Over the past few months we have had trigger cameras on the main island at Hodbarrow. These little boxes are left over a period of time and snap a pic when ever there is movement infront of the sensor. I'm sure many of you have used or seen these cameras before - they are a great tool. We have been using them to determine if and what sorts of predators have been on the island. Thankfully we didn't seem to pick up any…

And the winner is ................................ Hodbarrow's hotly contested sandcastle competition winner is.....Kianna with her castle complete with Pier, rock garden and decorations. Here is a picture of her below with the brilliant prize donated by Frame It. Their gallery and printing business in Millom is well worth a look.

(Photo Andy Deacon)

If you hadn’t guessed this was for our family fun day where…

My count of the dragonfly and damselfly species seen on the reserve in 2013 has now reached nine. There were two new species out today - the emerald dragonfly and the common darter. I only saw the females of these species, so it seems that the males are being polite and letting the females emerge first! Last week I saw a common hawker emerging three days in a row, but I haven't seen anything of them since. I hope they…

Nature is unpredictable

If someone had asked me at the start of 2013 which species of dragonfly or damselfly would I expect to see the most of this year, I would have answered without hesitation, “The Common blue damselfly”.

 In 2012 around the ponds and along the main tracks and even in the open grassland, clouds of common blues would rise in the air at every step, disturbed by me walking through their space…

Our gallery is teeming with life as usual! The reserve certainly has a number of excellent photographers snooping around the undergrowth or perusing from the hide. Then again Hodbarrow is just so Photogenic! If anyone takes any photos while on the reserve whether that's a close up of one of our many birds, insects or flowers, a sweeping panoramic of the duddon estuary and fells or simply one of the sandcastle you made…

Hi All,

We have two walks as part of the Black Combe walking festival. The first is a guided walk around the reserve Monday 27th of May 10.30 or a family walk on Thursday 30th of May. Have a look on the website for more details. There are lot's of other walks going ahead too with some fantastic guides who know the area well.

http://www.walkingfest.org.uk/index.html

Hope to see you down there

Cheers

Mhairi

Our terns are back!!! On Monday I had reports of 7 Little Terns at Hodbarrow a bit later in the week there were a few more and yesterday I had a high count of 20 on the island. Last year we had 13 as a peak count so it's looking good!  Could this be due to the loud speaker sending out Little Tern calls and attracting birds in - I hope so!! Common Terns and Sandwich are all at similar levels to last year - fingers crossed…

What a great time of year it is just now! It was a nice (hot almost)  day  here yesterday at Hodbarrow and the birds were everywhere. We now have migrants everywhere in the scrub with several whitethroat and sedge warblers being noisy throughout the reserve. There were 3 wheatears bobbing around on the slag at the sea wall. willow warblers and chiff chaffs are also enjoying the sun and are dotted in the willows.

 Photo Chris…

Wow what an afternoon I've had! Heading down to the reserve the sun was shining and the birds were singing! It was actually quite warm in the sun. When I got onto the reserve the usual Great Crested Grebe gang that have been making themselves at home near to where people feed the ducks were there chattering away. At White rock I sat down on the bench and set up my scope. With the calling of Sandwhich terns in my ears…

What a few weeks we have had. Going from snow drifts to sunshine. Although there are still drifts in the sheltered areas of the reserve it is starting to feel a little bit like spring (dare I say it!)

The big news of the week is the return of Sandwich Terns to the reserve. They are the first Terns to come back from their wintering grounds to Cumbria every year. It was great to hear and see them out on the mudflats on the…

Today was a clear up day on the island. Having deployed our first floating fence for the season we will be monitoring it throughout spring and summer to see if we need to make any tweaks for the second one. We moved gravel and wood to make things a little less conspicous from the hide. I have to say the fence looks good bobbing in the channel and hopefully with our tern decoys being made by Normans Wife Sarah and a speaker…

WANTED:

Marine protection for the only breeding black guillemots in England

Walking along the Cumbrian coast at this time of year, the cliffs with their sheer drops can look wild and inhospitable; it is easy to think that nothing could exist here. But come spring 8 million seabirds will make the long trip home to their breeding grounds around the UK’s coast; soon the cliffs will be alive with squabbling guillemots…

