This week has been productive, despite the sudden gale force storms that seem to materialise out of thin air and then disappear before I’ve had time to put my waterproofs on.
On Monday, Ashley and I did a full perimeter sweep of the electric fence at Greylake, replacing insulators and patching up holes in the wire mesh. It looks as though badgers and potentially foxes are getting on to the reserve, which we really need to stem while birds are breeding. It’s quite a distance to cover, and in typical fashion, the very next day one of the electrified wires snapped and I was back out with Steve to replace it.
On Thursday we finally finished laying our first hedge! It’s been quite the journey (and I have many splinters to show for it) but the end result looks great and it should hopefully grow into a really nice habitable hedge over the coming years.
RSPB Staff
Most excitingly, we had a surprise visit from a white-tailed eagle this week!
Once extinct in the UK, reintroduction projects in Scotland and more recently the Isle of Wight have seen this enormous bird of prey return to our shores. Heavier and bulkier than a golden eagle, if you see what appears to be a barn door flying through the sky, it’s probably one of these!
James Conder
The bird in question settled for the night on our West Sedgemoor reserve before moving on. Fortunately, one of our volunteers, James, managed to take these pics through his telescope one morning before it left the reserve. You can learn more about the travels of the reintroduced Isle of Wight population here.
So, all very exciting, don’t know how we’re going to top that, but I’ll see you next week anyway!
Luke
West Sedgemoor Residential Volunteering team