Fairhaven Lake
It's been a busy old summer down at Fairhaven Lake. Before the end of term we welcomed nearly 1500 pupils from across the county. It was great to see so many local schools and also many more from further afield. It's fabulous to be able to see so many children enjoying a visit to the seaside, especially when so many of them have never been to a beach. The pandemic has a huge part to play in this, we encountered so many children in Keystage 1 who had not yet experienced a trip from school, travelling on a coach and being greeted by people from out of their school environment. That in itself is a huge experience, let alone then going to the beach, discovering and identifying coastal wildlife and using the sand to create a sculpture.
Outdoor learning is hugely important to children, providing them with hands on experience in real life terms, discovering and touching things in context and not in a classroom setting. Teachers have reinforced how valuable these experiences are for children. They bring to life topics studied in school and many experiences are then continued on return. In fact I received a couple of lovely parcels containing letters of gratitude and work that had been undertaken post visit.
We are also very lucky in that we have a fantastic team of volunteers and we simply could not deliver the quality or quantity of school visits without them. If you or anyone would like to join the team then check out of volunteer vacancy page here.
Then the summer holidays arrived, the Big Wild Summer Trail has proved popular and we have had many visitors to the centre, many regular families and also many holiday makers. Whoever they are they receive a warm welcome from us. The lake itself has been a hive of activity and the Fairhaven boat and golf team have also been busy.
With autumn and the return of the huge flocks of waders and wildfowl to our shores we are once again starting up our guided wader walks. The first one being on 15 September with Stuart from Ribble Bird Tours. Check out our autumn schedule here.
If you are looking to upgrade or start out with binoculars or a telescope then it's our monthly event this weekend. We have a wide range of equipment to suit all needs with friendly knowledgeable staff on hand to advise. Check out this past blog for further information about choosing binoculars.
Marshside and Hesketh out Marsh
There's been lots of changes on the other side of the estuary. Our long standing site manager is now enjoying a well earned retirement so Alex has stepped into the helm. We have now appointed two new members of staff and will be welcoming a new assistant warden and an administrator to the team in September.
Unfortunately at the beginning of August we had some bad news about a fire at the viewing platform at Fairclough's Viewpoint, destroying the platform and the surrounding hedge. This will be a project for the new season to add to our new viewing spaces on the reserve.
Sandgrounders’ viewing screen received a long overdue makeover just before the summer, with Wes and the volunteer team doing a fantastic job with the construction of the screen just in time for all the birders who flocked to the reserve to see the broad-billed sandpiper, making an appearance right on cue. Via a joint project through our partnership with Natural England on the NNR, we have also been able to provide a new viewing area along Marine Drive, looking out onto Crossen's Marsh. It is already proving a popular resting point for cyclists using the path and we can only imagine how popular it will be once we get into Autumn and the return of wintering ducks and geese.
We have also recently received a legacy donation through the Southport local group which we will be using to redo the viewing screen at Junction Pool, we are hoping it may stretch to Halfway and Nel's Hide too.
There's always plenty to do and over the next few months we will have contractors on site across the reserves finalising the last of our stewardship projects. At Hesketh Out Marsh we will be repairing some bunds to the lagoons, and erecting some in-ditch fencing around two scrapes/lagoons on west to protect nesting waders and terns from foxes. On Crossen's inner marsh we will be stoning gateways and relocating the tilting weir. Across Marshside as a whole we will be restoring around 2km of ditches.
As always we are looking forward to autumn, whilst we say goodbye to so many of our breeding birds we always anticipate the return of the over-wintering waders and wildfowl. The migration movements have already begun and along with it comes a time to start afresh after the brilliance and buzz of summer.
We look forward to seeing you on our sites in the forthcoming season.
Jo
Volunteer with school children by Jo, viewing screens by Wes