Lower Derwent Valley & Skipwith Common NNR

Lower Derwent Valley & Skipwith Common NNR The Lower Derwent Valley NNR supports a rich diversity of plant species and outstanding populations of breeding and wintering birds.

Date for your diary - Saturday 4th July 🌻To see for yourselves the beauty of the Ings on a summer’s day with the wildflo...
12/06/2026

Date for your diary - Saturday 4th July 🌻

To see for yourselves the beauty of the Ings on a summer’s day with the wildflower meadows in full bloom, why not join us as part of our National Meadows Day celebrations on Saturday 4th July. Our team will be at Aughton Church from 10am to 3pm for a day of meadows, wildlife, history, conservation and community. Throughout the day we’ll be bird ringing, moth trapping, and running a guided walk (booking essential) and ‘wildflower wander’ – and if that isn’t enough, there’ll also be a historical walk/talk around the church, honey tasting, owl pellet dissection, local photography and art work displays, children’s art and craft tables, wildflower ‘seed bombing’ and stalls with the Friends of the Lower Derwent Valley merchandise and the new Birds of the LDV book, as well as information about our Corncrake Reintroduction programme – not forgetting the opportunity to meet one of our resident Barn Owls, and the chance to work on a National Nature Reserve as part of our ‘volunteer taster task’ 💪

The floodplain meadows of the Lower Derwent Valley are internationally important and have been designated as such – reflecting the generations of traditional and sympathetic land management that have helped shape and enhance the grasses and wildflowers that thrive here, whilst many such meadows have been lost across the UK and elsewhere. The annual cycle of winter flooding, summer hay cut and aftermath grazing by livestock, allow species such as Pepper Saxifrage, Greater Burnet, Autumnal Hawkbit, Yellow Rattle, Sneezewort and Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort to be locally abundant amongst a wide range of other herbs and grasses. So why not come and celebrate the wonderful meadows that help to make the Lower Derwent Valley so special 🤩

If you'd like to book yourself a place on the guided walk, or have any queries about the event, please use the following contact details - [email protected] 🐦

Refreshments will also kindly be provided throughout the day by the Friends of Aughton Church – hopefully see you there – all welcome! 👀

Over the past week, our Responsible Recreation Team have been busy replacing some of our signs across the reserve with n...
09/06/2026

Over the past week, our Responsible Recreation Team have been busy replacing some of our signs across the reserve with new information boards, detailing how we can all help protect wildlife during the ground-nesting bird season. This is one of the most crucial times of year for many of the reserve's bird species, and we're pleased to say that 2026 is shaping up to be an exciting year, with a short summary below of how the season has unfolded so far.

• A large number of Curlew clutches began to hatch from the 21st May, and recently our team recorded six pairs with 20 newly hatched or small young at one site – we now need to hope that these young chicks have the best chance to fledge and recruit into the breeding population.

• An impressive 69 pairs of drumming Snipe have been recorded across the reserve so far this spring.

• Several Quail have now been heard (following the first on the 6th May).

• The first-ever breeding Marsh Harriers for the site have been recorded this year.

• Several broods of Lapwing chicks have already hatched.

• It’s been a strong spring for Common Cranes – a species which could potentially colonise the site in the future.

Whilst we would like our visitors to enjoy the reserve and all the wonderful wildlife it has to offer, we ask everyone to help give these vulnerable species the best chance of success by following a few simple guidelines:

Keep dogs on leads 🐕
Stay on marked footpaths 🚶
Use designated viewing areas 🔭
Take notice of signs 🪧

Ground-nesting birds are particularly sensitive to disturbance, and unfortunately even well-intentioned visitors can inadvertently cause birds to leave their nests, thus exposing eggs or young chicks to predators. By keeping to designated routes, a safe environment can be created where wildlife can thrive.

You may notice livestock grazing in some areas across the reserve – grazing animals play an important role in maintaining the special habitats found across the Lower Derwent Valley, helping to create the varied conditions that species such as Curlew, Lapwing and Snipe depend upon.

