A False Spring?

At last this morning there was a bit of mid-winter sunshine to warm the heart and with it a few signs of spring across the reserve's lagoons with mallards chasing each other and greylags pairing up and looking for potential nest sites. 

Townend lagoon with a range of wildfowl this morning

With the current mild weather the lagoons are holding a good selection of dabbling ducks but with our shallow water levels no diving duck at all! Good though to see the wigeon feeding on the managed grass in front of Marshland lagoon this morning alongside teal, shelduck, gadwall and shoveler on the water. Its also been good to see a couple of mute swans using the recently rehabilitated Ousefleet lagoon.

Mute swans enjoying an easy if not appetizing meal 

There are still a few pink-footed geese flying over the reserve too 

Shoveler

Mallard looking very dapper

Wigeon are in fine fettle

Waders using the site are still low in number but include a few lapwings, redshank, snipe and the usual fly over curlew. Nice to see the little egret too continuing to grow its plumes ready for the breeding season. 

As per usual still good numbers of Marsh harriers about with buzzard, sparrowhawk, and barn owl all possible at roost time but interestingly kestrel numbers are almost non-existent and still no sign of hen harrier in the local area since the 1st January.  

The water pipits were notable by their absence this morning but that was maybe due to two sparrowhawks who were working the reserve, last Friday there was at least 4 knocking about and the odd stonechat. Smaller birds are mostly represented by the commoner species including tree sparrow, goldfinch, greenfinch, fieldfare, song thrush, cetti warbler (I reckon about 40 - 50 of these across the site this winter!), and then roving flocks of hungry titmice etc.

Stonechat 

Wood pigeon from this morning

Pied wagtail feeding on insects around the Konik dung

And a lovely fresh plumaged blue tit, they were looking for insects on the tips of the willows

Dunnock on the path to Ousefleet - such delicate plumage at this time of the year

Some of our more observant visitors may have noticed that last week I cut the grass along the river bank down to Ousefleet, this is part of a trail we are doing to see if we can reduce down the vigour of the grass growth in spring for the benefit of the wildflowers. If its not too wet we will cut again in early March so that the cowslips can show off their full colour. The starlings seemed to enjoy the cutting too as they foraged for invertebrates the next morning.

And last week the team were busy reed cutting and burning in order to create a mosaic of habitats for the benefit of all our reedbed species. These areas are cut and then controlled burned so that the reedbed rejuvenates. It caused some interesting debate on facebook as to why the RSPB allows this but objects to burning on heather moorland and there were suggestions that we were Hypocritical. So for those interested here is clarification as what is the full detail in regards burning on different habitats. 

• The RSPB objects to burning on deep peat only (peat of generally 40 - 50cm deep) - this is because these areas should really be wet and have bog habitat on them particularly sphagnum that is killed by burning particularly if the peat is dry and the burn hot (on artificially drained bogs). Also if the peat is dry and the burn deep then peat temperatures are raised and stored carbon lost. A good wet bog should manage its own habitat through natural processes and light grazing if required.  
• The RSPB does not object to heather burning if done on shallow peat (heath rather than wet bog) as long as it is done correctly and at the right time of year and within guidelines as set out for good conservation and land management - it can have the same benefits as burning of some grasslands and reedbeds. There are some alternatives to burning such as cutting and removing the heather but off course sometimes it is cheaper to burn small areas and money doesn't always come easy these days for anybody.
• And in regards Blacktofts reedbed burning, we are on estuarine silt, and the burn is controlled and managed for conservation purposes. Ideally we would not want to burn and remove the material but it would use as much fossil fuel as the burning creates carbon, would be costly and difficult in a wet reedbed and give or take the carbon balance from the new reed growth should offset some of the carbon released by the burning. Give or take its better than leaving the reedbed to become woodland for the species we want to manage for.

There is plenty of reports on line so if you are really interested and have a read and make your own mind up on the pro's and cons of burning for conservation for different habitats, but we should not demonize all burning, just those practices that do more damage than good.

Mammal activity has been a little subdued although I got sent a grizzly but amazing photo from our next door neighbour who was saying how the stoats were decimating the local rabbit population! I suspect its more than one in ten, worse than the Roman army!

And I also got sent another snap of the great-white egret from last week by Tim and Si

I'll end this brief blog with a few landscapes from the start of the new year, its going to turn a bit colder over the next couple of weeks so we will see if there is a change in fortune with the mix of species on site

Sunset

Sunrise