Busy, Busy

Hi Everyone,


This week’s been a busy one!

The safety tests on the old boat went well, it was very amusing cramming 5 people, and loads of barrels filled with water into the boat to make up 750kg and nobody fell in the lode which was a success!

We also most of the week doing tree work down on the reed beds, which was great because we got to use a wood chipper borrowed from Anglesey Abbey to chip all the brash! This saved us making huge piles of brash all over the place, and we even used the chip to improve the living willow structure near the visitor centre

The yard outside the tractor shed looked like a scene out of the film "carwash" as we pressure washed all the tractors!

Good times!

Jack.

Happy New Year!

Hi everyone,

This is a bit belated, but Happy New Year! Hope the holidays were great!

Everyone is back to work at Wicken and the jobs have been rolling in as we’ve taken stock after the holidays; we’ve even made a list!  

Following on from getting organised we've started some bigger jobs,

For example, we have created a scallop shaped clearing in part of the plantation, to change the plant community structure and hopefully encourage some more butterfly species in there!

We’re also in the process of getting the boat ready for the summer, one of the things we have to do is test the weight distribution of the boat, by seeing how it reacts to having loads of people on one side, there’s a high chance of someone falling in, so I’ll let you know how that goes!!

Also the wildlife is still as abundant as ever, a barn owl has been flying all over the sedge fen, this week, in fact it flew about 3 metres over my head on Wednesday, I think the owl and I were as shocked as each other, an amazing sight!

Speak to you soon,

Jack.

Finished the bird work!

Hi Everyone,

We've finished the current work to encourage more birds on the Fen,

The Roger Clarke Hide has now got an improved view! We achieved this by cutting the reed in front of the brickpits, so that the brickpit pools are now visible. and by removing some sections of scrub to open up the area a bit more. A kingfisher has already been spotted around the hide and we're hoping that the new bird feeders we have put out will encourage a greater variety of birds to visit. You could say we have finished just in the nick of time, as the bird feeders will help get the birds through this cold spell!

We have also finished clearing reed off areas around East and West mere hides, this has not only made a lot more of the mere visible from the hides, but also it should encourage the birds to use the cleared areas and offer a different type of habitat.

It's been very rewarding finishing these bits of work off, hopefully the birds will be just as pleased!

Jack.

Hey Everyone,

Just an update on whats been going on at Wicken this week,

We've been clearing some scrub along the centre path of St Edmunds Fen to try and create a "woodland ride" to offer a slightly more diverse habitat by increasing the light availability in there. This is a project thats just getting started and it'll be really interesting to see how it progresses over the year!

we have also have seen loads of Marsh Harriers whilst out and about this week! which are always great to see soaring over the Fen,

anyway thats me done for now,

Jack

Bird Hides

Hi Everyone,

So today We've been improving the view from the Roger Clark Hide. This invloved removing the scrub on one of the banks to leave a three metre gap between the waters edge and the scrub. We also made sure there are plenty of perches for the Kingfishers! Its been a good day and it was great to see the (almost) finished product!

We're also improving the habitat around all of our bird hides to encourage a greater variety of bird species, especially waders, by creating more open spaces and bare patches amongst the reed!

I'll keep you posted!

Jack.

Hey everyone!

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to my blog about my time volunteering with the National Trust at Wicken Fen!

I'll post bits here and there about the various things the team and myself have got up to recently.

Jack.