BEAUTIFUL BRANSDALE

My new role with the Trust means I have a lot of travelling to a lot of new places! Previously, when I was based at the Lighthouse the furthest I would usually travel would be to Whitelea Farm in Peterlee but now I go much further afield. One such place is Bransdale, in the North York Moors. Its a truly stunning area, a valley full of ancient woodland, becks and streams, dry stone walls and, of course, lots and lots of moorland. There's certainly no lack of greenery.  Its also remote. Very remote! Because of this there is next to no phone signal and absolutely zero mobile internet service. That might be heaven for some but hell for others. I'm somewhere in the middle. Thankfully the Ranger base at Smout House has wi-fi so you are not completely cut off from the world, but at times it certainly feels like you are. 

This past week I spent a couple of days working in the Bransdale area. The Trust own a number of farms in the region, and I began the job of meeting up with the farmers that are tenants on our land. We're currently working on management plans as part of the HLS Scheme, hoping to improve biodiversity and farm in more nature friendly ways. One of the aims is for every single field to have at least one thing that is good for nature, whether its a hedgerow, pond, trees or a wildflower meadow. Most of the farmers are absolutely on board and full of enthusiasm, but not all. And thats completely understandable! Its going against years and years of historical farming methods, and its up to us to help them to see that change is good. Not just good for nature but good for them. 

Whilst in Bransdale I stayed at the bunkhouse at the old Mill. Its a cracking place, not too far from the Ranger base but remote enough to feel like you are all alone in the world! Because of this, you are completely surrounded by nature. A number of birds are nesting in amongst the old and ruined buildings, including Blue Tits, Spotted Flycatcher, Grey Wagtail and Song Thrush. Dippers can be seen whizzing up and down the stream. Woodcock fly up above on an evening along with the majestic Barn Owls that are nesting in the old barn. As the night falls Bats appear in numbers, to the naked eye it looked like more than one species. Amusingly a hedgehog bumbled its way between my legs seemingly oblivious to my presence. I actually took my moth trap with me to see what was around but the weather was incredibly disappointing, cold, windy and completely cloudless - all terrible for catching moths. Unsurprisingly I only had 4 species, the best being a Poplar Hawkmoth. I mean, who on earth doesn't like a Hawkmoth!!!

 The undoubted highlight for me was checking the woodland nestboxes with Ranger Lisa. There are 50 boxes, and just under half are occupied. The usual Tit species dominate as they usually do, but a couple of the boxes were used by Pied Flycatchers and another box by Redstarts. This is particularly exciting for me as none of my hundreds of boxes have ever had these two species. It was a lovely treat and a nice little send off before I headed home.