Hello and welcome to another instalment of our reserve team update where we try to give you a flavour of some of the work we do to manage our North West Norfolk reserves.
Our Warden, Lizzie, who usually brings you these updates has taken some well deserved holiday this week. So it's an update from me.
On Monday our Visitor Operations Manager, Lucy, held the fort at Titchwell while Jim and I spent another long day at Snettisham replacing some vandalised signage and erecting the screening to Knot's Landing, the brand new hide. This screening ensures no disturbance is caused to the roosting waders by people on approach to the new hide. It was an awkward job, but with Jim's eye for detail we managed!
Jim working on the screening at Snettisham
On Tuesday it was my turn to be Duty Manager at Titchwell, supporting the Visitor Operations team to ensure our visitors had a safe and enjoyable visit to the reserve. With one ear on our radio system I remotely joined a meeting with the other Site Managers from across Norfolk and Lincolnshire and our Area Manager to talk about key updates for the reserves, projects we are working on, sharing ideas and things that might be of use to each other. For example, how we are implementing the new rules on track and trace.
Last week Lizzie had let some water from the reedbed onto the freshmarsh, a check of levels showed the reedbed levels coming down nicely and the freshmarsh looking wet, muddy and just about perfect.
Freshmarsh
More office time for me late in the day as I reviewed our income and expenditure figures since reopening to ensure they were on track, set up a few meetings and replied to emails.
Wednesday I headed back over to Snettisham with Jim to spend another day at Knot's Landing. This time we were reinstalling fencing that had been removed to allow contractor access, erecting more signage and ensuring the hide was sparkling clean for our virtual opening ceremony on Thursday.
Thursday, I was Duty Manager again while Jim worked with a film crew at Snettisham. At 4pm I handed over Duty Manager duties to the brilliant team of Trevor, Clare, Sally and Paul for the last hour of opening time and headed over to Snettisham to meet Lucy, Jim and our Administrator, Nic, ahead of our live opening ceremony of Knot's Landing.
At 6pm we went live. The waders were spectacular. The technology less so... If you didn't catch it you can watch again over on our Facebook page, even if you don't have a Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/RSPBTitchwell/. The sun was setting as we popped the last of the signs up, the hand sanitising stations and removed the temporary path diversion so the hide was ready for visitors at first light. It's been five years of hard work to bring this hide to fruition and we're so proud of it. We hope you have many, many wonderful wildlife watching experiences using it. Our huge thanks to all of our supporters and funders. We couldn't have delivered this without you.
Knot's Landing opening by Nicola Platts
Friday, was a day to catch up on emails, act as social media manager for our Facebook and twitter accounts, get some more admin done and plan next week!
It's been a varied week, and I hope you've enjoyed reading some of the things that have been happening behind the scenes.
See you soon!
Hayley.
Senior Sites Manager, North West Norfolk Reserves
Well done! You should all feel proud of what you've achieved.
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.