Many ground-nesting birds have evolved alongside grazing animals and are generally well adapted to their presence, and the movements of livestock are often predictable, allowing birds and grazing animals to share these habitats successfully. This is why conservation grazing remains an important part of the management of many of the UK's most important breeding sites for ground-nesting species.

Many thanks to everyone who is already helping us to look after this special landscape – together, we can ensure the reserve remains a haven for wildlife, while continuing to be a wonderful place for people to enjoy nature responsibly.

If you'd like to help our ground-nesting birds, which includes our rather special Corncrakes, every penny helps and is matched very generously by Aviva - all donations are appreciated - thank you.

https://communitiesfund.avivafoundation.org.uk/p/lower-derwent-valley-corncrake-reintroductiom #

In 2017, thanks to your support (via cards, calendars and log sales) and a kind private donation to the Friends of the L...
05/06/2026

In 2017, thanks to your support (via cards, calendars and log sales) and a kind private donation to the Friends of the LDV, four terns rafts were purchased by the charity, and since then, we’ve had the pleasure of having Common Terns breeding annually on the reserve (at least one or sometimes two pairs each year) - most notably on the rafts on the pool at Wheldrake Ings. A total of 32 chicks have been hatched, ringed and fledged since that time, and so it was really pleasing to receive news about two of them this week.

One of the chicks (ringed in July 2019) was seen at Tophill Low, whilst the other (ringed in 2023) was reported amongst the tern colony at North Cave Wetlands. In other years, we have had individuals reported from colonies at RSPB Aire Valley and the Farne Islands. One or two have also been sighted at Seaforth Nature Reserve in Merseyside and another, ringed in July 2019 (and the sibling of the bird seen recently at Tophill Low), was even spotted at sea off the coast of the Gambia. It's amazing to think how our four tern rafts and small numbers of breeding pairs have added to the population, and with each chick marked with a darvic colour-ring, it has allowed these incredible journeys to be revealed.

So thank you as always for your ongoing support and helping to make this happen. If you'd like to find out more about the status and ringing recoveries of our Common Terns (and other species) all of this information, and more, can be found in the new ‘Birds of the LDV’. If you’d like to purchase a copy of this book please e-mail [email protected], with 100% of the sales going straight to the Friends of the Lower Derwent Valley charity to help with projects such as these. Or, if you’d like to make a donation to the new Aviva fund, the books are available on there as a reward for making a donation – every penny counts with Aviva matching each donation made – more details can be found by using the link below.

https://communitiesfund.avivafoundation.org.uk/p/lower-derwent-valley-corncrake-reintroductiom #

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!We have been completely bowled over by the incredible support our Corncrake project has ...
03/06/2026

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

We have been completely bowled over by the incredible support our Corncrake project has received, so a huge thank you to everyone who has donated so far, with special thanks to all of the Aviva staff who have used their allowance to make a donation - many of whom have volunteered on the reserve over the years, and in more recent times have been involved with the construction of the pre-release pens.

Having so quickly reached our initial target, we have now been able to stretch our amount to £10,000, which will allow us to deliver so much more, and far quicker than we had anticipated, helping both our Corncrakes and all of the other wildlife that use the Lower Derwent Valley's hay meadows, and most importantly ensuring a successful outcome for this project.

We’re only a couple of weeks away from our first release, with updates on this to follow across our social media pages, so watch this space for more details, in the meantime let's keep going and see if we can reach (and pass) our new target - every donation counts 😁

https://communitiesfund.avivafoundation.org.uk/p/lower-derwent-valley-corncrake-reintroductiom #

Many thanks for all the kind comments of support on our recent post on our Corncrake reintroduction project. We’re now p...
29/05/2026

Many thanks for all the kind comments of support on our recent post on our Corncrake reintroduction project. We’re now pleased to say that the first of this year’s chicks have arrived in the Lower Derwent Valley (14 days old) and are now settled in our pre-release pens where they will remain until 35 days old, by which point they will be imprinted on the 'LDV night sky’ and will hopefully know it as ‘home’, which, all being well, will see them return next year. Further broods will be arriving throughout the summer months, all made possible by our incredible team of dedicated volunteers, who, along with our staff, will be transporting them from Norfolk to the Lower Derwent Valley through the hours of darkness to reduce the stress.

