At Fowlmere, as at other reserves, facilities such as hides and paths need maintaining, and habitats need to be managed. Sometimes, striking the balance between providing facilities for our visitors and allowing people to enjoy those facilities is difficult to get right. However, we recognise that occasionally such work can temporarily interfere with our visitors' enjoyment of the reserve, so in future I will try to give advance notice of such activity.
Our regular visitors will know that we have a weekly work party almost every Thursday, when our volunteers help to manage the habitats and maintain the hides and other visitor facilities. Usually the work programmme for the day is worked out in advance, but occasionally we have to make decisions at short notice.
This coming Thursday we plan to work in two parts of the reserve. The main task will be continuing to manage the willows and reedbed in front of Drewer Hide, where we will be both improving the habitats for wildlife such as reed warblers and water rails, and improving the view from the hide. Last winter we were privileged to have a hen harrier roosting in the reedbed for several weeks, but people in Drewer Hide were frustrated by seeing only fleeting glimpses of the bird as it flew past gaps in the bushes. If it returns again this winter, views will be much better after we have cut back the bushes.
The other task is maintaining part of the roof of Reedbed Hide. Normally it is not good practice to work near two hides simultaneously, but we do have to take advantage of the availability of specialist volunteers who can do particular jobs. This particular task is part of the programme of work aimed at extending the life of this popular hide, and should take less than an hour. We may have to close the hide for a short period so that visitors are not sitting under the workers, but believe me we will be trying to get this job done as swiftly as possible - working on an exposed roof in December is nobody's idea of fun!
These two work areas make up a very small proportion of the reserve, and the rest of the reserve will be available to be enjoyed. Redwings and fieldfares should still be all over the place, and maybe some waxwings will call in again. Enjoy!