I took part in the beached bird survey a couple of weeks ago. My section covered Hodbarrow along to Borwick rails. The national beached bird survey takes place every year to monitor the bird mortality rate on our coastline. With 100's of volunteers covering many miles it is huge effort. Fortunately I only found one bird but I'm not sure we're counting stuffed penguins!

http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/projects…

When I was down yesterday scanning in front of the hide not only was there the now familar 7 Scaup but in my same scope field of view a vertical stripe jumped out on the green-winged teal. Not bad in one scope view at all. Other highlights incuded the gadwall, pochard, goldeneye and Red-breasted mergansers. After a few weeks of not seeing any great-creasted grebes on the reserve today I had four, two being by the duck…

Last week the work party happenned to land on the coldest and windiest day of the week. It was no surprise then that we were accompanied by one volunteer. Chris Lloyd Rogers has to be one of the most dedicated volunteers to show up on wednesday last week raring to go. For Chris' efforts the NWEM reporter turned up to snap a view pictures of us mid hammer! Despite the wind we managed to get alot done and are still going…

What a few days we've been having with snow on the ground one minute and rain the next washing it all away!

We have machinery on the main island again finishing of the work we started last year. They are creating channels to seperate the two  new islands and create an area for us to put our floating fences (for a more detailed explanation have a look through past blogs). This does mean that there might not be too…

Sorry for the lack of blog lately! Blue monday over and done with here's a bit of news from the reserve.

Firstly we have been cracking on with some of the work on the island (or whats left of it with all this wet weather) Last Wednesday Gavin (vol) stephen, Dave and Myself were out on the island finishing of the second attempt at the floating fence. Everything still looks great for getting this completed for the…

Hi,

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and new year. Having returned back on wednesday from a festive holiday over the other side of the pennines I was excited to get back down and see what was about at Hodbarrow. For those of you who have already started your list for the year the Slavonian grebe and green-winged teal are still on the lagoon and would be an excellent tick to start the year. Brilliant birds to see non…

A great blog by Chris again who will hopefully be able to update us throughout spring and summer about the Dragonfly delights at Hodbarrow. Something to look forward to!

Quick update as I was down on monday at high tide which proved particularly good for waders dropping into the lagoon such as redshank, tunstone, dunlin and snipe. Wildfowl were particularly good as well. Highlights included the Slavonian Grebe which has…

In the frosty cold of an early December morning I went for my first stroll round Hodbarrow after being away for two months. It was evident, looking at the silent frozen ponds, just how much rain had fallen in my absence. Places where I’d easily walked two months ago were now flooded and frozen over and the abundant insect life was now over for this year.

 Even with all the wet weather the dragonflies and insects…

Hi,

A walk to the hide today showed some good birds, I had 5 Goldeneye infront of the hide along with the Slavonian Grebe. The Slavonian Grebe has now been with us since the end of August on and off. Along with those two sightings were large numbers of teal, lapwing and snipe on the island. Other duck include Pochard and Red-breasted Mergansers as well as the usual mallard, gadwall etc. On my way back near to the carpark…

Following on from my last post about volunteering I thought I would advertise our latest work party so anyone who fancies coming and seeing what we are up to and fancies having a go can come on down and meet the team.

In order to finish our floating fence we need to finish constructing some panels, cover them in wire and start looking at floating them. If you fancy coming down and helping out by constructing these panels…

Hello all,

On monday we had a very productive meeting at Hodbarrow. Most meetings don't normally generate too much excitiment for me but this one was different! Everyone there was full of enthusiasm and passion not only for wildlife but Hodbarrow too. We met to discuss wildlife recording at Hodbarrow from insects to birds and it was a really productive hour or so. We heard from Dave Blackledge Cumbria Coast Reserves about…

Looking out the window here there's not much going on except rain rain and more rain! The weather forecast looks better for tomorrow so fingers crossed!!

I was down late afternoon yesterday and I had to have a double take when looking at the scrub opposite where people feed the ducks. My highest count of Little Egret had been 7, 8 at best. Last night when I left there were12 birds that had made the journey to Hodbarrow…

I was up at Campfield Marsh yesterday which is one of our three Cumbria coast reserves (Hodbarrow and st bees being the other two). What a cracking place the Solway is and I managed to see a few different birds such as Barnacle geese(proper ones not excapees!). I have to say that despite being at the other end of the county the gorse certainly looked much the same as Hodbarrow gorse. I was helping them to remove it from…