Around the main lake you can see the waves pushing against the bank, the recent weather has not helped and this effect of the waves is contributing towards erosion. To the right of the main lake (along the bank) there is a section of water that is separate to the rest of the lake. This water is separate because it provides protection with still and deeper water levels in front of the sand martin bank (for the breeding sand martins) because predators like the fox will attempt to get to the summer breeding sand martins.
The work we did today was at the edge of the earth bund, to stop the water from eroding and merging together in the future. You may have seen Peter’s previous blog which shows similar work to create a barrier to stop the water from circulating. We did a similar technique but added some reeds to protect the earth bund in the future. My pictures show the estate team and volunteers working - Dean, Adam, me, Brian, Peter, Linda and Ian.
There is a lot of ducks at the moment and if you want to see wigeon, mallard, teal, pintail, tufted ducks they are abundant. A cormorant and a peregrine falcon was sighted as well as I saw a large group of lapwing flying over whilst we were working today. The picture above shows the lapwings also a small toad on the edge of the path.
- Josh McGowan