This week we finally achieved something that I've been itching to do for the last few years - tackle some of the really dense bramble at the far end of the reserve near the railway line. This area hasn't been touched since the reserve was created, and has developed into a thick block of impenetrable bramble. As this becomes over-mature, its value to wildlife decreases. So why have we not got in before now and cut it back? The area is set down in a steep-sided hollow edged with a carpet of rocks, and it was thought that the ground below was full of rocks too (we couldn't get in to look as the bramble was too dense), making it too dangerous to cut with a brushcutter (the metal blade would shatter and fly off), and too uneven to take a tractor in. So we'd talked about trying to manage the bramble at various meetings over the years, but decided that there wasn't any practical way to do it, so it would unfortunately have to be left to its own devices. But RG Hire, the company from Anglesey that do all our digger work, mentioned last time they were here that they had a flail that you could mount on a tracked digger, so we asked whether this machine would be able to go in and safely cut the bramble, and they were happy to give it a try.
Our skilful digger driver John came in last week with the flail, gingerly made his way down over the rocks and opened up a series of bays in the bramble, and once he had cut a few, we could see the ground below, exposed for the first time in 20 years, was actually much more even and rock-free than we'd thought. Hopefully this means that we'll be able to get in every few years and give it a good bashing!! Opening up these bays will benefit a range of species - the young bramble that grows back will be more suitable for nesting birds, and the open areas will act as sheltered sun traps (does anyone remember the sun?), the edges of which will be great for butterflies, bees and wasps, all feeding on the nectar-rich bramble flowers. And by connecting the open bays up with the path along the edge, it should be much easier for folk to see birds flitting across the open spaces, instead of having the frustrating feeling of being able to hear something singing in the depths of the bramble but never seeing more than a second's glimpse of it! It's so satisfying to finally get this done.
Our bird populations seem to have been fairly stable over the last few weeks; the 3 scaup are still with us, we have up to 5 goldeneye, 16 shoveler, 19 black-tailed godwit, 8 pochard and a single pintail. Snipe numbers are creeping up, with 52 seen yesterday, there were 116 lapwing this morning, and siskins and lesser redpolls have finally put in a late appearance this winter. A merlin was spotted on 9th January, and 2 rock pipits were on the estuary earlier in the month. All the recent rain has meant that we're finally near to achieving the winter water levels that we'd like in the lagoons too - the Deep Lagoon has gone up by 20 cm in the last 3 weeks by rainfall alone, which is great news for all our wintering wildfowl, and hopefully also means that we'll go into the summer with enough water to last through until next winter without the Shallow Lagoon drying out completely. Dry ground sounds like a very strange concept at the moment though!