Hello everyone,
Another varied week out on the reserves. Once again, Conservation Volunteer, Ryan, brings us up to date with what's been happening. Over you Ryan:
Hi,
Another week has flown by! With the reserves team a member down (have a great honeymoon Lizzie!) the rest of us have been busy carrying on with the winter work plan, along with some extra maintenance tasks.
The week started for me with a coordinated pink-footed goose count at Snettisham, while Jim was filming a piece for TV – watch this space! It was very obvious as I arrived on site that a full count was going to be impossible – I couldn’t even see the beach, let alone the likely thousands of geese that I could hear squabbling in the frozen fog. With the next official count in a few days’ time we will hopefully have more luck with the weather! The rest of the day was spent making a start on fence repairs around the southern pit, as after twenty year good service the fence is in need of some TLC.
Tuesday saw Jim and I removing some patches of willow scrub from the reedbed – an important job we do every year to make sure the reedbed stays in good condition, with the right mix of habitats. Although willow is great nesting habitat for reedbed birds including Cetti’s and sedge warblers, if there is too much then it can begin to dry out the habitat and slow the flow of water through the site, so maintaining a good balance is essential.
On Wednesday Hayley took Unexploded Ordnance specialists out onto the reserve to give us advice ahead of some work we've got planned for next year. Jim and I spent the day on the roof of the visitor centre clearing the small ecosystem of moss that was growing up there. This turned out to be a massive job and with a bit more to do next week, we estimate that we will have removed over a tonne of moss and soil off the roof!
A hard day’s scraping. Pic. Ryan Doggart
Another day spent with Jim on Thursday, this time installing wire on the new section of boardwalk leading to the Knot's Landing hide at Snettisham. This should help with grip on those cold frosty mornings instead of needing ice skates to get to the hide!
New netting looking great! Pic. Ryan Doggart
On Friday we spent the day getting very muddy in the main sluice that takes water off fresh marsh out of the reserve, reinstalling a long section of eel netting that allows young eels to climb up the pipes and sluice leading from the sea to the fresh marsh.
Thanks for reading!
Ryan.