An October summary by one of our Interns Christelle.
Reserve Management
October has been marked by the end of the control of invasive plants such as Himalayan balsam, Japanese knotweed and Himalayan knotweed. Overall, the conservation team spent almost two full months pulling these non-native weeds. This battle was won but the war is not over yet as it will take several years of pulling to get rid of them for good.
We also have been tackling conifer regeneration in the moors, including mainly sitka spruce, European larch, douglas fir and norway spruce.
As the reserve is working on the renewal of the management plan, we also have been monitoring several areas of Ffridd in order to assess the state of conservation of this habitat and what kind of management is recommended. Ffridd is a Welsh habitat lying between the managed lowland and the upland. This threatened habitat is very diverse. It is characteristically found on slopes and is composed of a mosaic of bracken, gorse, grass, scattered trees such as rowans or hawthorns and wet mires. Ffridd is particularly important to support populations of ring ouzels, whinchats, small pearl-bordered fritillary, green hairstreak and ivy-leaved bellflowers.
Green Hairstreak at Lake Vyrnwy (Photo by Gethin Elias)
Bird Life
Mike Haigh our volunteer ringer, along with a small team, have recently been catching and colour marking willow tits as part of a project to better understand their UK population decline. The willow tit is one of the most rapidly declining species of breeding bird in the United-Kingdom and is thus red-listed. Very little is known about the cause(s) of its sudden decline but studies so far strongly suggest that the poor management and drying out of wetlands have had a negative impact on willow tit populations. If you see a willow tit, with colour rings or not, please report your sightings to the RSPB Shop to help give us an indication where these birds are spending the winter.
Firecrest at Lake Vyrnwy (Photo by Gavin Chambers)
On another note, bird sightings for October include the exciting Siberian chiffchaff and the first firecrest for the year for Montgomeryshire. Less rare observations yet quite thrilling ones are a woodcock, a jack snipe and a couple of pintail, with the latter being among around 70 mallard and 30 teal at the top end of the lake. Finally, lesser redpolls, crossbills, flocks of bramblings and a common scoter have also been sighted on the reserve among more common birds such as the kingfisher, dipper and a chiffchaff still present on 1st November!
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