January 2018 RSPB Radipole Lake Update

Winter Management at RSPB Radipole Lake

The last few months we have seen some fairly miserable weather, definitely the sort of weather that makes you think that the swifts have the right idea; I hear Cape Town is lovely this time of year! However, despite the wind and the rain our team of dedicated volunteers have been hard at work, cutting, chainsawing, strimming and burning trying to keep at bay the ever encroaching scrub that surrounds the reedbed at Radipole Lake.

But why? RSPB Radipole Lake is a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) designated for its freshwater reedbed habitat. If we allow the bushes and the trees to grow too much the reedbed starts to dry out. This is an ecological process known as succession. Leaf litter builds up around the scrub each year, this raises the level of the reedbed and eventually other plants can colonise making it too dry for the reed to grow. If we did not manage the scrub eventually we would lose this valuable habitat and the incredibly diverse range of species that it contains.

Therefore, we cut down the scrub on a rotational basis. This means that during the breeding season there is still plenty of areas for birds that use the bushes and trees (such as Cetti’s Warblers, Lesser Whitethroats and many more) to nest in, whilst protecting the reedbed and keeping it from drying out.

There is also the added bonus that by keeping some of the scrub clear, we can open up views of the reedbed and the ditches and pools that intersect it, allowing you to get closer to the awesome wildlife that the lake contains.

Radipole Lake's Dedicated Conservation Volunteers.

Left to right: Len Watling, Dave Ryland and Ian Clarke

Weymouth Starling Murmuration

If you walk through the Weymouth Town Centre, around half an hour before dark, you may have seen the oddly shaped black cloud the streaks over the streets below. It darts across the corner of your eye and can stop shoppers in their tracks. Some people dismiss it as a unessacary distraction from their consumer needs; however, a few will stand and (carefully) look up towards this fascinating natural phenomenon. A starling murmuration is one of the classic sights of winter. Starlings in their thousands flock together at dusk forming fantastic aerobatics across the sky. No-one is certain as to why they do this, some suggest its a defence against predators, or to disguise where they roost, others suggest it they may be their way of communicating the best feeding sites to each other for the next day.  

After seemingly exhausting every shape imaginable, the starlings head for cover. This in itself is something that’s worth taking five minutes out to your day to witness. Although many starlings tend to use reedbeds to roost during the winter, RSPB Hamwall being a place to see over a million coming down to roost on the somerset levels, it is not always the case. The Weymouth starlings have chosen two large home oaks in the courtyard of St Mary’s Church as their favoured spot. The noise when they first come in to roost is incredible, the sound of over 3000 birds chattering about their day bounces around the streets of Weymouth, mystifying some and bringing a warm smile to those of us who know.