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Rain and odd jobs

It’s been raining a lot recently.  25mm last weekend, 35mm the week before, and a little more early this week.  But as the week has gone on there seems to have been a change in the air.   It feels a bit like spring is on the way.

Jobs this week include: clearing paths on the reserve, which basically involves chainsawing gorse & creating habitat piles; clearing ‘dangerous’ roadside trees near Lympstone common; clearing a fence line on parts of the reserve; and clearing brash on Lympstone common.  I also managed to create some unneeded air conditioning in my chainsaw trousers whilst bending (my knees, not my back) down yesterday.  Tia has very kindly made them public friendly again.

I tried to get a few shots of the visitors to the workshop bird feeders.  None of them turned out that well, but I’ve added the Siskin one.

Posted by  |  25 February, 2011 | Categories: RSPB, Work | Leave a comment

A charm of goldfinches

I popped along to the Bowling Green hide again today.  This time John and Jane were manning the hide, and enthusing about the birds to the visitors.  During my conversation with one knowledgeable visitor the topic of collective nouns for birds cropped up, and I learnt that the collective noun for goldfinches is a charm.  As the lady said, that’s sweet.

Posted by  |  20 February, 2011 | Categories: Travels | Leave a comment

CS chainsaw assessments

Today I made a small trip over to Salcombe Hill to take a look at the Axewoods Co-operative woodlands project (http://axewoods.org/), a project that aims to promote working and communities in East Devon woodlands.  The project offers the opportunity to learn wood work skills, and free wood to those who want to get involved.

Afterwards I took a walk around some of the National Trust paths on the hill, which offer great views of Sidmouth.  It was a beautiful evening (it’s stopped raining!), and I was treated to a fantastic vista of the sun setting over Devon.

On Monday I had my CS30 and CS31 chainsaw assessments at Bicton college.  Frantic revision over the weekend, and a few tips from Johnny on the reserve the Friday before (thanks Johnny!), helped me through both assessments.  It was a long day with the maintenance part of the assessment at Bicton college in the morning, and the felling taking place on Harcombe hill in the afternoon, but I’m now free to fell trees unsupervised.  Nice.

Posted by  |  19 February, 2011 | Categories: RSPB, Work | Leave a comment

Bowling Green Marsh bird hide

Today I popped along to the hide at Bowling Green Marsh, Topsham, to meet the legendary John Allan, and brush up on my wader identification skills.  A female Smew has been hanging around the marsh for a few days and I was lucky enough to spot it, on numerous occasions, diving away in front of the hide.  This was probably my first sighting of Smew, although I find it difficult to remember which birds I used to see when I went out with the YOC many years ago.

Also in attendance were most of the other duck species I’d expect to see, Mallard, Teal, Widgeon, Gadwall, Shoveller, Pochard, Pintail, Tufted ducks and Shelducks.  There were also large numbers of Avocets, Godwits (black tailed), Curlew and Redshank.

John attends the hide at some point during most weekends, and today he and Margaret were helping inexperienced visitors to identify birds with a scope.

Posted by  |  6 February, 2011 | Categories: RSPB, Travels | Leave a comment

A couple more Edinburgh shots…

…from my weekend up North, just because I like them.

Posted by  |  2 February, 2011 | Categories: Travels | Leave a comment

The 2011 TFL focaliser conference

So, it’s that time of year again.  When various focalisers, from all parts of the globe, make their way to Dundreggan to listen to Rob and Julie’s hilarious anecdotes.  This year there was no snow, which was disappointing, but lots of constructive (hopefully) talk again.

We got a chance to learn about the new Dundreggan planting site, Rosie showed us how to calculate distances from our stride length, Dan taught us about tracks and signs, and Adam enlightened us with the names of woodland flora.

As for my trip, I caught the Exmouth train to Exeter at 2 minutes past midnight on Friday morning (Thursday night?), along with a highly entertaining group of drunk goths, who apologised en masse every time any of them got in the way or looked like they might throw up.  I then alighted the 1am sleeper train from Exeter to Paddington.  As it happened it was the most uncomfortable train I’ve ever been on.  The seats were bum numbing, I was sat too close to the guy sat opposite me, and there was a sizeable gale blowing cold air through the carriage.  I took my jacket off as I sat down, then put it back on, then realised that I needed more than the four layers that I was already wearing to stay warm.

I briefly fell asleep somewhere between Reading and Paddington before trying to find a tube train at sometime around half 5 in the morning.  As it happened one turned up reasonably quickly, to take me to Kings Cross.  Whilst standing in the big open space where the train times were being displayed I spotted Julie Mac.  Instinctively I caught her eye and attempted to display signs of recognition.  I immediately regretted it, feeling that I was way too tired to converse with anyone.  Still, Julie came over and I probably made her feel terrible by mumbling incoherently to her until she had to catch the 6.15 train North.

My train left at 7am.  I had a seat all to myself, and I gradually let the motion of the train calm me off to sleep.  I woke some time after Peterborough to notice that someone was sitting next to me.  After a little more dozing I realised that she was gorgeous, so I stirred myself and got to know a little about Francesca from Newcastle University.

So, by the time I arrived in Edinburgh I was in a proper daze.  Many thanks to Colin, Rob, Sarah, Joan and Julie for putting up with me without comment.  No thanks to Deborah for pointing out that I reminded her of a bear with a sore head.

Thankfully I managed to sleep rather well at Dundreggan.  On my way back (today) my train travelled directly from Edinburgh to Exeter, and there were plenty of opportunities for naps.  Not so many opportunities to avoid the butt numbing x country train seat though.

Posted by  |  1 February, 2011 | Categories: TFL | 1 Comment

Some recent photos…

Nothing too unusual to report.  Lots of rain, the usual work out at Stockland, and a  bit of a look around the Venn Ottery parts of the reserve.

Posted by  |  27 January, 2011 | Categories: RSPB, Work | Leave a comment

A winter moth and tractors

As an extra special birthday present the RSPB have put my through some tractor training.  Thanks to the marvellous, patient Ray Piper for teaching us the ways of the PTO and 3 point linkage.  On day three (today) we were assessed by Ray, and I’ve now been given the go ahead to get tractoring.  It’s all a bit mad really.  At least one of the tractors that we drive is the size of a small house.  It has power steering, no, power everything, and feels as easy, if not easier, than driving a car.  And yet, if the driver was to take their eye off the ball for a couple of seconds he/she could find that they had just driven over a car.  Apparently 13 year olds are allowed to drive tractors, and 16 year olds can take them on roads.

Here are some wildlife photos taken in the Land Rover and cottage.  The moth (in the LR) is a winter moth (Operophtera brumata).  Apparently it has an internal anti-freeze that prevents it allows it to fly through the winter.  Top stuff.  The beetle was found wandering the cottage looking for st john’s wort.

Posted by  |  19 January, 2011 | Categories: RSPB, Work | Leave a comment