Hello,
We hope you are all keeping well. With Lockdown 2.0 in full flow and the temporary closure of our shop and café it has felt very strange at Titchwell this week. Fortunately, this time around the reserve team can still keep going with the management of our reserves.
Snettisham
With word of a white-tailed eagle in the Snettisham area, I walked out to the reserve from my house and met Hayley on the reserve. Unfortunately, the first task for Hayley was clearing all the rubbish that had been left scattered in the car park.
Ryan and Matt popped across on Wednesday morning to repair a hole in one of the steps and to reclose the door of Rotary Hide. Reminder, our hides are closed because of government guidelines.
Fencing repairs
Matt and Ryan headed across to one of confidential reserves this week to complete some more fencing repairs to reduce trespassing by people. There are still some sections that need repairing so will be back out there again over the next few weeks.
Patsy’s reedbed
Later than normal due to our workload but we have finally cut and burnt the reed on the southern edge of Patsy’s reedbed. As it can become quite muddy along there it provides a great area for snipe to feed and roost on. The wintering ducks also quite appreciate this roosting area.
Fen Meadow
All this warm weather combined with rainy showers has meant the vegetation on the reserve keeps on growing. Therefore, this week the fen meadow had a second cut and rake as the reed and rush keeps on growing which isn’t going to help us keep the area botanically diverse.
This also meant that we were also cutting the growing vegetation along the West Bank Path to keep the path open and accessible for everyone to use it safely.
Annual Review
This week we had the North West Norfolk Annual Review covering the four reserves that we are responsible for managing. This meant some of this week was spent prepping our agenda, compiling summary graphs and reviewing our annual reports in preparation. We then spent most of Friday having a virtual annual review with our Area Manager, Ecologist and Conservation Officer to reflect upon the previous year and looking forward to next year.
Budgets
In amongst supporting us on the reserve Hayley has been working on the reserves budget. As a result of COVID and the closure of the reserve for much of this financial year we must be extra cautious on spend. Part of this work was also to plan next years budgets, for our reserve budgets cover everything from delivering the conservation work to maintaining footpaths to toilets to building costs and anything else you can think off. This is why your membership and income generated through entry and events is so important as it directly helps support maintenance and enhancement of our reserves and wider work within the RSPB.
Beach Nesting Bird Review
Hayley, Jim and I have been spending time reflecting on this season and planning for next year. This week Hayley and I spent time auditing the Titchwell signage and developing them further for next year.
Odd jobs
We have spent some completing some odd jobs on the reserve. Following the completion of the East Bank Pipes we have reinstated the barriers to prevent access to areas of the reserve that are not open. Th Autumn Trail is now closed to protect the marsh harriers from disturbance. With leaves constantly falling from the trees Matt and I cleared all the gutters on the toilets, welcome hub and visitor centre whilst Ryan and Hayley reattached several kickboards to the boardwalk and cleared the vegetation from a pipe which passes underneath the boardwalk.
You may have noticed that I have not mentioned Jim much this week, well he had a couple of days off as he was Duty Manager at the weekend. He has been working on several areas of work that can’t be talked about publicly.
That’s it off this week, but I will end with this photo of Matt who is leaving us once again now his contract has ended. It has been a blast having him back on the reserve and we wish him luck in the future
See you soon
Lizzie
NW Norfolk Reserves Warden