We had to put in a new water pipe to the farm and as a result we had to dig up the whole of the front entrance to the reserve. We have spent the last two months reinstating and hopefully improving the look.
It has been a great team effort with Peter, Brian, John, Phil, 4th Morpeth Beavers (all volunteers), Libby and myself all pitching in to make the place look presentable to visitors. Still a bit more to do but almost there.
A big thank you to Mandy who has refurbished her original shutter artwork and delivered them today.
Just in time for the first named storm of the autumn!
Yes, our royal couple are back. Camilla and Charles III arrived back on the reserve yesterday. Thankfully they both look very fit and healthy. They have jettisoned their 5 cygnets, who must now fend for themselves, wherever they are!
I have augmented my mini barn with some, hopefully, useful addition for our flying friends.
These starter kits will hopefully look comfy come the spring.
We don’t often see this bird on the reserve, its a Dipper, so named because it constantly bobs up and down. A fine looking bird seen inspecting my leaky dams.
Here are a few pictures taken last month:-
A few more pictures from my August collection.
I was told once by a wise man that Kingfishers love a new perch and it has proved true. When I knew we had Kingfishers about I put a post in front of Dunces Corner Hide. It paid off today when we were visited again by two Kingfishers, one of which visited my perch. What a beauty!
Today we had our stall at the Environment and Community fair held in the town hall.
We got there early and bagged the best spot in the hall and even sneaked an extra bit of space😁
We had a steady stream of people and I made some very useful contacts.
A big thanks to Climate Action Wansbeck for the invite and organising the event.
Finally a very big thank you to Libby and Lynda for their help on the stall.
We had a visit from Northern Power Grid this week. They were here to fit bird scarers to the power lines.
This is what one looks like-
The method of attachment is a bit basic but effective. One guy holds the wire tight using a long fibre glass pole ( the wire is still live!) and another guy clips on the scarer using another long fibre glass pole. Unfortunately using this method they cannot fit them on the wires over Dunces Corner Pond.
They fit them every few metres so hopefully no more dead swans🤞
