Work continues on maintaining the islands. Today we were clearing the vegetation from the island on Back Saltholme, the island that is seen from the Saltholme Pools hide and Phil Corner screen.
We are concentrating on getting the Main Lake and Paddy's Pool islands in good condition for Common Terns whilst letting the Black-headed Gulls nest on the Back Saltholme island. Being less fussy the gulls do not require us to keep the island in as clear a state as the others but we still have to remove most of the rank vegetation.
We have a new volunteer George, who along with Brian and Lynda (and Ian, Nathan, Josh and Ed in the background) has been working hard. In the distance the Visitor Centre is to the left and Saltholme Pools hide to the right.
Surprisingly since last year, moles have arrived on the island and must be feasting on the large number of juicy earth worms that we have seen.
This is one of the many mole hills. Moles are known to be good at swimming but it must be a long stretch for such a small mammal from the wet grassland.
The work has to be done and sorry for any inconvenience, especially for those who want to see the Whooper Swans which were on the far side of the pool when we stared work - see Josh's and Dean's earlier blogs. They have been present for a few days so they may still be here for a while before moving to their winter quarters. This part of the reserve is also great at this time of year for seeing Golden Plover and wintering ducks. As you can see from Josh's blog photo one of the joys of being a volunteer is seeing the reserve in the early morning light when unlocking the hides - and I especially like seeing it on the flocks of Lapwing and Golden Plover.
And a final note - the whooper swans are so-called from their sound, and although most people now call them 'hooper' the original pronunciation is 'wooper'.
Peter