A task has been repeatedly popping up in my calendar for the past three weeks – ‘change the seasonal interpretation’. We have interpretation boards around the reserve that tell our visitors what they can hope to see during the different seasons and what to look out for. 01 September is the ‘official’ start of autumn (in my book anyway!) but the weather at the beginning of the month was still rather summery. Last week felt a bit more autumnal so I decided to change the interpretation round, only to be met this week by yet more fine weather. I’m not complaining of course, it’s helping us get through our last stock of ice cream!
While changing the interpretation board outside the visitor centre I uncovered a pretty chunky spider, which continued our current spider-obsession. After a quick search on the internet it looks to me like a female Walnut orb-weaver but if anyone has any other ideas feel free to post them below.
Photo credit: Ali Blaney – female Walnut orb-weaver
We’ve finally put an extra piece of interpretation outside the visitor centre, informing visitors about the ongoing plant bed construction out the front - people have been very curious as to what’s going on. Dave has done a bit more work on the second bed recently, with some assistance from volunteer David so things are still moving along nicely when we get the chance. They also make attractive perches for dragonflies it seems - when I went out to take photos just now there were plenty of ruddy darters sunning themselves on the sleepers so I took a quick photo of one of those too. The ongoing fine weather means we still have dragonflies about and the hobbys are still around too, taking advantage of the available food.
Photo credit: Ali Blaney – raised plant bed work continues
Photo credit: Ali Blaney – male ruddy darter
Strimming has continued, with the fen pool trail and Trial Wood path being tackled this week. Our volunteers have been busy clearing up behind us with rakes and forks. Next week we’ll be targeting Joist Fen viewpoint – it’s getting difficult to see the water for the reeds! So be warned - next Thursday it’ll be a bit noisy down at that viewpoint for a few hours while we get it sorted. Once it’s opened up again though we’ll be hoping for some good new sightings from there – the grit trays are primed and ready to go for bearded tits and the bitterns and water rails sometimes creep into view on the newly strimmed damp ground at the back. Bearded tits are being seen in newly strimmed areas we’ve re-opened along the eastern edge of New Fen North – it’s always satisfying to hear when the hard work quickly brings rewards and our visitors get great views of the Lakenheath wildlife.