23rd February 2025
This task was carried out with the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside, as it’s a bit of a long name we’ll just call them Wildlife Trust for short. We’ve work with the Trust previously on willow tit conservation, that time it was Darcy Lever Gravel Pits using techniques devised by the Trust’s Dr Mark Champion. We also used the same methods at Moses Gate Country Park. This time we’re at Doffcocker Lodge Country Park.
Willow tits have been present at Doffcocker, to some degree, for a number of years but not in any significant numbers. Willow tit’s, including sub-species, have an extensive range covering Europe and other sub-arctic areas with estimated numbers of 175-253 million. However, since the 1970s the population sizes of these birds in the UK has fallen by around 83% and were Red-listed in in 2022. Habitat deterioration is thought to be the main cause of these changes; competition from other similar species and predation could also be a factor.
A couple of months ago we began prepping at area of the lodge in anticipation of the project getting underway, but unfortunately other circumstances meant the main part of the work had to be delayed.
So, what does willow tit conservation involve? Willow tit’s like to create nest holes in rotten trees in wet willow carr and fen like habitats. But there aren’t enough rotten trees around for them. To give them a hand we took some old, dead branches and attached them to living trees, partly burying the ends of the branches in the ground. Over time the attached branches will rot and soften and the willow tits will be able to excavate nest holes in them. The photo at the top of the page shows a willow tit and the nest it created at Doffcocker a few years ago.
We also did some dead hedgeing, and some tree planting on this task.
Thanks to Emma and Phil of the Wildlife Trust and to everyone who took part.
