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We hope you enjoy the

Winter 2011-2012 Newsletter

Latest news on the Avocets, an amazing invertebrate survey (now over 1,250 invert species recorded!) and plenty more!

Harrogate & District

Naturalists’ Society

Bird Report for 2010

containing a good number of the Reserve’s records, is now available at a cost of £5 (£6 with postage).

Please contact Jill Warwick on email: 

The Newsletter is stored in PDF format.  To view it you will need Adobe Reader installed on your computer; if clicking on the Newsletter link produces unexpected results you may need to install this on your computer. To download Adobe Reader to your computer free of charge click here.

From Thursday 26 – Sunday 29 January 2012, Nosterfield reserve is hosting ‘Surface Tension’, an exhibition of work by Yvonne Elvin, an artist who knows Nosterfield well and spends a lot of time wondering about birds.

• What might birds’ worlds be like?
• What is our relationship to birds?
• What happens when imagination and observation combine?

For some visual explorations of these questions come along to the Tanfield hide at Nosterfield between 11am – 3.30pm on the above dates.

Bloody-nosed Beetle Timarcha tenebricosa by Whitfield Benson

We have just been given a bloody nose at Nosterfield …and we could not be happier or more excited.  

The “bloody-nose” in question is neither the innocent victim of human aggression nor the accidental by-product of an exuberant tripod but a species of beetle called the bloody-nosed beetle which has been spotted on the reserve.

It is believed to be the first bloody-nosed beetle to be identified in Yorkshire for more than a hundred years.     Nosterfield is breaking fresh ground yet again.

 Timarcha tenebricosa to give it its fancy Latin name is one of more than 1,200 species of bugs, beetles and other invertebrate species identified on the 152 acres of the reserve as a result of a survey funded by the Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund.

More than £98,000 has been spent here in the last couple of years.  Among the benefits are:

• a new 500metre walkway with access for the disabled linking the villages of West Tanfield and Nosterfield
• a turf-roofed hide overlooking the main lake
• videos helping to explain to young and old the importance of the site
• machinery to help improve grassland management
• new scrapes and footdrains to increase invertebrate food supplies for vulnerable ground nesting birds such as lapwing and redshank
• and….the invertebrate study which helped uncover the bloody-nosed beetle

The Tanfield wetland link as the scheme was known was supported by Natural England and the work carried out by the Lower Ure Conservation Trust.

ALSF provided the lion‘s share of £70,000 towards the scheme and the director of LUCT  Simon Warwick says the grant has made a vital contribution to one of the most rewarding conservation scheme’s in the reserve’s 15-year history.

Nosterfield Nature Reserve

Many would say that there is almost nothing more evocative than the sound of Lapwings, as they display over our British countryside but their declining numbers means that sites such as Nosterfield LNR are of increasing importance for them.

Exploring the benefits of wetland habitat such as that created at Nosterfield, particularly in light of climate change, this video touches on its value for the future health of the wider environment, in addition to the tangible benefit to the thousands of people who now visit. The video captures an essence of the opportunities that have arisen from this former mineral extraction site.

Interview – North Yorkshire’s Wetland Future

Richard Wells speaks to Simon Warwick, Director of LUCT about the Nosterfield Nature Reserve video and a vision for the future. The interview explores the potential to create more valuable habitats in the future.

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