Bye Bye Wicken!

Hi everyone!

So I've finished my year's placement at Wicken Fen!

It's been an awesome year working with all the great people at the fen; I've had so much fun and learned so much about practical conservation! And would just like to thank everyone for giving me the opportunity to volunteer at Wicken!

Some of the best things I got up to over the year:

• Learning to drive all the tractors and getting the same number of ticks on the training board as Mr John Hughes! And doing tractor work in general!
• Improving the Roger Clarke hide by putting in more feeders and a kingfisher perch, this lead to loads of happy visitors!
• Learning how to I.D loads more birds and plants
• Never having a boring day!
• All the outrageous banter in the Docky hut and really bad puns when working on big group tasks: (think "prickly subject" when talking about barbed wire)

All in all I've had a great time and I'm going to miss working at Wicket Fen loads!!

Thanks everyone

Jack

Tractor season!!

Hi everyone,

loads has been happening on the fen in the last few months!

We have serviced all our vehicles which was  really interesting to learn about all the components that make up our tractors, and very messy with plenty of engine and axle oil to be changed!

The servicing has been done just in time for the cutting season, this is where we cut set sections of the sedge fen on a three year rotation to limit plant succession ( mainly preventing scrub from taking over), and maintain the important species composition that we have at Wicken. This is done in three stages:

1: cut the "strip" with a disc mower mounted on a tractor
2: "turn" the cut litter into piles using an acrobat mounted on a tractor
3: "Buckrake" the piles of litter off the strips into bays

so if you see armies of tractors around the fen, no you know what we are up too!


We have also had a very animal orientated week, where we had to get Ewan one of our lead bulls into a corral so that the vet inspect his leg which was causing Ewan problems, we had to move 4 konik horses over to Verrals Fen, which went really well! and we also sent two konik ponies up to derbyshire to join wildlife trust!

thats all for now!

Jack

Birds galore!

Hi everyone,

We had a morning with the BTO's Nest Recorder Jo Jones last week; she showed us how to find birds’ nests and how to go about recording them for the BTO on recording cards. This was a really good day as I had never really thought about birds’ nests, I just assumed they were built away from prying human eyes, but once I got my eye in I realised that nests are pretty much everywhere!

We were shown a wrens nest in the Roger Clarke hide, which was full of chicks, we thought there were only two, but on the Friday, Tim and I were filling the bird feeders, and the Female Wren flew into the hide and fed three chicks right in front of us which was awesome! Though the nest looked cramped enough with two wren chicks in it so we were surprised by the third.

The swan eggs along the lode bank have hatched and there are 4 (there could be more) little signets paddling around with their parents!

I also helped to maintain the community woodland out on White Fen, where we cleared the grass around some 1800 plus trees with a heavy duty mower from Anglesey Abbey (which you steered with the brakes like a tank) and strimmers! But while we were out we could hear a yellowhammer and looked for ages only to find it halfway up an electricity pylon!

Birds are crafty little things!  


Jack

Mowing and more..

After a long gap the Blog returns!

We have been up to loads in the last few months!

I have been trained on the twose mower recently so  have been plodding along around most of the trails putting in nicely mowed paths! The twose fits onto the little Kubota tractor which is really good fun to drive using its rocking pedal, ( you use your toes to go forwards and your heel to reverse)

We have also finished putting in loads of perch benches around the boardwalk! and even put out a solid oak "sofa" hand crafted by Wicken's very own carpenter Jamie Cakebread. so there are plenty of spots to sit and enjoy the nature on the Fen.

There has also been lots of wildlife about! there is a Swan's nest amongst the reed in the lode right next to the visitor centre! and there are loads of swallows and cuckoos around the Birds on the Fen certainly are making themselves heard. The flora is also appearing rapidly with plenty or ragged robin, comfrey and creeping buttercup coming into flower there are even some orchids in bloom!

The biggest news is of course the opening of the new windpump! We had the opening ceremony yesterday, and good news the pump works!  It offers an interesting and sustainable solution to the potential acidification of the fen due to rainwater, by pumping calcareous water from monks lode onto the fen to act as a buffer to the acidic rainwater. I will be (as I'm sure many people are) following the results of this with great interest.

more news soon!

Jack

We've been as busy as ever out on the Fen,

Last week The new fence and cattlegrids across Bakers Fen were finished, and as a result we have taken down loads of old fencing. A task that is pretty hard work but was helped loads with the use of an rtv to remove the posts and lots of sunshine to keep spirits high! Ive got some pretty well tanned arms now aswell!

This week we have been improving the Roger Clarke hide even more, It isn't quite finished yet (you might notice it is missing its window hatches), but we have put in a screen to prevent people walking up to the hide from scaring all the bird away, and improved the disabled access in the hide, so wheelchair users can get a better view!

While we were working we also saw some redpole and greenfinch! which was great as the redpole is a new bird for me!

Lots of great stuff!

Hey everyone,

Since my last post we have been pretty busy on the Fen,

Last week Lois our Community Officer and I visited Waterbeach Primary School. We spent the day helping with the planting of a community orchard in the school grounds with parent volunteers, and improving the wildlife area with the help of some year 6 students. We got the seal of approval from the kids who said "it was better than working in class!"

I also went to the National Trust's Regional Spring conference last week, which was a great opportunity to see how other properties in the region are doing, and what projects they are up to, a highlight was a slideshow showing these projects: featuring our Vision Warden John with our shiny new tractor!

This week we have been repairing woodpecker holes in the Old Tower hide, and doing some tree work!

The wildlife highlight of the week definitely came on Wednesday, when I saw a Marsh Harrier go for a coot out of Brett's hide, luckily for the Coot it escaped!

Jack.

A Quick Update!

Hey everyone,

It's been a while since my last post so here’s an update on life at the fen!

We've been doing some tree work up at the plantation, the aim of this work was to break up the age structure of the trees and provide a greater variety of habitat. This should benefit the birds and the butterflies up there.

We also had to remove a large tree near the lode bank this week as it was showing signs of weakness at the base of its stem; this was a great chance for me to drive our shiny new tractor! As we dragged the felled tree up towards the new wind pump where it has been reused as a fence!

I've also been taking measurements and samples from the dip wells across the reserve, which is part of a study into the reserves water chemistry! This provides useful information on the processes occurring at Wicken.

More later in the week,

Jack