Tuesday 9 November 2010

Moss, Marsh and Marine Lakes

Todays post covers both yesterday and today. I had to feed my hungry Tree Sparrows yesterday and I nipped out from work to my feeding station. It was pleasing to note that there were 110 Tree Sparrows with about a dozen chaffinch, 3 Reed Buntings, 2 Yellowhammers, 5 Blackbird and 4 Fieldfares.

On my way home I called in to have a look at the Great Northern Diver on Fleetwood Marine Lake that my mate Ian had found the previous day. I have seen several Great Northern Divers at Fleetwood off Rossall Point, but they are never as good on the sea as they are on a lake. I had cracking views of it and I was just annoyed that I didn't have my camera with me.

This afternoon I was on Freckleton Marsh with AG from the RSPB and JR the contractor, putting some soil bunds with pipe sluices in on some of the newly created ditches to hopefully control water levels on the marsh. The shallow ditches that we put in during the summer are looking fantastic now that they are holding water. I have included some pictures below of the ditches and some of the bunds before, during and after construction.

Walking round we had a Woodcock and that was about it bird wise. I can't wait to come back in the Spring and see what effect the ditches and bunds have had on the breeding wader population. Hopefully plenty of Lapwings and Redshanks. 





4 comments:

Unknown said...

Looking good,Seamus. That's the way to do it. Hope the Redshank appreciate the hard work!

The Hairy Birder said...

Thanks Errol and so do I!

Cheers,

Seumus

Peter Fearon said...

It will be interesting to see what impact foxes might have on the breeding success of the Lapwing - this might be something to watch out for!

The Hairy Birder said...

I quite agree Pete, particularly as the adjacent Newton Marsh is protected by an electric anti-predator fence that is switched on all the time. This was installed as part of the same agri-environment agreement to affoed better protection to the nesting Black-tailed Gdwits.

Cheers,

Seumus