Old Moor RSPB

Some awesome insect shots there Galatas.

A fabulous gallery of shots there! Thank you for showing them to us. The dragonflies and butterflies in particular are responding well to our recent Indian summer and I think we're all enjoying a bit of warmth at long last!

The reserve team have been clearing the vegetation on the islands to restrict growth in the early part of the breeding season next year which will encourage our ground nesters like lapwings and even common terns. They set fires as opposed to using chemicals and therefore a run of dry weather provides conditions to get a burn going! Obviously, we also have to wait for the breeding season to be over, so a bit of September warmth is perfect for getting habitat mangement jobs like this don aswell!

Hope to see some more of your beautiful photos in the future.

:)

Thankyou

@Tree Sparrow. I have more photos from Old Moor here

Some good  shots  I ask myself Why cut all the grass it's a Nature reserve!!

Hi Webbo

Just about every aspect of grassland on a nature reserve needs managing - either by cutting or grazing. Otherwise unfortunately, you lose lots of the biodiversity you are trying to protect.

So for example, on the islands - these are designed for wetland birds to breed on - be it Black Headed Gulls, Avocets or Osytercatchers. If the vegetation gets too long, then there is no where suitable for these birds to nest. So cutting and burning on the islands is an essential tool to ensure we keep those breeding birds.

On our lowland wet grassland, we graze the grass at a low density to create the right conditions for breeding waders such as Lapwing and Redshank. However, wet grassland tends to get infested with Juncus (or rush). This is fine at low density but research has shown that once this gets to above a third of the surface area of the land then there is no where for the birds to feed and it is too dense to nest in. So, if the juncus is getting too dominant, we again cut the site to knock this back and create the right conditions.

And on our meadows, flowers like the orchids need a low grass density in the spring otherwise they get out competed. We wait until the autumn to ensure all the flowers have had a chance to flower and set seed. Then the grass is cut and the meadow grazed in the winter if needed. The next spring, the grass is low and the flowers can compete. If we didn't do this, the grass would just stay long and rank and the flowers would enentually go.

We do try to avoid disturbing both the birds and our visitors but unfortunately essential management has to happen otherwise down the line there wouldn't be anything for anyone to see!

We don't do work parties on weekends as we at our busiest and the visitor centre will always try and find out if the days work programme is likely to cause disturbance if you want to ring ahead.

Hope all that makes sense

Cheers

Matthew

Great pictures, Galatas.  What type of bee is the one 5th from the end.  I've had a few in my garden. : )

It's a common carder bumble bee. A fuzzy ginger bee which is lovely to see around OM and my garden too!

:)

Thank you Galatas! These are fab. I particularly love the great crested grebe, holly blue shots and the intensity of the dog rosehips against that deep blue sky!

When it comes to the fab bittern pics, they could be really useful aswell as wonderful to see here.... Do you know what date these were taken and roughly whether they were morning or afternoon at all? Our wardens are still trying to piece together records of adult and juvenile movements and sightings over the breeding and nesting period, so I know that they will be very excited to see some more pictures!

Thanks again!  :)

Thanks for the comments. I will PM you about the Bittern