In September we welcomed Scabz to the reserve team to finish his conservation internship, having spent the past 6 months at Frampton so do say Hi if you are visiting.
The team have continued with the vegetation clearance along the paths at both Titchwell and Snettisham. Hopefully this will be the last time this year as winter begins to roll in.
This time of year we also cut and rake off the vegetation on the fen area at Titchwell, this ensure the area maintains its floral diversity. We additionally have cut some channels into the reedbed in the area, so do keep an eye out for bearded tits, water rails and snipe.
On Tuesday this week we welcomed an MSc group from University College London who had spent the weekend in Norfolk on a field trip. We gave them a tour of the reserve showing them some of the birds and explaining the how’s and why’s of reserve management.
Due to the large tides over the past couple of months there has been some erosion on the saltmarsh where our pipes to allow water off the freshmarsh are located. Unfortunately this resulted in one of the pipes being damaged allowing some salt water onto the freshmarsh. At low tide this week we refitted the flap to fix the problem.
At this time of year we are also spending some time in the office to write our annual report which looks back at the past year in terms of breeding species, wintering species and habitat management and is then audited by our Reserves Ecology team. This allows us to celebrate success but to work through any problems we may be experiencing. We are also busy putting a planning application together for our Freshwater habitats project as we looking to complete some significant habitat improvement works to both the reedbed and freshmarsh. Stay tuned for more information.
For those who have visited this week you may have noticed we have lowered the water levels some more on the freshmarsh. This is in preparation for us to cut the vegetation on the islands next week, there will therefore be some disturbance during the day. Apologies in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.