Swale Volunteering Update - Volunteer Week

Our Swale volunteers have been busy across several sites, repairing some damage from winter storms at Cromer’s Wood and our Wilderness Downs sites in Stalisfield, as well as dealing with the loss of the west hide at Oare Marshes which succumbed after three storms in quick succession (the wood will be reused). The most important job of spring for Swale – bar checking fencing before livestock returns of course! – is the placement at Castle Coote at South Swale of an electric fence to protect our bird sanctuary from disturbance during summer breeding months. This operation takes some planning, using tide timetables, inventive causeway building, and a lot of patience unspooling wire. Whilst last year saw us enjoy glorious sunshine during construction, this year’s efforts were undertaken in cold, windy, wet conditions. However both the Swale and Wednesday roaming team put in a great effort and the fence is up. A huge thank you also goes out to our Little Tern volunteers who monitor Castle Coote for breeding birds over the summer months, in most weathers - except the most extreme. These dedicated volunteers spend hours watching birds that are feeding and hopefully breeding on our protected bird sanctuary.

At Cromer’s Wood both volunteer groups spent time managing the main rides and reducing some of the vehicle track damage from the coppicing work. Our dead hedges have been built back up and encroaching vegetation around the pond cut back. One of the main jobs for this spring has now started, with more fence repairs and interpretation to be replaced at Oare Marshes. The Wednesday roaming team have also been undertaking our spring water vole surveys at Oare. There’s still a lot of fencing work to do, and several gate posts have given up across various reserves mysteriously all at the same time! With these jobs and lots of fast growing invasive's to keep on top of, the Swale volunteers and Wednesday roaming team will be busy this spring.

Our Swale Livestock volunteers have also been kept busy, with four splendid longhorns joining our mixed flock of sheep at South Swale for summer. At Oare Marshes we now have two groups of cattle grazing, our Angus heifers on the east flood and some of this year’s Sussex calves with their mother’s are already back on the reserve grazing their way through the west flood compartments. Water levels are being closely monitored across both east and west flood, with the west flood having attracted several overwintering species of interest including snipe and garganey. The west still remains fairly wet this spring, despite the dry weather, and that hopefully means more invertebrates to feed this year’s breeding birds.