End of the week catchup

Although the centre is closed, our conservation work continues

Although the centre is closed, our conservation work continues. Our main work through the winter is tree management, a mixture of coppicing and pollarding depending on the species and location.

Yesterday we took advantage of the freezing fog to complete some work on the Tack Piece hedge that has been on the job list for about seven years! The freezing conditions meant the ground was slightly harder to allow us access without causing damage to the field, whilst the fog provides us cover so that the flocks of Wigeon, Teal, Lapwing and our Bewick's Swans couldn't see us.

We coppiced a section of hedgerow to open up the views and the landscape between the Tack Piece and goose fields to the north. This will allow birds to move more freely between the two areas and allow better views from the Estuary Tower of them using our newly restored paleochannels. This week we've also coppiced a section of willow along the rhine at the back of the South Lake to remove some of the perches used by predators of the breeding waders that will be back here in a few months time.

Bewick's Swan update
No further arrivals in the last few days keeping us at 77 birds. New in this morning were two Whooper Swans. The adult and juvenile (photo) were on the Tack Piece around 8:30am and are probably the two birds seen locally over the last couple of weeks. They moved to the Rushy shortly after where they had a fight with the Bewick's Swans, before themselves being chased off by the resident pair of Mute Swans.

Other notable species
The Dark-bellied Brent Goose was with the Canada Geese in the Bottom New Piece this morning, along with the Cackling Goose. The White-fronted Geese have been back in the Canal Ground field. A first-winter drake Goldeneye was found on the South Lake yesterday before it flew north, presumably back towards the canal or Frampton.

A Great White Egret has been seen again on the reserve, usually on the Tack Piece or in the paleochannel running through the goose fields to the north. Cattle Egret and Little Egret continue to roost on the South Lake.

With the freezing weather over the last few days our Black-tailed Godwit numbers have dropped with around 180 birds now present, down from over 500 a few weeks ago. The Avocet also appears to have moved off with the South Lake now frozen again. The first-winter Great Crested Grebe remains on the deep lake.

A few of our Crane pairs have been seen this week, starting to reclaim their breeding territories. We've not seen much of them this winter with nearly all the usual birds moving off the reserve. Kia & Chocolo are back on the Tack Piece and goose fields - this pair bred on the islands in front of the Martin Smith hide during the first lockdown in 2020 and hatched one chick, but it was sadly predated. Ruby and her unringed wild partner are back around the South Lake, where they bred unsuccessfully in 2020. Ruby has successfully bred here before with her previous partner, Bart, with whom she fledged three chicks.

We're sad that the centre can't remain open for our visitors, but we will continue working hard to keep the reserve a great place for wildlife, and then a safe place for our visitors when we are able to reopen in the future. Your support has been incredible through what have been a very challenging times and we can't thank you enough.

We will continue to update the blog every few days with our latest sightings, along with our Twitter feed. Don't forget you can also catch up with the Rushy on our webcam here. For now, stay safe and we hope to see you all again soon.

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