Come Rain Or Shine

No matter what the weather throws at the reserve, Volunteers are always hard at work behind the scenes. Over the past few weeks heavy rainfall has washed out some of the dams and these have now been reinforced to withstand flood water.

Many hours have also been spent monitoring nests including the 100 small boxes that are part of the Adopt-a-Box Scheme.

Most of the birds now have tiny chicks that will be ringed when old enough. All of the data will be submitted to the British Trust for Ornithology for the Nest Record Scheme.

With the wettest May on record, drainage pipes that carry water away from pathways have had to be cleared and maintained (an ongoing task).

Extra help from the Personnel Recovery Centre at Catterick has been gratefully received once again. This time the team weeded out tree tubes on the moorland. These are the same trees that were planted by the PRC in 2019. The hedgerow will be a valuable wildlife corridor once it grows and the good news is that out of the several hundred metres of planting only a few of the saplings hadn't survived. The remaining ones should flourish now that they have less competition.

Thank you to everyone who has turned out in the unusually wet weather to lend a hand.