Grazing impact survey – Sep 2019 to Feb 2020

September '19. North East slope of Worcester Beacon was grazed tightly until 20 Sept 2019 and then left to recover.
But by 1 December 2019 after no grazing for 3 months over the Autumn there was very little recovery of the wavy hair grass.
This did not improve over the winter so by 26 Feb 2020 the grass remains too short for skylarks at the beginning of the breeding season. The green is Yorkshire fog not wavy hair grass
.......but the unwanted coarse grass that is a real menace on the high hills did recover on the same slope and is increasing alarmingly. 1 December 2019 East slope of Worcester Beacon.
....By end February 2020 the Yorkshire fog is growing strongly and increasing in area
Sept 2019 North and Table Hills. There had been no grazing all year up to early Sept 2019 creating Skylark friendly sward. This was taken just after the animals returned while the grass was still long.
But by 1 December 2019 after 3 months grazing the grass here on North Hill is much below the height needed for skylarks and will not recover over the winter in time for breeding starting in March next year.
By the end of February 2020 at the start of the breeding season and as expected no recovery over winter
September 20 2019 North Hill, this time looking North with skylark-friendly sward.....
.....after 3 months grazing in the Autumn to December 1st 2019 - much shorter and not likely to attract skylarks back to an area they once favoured.
Same aspect February 2020 and no recovery over winter
September 2019 Table Hill was also skylark-friendly after no grazing all year until then....
But by December 2019 on Table Hill the sward is reduced but there is a lot of Yorkshire fog here which is increasing and is left by stock that prefer eating the native grasses that are much better for wildlife including skylarks.
February 2020 on Table Hill - the green growth is from Yorkshire fog doing increasingly well
September 2019. Yorkshire Fog has invaded the high hills, encouraged by cow dunging and poaching but they don't seem to like eating it. Yorkshire fog turns to a soggy mess when wet whereas native grasses like wavy hair grass (Deshampsia Flexuosa) preserve a drier insect-rich thatch needed by skylarks to nest and feed their young.
Sept 2019 North Slope of the Beacon showing tight grazing has sadly not shrunk the large bracken patch
December 2019 a few days after the stock moved from the upper to the lower slopes of North and Table Hills after 3 months grazing by cows and sheep that reduced the sward height and left a lot of fertilising dung. Despite mechanical bracken control it is increasing over the hills. Grazing is not holding it back.
December 1 2019. Sugarloaf remains tightly grazed but with increasing bracken incursion. This too held skylarks but when the grass was longer.
February 26 2020 and the shorter still after more grazing over winter - not a lot left to eat
- so cows and sheep are turning to tree bark, creating terminal damage

Update 28th February 2020

The slide show above shows how grazing has impacted grass conditions over 5 months up to February 2020, the start of the skylark breeding season. Let the slide show play itself or find and click the side arrows.

North and Table Hills were left ungrazed all summer until early September and the grass grew well to a skylark-friendly height. But the many cows and sheep that returned have had a big impact and the grass there was also too short for skylarks and it has not recovered in time for the breeding season in 2020.
Tight grazing on the Worcester Beacon throughout the summer until September made the grass very short and it has hardly grown over the 3 months in Autumn to 1st December. It did not grow over the winter winter to the 20cms skylarks need for the start of the breeding season next March.
Invasive unwelcome coarse Yorkshire Fog grass and Bracken have increased despite the grazing regime and instead seem to be benefiting by more intense grazing. Yorkshire fog grew strongly over the winter, seems to be increasing in area and has greened up the slopes over a mild winter in contrast with the native and desirable wavy hair grass which is still dormant at the beginning of the skylark breeding season in early March. Whilst the theory is that stock will trample and suppress areas of mechanically controlled bracken, the area of bracken seems to be increasing.
Tree Damage – A new development – very tight grazing on the sugarloaf has turned stock to eating bark and trees are becoming terminally damaged and many will die.

North and Table Hills

There was no grazing on North and Table Hills from the Autumn of 2018 throughout the winter until September 2019. It looked like MHT had decided to heed our call for a trial to let the grass grow long enough for skylarks in the coming 2020 breeding season and stand a chance of returning after an absence of five years.

We questioned MHT on their intent at the 9th September board meeting but were told this was not the case and grazing would soon resume to “meet SSSI requirements”. Stock were again in the area the very next day. The photos of North and Table Hills show that in early September 2019 the sward looked long enough and much as it did in the years of no grazing in the 1990s. However by 1st December it was once again too short and too short to recover for the beginning of March at the start of the skylark breeding season. Grass on the high hills does not really get growing until late Spring at this height and exposure and so cannot recover in time for when skylarks are looking for breeding territories. We urged MHT keep grazing light enough to give the lost skylarks some chance of returning but unsuccessfully.

The Worcester Beacon

During the summer the cows and sheep were grazing in the Eastern slopes of the Beacon which was the other main skylark territory on the Northern Hills. The September photos show how tightly the grass has been grazed and those taken 3 months later in December show how little it had recovered over the Autumn. As expected it did not recover by the end of February 2020.

Bracken and Coarse Grass invasion

The photos also show that on the Worcester Beacon bracken that was rolled and then had heavy grazing is still growing stongly. The theory is that once rolled, stock will control bracken by trampling to prevent its recovery. However stock seem to do their very best to avoid the bracken and leave it largely undisturbed. Is shorter grass reducing competition for the bracken? Is heavy mob grazing in bracken-affected areas needed to make any difference? It seems there is more work needed to find an effective solution.

A second invasive species problem is that of the coarse farmyard grass, Yorkshire Fog which has benefited from the fertilising effect of cattle dunging and the nutrients provided by cut bracken and gorse. Gorse cleared in November 2017 on the top of Table Hill left ideal conditions for the Yorkshire Fog which can be seen lying flat there. It falls over wet and dank to make a poor habitat for skylarks and other species. It also seems to be left alone by grazing cattle and sheep looking at the picture on the Worcester Beacon. It has grown strongly over a fairly mild winter of 2019/20

The Commons

Skylark numbers stayed stable on the remaining commons territories compared with 2018. Busy as it is with walkers and dogs Poolbrook common kept its two territories. It is managed as a meadow allowing the grass to grow before being mown in late summer – perfect for skylarks. Castlemorton had three pairs still and it looked like they had moved slightly to where there were more patches of rougher longer grass from the area where they it was a bit shorter this year compared with last. There are still none on the very tightly grazed grass by the side of the road up to Gullet quarry where they have been absent for two years. Not much changed at Hollybed in terms of sward condition and there were again three skylark territories there.

On a bright note a local farmer is set to trial a number of skylark plots near little Malvern Priory on the borders of Castlemorton Common this coming year. Update December 2019 – this trial has gone ahead!