Hi everyone! My name is Joshua and I’ve been volunteering for almost two weeks now, making the most of my summer break from university to help out with all the hard work going on at this time of year at the Exe estuary sites.
My first taste of wildlife conservation work has been action-packed and educational – on my first day getting stuck in with lapwing monitoring over on Powderham Marsh. I’d never seen lapwing before so it was an amazing experience to watch the adults with their (nearly fledgling) young.
At this stage in the breeding season it is pretty tricky to distinguish the four-week-old chicks from their parents, so luckily our resident lapwing expert Phil was on hand to give me a few pointers (the chicks have a slightly stockier figure, a shorter crest, and tend to exhibit lots of preening behaviour in preparation for their first take to the wing).
A particular highlight for me so far has been taking part in a dragonfly survey this time last week, you can’t beat spending a few hours out-and-about on a gorgeous sunny Friday afternoon; we saw plenty of azure and blue-tailed damselflies and a couple of hairy dragonflies and broad-bodied chasers. I even got to see a dragonfly feeding on a damselfly, something I didn’t realise took place. Sadly for Steve, the wind picked up a bit in the afternoon and we didn’t make any confirmed sightings of scarce chasers, but that’s not to say they’re not about!
This week we’ve been doing some targeted dock and creeping thistle control around the lagoon – we don’t want to let them go to seed to spread further for next year – and it’s been nice to see plenty of new mallard, mute swan and coot families gliding about out on the water.
Tom and I went over to Bowling Green in mid-week and brush cut some of the taller grasses and hogweed that were threatening to obscure the estuary from the viewing platform, it was another scorcher and working the strimmer in hot weather is thirsty work.
Yesterday we had another busy day with a bumper volunteer work party – repairing another stretch of fence knocked down by some itchy cows (before and after shots below), and taking down a section of predator fence. Coiling hundreds of metres of electric cable is a real workout, so who needs a gym membership when you can volunteer with the R.S.P.B.?!
The before shot, the broken fence lying around the sluice board. Photo Credit; Dennis McWilliam
The after shot, Aurelie looking happy with the new fence. Photo Credit; Dennis McWilliam