The end of this cold and snowy weather has been heralded by numerous sightings of Redwing and Fieldfare, and our bird feeders have been bustling with green and gold finches, chaffinches, robins and blue and great tits. On warmer days, the first Robins and Dunnocks can also be heard singing in our hedgerows. Goldcrests and Yellowhammers can also be spotted in the woods and hedgerows.
Bird counts in January revealed large numbers of Godwits, Avocets, Redshank, Curlew and Dunlin, as well as our usual numbers of Teal, Wigeon, and other ducks and geese. There has also been small groups of Pintail ducks and Snipe, and a couple of Grey Plovers were seen earlier this week.
The snow and rain has restricted some of our work on reserves: the past 2 days have seen the production of more than 20 new nest boxes by residential volunteers, ready for placing around the Exe Estuary over the coming weeks.
Plans for the new pond dipping platform at Exminster are firmly underway, starting this week with localised lowering of water levels, in order to get the first posts in place. The rain isn’t helping! Hopefully we'll be able to run some family pond dipping events by the summer.
Our regular Thursday work party has been doing a great job of laying many of the hedges around Powderham marshes and Labrador Bay. This Thursday we're starting on some of the hedgerows behind Devington Park in Exminster.