
Information Technology at Foxglove<br />
has had to move with the times and<br />
on the back of our excellent web site,<br />
which receives thousands of hits every<br />
An ‘all female’ team of ringers processing the birds caught in the mist nets © Foxglove<br />
week, the reserve has succumbed to<br />
Facebook and Twitter – both with<br />
hundreds of followers. People<br />
nationally and internationally follow<br />
the blog – some of whom have never<br />
been to Foxglove!<br />
Bird ringing and the study of bird<br />
migration through the British Trust for<br />
Ornithology is synonymous with the<br />
reserve and the agri-environmental<br />
agreement we have with Natural<br />
England. The oldest marsh tit ever<br />
recorded was recently re-caught at<br />
Foxglove aged almost 11 years, and we<br />
have also ringed and re-trapped the<br />
oldest garden warbler ever recorded in<br />
the UK at just over 10 years old.<br />
Figure 1<br />
ringed elsewhere, found at Foxglove<br />
ringed at Foxglove, found elsewhere<br />
Table 1<br />
SPECIES<br />
TOTAL<br />
Buzzard 410<br />
Kestrel 1089<br />
Lapwing 1700<br />
Tawny Owl 686<br />
Wren 2251<br />
Pied Flycatcher 2115<br />
Willow Warbler 5973<br />
Chaffnch 9662<br />
Greenfinch 8526<br />
Lesser Redpoll 2105<br />
Examples of totals of new birds ringed in<br />
and around Foxglove Covert LNR<br />
Lesser redpoll recoveries to and from Catterick showing the wide dispersal of this species © Foxglove<br />
Sanctuary 44 • 2015<br />
37