A Busy Day

After nearly three days of rain, today the reserve was looking very wet. The cascading ponds were definitely cascading and the weir had a lot of water coming over it, making an attractive water feature.

A number of reserve staff left this morning on their annual bird ringing visit to Cape Wrath at the very top of Scotland where each year large numbers of seabirds are ringed. We look forward to hearing of their antics and wish them a successful visit. Hopefully there will be photographs in the coming days.

Back at the reserve, the day was a busy one. Thirty six members of Teesside West Rotary Club visited the reserve for a walk and talk. The heavy rain meant the talk was a little longer than planned, and the walk a little shorter, but the event was much enjoyed by everyone. By the afternoon, the weather had fined up, which was convenient as a second group, a U3A wildflower group visited for the afternoon.

Meanwhile, the volunteers continued working away. Two tasks were tackled today- the first was continuing the painting and staining of the signposts and red net ride number signs around the reserve, which was tackled by Christine and Stuart. Meanwhile, everyone else continued work on some of the paths. This is hard work, especially in the rain. The paths must be weeded, then topped up with extra gravel.

Finally the whacker plate is used to compact the gravel down into a hard path.

The end result looked very tidy!

I am grateful to all those who helped make today so enjoyable for the visiting groups, and to the volunteers working behind the scenes.