Birds, birds, birds

The reserve was alive with bird song this morning, with the feeders by the Woodland hide covered with hungry siskin and lesser redpoll having an early morning feast on the Niger seed.

Siskins and lesser redpoll on the feeder near the Woodland Hide

The Scarlet elf-cup was showing nicely, as were the Wild daffodils which certainly made for a Spring-like feeling.

Scarlet elf-cup on the approach to the Woodland hide

Wild daffodils near the Woodland hide

Today our Wildlife Rangers group built up the existing dead hedge on the approach to Ivy South hide. The hedge will act as a screen between the footpath and Ivy Lake, hopefully encouraging water birds to venture closer to the hide without getting as disturbed by people on the path, and enabling visitors to have better views of the birds from the hide itself.

A before photo of the dead hedge

Our first task was to cut some more stakes for the hedge so the brash, once piled up, was kept in place. The stakes were bashed into the ground and more brash was then added to the cut material already there. The group quickly made their way through the brash left by Ivy South hide on Friday and the pile which had been left by the Woodland hide, so we then headed off to pollard more willow.

Cutting new stakes

Putting in new stakes along the dead hedge

Adding brash to the dead hedge

Pollarding willow for the dead hedge

After a lot of cutting, dragging and bashing, we had finished that particular stretch of hedge and there was certainly less lake visible from the footpath.

Dead hedge after our hard work

After lunch we decided to do a survey of the woodland birds and spent an hour counting those present at the Woodland hide. We saw 20 bird species in total, along with a bank vole. Our greatest number at any one time was of chaffinch, of which there were 26, along with 17 siskin, 7 blue tit, 7 goldfinch, 7 dunnock, 5 greenfinch, 5 robin, 4 great tit, 4 lesser redpoll, 3 collared dove, 2 coal tit, 2 blackbird and 1 nuthatch, great spotted woodpecker, brambling, stock dove, jackdaw, woodpigeon, long tailed tit and sparrowhawk.