Spring Update

Well I haven't had much opportunity to blog for some time, but after an incredible weekend down at the Kingcombe Environmental Centre down in Dorset I feel I need to write something about the weekend at the very least. It also seems like a good chance to write a brief summary of occurrings at Roding Valley Meadows and the like, so I'll talk about general happenings first in this summary.

We had an unusually dry Winter over in Roding Valley, and it was the first Winter that the river didn't flood for at least six years. This seems to have been a setback for some of the wet-loving plants in the lower fields, such as Marsh Marigold. The Warden thinks it will also have knocked back the grasses and make for a stunning display of wildflowers this year as a result, but it won't be good for the reserve long-term to have such unusual weather.
However, Murphy's law asserted itself as soon as a hosepipe ban was declared in Essex as a result of the dry conditions. The latter half of April and first half of May has seen rain falling almost every single day! A particularly heavy rainfall event led to the Roding river finally bursting its banks out of season towards the end of April. It was nice for me to finally see what a floodplain meadow is all about! This flooding will have been too late for some of the plants that like damp conditions, but should still help other plants like the Southern Marsh Orchid to put on a good show later in the year.
The staff and volunteers over at Roding Valley Meadows made use of the dry weather over the Winter to get an extraordinary amount of work done. We continued work on the car park area (which was polished off last week with the installation of some rustic oak bollards) and also threw ourselves into construction of gates, rails and steps elsewhere to make the reserve more visitor-friendly. We filled in potholes in the track, and also repaired fencing ready for the cattle to return to the reserve come the Spring. Looking back I find it hard to believe how much we accomplished over the Winter months!

We also started our Spring grazing trial back in March, and the cattle this year were a lovely bunch. A conservation grazing herd consisting of 6 cows of various breeds, they were very content to get on with their job of grazing some of the lush grasses and so make more space for the herbs and wildflowers on the meadows. This should make a real difference to the grasslands that have been grazed, and also means less haycutting will need to be done - less machinery noise, better for wildlife, and less stress for the Reserve staff!
The Spring grazing trial had to be put on hold with the unseasonal deluge and consequent flooding on the reserve, as the ground conditions were becoming too wet. The cattle returned to the grazier whom we had leased them from, and luckily this happened before the fields they were in became flooded with water. I don't think cows like being underwater much! We are hoping that, if the dry weather continues, we can bring the cattle back to graze another field or two before the haymaking season. Although this means extra pressure for staff and volunteers, as cattle need checking and watering daily, it will be worth it in the end when the grasslands benefit. Watch this space for beautiful wildflowers ;)