Maintenance Mayhem!

One of the jobs that volunteers regularly find themselves helping with is the cleaning of all the bird feeders around the reserve.

Over time dirt from the seed can build up; this can cause seed to rot in the feeders and may harbour disease such as Papillomatosis that is sometimes seen in Chaffinches and Sedge Warblers.  To minimise the chance of transmission the feeders are often cleaned and rotated around different positions on site.

With many tiny nuts and bolts this is a fiddly job…

The feeders were hung out to dry - the volunteers attempt at modern art?!

These will all be re-sited once fully dry later in the week.

Other maintanence tasks carried out included strimming and pruning along many of the trails, while students from both Breckenbrough and The Dales School tested out some of our new activity boards and helped to brush some paths.

Merci beaucoup tout le monde!