Hello everyone, my name is Nick, another of the new residential volunteers here at Exe Estuary. My background is in tropical conservation of mainly marine species, so the RSPB is a bit of a diversion for me but excellent experience in UK conservation and species management, and a thoroughly worthwhile cause to get involved in.
Learning the ropes has been hard work, with a varied array of tasks to be performed each week. As well as many of the more physical tasks like replacing gate and fence posts I’ve taken part in a lot of the survey work that goes on here. Earlier in the week we attempted a butterfly survey on a cloudy afternoon only to find a handful of Spotted Skippers. We know there is a much greater diversity of species on the reserve but very few seemed to be out and about at that time. Today however myself and one of the part-time volunteers called Andrew were given the lapwing survey at Powderham Marsh. We were happy to find over a dozen birds still out on the fields including males, females and juveniles. We were both very pleased to find that a late nest that we had been keeping an eye on (#17) would seem to have hatched. We saw the female sitting on what appeared to be a nest last week but have had no contact since. But today Andrew and I saw a female with a very young chick within the close vicinity of the old nest. Other species seen on this morning’s survey were Canada Geese, Coots, Moorhens, a solitary Grey Heron, a pair of Oystercatchers and several Little Ringed Plover.
As regular blog readers will know we’ve recently had a problem with low voltage on one side of our Exminster Marsh predator fence, and yesterday I was dispatched with a small team to walk the perimeter of the fence to try to find the source of the problem. Other than a few tufts of grass getting a little confident and contacting the wires nothing much seemed to be wrong, so we’ll try to keep you up to date with that little mystery. The walk did yield some unexpected sightings however.
As we approached the eastern side of the predator fence near a sluice gate I caught sight of something blue sitting on a railing which quickly darted off down the ditch and into some reeds. I’ve never seen a bird in this country of such an intense shade of blue, and a later description of colour and behaviour unanimously established it as a Kingfisher. These incredible birds breed near water in lowland areas and feed on fish and aquatic insects and larvae. Further around the perimeter our resident student snapped a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly(pictured above), and finally near the same ditch as the Kingfisher we spotted a Hobby darting around just above us, presumably searching for dragonflies. None of us were able to get a picture of it but the reserve assistant Tom confirmed from a distance that we were correct in our identification.
We have spent quite a bit of time this week at Labrador Bay on the south coast trying to manage the bracken situation. The area is very important for the rare Cirl Bunting, a beautiful yellow, black and brown bird which you will only see in the south west of England in the UK. This delicate little bird has suffered greatly from farming alterations (the switch to silage production), loss of stubble fields where they spend the winter amongst broad-leaved weeds, and loss of invertebrate rich grasslands. Bushy coastal slopes like the RSPB’s reserve at Labrador bay are key habitat for the Cirl Bunting, so clearing the bracken to clear the way for less dominating grasses and flowers to grow though has become a priority in the area. Although there is a lot of bracken there we have made a dent this week, and this will be an ongoing project over the coming weeks and months.