Not the Usual Thursday
Thursday, July 20th 2017
This was not the usual Thursday. Yes, the volunteers came in, yes loads of work was done, but we, the Reserve Managers, were in at 4.15am because the weather was not going to allow for a weekend CES (Constant Effort Site bird ringing). If you read our blogs from the past few weeks you may have picked up on us getting up earlier than normal folk and setting up the mist nets to allow the birds to be collected and therefore the ringing of the birds to begin.
With schools attending the site there was a busy happy buzz in the Field Centre.
Comments in our visitors book from children today include:
'I had so much fun spotting the birds and walking around.' Callum
'Thanks for the great time at the bird ringing.' Jenish
'I had fun drawing frogs and getting a score of 26 on the quiz which was 2nd.' Rose
The Thursday crew of volunteers were, as always, straight to work carrying out jobs on the reserve. A few clear up jobs from the Foxglove 25 weekend were undertaken.
One of the interesting finds was this Horntail, or Wood Wasp. This is a sizable insect, about 50mm in length. It is not a wasp but a sawfly and is totally harmless despite its threatening appearance.
These two Horntails were buzzing around our chainsaw sculpturing area from the weekend,
when we spotted one remove the sheath from her ovipositor drill ready to lay her eggs in the pine wood of the newly sculptured mushroom!
Thank you to all the folk that helped with the ringing, and also the excellent work carried out by our regular Thursday volunteers.
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