Our volunteers have been very busy during the last two weeks, after four more days of work there is finally enough new cockle shell on Paddy’s Pool Island for the upcoming breeding bird season. However there is no time to rest, this week we cleared material from one of the islands in the Main Lake with an appreciative audience watching from the warmth of the visitor centre cafe. A new cover of tarrem and cockle shell was added in order to reduce the amount of vegetation growing on the island. The team also prepared the sand martin bank for their return next month, this involved compacting old sand and adding new material to the nesting chambers.
But we are not just preparing the reserve for the soon returning summer migrant birds only, on Thursday the task for the day took us to our willow maze which needed fixing. While the morning was surprisingly nice and dry Storm Doris decided to join us in the afternoon, however she didn’t scare us off and lots of new willow stems were planted in order to tidy up the walls in the maze.
Planting new willow in the rain
One thing is sure – the new willow we planted won’t die due to a lack of water.
Anni