Campfield Marsh

A blog for you by one of our amazing volunteers - Marjorie. I'd just like to say that we are a small team here on the Cumbria Coast and we would be lost without the dedication and help from our volunteers. It's not only their helping with practical work or in the visitor centre but their continued support with everything over the years. The good news is you too can be part of this amazing team! Fancy volunteering…

Some six months ago Mhairi MacLauchlan (RSPB Cumbria Coast Warden) installed a stamp collection bin in the Wetlands Centre on Campfield Marsh RSPB Reserve. Due to the diligence of visitors to the Reserve and particularly to Dave Smith who has been collecting stamps from the local West Coast Group for quite a while now, we were recently able to dispatch our first posting of in the region of 7,000 used stamps in aid of this…

Autumn is making itself know! That's been pretty obvious over the last week or so. Particularly the 600 strong flock of fieldfare that flew in front of the hide on Monday. We've also had redwing about as well. As Marjorie's blog at the beginning of the week mentions we have been seeing flocks of whoopers in the area which have also been roosting at Campfield. They are best seen in the morning coming out…

On a very misty morning the Thursday work party set about cutting back the gorse to improve the view at the lay-by east of the reserve entrance. The gorse bushes all along the marsh were laced with spiders’ webs threaded with beads of moisture. 

The mist was so thick that we couldn’t see the shore where waders roost at high tide, but suddenly we heard the call of whooper swans and six of them emerged from the…

At this time of year, the thoughts of the Thursday work party volunteers turn to gorse; more particularly to the coppicing and cutting back of this prickly shrub. With about four kilometres of gorse along the shoreline area of Campfield Marsh reserve, once the nesting season is well over there’s always some section that needs cutting back to produce the dense bushes that birds such as linnets like to nest in.

Although some are passage migrants their "wink" "wink" raises the excitement of birdwatching a notch or two!

Another one from Marjorie Hutchin

The big creatures seen at Campfield get a lot of attention; and it’s good to see roe deer on the moss, an occasional marsh or hen harrier flying over is exciting and the ospreys that have hung around on the shore for the last few weeks have been intriguing, but the smallest creatures can be fascinating too.

I was on duty at the Visitor Centre on Sunday (volunteers staff the…

By Volunteer Marjorie Hutchin

One of the bonuses of being a Thursday work party volunteer is seeing wildlife on the reserve while you’re working. Today we met up at Rogersceugh and before we had even set off for the morning’s work a barn owl flew below the drumlin and landed on a post. As we walked down to the bog we heard the squeal of a water rail and the barn owl flew ahead of us and posed beautifully for everyone…