September 3rd – 7th
Hi everyone,
Ben here,
We took down the cordon on the beach this week. The upper part of the beach, up towards Titchwell creek, has been cordoned off over the spring to reduce disturbance on the nesting Ringed Plovers and Oystercatchers. Now we are at the end of the breeding season, the cordoned off area has now been re-opened.
We spread some more seed out for the Turtle Doves this week. Two birds are still being seen on a regular basis and are best viewable from either the Fen Hide, looking into the dead tree out to the right. Or from the Tank Road (the concrete pathway between Fen Trail and East Trail); in the dead tree opposite the entrance to East Trail. Keep your eyes out for them and do let us know if you have seen them.
Moth morning this week produced a total of 150 moths with 36 different species. Some of the highlights this week were; Engrailed, Frosted Orange, Rosy Rustic, Poplar Hawk-Moth, Iron Prominent and Sallow. Moth morning runs every Wednesday from 10am until around 12 depending on the number of moths caught that night.
Snettisham
Over the last few weeks we have been pulling and raking vegetation off the roost bank at Snettisham. This is a shingle bank on the furthest pit where tens-of-thousands of waders will come to roost over the winter. After being pulled out and raked into large piles we burn the vegetation off to dispose of it. Which is what we did this week. All the vegetation has now been burned off and the banks are ready for the waders!
We also brushcut some of the vegetation in front of the hides to improve the views into the pits by cutting down some of the tall Bramble bushes and Dog roses. Whilst working around the hides we also gave them a good clean; sweeping the floors and cleaning the windows.