Hello
Well today is all about the warblers. As i stepped out on to the reserve with no binoculars (as i was heading out to meet up with the work party) it was a warbler morning. Before i had even reached the Draper hide there was black cap, a couple of white throat, garden warbler, couple of chiff chaff and a mixture of blue and great tits moving through the bushes beside the path. Every where you turned there was another tit or warbler hoping about. This time of year they form large feeeding flocks that move around the site as they build up there body fat before facing the gruelling migration back to Africa. A couple of our Roving Reserve Guides Karen and Tina were on site volunteering today and they also mentioned they had seen large mixed tit and warbler flocks around the trails. So definatly something to keep an eye out for on your next visit.
This week i have been having fun messing about on the water with the volunteer work parties. Now that the common terns and black headed gulls have finished nesting all the other feathered lagoon inhabitants use the nesting rafts for loafing on and this can mean lots and lots of guano. So we have spent the work parties this week bringing the rafts in to shore and giving them a clean up. Before the black headed gulls nested on the rafts this used to be a relativly easy job as the common terns do not bring on masses of nesting material they make a dip in the shingle with the odd small stick and that is it where as the black headed gulls build large nests of mainly (in this case) reed stems which are much harder to wash out from amongst the stones. After moving the camera off the raft and on to its winter post we also decided to haul in the cables from the lagoon bed that were left when we had an upgrade to our CCTV system a wet, messy and mucky job, requiring a complete change of clothers for me! So my thanks goes out to all the volunteers who helped bring in and wash the rafts and haul the cable back.
There have also been amazing views of up to 5 water vole today in the toll stream in the vicinity of the feeding platform and that is no surprise as they are walloping through 4 apples every other day at the moment. So please have a look a as you pass that way at these very cute little mammals lurking in the stream.
Water Vole thanks Vicky
brilliant views of the water vole from the bridge including a very engaging youngster through the letterbox opening feeding in the middle of the water - everybody stopping was getting great views and photos - and mostly the voles seemed unperturbed by the camera shutters, we were seeing at least 4 to 5 individuals all moving about in the vegetation and feeding off the apples - they will not last long
Karen