This project is being privately funded by the Friends of the LDV and Carstairs Countryside Trust – in partnership with Deepdale Conservation Trust in Norfolk. However, with the project running for another two years, we are looking to raise additional funds and are pleased to say that we have been accepted into Aviva’s Community Fund, where any donation is matched by Aviva, and their staff are also allowed to donate additional funds. The more we can raise the more we can do – both in terms of building pre-release pens and tagging and tracking more released (and wild) Corncrakes, to understand what we can do to give the project the best chance of success.

During this time we will also be supporting work to engage local communities and drive forward wider educational and nature recovery projects related to Corncrakes and other species. If you’d like to help us meet our target and raise some much needed funds (every little bit really does help) then please make a donation of your choice, and remember whatever you choose to donate, will be matched by Aviva - making your contribution even more valuable. A few rewards are also available for the first few donations made – please follow this link for more details - https://communitiesfund.avivafoundation.org.uk/p/lower-derwent-valley-corncrake-reintroductiom # and please share with others who may be interested – thank you.

Regular followers of our page will be aware of our Corncrake reintroduction project which started last summer, in an att...
19/05/2026

Regular followers of our page will be aware of our Corncrake reintroduction project which started last summer, in an attempt to bring back a self-sustaining population of Corncrakes to the Lower Derwent Valley - the hope is that boosting the small numbers that turn up here almost annually will be the first stage in securing an English breeding population. This project has been made possible thanks to our partners including Carstairs Countryside Trust and Deepdale Conservation Trust in Norfolk, as well as the hard work of our volunteer team, who had only weeks to build the pens last spring before the first chicks arrived.

In addition to a wild pair present on site during the summer of 2025, a total of 74 chicks were released across the LDV NNR, having been reared in pre-release pens from 12 days old in order to fix on the night sky and to ‘set’ the Lower Derwent Valley as ‘home’. Our post-release monitoring work using various tracking tags showed the birds to survive well and behave naturally in the Ings meadows, and departing and migrating out of the country in line with what would be expected from wild Scottish bred Corncrakes.

Following their migration to the wintering grounds in the Congo in Africa, we have been waiting with bated breath for their return, although with a low survival rate, we were expecting to see perhaps only four or five singing males return in the first year. However, we are delighted to say that so far we have recorded three, or possibly four returning males (all heard singing recently) – although in the coming weeks they are likely to become more vocal and easier to record – if you're fortunate enough to come across a singing male whilst visiting the site, please do get in touch to let us know – thank you.

Recently, Natural England were gifted an area of land off the Pocklington Canal near Coates Lock (north of Bielby) from ...
13/05/2026

Recently, Natural England were gifted an area of land off the Pocklington Canal near Coates Lock (north of Bielby) from the estate of the late Mr Blackburn. This includes two old traditional meadows (one of which is SSSI and presently has a tremendous number of Cowslips), a fen meadow, reedbed areas and an old orchard – all surrounded by thick traditional hedgerows. This area of land will now be managed by Natural England and the Friends of the Lower Derwent Valley, as well as Carstairs Countryside Trust, who have a small parcel of land next door. This starts to form another block of land managed for nature conservation further east of the main block (Melbourne and Thornton Ings), and will form part of the extended NNR planned for later this year 🍾🤩

Before the start of the breeding season our team were hard at work starting to clear up the garden and orchard – making space to try and recover the old varieties of apple trees, as well as starting to fence off the site whilst enhancing the boundary hedgerows. Most of the trees appear to be still alive having started to blossom recently which is encouraging, and we look forward to watching as it develops further, with our fantastic team ready and willing to lend a hand. This site has largely been abandoned for over 30 years, so there’s a lot of sensitive work to do – but being just off the canal towpath it is hoped that we can create a site for visitors to enjoy, with our partners at Canal and Rivers Trust and the Pocklington Canal Amenity Society – watch this space 👀😁

