Happy New Year to everyone – best wishes and good birding for 2015!
This Sunday 4th January was our first volunteer day of the year and was attended by 8 people keen to get stuck into some scrub management. It was the coldest morning of the winter so far, with the car reading -4C when I arrived, but it was a gorgeous day, with sun shining and calm conditions.
The scrub management programme for this winter is going well, with most of the planned thinning already completed. We have taken out some of the poorer specimens to allow the healthier ones to grow on, have opened up the canopy, letting more light penetrate the scrub block and have created some rides and clearings through the very dense stands of blackthorn.
It shouldn’t be too long before we see the benefits of this work, with areas managed in previous winters already showing increases in floral diversity and invertebrate diversity and abundance. This should have positive knock on effects for birds and mammals as well!
Wildlife highlights include goldeneye on Phase 1, plenty of winter thrushes and I was treated to a great view of a barn owl to end the day as I made my way back down to the office.
Many thanks to all!
The sunsets are great too! Photo by Barrington Randle.