The big clean up!

Following the storms and flooding in back in February Abbotsbury Swannery was severely flooded- twice.  The staff  and interpretation buildings around the entrance bore the brunt of the floods but perhaps luckily the ringing hut probably got away lightly in comparison.  It is positioned off the ground but still over a foot of water got inside.  Opening the door last week saw the floor strewn with debris. From previous smaller floods lessons were learned and nothing of value was on ground level.  Despite this ringing poles had been dislodged.  The floor was covered with mud and a carpet of broken reeds.

The ringing desk survived but the cupboard doors have had it and will be removed next visit

Debris everywhere

Flood level shown three boards up -a green colour!

On friday afternoon our good friends from Kingston Maurward arrived with bow saws and loppers and started work on the management of the withy bed.  It was not coppiced last year as the weather was so poor.  The students made easy work of the job and after two hours had coppiced a good area.  This will help with the catching rate later in the year- in particular Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler.

Over the next few weeks the wildflowers will respond to the increase in light and campions and primroses will appear from the woodland floor.

The next job is to get the net rides in the reed bed sorted out and then get ready for CES which we hope to continue with this year.

Whilst working in the withy bed pairs of Blue Tits and Great Tits were chasing about and the Cetti's Warbler was sounding out from the nearby reed bed. A very vocal Wren was clearly disgruntled by our presence.

We will try for a couple of ringing sessions this week around the feeders now that the weather has at last calmed down.