My name is Emma and I am the current warden intern at St Aidans & Fairburn Ings. I will be here until September after which I will move on to RSPB Saltholme for another six months. I started back in March and I have loved my time here so far. I've been very lucky to have arrived at a great time of year. I've witnessed the arrival of many spring migrants, the trees bursting into blossom and the emergence of wildflowers, butterflies and bees. Maybe best of all though I’m starting to see some cracking moths in the moth trap each morning! But more on that in the next blog…
Blood vein moth
As well as enjoying my time outside surveying birds / flowers / insects etc, I've been doing some tough work and this blog is about some of the habitat management and surveying work that has been carried out at Fairburn Ings over the last few months alongside the outstanding work party volunteers.
One of the first jobs we did back in March was creating fish refuges, which are now visible in the South Lagoon on the coal tips. We made use of the regenerating scrub that had been removed from the reed bed earlier in the year, making it into bundles and tying them to stakes out in the water. This creates safe refuges for young fish so that more are able to reach maturity and reproduce, boosting the numbers and therefore increasing food availability for bittern, amongst other things. This was a great day, not only for the fish but also for me, as few things are more fun than getting a pair of waders on and getting out into the water. You'll be glad to hear no-one fell in (this time).
Fish refuges - Coal Tips
In April came the great flood. Well, maybe it wasn't that great but the water did get high enough for the road to Fairburn to be closed for a week or so. The lower parts of the reserve were also flooded which made some of the paths inaccessible for a while, it was all very dramatic! Naturally, following the flood there was a big clean up operation. This involved removing piles of debris left from the water and replacing various parts of the reserve that has been washed away.
A few weeks later and I couldn't believe my luck.. another chance to get some waders on. It was time to put out a tern raft into one of the lagoons. Along with my trusty co-waders, Mark and Tony, after navigating the choppy waters, and some hairy moments steering through the aforementioned fish refuges, we set anchor and the tern raft was in place! At the time of writing no terns have actually been seen using the raft, but hey, their loss.
Team tern raft
We are now well into butterfly season and with that has come the chance to do one of the best jobs imaginable.. butterfly transects. The favourable conditions for carrying out butterfly transects are still, warm, sunny days and so when days like this come around we get to walk the paths of the reserve looking for and counting butterflies. So far this year at Fairburn Ings we’ve recorded several species, including orange tips, common blues and a few small coppers.
Male common blue - Darren Starkey
Now June has come around, we’ve been starting to tackle the never-ending job of pulling up Himalayan balsam from around the reserve. As the name suggests, it is a non-native species and without control it can easily outcompete and overshadow the native flora on which many of our own insects depend, resulting in a monoculture that can quickly cover very large areas. So far, this work has been concentrated around the DIscovery trail so if you notice any bare patches, that will be why!
Himalayan balsam is something we tackle at Fairburn & St Aidan's - if you'd like to have a fun afternoon with us pulling it from St Aidan's - then please book on to our free muck in day on 8 July
https://www.facebook.com/events/1240652839657499/
Himalayan balsam