On Wednesday it had become due time to tidy up the car park at the exe estuary. So with this in mind we fuelled up and prepped the brush cutters and set off to cut back the overgrown grass. There is something about those brush cutters with the hum of the engine and the repetitive motion which really puts you in your own little world. That is till the cutting cord breaks and you need to re-coil and thread the head. I hadn’t even used a brush cutter before coming to the exe, the closest I got was an old electric Flymo strimmer and now here I am stripping down and re-assembling one like I’m on manoeuvres with the paras. Well that might be a slight exaggeration, but it feels like that when you’re out there. Then when the car park is finished it’s time to move onto some footpaths and gates. Well why not? We’re all dressed for it so we may as well make the most of it. It’s always satisfying to finish the day and look back across where you have been and really see a difference.
Other news;
The barnacle goose is still on the reserve and has become a familiar face to regulars. The ross’s gull is still showing well at Bowling green. A small group of lapwings have moved their young over to the new predator fence area, making all our efforts last week worthwhile. Grass snakes, common lizards and slow worms are being seen regularly around the reserve. And a juvenile peregrine flew over Matford Marsh reserve yesterday morning. Work up at the Powderham viewing platform is making steady progress. Breeding bird surveys got us out of bed early twice this week including some extra help we managed to get in order to cover the large area in our Exminster marsh survey. Lots of birds are still visiting the residential volunteers feeders which you may remember being a hot topic of previous blogs. And the Thursday volunteer work party took us to Labrador Bay which you can read more about on the Labrador bay blog.