Hello from the Exe Estuary Reserves :-). Mark here to update you :-).
We have been pretty busy this week and last week, mainly working on our workshop and monitoring the Lapwing as we are leaving the reserves undisturbed as much as possible during the breeding season.
We have almost finished the wooden cladding on our shipping container which was part of the planning application. We have also moved some materials and equipment around, ready for when we install a new fence around the outside of the workshop area. After that is finished, the workshop area will be fully completed, just in time for the summer work on the reserves :-).
In terms of work on the reserves, we are working on restoring a willow “house” (more like an igloo shape ;-)) and tunnel in the discovery area, which is just off Turf path. We are currently coppicing the overgrown vegetation and allowing it to re-grow, so that we can bend the willow and tie it together to form the shapes better at some point in the future.
We have also repaired a few gates, just in time for the cattle to start grazing again.
And finally, we have undertaken more Lapwing monitoring on the Exminster and Powderham reserves. We monitor the behaviour of the birds so that we know how many Lapwings will breed on the reserve and can compare it to previous years. We can also see which areas the birds prefer to nest in, which allows us to adjust the management of the reserve if this would help their chances of successful breeding.
Thanks for reading :-) and we’ll be back soon!
Mark