The value of colour-ringing the doves is also being realised as we have more than three hundred records of these individuals which we will use to interpret their movements around the area and provide information on the timing of their daily routine and breeding cycle. Most importantly, we have excellent data on their survival and, in two cases, their breeding partnership. All six of the birds we first ringed in 2022 have survived and been seen again this year – and in between years have completed an 11,000km return migration to Africa.

Colour ring data is collected by volunteers from trail cameras covering supplementary feed sites established by landowners with seed supplied by the RSPB on behalf of Operation Turtle Dove.

One of the two juvenile doves hatched and ringed in 2023 has been seen again this year. Juveniles have only a c30% chance of surviving their first year so we were pleased to find this one alive and well and feeding near where it had been born. We have ringed a further three juvenile birds this year; one of them, trapped in September, had only just fledged, indicating it was from a late nest suggesting its parents had managed at least two, possibly three, successful broods.

We have yet to analyse all the data from the GPS tracking but, suffice to say, it has once again provided information about daily movements and breeding. Most importantly, it is demonstrating how the species is adapting to the human influence on the Kent landscape and possibly the impacts of the changing climate. In addition, several tagged birds (like Joe, above) have led us to sites where the landowners have had no idea that doves were present – a nice surprise for them, and a boost to the chances of that spot retaining suitable habitat for the birds!

An illustrated summary of what we’ve learned so far from the project can be found below – posters used on our display at the recent Weald of Kent Ploughing Match.

The post Turtle Dove Update appeared first on Marden Wildlife.

A warm welcome to Marden for Adrienne, who is now uniquely identified as EM21975 and recorded on the international database of Turtle Doves.

She has also been fitted with a GPS tag, which you can just see on her back – it will drop off when she moults at the end of the breeding season.

She is the first of this year’s arrivals to be GPS tagged, and we’ll be tracking her around the local area, and possibly beyond, to learn more about her behaviour and use of farmland, ponds, woods and gardens.

We have also seen no fewer than eight of the twenty-three doves that have colour rings on their legs. Two of them were among the first five ringed here in 2022 and have now managed the Marden-Mali-Marden migration return flight at least five times! As the chances of an adult turtle dove surviving migration are only fifty per cent, ours seem to be doing well. With another two full months before some of them start returning to Africa, there is still plenty of time for us to capture more of them on camera. Every record we have adds to our knowledge and helps Marden hang on to these beautiful birds.

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We now have a dedicated micro-nursery facility so that our plants have space to grow.  We’re very grateful to those whose generous support that has made this a reality.  There’s a potential forest of young Chequer (wild service) trees in development among other species including the Dyer’s Greenweed shown below.

Sneezewort, a relative of the more common Yarrow, is new to our programme in 2025. This is only known at a single location in our area. In the 1899 Flora of Kent, this species is described as ‘rather local’ and that it ‘grows between Marden and Staplehurst.’ We believe that our seeds came from the exact spot referred to in the Flora.  We were allowed to collect a small amount of seed last autumn, these have germinated well, and the first plants have been reintroduced onto two farmland sites this week.   We hope they will go on to flower and self-seed in the next few years.  But why should you care? Well, if we don’t here, exactly who will? Those Victorian botanists cared enough to log exactly where the plant grew in our area, so it’s only right that we try to keep it alive here.

Sneezewort – who cares? We do!

Dyer’s Greenweed in its new home, a year after planting.

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The post TURTLE DOVES RETURN 26th April 2025 appeared first on Marden Wildlife.

Bramble and black bryony scramble through the hedge. As a reminder of the farm’s history of hop-growing, which ended in 1985, wild seedlings thrive in all the farm’s hedges. Male hop flowers, which deliver pollen appear early in summer, and the fruits, or cones, start to develop later in female plants. If you can find a hop cone in late summer, rub it between your fingers to smell the beer!

The hedges are wide and bushy. Thick vegetation at the base is habitat for many species of birds, mammals, and insects. Notable among the birds are yellowhammers, bullfinches and linnets. Like skylarks in the middle of the fields, many hedgerow birds nest near the ground so please keep dogs close to avoid disturbing the birds during the breeding season.

In the autumn, the hedgerows are used by migrating birds that feed on the berries and insects to fuel their long flights. Ring ouzels can sometimes be spotted foraging in them on their way south to winter in Morocco.

The land on the field side of the ditch next to the footpath is an extra-wide buffer strip to protect the watercourse against any inadvertent contamination running off the field.  A permanent sward stops heavy rain washing soil away, and the long grass and flowers in the area are good habitat for invertebrates, such as Gatekeeper butterflies.

The post Manor Farm Hedgerow Crossing appeared first on Marden Wildlife.

