It's that time of year again when we start our hedgerow management, so today the volunteer work part were working on the northern edge of Flood field coppicing a 40m section. The elm trees were left for the benefit of white letter hairstreak butterflies, but the blackthorn, hawthorn and willow were all coppiced. The hedgelines on the reserve are on a 16 year managment cycle designed to keep the hedges thick and healthy and to provide optimal conditions for the birds and insects (including brown and black hairstreak butterflies) that use them. Any thorn bushes with berries on were left in a pile so as not to waste the valuable food source and a log pile was created to provide a habitat for various small creatures that like piles of rotting wood. The importance of berries as an autumn/winter food source was highlighted by the sight of ~10 fieldfare flying over and the first redwings of the season were seen just a few days ago on 9th October. Other interesting recent sightings include a short eared owl (29th Sept), a female merlin hunting over Greenaways, a dunlin (12th Oct), a green sandpiper (13th Oct) and the increasing numbers of wigeon on the reedbed.