Over the next week or so our wardens and volunteers will be setting up the electric fence around West Mead field.
Both the islands and the general area surrounding West Mead pool have been popular with our precious breeding waders over the past few years so, to give their nests some additional protection, we'll be putting up an electric fence to deter some of their predators. The eggs and chicks of ground nesting birds such as our lapwings, redshank and little ringed plover are particularly vulnerable to predation by foxes so by keeping them out of key areas on the reserve we hope that they will have better breeding success - we certainly had some positive results last year with areas protected on the southern end of the brooks as well as around West Mead.
Whilst this work is being carried out there will inevitably be some disturbance, but we hope that the next time you visit it will mean you have even better views of some of these beauties...
Redshank by Graham Osborne
Little ringed plover by Graham Osborne
Lapwing by Chris Prince
Many of you will also be pleased to learn that we'll also be doing some work in the car park (probably over the weekend) to fill in some of the holes. We'll be starting in the overflow car park so please be aware that areas may be closed off whilst our contractor is working. Additional parking will be indicated alongside the access drive but if I could ask you all to drive and park extra carefully that would be great - thank you.