Nature enhancement is a key part of our ongoing work to conserve and enhance the Suffolk & Essex Coast & Heaths National Landscape.
Here is a round-up from all of our nature enhancement projects and volunteer work parties for July 2024.
For more information about any of our nature enhancement work, you can email [email protected].
1 Recreational wildlife disturbance tour
This month we helped to promote the Shotley Ringed Plover Project to Cllrs and others with an interest in helping to find solutions to wildlife disturbance from recreational use of the National Landscape.
The group was treated to two increasingly confident ringed plover chicks that were whizzing around on the saltmarsh right in front of their eyes. The parent birds were present too keeping a watchful eye.
The fencing that was installed by volunteers has enabled two ringed plover chicks to successfully fledge and have recently left the site to grace the shores of the Orwell and further afield.
There were four chicks but unfortunately, we think two must have been predated – quite possibly by a kestrel (needing to feed its own chicks!). Oystercatcher nesting inside the enclosure also successfully fledged chicks too.
2 Stag beetle pyramids
A BIG thanks to the Suffolk County Council Mental Health Network volunteers (above) that came to Shotley Gate to help build some fantastic stag beetle habitat. The standing decaying wood will also be loved by many other invertebrates such as solitary bees and potentially common lizards too.
Later in July, we managed to create a second stag beetle pyramid at a farm in Shotley. The Shotley Peninsula remains a stronghold for stag beetles so the more optimum habitat we can create in this area the better to ensure they can thrive well into the future.
3 Suffolk Wader Strategy: Enhancing Habitats for Redshank, Lapwing and Avocet & Monitoring their Population Sizes
£63,451.02 of Farming in Protected Landscapes funding has been secured for 24/25. The project comprises two primary components which are the creation and restoration of habitats for breeding waders, and the monitoring of their population sizes at key sites within the Suffolk Wader Strategy area.
An additional £7,048.01 will be spent on the project through match finding from the Suffolk Wildlife Trust, RSPB and National Landscape
4 Sighting of the month – Ringed plover (Charadrius hiaticula)
This month, it has to be the ringed plover chicks enjoying life at Shotley. They whizz around so fast and nip back into the enclosure when they hear the alarm calls from mum or dad!
5 Wildlife-friendly gardening
We can all help wildlife in our gardens and one of the best things you can do is incorporate dead wood into it. It can be simple log piles, leaving trees stumps in place or burying the wood in the ground like we do when we make the stag beetle pyramids.
Toads, newts and solitary bees will love it along with many more species. This is one of multiple dead wood features I have in my garden
6 Upcoming tasks
| 16.08.24 | Dairy Farm / Chelsworth | Tree aftercare |
| 23.08.24 | Bixley Heath Nature Reserve – Ipswich | Sedge Management |
| 30.08.24 | Borley Mill | Tree aftercare |
| 06.09.24 | Sizewell | Wet Grassland Management |
| 13.09.24 | Raydon | Stag Beetle Pyramid Building |
| 20.09.24 | Shotley Gate | Taking down wader fencing |