It's been a busy month here at Beckingham Marshes with our hedgelaying along Old Trent Road taking up most of our time. This is coming on very well, with the hedge looking excellent - not a bad job at all by us amateurs! Hedgelaying is an old traditional practice, used for creating 'living' stock proof barriers without the need for fences or walls, a well laid hedge is not only functional, it also looks lovely and rejuvenates older hedges, creating a dense corridor perfect for a range of wildlife. So far we have completed around a quarter of the hedge and are hoping to get as far as half way before we stop for the breeding season, finishing the job next winter.
Our boundary hedges at Beckingham are a nice peripheral habitat to the wet grassland that we manage for breeding waders that forms the core part of the reserve. Bird life in these areas includes our large and very successful colony of tree sparrows, but also yellowhammer, linnet and a variety of warblers in the breeding season. Many of these farmland species have undergone steep declines in the last 40 years - in particular tree sparrows, suffering population decreases of 95% between the 1970's and 1990's. Our hedgerow management is therefore providing an important home for nature on the reserve.
Other recent sightings include 150 wigeon on wet scrapes viewable from the viewing screen, up to 40 mallard with smaller numbers of teal and gadwall, 45 lapwing on site last week, green woodpecker and sparrowhawk. The wet grassland areas of the site are wetting up nicely, with all scrapes full and water starting to 'flash' out onto surrounding grassland. We aim for full scrapes and around 30% flashing at this time of year and we have definitely hit out target, particularly at the western end of the site. This will benefit breeding lapwings during the breeding season, making food easily accessible for them and their chicks and is attracting the larger numbers of wildfowl we have been enjoying in the last few weeks.
Full scrapes and surface flashing - perfect for wintering wildfowl and breeding lapwing. Colin Wilkinson (rspb-images.com)