Winter hasn’t seemed to have taken full hold yet with mild, still mornings being common here at Exminster Marshes and many leaves yet to fall off the trees. Beautiful shades of russet, gold and brown cover the hedges and the late morning sunrises mean it’s a wonderful time to come and see the wintering waders and wildfowl on our reserve.
This last week saw our bi-annual regional meeting take place right here in Exminster where we played host to nearly one hundred people from all over the RSPB South West region. The event was a great chance to get to know other long term volunteers from around the area and also hear about all the amazing projects that we are doing to provide a home for nature. The reserve looked in great shape thanks to the hard work of the staff and volunteers here and afternoon walks meant people got to have a good look at the cirl bunting using our feeders at the Powderham side of the reserve. For many people it was the first time they’d seen one of our star species. Why not come and take a look for yourself?
Last week wasn’t all about showing off our reserve and chatting. As Dan said in the previous blog we’ve been continuing our hard work with the predator fence, putting in wire mesh to block up the areas where there is no electric fence in place, fixing gates and securing areas over the ditches, stopping only briefly to watch majestic flocks of dark-bellied Brent geese fly overhead. This is long and physical work that will be continuing for the next few weeks but hopefully it will pay off when we start to see lapwings nest in the fields.
We also carried out hedge laying at Powderham, this ancient technique involves half cutting the stems of mature hedgerow species and literally laying them on their sides and weaving them around each other. This means the hedges are naturally stock proof, continue to grow and most importantly provide protection and a home for many different types of nature. Our regular group of Thursday volunteers were rewarded for all their hard work with Dan’s chocolate flapjacks, which were an unprecedented success. He has set the bar particularly high for this coming Thursday.
We have a family volunteering day hedge laying on Exminster Marshes this Saturday 7 December at 10am – 3pm. Phone 01392 432691 to book a place.
I also got to see some avocets for the first time over at Bowling Green Marsh, which was a life first for me. The viewing platform that looks out across the estuary at high tide is your best chance of seeing the species, and the hide at Bowling Green this last week has had sightings of pintail, long-tailed duck and bar tailed godwit amongst the other, more abundant species. It’s rewarding to see such a wide range of birds knowing that our work around the Exe Estuary is paying off for nature.
All in all it was another busy, exciting week on the reserve. Next week’s blog may well be from Maverick...or Snowy as we call him!
Daniel Mason
Long-term Residential Volunteer
RSPB Exe Estuary