LATEST NEWS

 

Our next workdays will be Saturday 5th September and Saturday 3rd October at 10am.

 

Work mornings occur every first Saturday of the month (except January unless otherwise notified) at 10am on Pound Lane outside the schools, ending around 12 noon.

 

If there is any doubt about the weather you may want to phone us before coming. We provide all of the tools and the refreshments.

June 2026

 

Volunteer Helen put up a bat detector on 12th June at the far end of the meadow by the hedge line and analysed the results a week later. We have an amazing 16 species out of the 18 species of British Bats on the reserve! The Pipistrelles are by far the most common, but the numbers recorded are quite astonishing and great news for the reserve. The Alcothoe Bat is a new bat to the reserve.  It is similar to the Brandt's Bat and Whiskered Bat and was only recognised as a separate species in 2001 and added to the list of UK resident bats in 2010.

 

We also had eDNA testing of the ponds, which showed the presence of the Common Toad, Smooth Newt, Signal Crayfish and the European Eel (Anguilla Anguilla) - the latter is a significant finding as they can be important nationally. The Water Vole was not confirmed by the eDNA testing, but the results from Bat detector had a good degree of certainty.

 

 

May 2026

 

After a very warm start to Spring in April, things went downhill quite dramatically in May with lots of wet and windy weather and low temperatures, which hampered any sort of recording on the reserve. In the last week of May, everything changed and we had the first summer heatwave with temperatures up to 30 degrees, which brought out a stunning array of damselflies and demoiselles. The Banded Demoiselles are much more common on the reserve than the Beautiful Demoiselles, as they prefer slightly different conditions. They used to be seen in much greater numbers than we are seeing now, and reasons for this are unknown. NEWT uses the logo of the Banded Demoiselle because it is so emblematic of the reserve and can be spotted all over the different parts of the reserve.

 

Butterflies were also out in force – a magnificent 13 Painted Ladies (Vanessa cardui) were recorded on 27th May.  Some very unusual insects were seen on 21st May when Viv and Jon came across two Downlooker Snipe Flies (Rhagio scolopaceus) They are actually quite common, but easily overlooked, as they blend in with the trees they like to sit in. As the name suggests, they perch pointing downwards and nobody knows quite why they do this! Snipe-fly is probably a reference either to their similar damp habitat or movement like the Snipe when they dash off suddenly like the bird when disturbed. These two actually fell out of a tree (on a very windy day) in front of our recorders! A lovely sighting and a new record for the reserve.

 

 

January 2026

 

We have changed the structure of our charity Nailsea Environment & Wildlife Trust and have now become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO).  This involves closing our unincorporated charity and re-registering with the Charity Commission giving us a new Charity Number 1216292.

 

The purpose of our charity has not changed, being to promote for the benefit of the public the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment by promoting biological diversity, and to advance the education of the public in the consideration, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment.

 

Our name NEWT, Nailsea Environment & Wildlife Trust and the trustees remain the same.  Our bank accounts have had to change and we would be grateful to receive any donations direct to our new NEWT account 52-21-39 35543914.

 

We value and welcome all supporters and without the support of these volunteers it would be impossible to continue to maintain the site.  Thank you to you all.

 

 

August 2026

 

Many thanks to the Nailsea Shedders who have constructed some fantastic new display stands for our information boards by the boardwalk and at the entrance to the meadow.