Swarms of wading birds, rotavating, aerating, weed wiping, spotted flycatchers, rotary ditching, gypsum spreading, lots of redstarts, manure spreading, hay cutting... It’s all happening on the moor at the moment!
The first viewing screen over-looking the reedbed is currently the place to head to for wildlife on the reserve. A big gang of lizards are making use of the Lizard Lounge, with the highest count so far being 10 of them basking together in the sunshine. They can be well camouflaged, so on a sunny day spend a few minutes watching the logs and rocks for the scaly beasts. Marsh harriers are being regularly seen over the reeds, with a bittern putting in an occasional appearance. Areas of mud, exposed as we slowly let water run out of the reedbed are luring in long-legged wading birds, which love probing around in the squelchy ground looking for insects. Black-tailed godwit, little stint, green sandpiper, snipe, ruff, common sandpiper, little-ringed plover, lapwing and ringed plover have all been seen over the last few days.
(Spotted fly catcher in Long Meadow, taken by Terry Sherlock. This field, just off the reserve, is proving popular at the moment for these once common birds, redstarts are also being regularly seen there).
With the fields now fairly dry, we have been able to get the tractor out so we can crack on with the important management work that keeps our fields in prime condition for the wetland wildlife; topping, rotavating and aerating. Gypsum has been spread as part of a trial to try and improve soil condition and the massive pile of manure in the corner of Closes will be spread soon to also benefit the soil. Healthy soil, means healthy insects, means healthy plants, means healthy birds etc etc... The regular visitors amongst you may have noticed some of the ‘fingers’ coming out of the large scrapes on Big Otmoor have been widened and deepened, a couple of new scrapes have also been created in the field. This work was carried out by the famous Rotary Ditcher, an impressive bit of kit, which has also widened a lot of the shallow foot drains on our Malt Pit field. This widening and deepening process means the foot drains can hold water for a longer period, benefiting birds, such as snipe, which require soft muddy soils to feed on throughout their extended breeding season.
(The rotary ditcher in action).
Yes he's had the rotary ditcher on his land as part of the work the RSPB is doing in the local Futurescape area www.rspb.org.uk/.../upperthames ... Good to hear the work is already drawing birds in. Hopefully the linear, shallow srapes created in his field will hold water next spring and potentially encourage lapwing to nest near them!!
Have the farmer's fields to the west of the reserve between the screens also used the rotary ditcher? The newly exposed mud is attracting a good flock of lapwings feeding and roosting.