WOW development begins
A new development has started at Martin Mere which is the complete redevelopment of the Australasia area in the waterfowl gardens to 'WOW - Weird or Wonderful. Steve Dilworth from the grounds team is working on the project and will be writing a weekly update of were the development is up to and I will post these updates on this diary so that you can get regular updates. Next week I will also have available the drawings for WOW to show you what it will look like when completed in July.
Development update
Welcome to the new development of the old Australian area here at Martin Mere. As you can see there is quite a bit of work going on! This whole area will be re-themed to showcase the diversity and adaptations of certain species of our birds and encourage visitors to take a closer look at their sometimes striking and sometimes quite weird features or behaviour.
This information board will be updated regularly so you will be able to keep an eye on how things are progressing.
The first stage of this project was to lay down the “bog mats”. These mats are very heavy duty wooden boards which can only really be moved easily by the diggers as they are very heavy. Being a peat bog here at Martin Mere, it is very easy to sink on our ground and get stuck in such large vehicles. In fact, if you stand still when the digger is moving you may be able to feel the ground shake underneath and if you look closely, you may even see the ground ripple in front of the digger! The mats provide a platform for the diggers and dumpers to work on, without which, this project simply would not be possible.
The next job was to de-silt our ponds. Whilst we were doing a lot of work here and re-landscaping, it made perfect sense to give our lakes and ponds a good clean out. Several years of silt have been removed and used to fill a pond in the area adjacent to this in the old goose paddock. This not only gave us a convenient place to remove the silt to, but also helps us to save a bank and row of trees at the back of this pond, which has been slowly eroding the ground away closer and closer to the tree roots.
The next stage will be to start shaping and getting the general layout of the new exhibits, digging new ponds or filling in sections of old ones etc. Whilst we have the diggers here we are going to use them to help push some rather large posts (fifteen metres long!) into our ground, ready for the construction of an aviary.
The coming weeks and months will see quite a variety of constructions and new enclosures including a bridge across the main lake, a crane aviary with purpose built viewing lodge, purpose made Screamer and Magpie goose pens and a Cape barren goose pen designed to replicate a beach so make sure to keep checking how the work progresses.
