Thursday 18 February 2010

A rainy day at Blashford

First day back after a few days off and not one for taking a look round or even going outside much, rain was frequent and often heavy. In the days I was off I missed another Common Scoter, I have never seen one on the reserve and this is at least the third time there has been one on a day when I was off site. Apart from this "dip" there have been few changes, but there have been some, the number if Brambling has clearly gone up, there were 50 or more around the Woodland hide today. Lesser Redpolls are perhaps in larger numbers as well, but Siskin seem to be fewer.

Today, being Thursday, was volunteer day, impressively eleven people came out to work on fencing, finishing off some willow coppice and digging up brambles. Everyone got very wet, but good progress was made. All the straining posts were put in for the new fencing, the brambles were dug up and most of the last bit of coppice was cut and cleared. The brambles will be planted on the banks by the Tern hide and should give extra height to the bank as well as providing some useful habitat.

Most of the rest of my day was taken up with paperwork, by which I mean computer work, trying to put the annual report to the partners to bed for another year, mind it did keep me in the dry.

There were a few birds reported, the Smew is still on Rockford Lake and at Harbridge a dozen or so Bewick's Swans and the unringed Great White Egret. I also saw a Cetti's Warbler hopping about in the reedmace below the Ivy North hide, giving very good views.

Let's hope for better weather tomorrow, although perhaps today was not as bad as it seemed, at the end of the day I was very surprised to find that the rain gauge had recorded only 7mm, it felt like a lot, lot more.

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