Weekly Blog
July 30th – August 3rd
Hi everyone,
Ben Here
We’ve been busy cutting back vegetation all around the reserve this week. We have finished clearing the path edges around the Autumn Trail which, as of the 1st August, is now open.
The avocet chicks have all hatched now and some have already fledged. The Little-Ringed Plover chick has also hatched on the island just in front of Parrinder Hide so, we were able to cut back the tall vegetation in front of the hide looking over the Fresh Marsh.
We also cut back some of the reed in front of the platform looking over the dragonfly pond round the meadow trail. This will improve views into the pond and may also provide good views of Water Vole that like to swim and feed just below the platform.
Moth morning was very good again this week. We caught 811 moth, a total of 93 species. Some of the highlights were; Six-Striped Rustic, Small Square-Spot, Copper Underwing, Dog’s Tooth, Poplar Hawk Moth, Iron Prominent, White-Point, Lime-Speck Pug, Tawny Speckled Pug and Webb’s Wainscot.
We carried out another Dune Tiger Beetle survey this week. We had a bit more success this week as we managed to find 35 beetles. We found 12 beetles down towards Thornham Point and the other 23 down towards Titchwell Creek.
With the continuing hot weather the evaportation rate on the freshmarsh has been high so water levels have dropped substantially, we will be letting some water in from the reebed this week to bring the levels back up