View From The Shed by Shaun Finnie - BACK TO BED

BACK TO BED

After last week's somewhat depressing blog ('Save the Whale?' - click the link to read it if you haven't already) it's time to get back to happier things. Thankfully I've got a whole blogful of good news to serve up. Drum roll please....

RSPB Old Moor's Reedbed Path has now finally reopened!

It's been fenced off for the entire summer while some of our star species have been making smaller star species behind closed doors, so to speak. They're the reason that many visitors come to Old Moor so it's only fair that we give them a little privacy while they procreate. Don't you just hate it when unwanted visitors are marching up and down outside your front door while you're trying to... you know? Exactly. And with telescopes too.

So we left them to it. And when their chicks hatched, we gave them a little more time again so that the young 'uns could get acquainted with their surroundings. We wouldn't want them getting lost.

Some people have complained that we should have opened the path and its hide much earlier. Some say that we shouldn't have closed it at all. I understand that it's been a frustrating time and I too would have liked to go and see what was happening down in the reeds but I make no apologies for our wardens' decisions. They've done what decades of RSPB experience tells us is best for the birds and that will always be our prime driving force. After all, that's what this particular reserve and all the others are here for. Yes, they're great for education, for photographing wildlife, for mental wellbeing, for playing in and even (at Old Moor particularly) for getting a decent slab of cake, but every RSPB reserve's primary raison d'etre is, to paraphrase a well known logo, to give nature a home. That's what our reedbeds are; nature's home.

Sadly, just then we were about to reopen, we had to postpone for a few final weeks due to the presence of a nest full of aggressive wasps (are there any other kind?). They defended their territory admirably and chased off more than one blue-clad volunteer but thankfully they've moved on/died of natural causes/been eaten by some brave, mysterious predator. It's one or the other and frankly I don't really care which. I know that they have their place in the great scheme of things but I'm not a fan of wasps in general, having once had a stripey spike of nastiness sneak unnoticed into a sandwich I was eating. I'll not go into details but suffice to say that it was like chewing angry glass. My only consolation was that even though my lips ended up poutier than an entire family of Kardashians', at least I came out the better of the two of us.

Since we were last able to visit the superstars in the reeds there have been a few line-up changes. We've got a whole gaggle of new baby BEARDED TITS for starters. At least ten fledged, adding to our small but important colony of Reedlings. It's true that they're the most elusive of all the birds on our reserve – they've won our annual Hide & Seek competition every year since their arrival – but they're no less important for that. With only around 650 breeding pairs in the country, their success is to be celebrated.

Our MARSH HARRIERS gave us four fledglings too. They've mostly dispersed now but you'll still see flights along the river at the back of the reserve. There's no place like home, even for an avian killing machine. The RSPB figures claim just 400 breeding pairs of these. That's frighteningly low so we're pleased to have this breeding success. And it's always a joy to see them, unless you're a prey that's being harried in the marsh.

And our BITTERNS have added to the population as well. Just two youngsters have taken to the air this year but that's enough to keep the species going for another generation. As there are fewer than 100 breeding males across the whole of Britain, every single bird counts. Look at that number again, and compare it to the number of people who live on your street. That comparison brings the miniscule number into sharp focus and perfectly illustrates why we need to recreate the necessary habitats for these evasive herons. They've bred here for the last decade and that's as a direct result of the hard work of the RSPB staff and volunteers, which in turn was enabled by your support. Thank you.

KINGFISHERS, STOATS and WATER RAILS are all being seen regularly around the screen and Reedbed hide too. It's as if they've been secluded in their private little world for so long that they've forgotten they're supposed to be wary of human interlopers.

There's a newly-unlocked world of natural wonder waiting to be explored in that quarter-mile path on the left hand side of the reserve. So please, come back to our reedbeds. You'll be pleased that you did.