A guest blog from one of our interns, Mark McManus, who has been working as part of our team of wardens...
During the last month, the 6 members of the Pulborough Brooks wardening team have been busy making the most of some good weather in order to get a number of important jobs done, whilst observing COVID precautions. Our first priorities were several 'stretch gates' which urgently needed repairs on both the north and south brooks. These gates allow us to move our cattle around between fields on the reserve and contain them safely, which in turn helps to ensure that our priority wet grassland areas are grazed regularly and provide optimum breeding conditions next spring for birds such as lapwing and redshank.
In between jobs on the reserve myself and my colleague Adrian also completed training courses in specialised tools that will allow us to clear and manage safely some of the more invasive vegetation. This included a tree-felling and chain-saw maintenance course as part of our internship. Fortunately we both passed our assessments and are now able to fully contribute to this work. One of the first areas that needed attention were some the small islands on the north brooks which had become severely overgrown with rush and invasive willow. Despite being a noisy distraction for a small number of birders viewing from the Hanger and Jupp's View, we managed to clear these areas and get the vegetation down to a level that will welcome our winter visitors including birds such as wigeon, which like to graze on short vegetation. This also allows those birders to get much better views of the many species that take refuge here during the colder months. Whilst we were working on the islands we had the added bonus of good close views of birds such as merlin, hobby, ruff, avocet, black-tailed godwit and quite a few snipe to name but a few.
Another area which has had some attention is at the top of the zig-zag path where bramble had completely choked the small copse. Bramble will quickly form a thicket, and during the summer can grow up to 8cm in a day if left unchecked, so by clearing this area it will allow more light in and wild flowers such as primrose will germinate and increase the biodiversity within. Don't worry though as there is still plenty of bramble left nearby for next year's garden warblers and whitethroats which particularly favour this spot!
Over on the heath we've also started coppicing the sweet chestnut area. Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which makes use of the capacity of many species of trees to put out new shoots from their stumps, if the stump is cut down near to ground level. New growth eventually emerges from the stump and after a number of years the coppiced tree is harvested again and the cycle begins anew. These trunks can then be used for fence posts around the reserve. Sweet chestnut also has the added bonus of containing high levels of tannin which naturally preserves the wood and so is a perfect eco-friendly resource for us to use. Coppicing also provides open areas that encourage nesting sites for nightjar and sunny rides that are loved by dragonflies and butterflies such as speckled wood.
Anyway that's about it for now......so see you in a couple of weeks for the next update on what we have been up to and tales of our all terrain tractor