Here we are in the final week before Christmas - where has the year gone! Before some of us sign off for the festive period, here's a quick update about our work since the last blog.
Habitat managementWe’ve been doing a bit more reed cutting with the Softrak in a couple of locations, including our next area of reedbed rejuvenation. This is out to your left if you’re looking from the first viewing platform. In the new year we’ll swap the forage harvester attachment for the cutter/binder and start producing reed bundles for various purposes.
The latest area of rejuvenation, Phase 2 High, has flooded up nicely and is attracting wildfowl, grey heron and both meadow and water pipits. You may remember in my last blog I mentioned a new temporary viewing screen that we were going to put up in this area. There has been a slight delay on this unfortunately but we plan to get it up in very early January. You can still get good views from the canal bank on the way to the Avalon Hide, particularly from the bench looking across from the bank. In early December we had contractors ClearWater in using Truxor machines to cut reed. These are amphibious machines that can drive across hard ground to the waters’ edge, head straight into water and then power across to the reed we can’t reach with brushcutters or our Softrak machine. During the week they made it into a number of different compartments on the reserve and opened up views for visitors from various hides, screens and benches. They also worked on opening up channels that were becoming thick with reed, and created a few pools and scallops here and there. The work in front of Avalon Hide is particularly good, as Steve C mentioned in his last sightings blog, so do take time to visit the hide and see what you can spot in the newly cleared areas.
Photos by Ali Blaney - Truxors in Loxtons South
There is a bit more to finish off in the new year and we’ll update you on potential disturbance on the dates when they are due in.
Broomfields sluiceWe had a contractor in recently who helped us replace a leaky sluice on the north of the reserve, where compartment Broomfields (up near the woodchip factory) connects up with Ham Wall Rhyne, the ditch that winds around parts of the reserve and eventually takes water out into the canal. The sluice has been replaced with a simpler pipe structure that we can turn to allow water out or to retain it. This gives us much better control over the water level in this compartment which is great news for the wildlife and for our habitat management work.
Photos by Ali Blaney - Left photo shows pipe with rotational end in the compartment ditch, right photo shows other end of pipe with water flowing into Ham Wall Rhyne
And finally…It wouldn’t be Christmas without a BBQ or two! Last week we celebrated Christmas with our mid-week volunteer groups (our weekend gang already having had theirs on 03 December!) In the mornings we had the usual practical work going on, clearing and burning scrub on an island in Looks Rank (the compartment to the East of Avalon Hide). However the weather was not really on our side. On Wednesday the rain held off until we were just about to eat and the downpour that arrived led to rather soggy burger buns, instantly cold food and a pretty cold and wet team. But we carried on in typical hardy fashion and finished our BBQ (quickly!) On Thursday we managed to alter our plans at short notice and after a morning of more scrub work in the same location we decamped back to the Avalon Marshes centre and joined Natural England and Somerset Wildlife Trust staff and volunteers in the Saxon longhall. This meant a roof over our heads and an incredibly hot open fire pit in the centre to cook our food in the dry.
Our volunteers work incredibly hard throughout the year and we couldn’t keep Ham Wall going as it is without them, so it’s always a pleasure celebrating our achievements together as a team and thanking them for all their hard work. It was also nice to celebrate with our partner organisations too. We all work incredibly hard together across the Avalon Marshes to keep this special place in as good a condition as we can for the wildlife and for the people who come to enjoy it. Some of our volunteers will also be giving up their time over Christmas and New Year to keep the welcome building open too, so huge thanks in advance to them!
Photo by Julie Merrett, Natural England - festive feasting in the (warm and dry) Saxon longhall
I’ll end on that festive note and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year – don’t forget to enjoy the reserve, the starlings and other wildlife over the festive period, when the cabin fever sets in and you’ve eaten one to many mince pies!
Opening hours for the Welcome Building below, remember the reserve itself is open throughout.