It is hard to believe that August is here, the summer is racing by, however there is the constant reminder from the natural world, as duck broods can be seen bobbing on the open water areas, dragonflies actively hawk the ditches and some of the migrant birds start to return from their breeding grounds to prepare for the winter in the UK. The numbers of waders can be seen starting to build at Bowling Green Marsh and it fills me with a sense of excitement and expectation as we await the return of large flocks of wildfowl and waders and of course the Avocets.
As the dry weather continues the wet grassland areas still feel the effects, but it does mean that our management work can continue at a pace. The control of rushes and unpalatable vegetation has been one of the main activities, as we seek to keep regulate of the amount growing in the fields. If the percentage gets too high it reduces the growth of the finer grasses, favoured more by wetland wildlife. Once our control work has finished the fields will be cut baled and material removed followed by grazing to nip out any re-growth. This will prepare the fields nicely for the winter wildfowl as they look to graze the short turf. It is always a fine balance as grassland structure is also important for wildlife, as many bird watchers will tell you our feathered friends always like to hide behind tussocks so not to be seen.
The baled material will then be used by our graziers to help over-winter their cattle and for the production of briquettes as a domestic fuel. After successfully creating samples from last years harvest there are additional trials that we would like to carry out this year which will help us progress this work and explore its possibilities as a method of disposing or some of the vegetation created from reserve management work.