It has been a busy couple of weeks on the reserve. We have now finished cutting and burning the vegetation on the large island on the Freshmarsh ready for next years breeding season. Following this we have moved onto cutting the reed around the edge of the Freshmarsh to reduce reed encroachment and to enhance views for you our visitors. The edges should provide opportunities to see the birds up close and take a closer look for snipe and water pipits.
The wet days have been spent inputting our recent sightings into Merlin, the RSPBs recording system which helps us record and monitor all the wildlife that occurs on RSPB reserves. We also had a visit from one of our reserves ecologist to look at the freshwater habitats in respect for water voles as part of the Freshwater habitats project we are developing. As they are a protected species we need to ensure we minimise the impact we have one them during the works.
Now we are heading into autumn we conducted our first monthly harrier roost count. This is part of a long running monitoring scheme principally aimed at hen harriers but now also incorporates counts of marsh harriers. Currently there are about 20 marsh harriers roosting at Titchwell and the number will continue to build, peaking in January time. Last year we had about 50 roosting. There have been regular hen harrier sightings around the saltmarsh and reedbed along with merlin and short eared owl.
Finally, we said a fond farewell to Ben who has finished his 6 months as a residential volunteer on the reserve. He was a great asset to the team and we wish him luck in the future.