Many thanks to those who have placed a log order with us over the last few weeks - we've just about caught up with order...
08/05/2026

Many thanks to those who have placed a log order with us over the last few weeks - we've just about caught up with orders now, so if you haven't got yours in yet and are keen to stock up ahead of the coming autumn, please do get in touch. As always, we have limited storage space and cannot guarantee to have seasoned logs throughout the winter, and so if you don’t want to miss out, we would recommend stocking up now (if you have enough space) to avoid disappointment later in the year if our stock has already run low by the autumn.

We currently have good quality part-seasoned ash logs for sale (available at £80 per cubic metre), with the money from each sale going straight back into the reserve via the work of the Friends of the Lower Derwent Valley, either by securing more land, helping to deliver our Corncrake project, creating more wader scrapes or providing more wild bird mixes – to name just a few. By ordering wood now to top up your own supplies, you’ll also help us to empty our sheds ahead of the autumn when our woodland management works will resume, and we will once again start to re-fill ahead of the coming year.

To place an order please send the following information via e-mail: name, address, cubic metres required, payment method (cash, cheque or bank transfer) and preferred delivery days (or instructions as to where you would like the logs putting if no one will be around) to [email protected] or text/phone: 07436 056240.

This week on Thursday 7th May, LDV NNR Senior Reserve Manager Craig Ralston, will be speaking at the annual Pocklington ...
05/05/2026

This week on Thursday 7th May, LDV NNR Senior Reserve Manager Craig Ralston, will be speaking at the annual Pocklington Canal Amenity Society pie and peas evening – to celebrate the forthcoming World Migratory Bird Day. Craig will be speaking about all things LDV related and discussing some of the birds that travel from all over the world to visit our reserve, and revealing their incredible journeys, along with detailing some of our tracking and research projects – summarised in the recently published Birds of the Lower Derwent Valley (available for purchase on the night). Booking for this talk is essential and places are now limited (over 90 tickets have already been sold and capacity is limited to 100). Please use the contact details listed in the poster below if you’d like to secure one of the remaining spaces.

This event also brings to a conclusion our recent talk programme which has seen us give 14 talks since the start of the new year – spreading the word around Yorkshire about our fantastic reserve and our incredible team of volunteers, who help us to deliver everything that we do on the ground, whilst also helping with these talks and raising funds through cards and book sales.

Thank you also to everyone who has supported us along the way – after a break for the summer, we’ll be resuming our talk programme in September, starting at Castle Howard on the 15th. If you're looking for a new speaker and would like to book one of our talks for a group you're part of, please contact [email protected] 📧

Three years ago, the Friends of the Lower Derwent Valley purchased an 11-acre arable field behind the hides at North Duf...
28/04/2026

Three years ago, the Friends of the Lower Derwent Valley purchased an 11-acre arable field behind the hides at North Duffield Carrs, now called ‘New Meadow’ – turning half into a species-rich hay meadow and the other half into a wild bird crop, bordered by mixed hedgerows and fruit trees. The present wild bird crop has been down for two years now, and over that time has attracted large flocks of wintering finches, including Goldfinch and Linnet in good numbers, with smaller numbers of Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Reed Bunting, Yellowhammer, Brambling and up to 30 Corn Buntings. Over the last week we have resown this crop by rotavating the land and then sowing and harrowing the seed, which comprises species like linseed, sunflower, millet, quinoa, radish, mustard and cereals, which will provide a variety of food and cover throughout the winter months.

The Friends have been able to carry out this work thanks to a kind donation from https://www.fawcett-maltsters.co.uk/ – a malting company working with us to help the Corn Bunting or ‘fat bird of the barley’ as it is otherwise known. We are also very grateful for other private donations received – all helping to fund this vital work, and in doing so helping our bird populations, but also adding to the enjoyment of visitors to the site – please do let us know which species you see in this area when visiting.

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Bank Island, Church Lane, Wheldrake
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YO196FE

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