Our workload over the Christmas period has been mainly just keeping an eye on things. Staff and volunteers have visited the reserve daily for general checks along footpaths and for any damage to gates and fencelines. With the strong winds and heavy rain over the recent weeks we have also been looking out for fallen trees and flooded areas. In fact, this last week has brought water levels on the reserve to their highest so far this winter. Most of the water ditches bordering the fields have broken their banks and large areas of Exminster Marshes and Powderham Marshes Reserve are now flooded. The Turf footpath is currently impassable.
We have continued to top up and monitor our two Cirl bunting feeding stations at Powderham Marshes and both are being well used. Our crop fields and their surrounding hedgerows are also busy with good numbers of linnet, goldfinch and chaffinch. As the weather gets colder and other food supplies diminish, we can expect to see more birds in these areas.
Our volunteer work group has continued its good work hedge-laying at Powderham Marshes – the creation of more Cirl Bunting feeding and nesting habitat.
The reserve’s livestock numbers are now reduced to their winter level, which is about twelve head of cattle. Over the winter they will serve to keep grass growth in check – advantageous for our overwintering and ground-nesting birds. The reserve could not support higher numbers of cattle with the reduced winter vegetation and would be detrimental to the ground which has become extremely wet and flooded in areas.
Projects for the New Year include completing work on the new predator fence at Exminster Marshes, replacing the viewing platform at Powderham Marshes and sorting out the water pump at Bowling Green Marshes to better manage water levels there.
Other work over the recent period has included our WeBS bird surveying - held simultaneously and at high tide (when a larger number of birds are forced off the coastline and inland) over the three local reserves which make up Exminster Marshes. They include Exminster Marshes, Powderham Marshes, Bowling Green Marshes and Goosemoor. Numbers of wading birds continue to increase and there are encouraging numbers of Avocet, Black-Tailed Godwit, Lapwing, and Curlew.