As Dean said in his last blog we have been busy clearing the vegetation from the islands and today we were on Paddy's Pool Island.
Over the summer the seeds from last year's weeds have germinated and grown to a dense stand of hemlock, redshank and common knotgrass, with smaller amounts of other plants. This has to be removed to give good open cockle shell for the Common Terns to nest on.
Volunteers James, Maggie and Brian are here removing the larger plants then the dead material and smaller plants are taken away and floated off the island to land on the shore. It will need more work before it is good enough for the breeding season!
As we were leaving the island there was the unmistakable calls of the migrating winter thrushes overhead, so we can soon expect to see Fieldfare and Redwing on the reserve. These are commonly around in winter although we seldom see a Song Thrush at Saltholme but today I heard one in the Wildlife Garden beating a snail to remove the shell before eating it.
Peter