News

BRONZE AGE

A feature that was uncovered in 1999 during some habitat creation in the fen has been identified as a Burnt Mound dating from the Bronze Age, around 1500 BC

 

PEAT LAYER

A discovery of a 900mm layer of peat during sewer repair works carried out by Thames Water in the North has led to a visit of the site by a Geoarchaeologist from Wessex Archaeology. Commonswood Nature Watch commissioned the company to take samples for Radio14 carbon dating analysis to age the peat.

 

BARN OWL Tyto Alba

A young barn owl was seen during the weekly bird survey in October 2011. It was perched within the wooded habitat of Blackfan Fen.

ROE DEER Capreolus capreolus

A Roe buck was seen on the lower path of Windmill Hill on 20th September 2011. It was seen again on the arable land adjacent to Windmill Hill on 23rdbut no reports have been received since that date. This deer is still very uncommon for Hertfordshire and is an important record.

Grizzled Skipper Pyrgus malvae

Two sightings of this butterfly have been reported over the past 14 years from the Windmill Hill area. An adult was recorded on the pollen nectar grassland of the arable area on June 17th 2009

 

Nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos

...and a Nightingale sang in Black Fan Fen 

Forgive the title parody of Vera Lynn’s famous hit, but  bird watchers at The Commons Local Nature Reserve also heard a song to remember last Thursday evening, 28th May 2010. When most people were heading home for tea, a nightingale arrived and struck up his song in the reserve’s fen area, bringing watchers on the bird network running to hear it through the evening.