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 August 2024.
For more information about any of our nature enhancement work, you can email [email protected].
Bixley Heath Conservation
In partnership with Ipswich Borough Council, our volunteers helped to rake up cut sedge as part of their annual sedge management.
The extra pairs of hands meant they Ipswich Borough Council had more time to carry out a more sustainable, biodiversity enhancing method of sedge management.
In the spring, water rails, reed and sedge warblers breed within it. It’s also great habitat for harvest mice too.
Ipswich was identified as the Coast & Heaths Nature Recovery Plan Urban Area so more efforts will be focussed here in the future.
Swift Box Deliveries
9 more swift boxes were given out for sites in Minsmere and Wrentham. They will be installed in time for next year’s breeding season and swift calls will be called to try to attract prospecting pairs.
This brings the total of boxes given out in the Coast & Heaths by the National Landscape to 565.
We have made great progress, but still have another 1,435 boxes to distribute to hit the 2030 nature recovery plan target.
If you know of any suitable sites for a set of 6 boxes and a caller (in either National Landscape) please let me know at [email protected].
Suffolk Wader Strategy Project Update
In partnership with the Suffolk Wildlife Trust and the RSPB we have made great progress with project activities funded through Farming in Protected Landscapes programme.
This photo was taken by Joe Underwood, who works for Suffolk Wildlife Trust at Trimley Marshes. This is a fantastic new foot drain habitat that is so important for waders and other birds that love to feed along the muddy edges.
Gardening for Wildlife
We can all help wildlife in our gardens and digging a pond or creating some sort of water feature no matter how small could be a lifeline for amphibians such as the common frog (which isn’t really that common anymore!).
Water is so important for a multitude of insects which provide the food for so many other species higher up the food chain! If you already have a pond – make another one! The conditions won’t be exactly the same, which will suit different species.
Sighting of the Month – Small Copper
An absolute gem of a butterfly! It was heartening to see good numbers of them flitting around on dry grassland habitat around Sizewell. This has been the worst year I have ever seen for butterflies!
Upcoming Tasks
| Date | Location | Task |
| 13.09.24 | Raydon (Dedham Vale) | Stag Beetle Pyramid building. |
| 20.09.24 | Shotley Gate | Wader fencing removal |
| 27.09.24 | Tiger Hill – Assington | Erecting deer protection fencing |
| 04.10.24 | Golden Wood – Shotley Gate | Blackthorn hedge coppicing |
| 11.10.24 | Polstead | INNS control (snowberry, rhododendron, laurel) |
| 18.10.24 | Bixley Heath – Ipswich | Heathland management – clearing gorse and cutting heather |
| 25.10.24 | East Bergholt Lodge | Rhododendron control |