Hello
The heavy fog and frost this morning made for quite an atmospheric start to the day. I had siskin calling in the alders by Rye House Gate House on my way in to work this morning and the sound seemed to hang in the air and there were low flying snipe zipping around the draper area along with redwing and field fare taking advantage of the hawthorn berry crop. These birds have definatly increased on site over the last week, makes it feel a bit more wintery.
The work party continued clearing the cut vegetation around the draper meadow and banks of L8L9 today. We also ventured in to the reedbed in order to gain acccess to the tree that have grown up so we can pollard them and treat the stumps to prevent re growth. This turned out to be quite an adventure as the reedbed is laid out with long thin islands of reed surrounded by deep ditches so we had fun ensuring no one got a wader full of water as we were getting in and out the boat on to the islands and then hauling the cut trees (some of which had got pretty hefty) through the channesl and reed up on to the bank, fun if a bit damp and chilly. We were kept company through out the day as we exposed hiden insects by a robin, visited occasionaly by a vocal cettis warbler and this afternoon a peregrine perched up on one of the p ylons for a spell.
Work has now finished with the Truxor having completed its cutting of a section of the lee marsh (c6). an amazing bit of kit that will hopefully be back soon. I am now jsut waiting for snipe and green sandpiers to get in there ans start feding int he stubble.
Work is continuing apace on the draper scrape with muddy edges appearing before your very eyes, great stuff. I even had a kingfisher fly pas tthe hide and land in one of the bushes near where we are constructing the new nesting bank, yey.
A shelduck has taken up residence on lagoon1, along with the redshank however our male pintail seems to have jumperd the pond over to Amwell.
I had a water rail mooching along the bank of the toll stream (near the water vole feeding area) today and that is one of the signs that make me feel that winter is surley here. if you keep you eyes peeled along the stream edge as you walk along the baoardwalk in this are you stand a very good chance of getting a close up view of one of thse elusvie birds.
Well that is it from me for today. I am off tomorrow to have a look at a kingfisher bank to see if i can get any ideas for the construction for our new one on the Draper area.
thanks
Vicky
Sorry for the spelling, technical hitch again so had to rewite in a hurry.