Reserve Roundup
Last week was another busy one for our reserve team. From conducting nest box checks to maintaining pathways and doing saltmarsh surveys, as well as continuing wildflower seed collection.
On Tuesday morning the volunteers and the reserve team were out bird monitoring, with the volunteers each taking on a nest box check transect, and the team tackling their individual hide and buildings that need monitoring. Dot and Anita were looking for nesting activity in the Peter Scott Trail and cottages, Bob and Joan took on the paddocks and yard, Sophie went up the Avenue. The reserve team were looking for nesting activity on the hides and building with JC finding a plethora of swallow eggs on the Saltcot observatory and the Scottish water hide. Isaac found four swallow chicks at the Teal pond and three warm eggs at the Campbell hide. After the monitoring, the team met up and undertook physical checks on the nest boxes, resulting in seven successfully fledged tree sparrow chicks, along with four more chicks that are currently blind and in pin, meaning hopefully we will be able to ring them in the coming days!
In the afternoon, the team cracked on with some practical work in the Peter Scott Trail. JC and Jake were on the strimmers using the edging as a guideline and took back the vegetation that was overhanging on the path to make it look more appealing for visitors. Simultaneously the volunteers were using rakes and their hands to pick up and dispose of the cut vegetation. Then the team jumped onto hoeing the path (everyone’s favourite job). This is a really strenuous task (and a great forearm workout for everyone involved) but it does have a benefit because it genuinely makes a huge impact on visitors as it makes the paths and walkways so much more attractive and it just adds to the overall experience. The team split up with the majority hoeing and the other picking up the weeds created as a by-product of the hoeing. To warden Jake’s astoundment and the team's hard graft, we managed to do the whole Peter Scott Trail within the afternoon, which is a great feat and now means it will not be needed to be done for the rest of the summer!
Wednesday saw a large volunteer group come in to carry out a saltmarsh assessment. Charlie, Molly, Sophie and Marianne all came to help the reserve team carry out the surveying. The volunteers were brought in to give us a hand as last year it took three days. Since then we all got trained in saltmarsh plant ID, so everyone was ready to take on the challenge and that is exactly what we did. It took us practically the whole day to survey six or seven quadrats each. The four groups were created so we could take fewer quadrats each, ensuring it didn’t take as long as last year. The reasoning behind carrying out these surveys every year is mainly because it gives us great data on how the saltmarsh is changing annually, along with it being required to receive certain funding. It signals whether there is a regression in some species’ presence across the marsh and indicates other characteristics of the saltmarsh that may be used for data analysis in the future.
Malcolm was also in on Wednesday, helping out massively by mowing the Saltcot and Avenue loanings whilst the reserve team was preoccupied with the saltmarsh assessment.
On Thursday the dynamic placement student duo (JC and Isaac) were let out and about, travelling their way across the border to Newcastle (Wey aye, pet) to check out another site: WWT Washington. On the visit, the guys did do some work (they weren’t just off for a jolly) by helping the reserve warden Kate and their group of volunteers with laying down some weed suppressant down in front of a hide to prevent sightlines from being blocked. JC and Isaac helped put out the suppressant as well as building a wooden border to prevent the aggregate, that was put on to weigh down the matting, from spilling out and going into the pond. This took them through to the afternoon when there was a site tour by the reserve manager John. Both JC and Isaac thoroughly enjoyed the walk around, taking lots of pointers. It was also really interesting getting another point of view on wildlife conservation and to see the management of a different site.
Whilst the two placement were away, the reserve team could barely cope! However some good work got completed as Joanna came in to give Jake a hand with pulling ragwort. Additionally, seed collection was done, adding to the ever increasing wildflower seed cache.
As always thanks to all the Guide-in-the-Hides and Visitor Centre volunteers who come in. This week we’d like to thank Jane, Mary, David, Peter and Heather who did a mixture of greeting visitors and doing a sterling job weeding and hoeing in the wildlife garden.
Feature photos by Jacob Campbell.
