The ditch clearance work at Powderham is now complete and the ditches are starting to fill with water and pleasingly the levels pick out and follow the shallow gradients up the sides. This section of the reserve has been transformed in recent weeks; the effect of the clearance work has been dramatic, revealing an open landscape, which should be very desirable for our breeding lapwing. The removal of scrub, previously used by predators, such as perching crows and skulking foxes has pulled fields together and taken away the disjointed, broken-up feel that scrub and reed lines create.
Pushing our luck before the onset of winter the last machinery on site has been preparing some of the arable fields for the breeding lapwing. Despite all the grassland areas on the reserve, the breeding birds still favour the areas that we cultivate; they seem to enjoy the open fields, lack of vegetation and bare earth. To avoid having to kill the opportunistic vegetation that grows on these cultivated fields throughout the year, we aim leave the work until the latest possible time, which is always a little bit of a gamble in case the weather suddenly turns wet over night. But once again, good local knowledge of the substrate and the ground got the job completed, with now very little left of the growing season and hence chance of opportunistic vegetation establishing.