Duck Traps and Tree Pulling

It's been a rather damp and misty day on the reserve, although this does make it rather mysterious and magical. 

One of the jobs this afternoon was to clear the duck trap on the Lake, which will hopefully be used during Sunday's ringing session to possibly catch Mallards, Moorhens, or maybe even our two new visitors in the last couple of weeks, a Pintail and a Wigeon.

One of the jobs this morning was to start clearing an area filled with Willow and Birch saplings. The trees were pulled up by the roots, in the hope that they won't come back quite so quickly. Although the area is surrounded with Birch and Willow trees, all patiently waiting for me to clear it to then drop their seeds straight into the nice open space. And the whole process is repeated again!

I had a competition (with myself which didn't make it all that exciting) to try and get the longest root, this Birch took the crown…  

Meanwhile, our volunteer Colin has been filling all the bird feeders up in preparation for Sunday's ringing session, quite a big job with so many feeders around the reserve.