The post Talk by Dr Lee Brady (Kent County Herpetological Recorder) – The Conservation Status of Kent’s Amphibians and Reptiles. Nov 15 2023 appeared first on Marden Wildlife.

The post Marden’s Turtle Doves tracked from space in 2023! appeared first on Marden Wildlife.

Their skills are already paying dividends as young specimens of Dyers Greenweed, Devil’s-bit Scabious and Wild Service  (Chequer) trees for example are now ready for restocking wild places around our village.

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Photo: Lou Carpenter

Marden’s rare (only five Kent records) Yellow Loosestrife Bee

The post Illustrated talk on The Bees of Kent on 23rd November appeared first on Marden Wildlife.

Rebecca writes:

Investigating our native crab apple. Or “Will the real Malus sylvestris please stand up?”

In 2021 The Orchard Network, a partnership of organisations working together for the conservation of orchards across the British Isles, embarked on a project to investigate Malus sylvestris, a wild apple species of Western Russia, Iran, Turkey, and Europe including the UK, which we consider our native crab apple.

The project is funded by City of London, which owns open access land around London including Epping Forest, Burnham Beeches, Ashtead and Hampstead Heaths and other commons, where there are many crab trees. The funding primarily provides funding for DNA fingerprinting of up to 350 tree samples over 3 years.

The Crab Apple Project objective is to record tree, leaf, flower and fruit morphology, other fruit characteristics, and DNA fingerprints, of a range of wild crab, hybrid and feral apple trees in natural locations in the British Isles:

1 to see if this helps to identify native Malus sylvestris trees and separate them from M domestica, and from wild/feral hybrids with M domestica (and other Malus species).

2 to provide, if possible, a field identification method to separate the native Malus sylvestris from hybrids (and we recognize that many before us have already tried!)

3 evaluate the fruit of both the species and its hybrids for apple and cider apple breeding – not least to pass on its relatively disease-free character to cider apples.

We want to know if there are any local trees that should be added to the national sample. Can we find Malus sylvestris in Marden? These trees are likely to be in ancient hedges that have been allowed to grow out, relatively unmanaged common land, the outer edges of ancient woodland, and on riverbanks. Have you got an old carb apple in your garden, paddock or hedge? Let us know. It would be quite a coup to find a wild crab in the heart of the Garden of England!

Is there a Noble Chafer living in your old orchard?

The Noble Chafer is a rare and beautiful keystone species in orchards in the UK, and the subject of a lot of recovery work in the Three Counties and New Forest. It was thought to be extinct in Kent, until about 13 years ago when it was spotted in an orchard in Iwade that was subsequently grubbed for development. Attempts were made to conserve the remaining beetles, but it would be amazing if Noble Chafer are living in Marden.

PTES has provided some notes on how to look for Noble Chafers. Basically, you are trying to find their ‘frass’ or poo, which looks like coffee grounds and is lozenge shaped and about 3mm long, in hollows in old fruit trees. If you find a likely site, let us know – we would like to use lures and humane traps this summer to see if we can record this beautiful beetle in Marden and add our fantastic village to the exclusive list of Noble Chafer habitats in the UK.

Recording our local apples before we lose them and are doomed to eat Gala for the rest of our lives

Do you enjoy a Red Devil straight from the tree? Or a pie made with a delicious Weavering Apple, far juicier than the ubiquitous Bramley? Perhaps your grandparents grew a Beauty of Kent in their back garden? Depending on their point of view, they may have called it Gadd’s Seedling, Kentish Beauty, Kentish Pippin, or Wooling’s Favourite. Whatever its name, you might remember the wonderful aroma of apples when stored for a few weeks in a cool pantry. Perhaps you know of a tree with crunchy sweet apples, but don’t know if it is an old or new variety, or perhaps a seedling, a new and unique creation originating from a discarded core.

Until the rise of commercial orchards growing commodity apples, Kent had its own varieties of local apples, suited to local conditions and palates. The names of these apples tell stories about people and places that should be recorded, as part of our local culture and heritage. In Wales, Herefordshire, Essex and Suffolk local orchardists and amateur pomologists are scouring the textbooks trying to find lost varieties and asking local people about the apples they grow in their gardens and ate as a child. Some important work has been done locally by Kent Orchards for Everyone.

What about the apples of Marden? We know that we have a great range of apples growing here, some remnants of the commercial industry, now obsolete, others preserved from even longer ago. Can you help us to make a record of the apples of Marden before they disappear? If you have an apple in your garden, hedge, or field that you think deserves a mention, let us know!

The Flower of Kent may not be a very tasty apple, but it did play a role in the discovery of gravity, so surely it is worth preserving?

Do get in touch if you think you have any information or knowledge that might help us!

r.cassidy@gold.ac.uk        mardenwildlife@gmail.com

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