A Variety of Tasks

Today was a mixed day at Foxglove. The forecast was for rain but it largely remained dry, allowing us to complete a variety of tasks. We started with the workshop, inside it got a bit of a spring clean.

Outside, round the back of the workshop, we cleared all the timber and general bits and bobs that tend to accumulate over time. This was loaded up into the trailer and taken away for storage.  It now looks much tidier. 

A new bench was constructed and some of the old ones brought in to be sanded down and repainted. Some of the marker posts were also given a spruce up.

A boardwalk was also repaired and installed by Gary on our heath.

Keith spent some time in the workshop, repairing a dilapidated owl box. Having labelled it carefully he hopes it will have owls in it next year!

We also continued work preparing the site for the bird ringing season which will start shortly. This involves cutting back all the vegetation that is overhanging the net rides and ensuring all the net poles and guy ropes are in good condition and in place.

Any poles needing maintenance were taken back to the workshop to be repaired by Keith.

Our licenced bird ringers visited some of the large nest boxes on the reserve. We are lucky enough to have Tawny owls nesting and were able to catch one of the adults today to be ringed. It was nice to find it was a bird that has not nested on the reserve before as it was not already ringed.

Like all bird rings, the ring it was given has a unique number on it, which will enable us to identify this bird again in the future and help us understand the behaviour of these creatures.

Thanks to everyone who helped us complete a variety of tasks today.