Garden warbler in car park today

Bubbling along without reaching any conclusion

Martin

Searching this blog --- martin

Some people say they have had problems searching for things in this blog.

I use a variety of browsers and do not have this problem.

The second 'box' down from the very top is a search box, where you can use the normal google techniques.  try putting "bog Beacon" into this line and pressing enter

But you can also just use your normal search engine with a little extra

ie
blogspot oldlodge "bog beacon"

and get the same items.

hope this helps

Martin

Tuesday, 30th April 2019 ... weekly volunteers

Present: Mike p, Mike m, Alan, Pat, Keith, Stuart, Ian, Terry, Ray, John b, Bernard,, Paul, and Martin Activities: - did the nest box survey - built a small dam in the swamp to slow flows. Moved ferns etc that could be swamped. This part of stream has been heavily eroded over time - continued the ditch work along the road - did some log splitting at the roller stand after lunch - looked the ponies Observations: - warm and windless. Some sun - green hair streak in the ditch - lots of bog beacon in all usual places and some new - pair of Dartford along the road - whitethroats - Henry parking incident, with Ray! - buzzard, kestrel, Reed bunting - mixed bag with nest boxes. Plenty of redstarts. Quite a lot of gaps at the beginning Martin

Tuesday, 23rd April 2019 ... weekly volunteers

Present: Jonathan, John, Stuart, Mike m, Mike p, Pat, Alan, Bob, Keith, Bernard, Mark, Paul, David w, and Martin Activities; - looked ponies - checked for the cornered leek. Just a few near pillars. Some wild garlic ransoms, in the car park ditch found - built Irish bridge on the most southerly branch of the swamp. Also one on the bird count route along from the tree creeper box, which still needs building up - cut young bracken in various places. Very patchy - continued work on brambles along the road - checked dampness for CTs - bit of work on our extended car park along the road - John did some rhody work on the Pippingford boundary - Jonathan did some pine pulling near chalet Observations: - cuckoo, Willow warblers, chiffchaffs, redstarts, tree pipits, wood larks, Dartford - nice warm overcast still day - holy blues, brimstones, a small dragon fly, lizard Martin

Tuesday, 16th April 2019 ... weekly volunteers

Present: Ray, Terry, John b, Mark, Ian, David a, Mike p, Keith, Pat, Alan, Stuart, David w, Bernard, Jonathan, Neil (visited), and Martin Activities: - inspected some of the reptile tins. Slow worms and lizard. No adders - ditch work getting rid of brambles - some peat dug up for perks - continued the log splitting at the roller stand - did a small berm as an exploratory exercise on sphagnum Heath - had a concerted effort to get rid of the three cornered leek in car park and near the stone pillars - improved the locks at the roller stand, following recent observations by Alan - looked the ponies who were being difficult to find - Mike p gave amazing demonstration of log splitting by throwing the log with embedded wedge, to the ground Observations: - warn, slight wind and largely overcast. Later it was spitting with rain - summer visitors are here. Blackcap, chiffchaff, Willow warblers, tree pipits, redstarts, cuckoo. - 2 woodlarks along the road - speckled wood - Alan brought early Easter eggs - Bernard's birthday with KitKat Martin

Tuesday, 9th April 2019 ... weekly volunteers

Present: Alan, John, John b, David a, David w, Keith, Bob, Mike m, Mike p, Ian, Paul, Ray, and Martin Activities: - checked remaining nest boxes. One had an egg in, but not sure it is viable at the present. Put one repaired box up, near cricket pitch - pulled three cornered leek from beginning of the path up to car park. There are many to be pulled there and in the car park - some splitting of logs at roller stand, but more work to be done - some sawing of logs in the shed - Ditch work continued with pulling and digging bramble out of ditch - some pine pulling near chalet and one taken as perk - looked the ponies, who were being very difficult to find - John cleaned tool room floor - David w trimmed the rough edges of the wedges at home and brought back. Fab Observations: - first redstart singing - Mike showed some aerial photos of the reserve - Keith brought some honey for sale - horrid weather and stopped soon after lunch. Drizzle and showers. Misty. - the dog poo bags have gone. Our tactics worked Martin

Tuesday, 2 April 2019 ... weekly volunteers

Description:Present: Paul, David w, Ian, Mike m, Mike p, Keith, Pat, Alan, Stuart, Jonathan, Terry, Ray, and Martin Activities: - checked out a third of nest boxes, from five bar gate to causeway. Did running repairs on some of them - cleared the boundary between the reserve and the car park, of bramble etc. No three cornered leeks found there - but were found on the path near the stone pillars. Pulled up and disposed of. - some pine pulling in front of the chalet nest box, but not too close. