Due to some local building works a quantity of excavated sand was dumped near the reserve. I didn’t want this to go to waste so the builders and my landlord farmer were happy for me to use the sand.

We have ringed Sand Martin on site during last years ringing sessions so I decided to attempt to construct my own nesting embankment. So hopefully if they visit the site they may choose to stay.

I built a containment structure for the sand.

The initial idea was to surround this enclosure with soil prior to filling with sand. This plan, however, had to change when my friendly farmer(David Dungait) had a big digger with driver available to move the sand. I didn’t want to miss this opportunity so we got our sand a bit earlier than I was prepared for!

So then the next step is to build up the banking around the sand, top this with soil and cut a vertical sand face at the front. Then we’ll put in 12 nesting tunnels (drainpipe) they need to be at least 60cm long and filled with sand with a nesting chamber at the end.

Due to the weather, snow stopped work, this project is on hold. Hopefully when the weather relents we can continue on.

Although we haven’t quite got to the finishing cover of soil our nesting bank I now ready to accept residents. We had a small group of 8 swallows over the pond in the last few days so hopefully the Sand Martin’s will not be too far behind.

Final landscaping may have to wait until after the nesting season. So it will be interesting to see if we get any takers this season!

It’s been a chilly few days on the reserve, just a few pics to show this:-

The new large pond has a very solid 5cm crust of ice, anyone for a bit of ice skating?

Having just posted about my rat problem, I was pleased to see I may have a natural solution to control the numbers!

This little chap was running around me today, stoatally cute and a rat killer.

Lets hope she or he has a liking to the odd rat or two.

Well I spent most of the day repairing the damage done by my colony of rats. Some have taken a liking to Deer View Hide and have taken up residence in the walls!

One of the culprits caught looking guilty

Many thanks to all my willing volunteers, without who we would never have made the progress we have this year. Especial thanks to John, Rob, and Lynda who come along rain or shine to help me out, it is very much appreciated.

Thanks also to The Collingwood Foundation, for obtaining a grant from the Nineveh Charitable Trust, which has paid for the large pond dig.

Thanks to David Dungait and his family for their support and allowing me to play with his land!

Thanks also to Collingwood School and Media Arts College for their support and sending their students help and hopefully enjoy their regular visits too the reserve.

Big thanks to the various visitors to the reserve and the donations made.

Sadly we lost one of my volunteers this year, John Proudlock passed away in November. He lost a year long battle with pancreatic cancer which he fought bravely and with good humour. He was a thoroughly nice guy who will be sadly missed and my thoughts are with his wife Joan and the rest of the family.

I look forward to a ‘more normal’ summer 2021 I hope, probably not before unfortunately.

Last but not least thanks to my wife Libby for her help and tolerance!!

A very Merry Christmas and a happy new year to one and all.

A Little Grebe paid a visit to the new pond, hopefully a sign of things to come. I have never seen a Little Grebe on the reserve so maybe our large pond will increase our wildlife diversity as hoped.

The big dig started on Thursday. I have employed RBB contractors to dig our large pond.

Darren ‘the digger man’ arrived with his 15 tonne excavator to start the project.

So a good start but plenty more digging to do over the next week.

It’s amazing that a 15 ton excavator and 12 ton dumper truck are able to operate in such boggy conditions but they can!

Eventually the bog won and we had to say goodbye to the dumper, having sank and been dug out twice, we didn’t want to push our luck for a third time.

Quite a change!

All done in 4 days! Many thanks to Ross Blackburn owner of RBB Group who dug the pond, to Chris and especially Darren ( the digger man), and our dumper expert Tom.

There are lots of fungi out at the moment, unfortunately I’m no expert. So I thought I’d post my collection of pictures and if anyone can help me identify them I would be most grateful!

I had a go at designing my own individual hide.

Many thanks to Linda, one of my volunteers for making some cracking signage to use on site.