The Lye Valley - 2023
Presentation given by Dr Judy Webb at the August 2023
Friends of Lye Valley AGM, available in PDF format:
Restoring Lye Valley Fen and Climate Change
Friends of Lye Valley AGM, available in PDF format:
Restoring Lye Valley Fen and Climate Change
22 December 2023 Planting out bottle sedge Carex rostrata. First recorded here in 1699 by Jacob Bobart the Younger, Superintendent of the Physic garden, now @OBGHA. It's still in the same spot, but the area is drying out. We grew some cuttings, and this week divided and planted them in much wetter areas.
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28 December 2023 Judy Webb planting out Dark-leaved Willow, Salix myrsinifolia
These are cuttings from the only other Dark-leaved Willow in the whole of Oxon that has been growing at Cothill Fen for many years. We tried to establish it here before, but the last one was involved in a "scything accident". |
Above: 6 December 2023 Three of the Lye Valley volunteer scything team working in mist and
freezing temperatures this morning. Then the mist turned to thick fog. Photo by Tony Gillie
freezing temperatures this morning. Then the mist turned to thick fog. Photo by Tony Gillie
8 November 2023
Oxford City Council felled some Willows that were shading and drying the fen. Cut material was moved across the boardwalk for use in bank defences. 15 November 2023: Seed spreading started in a newly-raked area with an enriched spring. Mostly Angelica, Yellow Rattle, Parsley Water-dropwort, Meadowsweet, Tufted Vetch, Greater Bird's-foot Trefoil, Devil's-bit Scabious. |
22 October 2023 Oxford Conservation Volunteers at work once again in the Lye Valley North Fen Photos by Dr Tony Gillie |
18 October 2023 Above: members of the Friends of Lye Valley group had a useful meeting with Oxford City Council staff, the Manager of the Oxford Golf Club, and the Freshwater Habitats Trust to discuss the serious problems being caused in the Valley by increasingly intense rainfall, and possible mitigation measures.
17 October 2023
Oxford Conservation Volunteers at work again in the Lye Valley. Judy tweeted: 'Big thanks to OCVs for a fab lot of work - raking & dragging fen cuttings, lopping & sawing marginal willows in Lye valley private South Fen - a tiny wetland wildlife jewel. We started by collecting up & saving seed of dead marsh louseworts to spread out again later. |
13 October 2023 Judy tweeted: 'Great to welcome Prof Adrian Parker (on right in photo above) and Dr Ash Parton from Oxford Brookes University with another group of students to learn about the Lye Valley. They took a couple of peat cores, which they'll analyse once back in the lab. #fieldwork #OutdoorLaboratory #OX3 #CarbonStore #OxfordshireFens PHOTOS by Tony Gillie
7 Sept 2023 Tweet by Judy:
Most snails are very tiny. September is the time to look for Whorl snails, Vertigo sp. in marshes and fens. A couple of sp. occur in Oxfordshire. Worried that drought and heat may have killed this sp off. A relief - survey this week revealed 5 of dinky little 1mm [wide] Marsh Whorl snails in moss and stonewort mats in LyeValley SSSI fen. Thanks to wet summer. They are one of my favourite snails and I was completely unaware of the existence of such tiny snails until I started detailed recording in fens. They are annual, mature now, mating, egg-laying and dying. Very vulnerable to dry springs when juveniles emerge. All biodiversity matters to me, even the tiniest species. All have their place in the ecosystem, all precious. |
16 July 2023 In the afternoon Judy led two walks in the Lye Valley. Here she is explaining how the leaky log dams check the flow of a rapid ingress of a high volume of road water run-off that enters the valley at the northern end. Unchecked, its force would cause erosion of the stream banks and loss of water essential for re-wetting the fen. After prolonged heavy downpours the dams have to be repaired. The valley looked very different 10 years ago before the pollarding of trees, reed cutting, dam building, pond clearing, seed sowing and planting - see photo taken on 26 July 2013. |
14 June 2023 Grey Heron, Ardea cinerea, fishing in one of the interception ponds at the head of the Valley. Photo by Tony Gillie (full size available via Tweet) with thanks to Luke O'Byrne for pointing out its presence.
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More tweets - 2023 12 June Common Cotton-grass, Eriophorum angustifolium 12 June Fen restoration work at southern end of the Valley 10 June Wonderful display of poppies in The Slade entrance 4 June A striking wasp beetle landed on Judy's bag 2 June FoLV volunteers at work 1 June Bees on comfrey plants 1 June Ragged robin and yellow rattle Photos by Liz M. |
31 March 2023 Judy tweeted: I give you the up to 2.8mm Tawny Glass Snail Euconulus alderi, a cutie found in wet moss recently in Lye Valley SSSI fen. This is full grown.... so much amazing biodiversity in fen invertebrates is invisible to anyone walking through the valley 26 March 2023 Moving Long-stalked Yellow-sedge Carex lepidocarpa, which is Scarce in Oxfordshire, down from the spring line where it was shading out our #tufa-pool-loving Curled Hook-moss. Palustriella commutata - see Tweet |
21 January 2023 Tom Bedford tweeted: Always a joy to hear the first drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker of the year. Slightly later than last year, when drumming began on Jan 10th. Otherwise, freezing fog dampened down bird activity, though the Siskin flock has increased to 55 birds.
Volunteers working in the Lye Valley, 18 January 2023 Photo by Tony Gillie Tony tweeted: 'A freezing start for our volunteers this morning. Thankfully, most found jobs to do in the sunshine! More scything, spreading Marsh Lousewort seeds, digging out Pendulous Sedge and dead hedging among the tasks accomplished. A huge thank you to all who came to help!' |
5 January 2023 Friends of Lye Valley were delighted to welcome a doctoral student from Oxford University’s Department of Biology*, who came to the Valley to talk to Dr Judy Webb about biodiversity net gain, mitigation schemes, and the importance of catchment areas, particularly in relation to Oxfordshire's fens. (*Merger in August 2022 of the Departments of Plant Sciences and Zoology)
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A surprising find in the first week of the New Year - a Signal Crayfish in the Lye Brook, with no idea how it got there. It was removed for humane destruction in line with the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Signal Crayfish are a threat to native species. More found 07 04 2023 |
During the Oxford Bioblitz in 2012, large numbers of Signal Crayfish, Pacifastacus leniusculus, were removed from the river in the vicinity of Oxford's Angel and Greyhound meadow (near Magdalen bridge). |
Tom Bedford's great photos of the Jack Snipe, Lymnocryptes minimus, taken on 13 December 2022, can be found on his blog post for 17 December, as well as a superb video taken that day by Jason Coppack showing its characteristic 'bobbing' movements. (Scroll down Tom's blog post to see that video.)
It was the 103rd species recorded for the site and Tom's own 100th species recorded there. |
Tweet 10 December 2022 by Tom Bedford:
'Sub-zero in the Lye Valley area this morning, but a surprising amount of breeding bird activity: singing Coal Tit, Goldcrest & Stock Doves, plus nest building Magpies! 40 species is a decent haul, inc my first December record of Blackcap'. |
For earlier tweets about the Lye Valley click here