News Update

Happy New Year to you and I hope that you all enjoyed a great Christmas and relished all the festive food and fun.

 Reserve update:

Though it’s been wet and wild on the reserve over the Christmas period the wildlife has still been about and delighting visitors with 18 people attending the New Year walk. They enjoyed views at the feeding station of bullfinches and a willow tit amongst others though the marsh tit was not present. From the hide they sheltered from the rain and saw snipe, goosander, lots of lapwings, and a goldeneye before returning to the SPA for some very welcome refreshments!

 The rain has at least brought some new water into the marsh and the teal have been enjoying the more open aspect. It is also a testament to the new hose layout too that they are not disturbed by the operation of the pump. The levels have risen slowly with the new reedbed pool looking very impressive, hopefully though it will be shrouded by reed soon and be a wet haven for the shier rails and who knows what else! We will continue to pump each week and try to get the levels very high before the spring to ensure wet grassland and muddy margins right into the breeding season.

 A snipe count last week produced only 9 snipe in the marsh but hopefully as the weather turns colder in the North and the marsh gets wetter we will see this number rise later in the winter.

 Staff news:

Before Christmas we continued to plug the gaps in the new staff structure and are now pretty much there. The departure of Sarla, Mo and Gordon and Sam finishing his internship meant that we had vacancies for new field teachers. We are delighted that following interviews in December we have been able to fill those with three ‘new’ recruits. New in inverted commas as all three were already with us in other capacities. Becky Smith had been volunteering at Sandwell for over a year and has recently been helping with Schools on a short term contract. Nicky Wilner had recently been recruited as one of our two visitor officers and Lance Byrne has been volunteering at Middleton Lakes with our education programme there. All three are experience environmental educators and complete a strong team of field teachers who will be working across Sandwell Valley and Middleton Lakes.

 There has also been the outstanding resolution of our Warden position. Since Grainne Greene left for a period of unpaid leave last May Jo Elliot has been standing in on a short term contract. When Grainne decided to stay in Australia and handed in her notice in October we therefore needed to fill the position on a permanent basis. Interviews were held in late December and we are pleased to be able to announce the recruitment of Stefan Bodnar. Stefan is well known to many of us through his long term connections with Sandwell and Middleton and also as a regional contact and supporter in his Conservation Manager position at Birmingham City Council. He brings a wealth of experience to the role and a great many skills that we will find useful across the two sites. Stefan will be starting in his new role in March

 It is with sadness though that we say good bye to Jo who has done a great job over the last six months, she has worked hard and managed all the varied challenges thrown at her. Also though in December Jo was offered the Warden position at RSPB Coombes Valley where I am sure that she will be a great asset and we wish her well. She will be starting her new role in late January.

 Centre update:

I have been in a meeting this morning looking at the planning and initial design concepts for the new visitor centre for which as you hopefully know by now has been granted significant funding by the Heritage Lottery. The plans look really exciting and I think that the whole centre and environs design will be a huge leap forward for the reserve on completion. There is a consultation period to be completed before centre designs are finalised and submitted for planning. Then the second stage of funding will be applied for before construction begins.

So that you can get a flavour of the designs as they stand and start to think about how you think the centre and surroundings will best perform we have laminated some drawings that will be on display in the SPA. Please take time to have a look when you are in next. The plans are just concepts at the moment to get us through the first stage of funding so nothing is as yet set in stone.  In due course you will be asked for your opinions and ideas so don’t feel the need to shout your thoughts out just yet but hopefully you will enjoy seeing the plans and getting a flavour of where we are at now.

 Next two weeks:

This weekend and next either Nicky or Hannah or both will be on duty at the reserve. Next week and the week after there will be the garden work party on Wednesday morning and a full work party on the Friday.

 The next update from us will be in two weeks time and will be fortnightly from now on, you are of course though encouraged to get in touch with any of us if you have any questions or enquiries in the mean time.

 All the very best for 2012 and I look forward to catching up with you soon,

 Nick

 Nick Martin

Senior Site Manager