Hello
Welcome to an overdue update on what the reserve team have been up to.
East Bank Pipes.
For those of you that have followed this blog or our social media accounts you will know that on a regular basis our outlet pipes from the Freshmarsh have collapsed as result of erosion. This causes lots of problems in terms of managing the water levels but also allows sea water to enter our freshwater habitat. This isn’t ideal.
Therefore for the past two weeks we have had Fen Ditching on site making some longer lasting repairs. With all the rain that has been falling this has made the task take slightly longer than planned and so the autumn trail is now closed until August 2021.
Annual Report
At this time of year all RSPB reserves are busy working away on our laptops writing the annual report. The annual report involves us recording all the habitat management work that has occurred, completing species targets and reporting against out objectives. This has meant Jim and I have spent a lot of time working from home to get our reports completed for Snettisham and Titchwell. Unfortunately, because of COVID our breeding bird data is very limited for 2020.
Zoom Talk
Last week I spent some time working from home to put the finishing touches to a talk for the Wensum Valley Birdwatching Society which I gave via Zoom last Thursday. If you have a local group that would like a Zoom talk do get in touch.
Meetings
Last week Hayley and Jim attended an internal meeting ‘The Wash and North Norfolk Delivery Group’ which is comprised of our Conservation Officers and Site Managers focusing on project delivery for our on and off reserve work in the area. We have also had several RSPB England Updates and Q&A sessions, which is a great way to remain connected with our colleagues across England.
Hayley had a busy day working from home last week as she had several meetings to attend, including the monthly Area 6 Leadership Team meeting looking at volunteer recruitment, RSPB policy and work programmes across the different reserves that sit within our area. This was followed by a couple of short meetings and then a final meeting lead by the Norfolk AONB which was one a in series of meetings; Reopening the Norfolk Coast: COVID 19 Task & Finish Group. This group, comprised of local NGO’s, district councils, Highways, Natural England and a private estate, began in May when lockdown restrictions were easing causing major issues in the area when sites weren’t in a position to open. The group has met to help coordinate sites reopening and work through arising issues.
Snettisham
After a series of spring high tides and recording breaking Knot numbers the entire team has been responding to visitor and media enquiries including a couple of TV appearances for Jim and volunteer Les. It has been the hottest place in town! Did you spot the Knot on Autumnwatch? This has meant the reserve has been considerably busier than normal, so we have all been making extra visits to the reserve to help facilitate the visitor experience where we can.
The Knot spectacle only occurs on Spring High tides so do check our website www.rspb.org.uk/snettisham for exact dates to avoid disappointment.
Visitor Operation
In amongst all this we have been supporting the visitor operations team as Titchwell has been incredibly busy and we are still running a bit light as a result of COVID, illness and holidays. Between us all we have spent time in the Welcome Hub assisting our welcome team to process visitors. To help with this process, masks are required to be worn inside the welcome hub, we need to see your RSPB membership card and we are also legally obliged to participate in the NHS’s track and trace. You will also find us popping up in the café and the shop and cleaning toilets.
Parrinder Hide
Progress is continuing with reopening the hide including cutting the path to the hides and cutting the vegetation which has gone wild after no visitors for 7 months. This week we also had contractors on site to repair and service the windows to Parrinder South, so they should all be working for you when we do open the hide.
Odd jobs
In amongst all this we have been out completing various odd jobs across both reserves. At Snettisham the new Knots Landing sign has been installed outside the hide and repairs were made to some of the screens as well as cleaning of the hides.
Last Friday Hayley and I completed lots of little tasks. We started off on the autumn trial replacing some twine on a row of fence posts to prevent people climbing on to the sea wall. With our first winter harrier count on Monday we made a number of repairs to the two monitoring hides that overlook the reedbed areas. We had been made aware of a couple of benches that had collapsed, and on further inspection we had discovered 7 of our benches were no longer safe, so we removed these to prevent any collapsing whilst you are sitting on them. On our way back to the visitor centre we raked up some vegetation that I had cut the other day in front of Fen Hide.
After lunch we headed to Island Hide to re-hang a replacement window flap and give the hide a good clean.
As you can tell it has been a pretty varied couple of weeks. Next week we welcome back Ryan for the winter as a residential volunteer and Matt Lonsdale will be re-joining us for two weeks. This will help us catch up with some of the habitat management work that needs to occur.