Inside Out
Tuesday, September 4th 2012
The workshop was transformed into a slick assembly line this morning as the hopper seed was bagged up from ten, one-tonne sacks. It was transferred by the volunteers into smaller sacks for filling the many hoppers around the reserve. This seed is the waste from harvest of Oil Seed Rape, kindly donated by a local farmer, and generally keeps the birds fed for a year.
Everyone worked hard in the dusty conditions and soon over 100 sacks had been filled.
After a well deserved tea break the Tuesday team re-grouped on the heathland to begin clearing some of the dense, overgrown scrub layer.
The cleared area is looking much better and the heather will benefit from this work in the coming years. Thank you everyone for your hard work today!
(2) Comments:
Hi Sarah,
The hoppers we have here are large bird feeders, that we have designed to be used with the seed donated to us by the farmers. They provide us with a cheaper way of feeding the birds throughout the year.
The Heron was caught whilst we were bird ringing at Foxglove on Sunday, and was found in one of the mist nests. Their beaks can be quite dangerous, learning to hold them correctly is part of the bird ringers training - sharp bills and claws are a good learning incentive.
The Foxglove Team
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Sarah Spaetzle responded on 5th Sep 2012 with...
What’s a hopper? And why does it need filled with oil seed rape waste? Is it some kind of animal feeder?
Amazing pictures in the last post, by the way. How did you get hold of the heron? I would have thought a heron could be quite aggressive if in a tight corner. I wouldn’t fancy having to hold one myself!