It's been one of those weeks here at Greylake, West Sedgemoor and Swell Wood, where a lot of things haven't gone quite as planned. The tractor at Greylake broke down on Tuesday, meaning we lost two days of topping and with the winter weather looming, there won't be many more good days left. Wednesday was pretty miserable, in fact the weather generally has been rather unpleasant, although our volunteers soldiered on through it, coppicing willow at Greylake. If you've visited, you may have noticed the work we've done so far in the swampy area below the Treetop hide. You may have questioned us cutting down trees, but we do this to prolong the life of the willows without letting them get too large. It's an important tool to create the type of habitat we want.
On Friday we had intended to replace the signs on the path to the hide at Swell Wood that had been vandalised, but it took us so long to make them that we ran out of time. I had also intended to open up the scarp trail but found a large tree fallen on some of the steps, so didn't manage to do that either. However, look out for more news on this next week.
The last housekeeping point is to say that I discovered three of the windows in the Lookout Hide at Greylake has been forced open and propped up with sticks. This is clearly not safe and the windows have now been relocked. We do appreciate the frustration of the windows being locked, especially if you are trying to take pictures and the windows have condensation on them, but unfortunately it is a necessary measure to protect against Covid. In order to open the hides, we needed to reduce the contact points people would touch and potentially pass the virus to, including the window handles and catches. We want to keep the hides open for your enjoyment, however we will have to consider closing them again if problems persist.
In order to give people some clear view, without letting too much weather in, we have removed one window in the Treetop hide. We can't remove them in the Lookout hide because the internal flooring is not designed to get wet and could potentially be damaged. Please bear with us while these measures need to be in place.
The bottom right hand window in the middle section of wall has been removed.
Moving on to wildlife news, we are very much poised on the brink of the wintering flocks returning. Lapwing numbers continue to build at West Sedgemoor and have been spotted arriving at Greylake too. The first golden plover flock was seen at Greylake on Thursday. As of yet, the only ducks I have seen are mallards, but the surface water levels may need to increase before the wigeon and teal flocks really start to move in. I've also been flushing increasing numbers of snipe from the ditch edges at West Sedgemoor when I'm out on the quad bike, so look out for them popping up at Greylake as well.
I saw my first ever harvest mouse at Greylake. It was even smaller than I had imagined they would be and exceedingly cute. It was down in the vegetation behind the Treetop hide and some kind visitors pointed it out to me as I was doing my weekly checks. Just shows, it's always worth taking the time to look carefully. We think there are good numbers of harvest mice at Greylake, based on adhoc sightings, as we don't do any surveying for them.
I also had a nice sighting of a great white egret fishing on the pong at Greylake. I thought I'd put my camera in my bag but apparently I hadn't, so I had to make do with my phone. Thankfully it was close enough to still get some sort of shot.
I just managed to find a gap in the vegetation.
The egret almost flew off a couple of times but the plants provided enough cover that I didn't scare it away completely.
Moving on from fauna to flora, a couple of my colleagues had mentioned that there seemed to be a lot of acorns up at Swell Wood this year. I certainly found that to be the case when I raked the path last week. I've since heard that this year is a mast year. The trees, such as oak and beech, all co-ordinate to produce a bumper crop of acorns and other seeds, far more than can be eaten by the birds, deer, squirrels and other animals. This ensures a good amount of new saplings can germinate. It is thought that the spring weather may determine when a mast year occurs.
You may find more acorns that usual on the paths at Swell Wood.
We've also reached fungi season and you may start to spot mushrooms growing, from the ground or on trees. I saw several different species when I was walking round Swell Wood on Friday, including this large cup type.
And this much smaller variety.
I'm not a fungi expert, or even a beginner, and mushrooms can be difficult to identify even with a book, so I won't attempt to do so. I'm sure some of you might know what these types are.
That's all this week.
Take care,
Kathryn
West Sedgemoor Residential Volunteering team
Hi Mike and Leonard Thank you for getting in touch with your feedback. I am sorry to hear you were disappointed with your visit to Greylake. I fully share your frustration at the hide windows needing to be closed at the moment. Our work here and across the RSPB is all only possible thanks the generosity of our members and supporters and we are incredibly grateful for your continued support at this challenging time.
When it comes to the re-opening of facilities on RSPB reserves, each site has been done on an individual basis as there are a lot of considerations. A huge priority is of course the safety of our visitors, staff and volunteers, so we have looked at what is possible within the government guidance and also within the staffing and conditions we have at each site.
Hide windows are a touch point, which we want to limit as much as possible at the moment. At some sites, this has meant that the windows are being fixed open, but at Greylake, due to the prevailing wind and weather coming in the direction that the windows face, we took the decision to keep them all closed, to prevent likely damage to the hide through the winter. In order to give people some clear views, without letting too much weather in, we have removed one window in the Treetop hide. Sadly, we can't remove them in the Lookout hide because the internal flooring is not designed to get too wet and so would be damaged by the winter weather. There is variation in what happens at different reserves because it depends on the conditions at the site and the staffing available. Some sites have larger teams which allow them to regularly wipe down the windows that are being opened and closed when used, but we are a small team here, so in order to keep people safe and reduce the number of touchpoints, we have had to fix our windows to follow current guidance. Ideally they would be abled to be opened and closed as we have been able to do at Ham Wall, but is not possible in all instances due to the negative impact the wet winter weather can have on individual hides.
I appreciate that this unfortunately means the views from the hide this winter may not be as good as you are used to. We are cleaning the windows on a weekly basis to keep them as clear as possible. I hope this helps to alleviate your concerns and you can continue to enjoy the reserve during this challenging time for us all.
Many thanks for your reply but keeping the windows closed is going to cost you a lot of member.
Len collard