Reserve Updates
With the end of the breeding season now upon us the team have been incredibly busy with a variety of vegetation management tasks such as clearing reed and other annual vegetation from in front of Hanson hide and the Viewing Screen. These new views have been very well received with incredible views of a variety of waders from glossy ibis to wood sandpiper, little stint, curlew sandpiper and even a juvenile water rail all close in. We have also started our programme of pushing back annual vegetation growth from around the trails and other viewing structures such as Scott Lookout now the viper’s bugloss has finished flowering.
The ARC raft has been largely repaired with only a few small jobs remaining including the replacement of the stone, but this will wait until the water levels start rising again to allow the raft to get close into shore. This will also mean that we will be able to hopefully get the raft re-deployed out into its new location near the Viewing Screen.
The big habitat management task of August was the raising of the ARC islands which look fantastic. It was amazing to see a real mix of substrates coming out from the vicinity of the islands and this should make them very interesting moving forward. The new heights will mean that they will be out of the water for longer and we hope that this will be all year providing year-round viewing from Hanson and hopefully breeding habitat for some of our seabirds too.
ARC Islands
Avian Flu has finally eased off on the reserve, the number of dead gulls totalled 89 with an additional sandwich tern and gannet (a rare reserve record!) found dead on site. Although this is a large number, we have escaped the large death tolls experienced on some of the other seabird colonies in the UK. We must wait 2 months after the last infection to be classified as avian flu free and we are about 3 or 4 weeks into this currently. Once we are clear we hope to get out onto Burrowes Pit and start clearing some of the islands, until the risk of infection is reduced, we can’t undertake this task!
Our consents for habitat management have all been signed off by Natural England which means we will be able to carry out our ambitious winter task programme which will involve the cutting of all willow regrowth in the Oppen Pits to provide opportunities for our fen vegetation to come through. We will continue our programme of willow reduction within the reedbed which has supported breeding bittern and marsh harrier again this year. We will also be able to further reduce scrub coverage around the margins of New Excavations, the Water Tower Pits, ARC South and around the nature trail to continue to provide the wildlife spectacle that is Dungeness.
We are having some narrow foot drains dug into some of the wet grassland fields to help keep them wetter for longer. Foot drains are 4ft wide, 30cm deep features which will help to hold water for longer which is so important after dry years like this one. We are also hoping to invest in some small solar pumps to help this situation as well. This work will be happening in late October if the ground conditions hold for that long and we will be sharing some images of this happening as and when this is happening.
There are other projects we are also working on to further improve habitats in the short and long term and we will let you know more as this is confirmed. It’s very exciting times out on the reserve!
Monthly Sightings
What a cracking month August was for sightings! Plenty of birds starting to pass through on migration making it a great time to visit the reserve.
Lydden Valley
As many of you know we have a sister reserve called Lydden Valley. Vicki, the warden, has been in position for a few months now and has an update for how the restoration project is coming along.
Over at Lydden Valley, work is still ongoing with the WEG-funded wetland restoration project, which seeks to convert 3 former arable farms into a wet grassland haven for nature. Even with such an extreme drought this summer, work done on two of the farms, Minnis and Willow, has already paid dividends, with lapwing, redshank, avocet, little ringed plover, coot, gadwall and greylag goose all breeding successfully this season.
This month, work started on the last of the three farms to be converted under the project – Blue Pigeons. This will see 3 new scrapes going in, as well as a low bund around the area which should hold water over the winter and into the breeding season. It’s an exciting time as we try to get the project completed and we are grateful to have been given until the end of November to see this work through.
Blue Pigeon works
Proving RSPB is not just about birds, we have also been surveying plants, bees, dragonflies and damselflies around the site, and have had some notable recordings, including Large Bumble Bee (B. ruderatus), Four-spotted chaser and the rare Slender Club-rush.
Four Spotted Chaser
With return migration just starting, we expect to have some more interesting sightings over the coming months – particularly if we finally get some rain!