Reserves update

Hi All,

Thanks for keeping this blog up to date. I thought you might find it useful if we send occasional updates of what we are up to on the reserve so you know what/ who to look out for when wardening.

One of the Ibsley Water tern rafts broke loose a fortnight ago during strong winds. Combined with the high water levels, waves crashed into the sand martin wall and washed out the bottom two rows of tunnels. It is unlikely the sand martins will have lost any eggs since they usually lay towards the end of May/ early June, and thankfully they have been seen back in the wall since, albeit mostly in the top two rows of tubes. Pete and I have been out and recovered the runaway tern raft, carried out repair works and re-deployed it. This means all 4 rafts are now out on Iblsey Water along with the 2 on Ellingham pound (which seems to be very popular with BHG this year). This leaves the 5 on Ivy Lake to do which we will hopefully start deploying next week after we finish stripping and rebuilding them (we are in the process of replacing the old rotten timbers). 

Various surveys are underway including weekly butterfly transects on both the north and south sides of the reserve until end Sept. Reptile surveys are now carried out monthly between March and Oct (again on both sides of the reserve) and our four breeding bird surveyors are covering their various areas until mid-June (please let us know if you come across any nests so we can make sure these are recorded). Brenda and Kevin have finished ringing in the education field for this season and are gearing up to start CES on the north side of the reserve soon.

The fencing around the education centre car park has finally been replaced with some smart looking post and rail, making this area look tidy again! The centre track isn't going to be repaired properly until June  as the contractor isn't available, however he will be breaking up the worst of the potholes with his tractor again on Monday 29th April.

A drone has been seen spotted flying low over Ibsley Water on several occasions this week. Flying drones is prohibited on the reserve as they cause disturbance to birds (everything was flushed off the south shore yesterday), so please feed back any information you may have to help us prevent this activity. 

Thanks again for all your help!

Jack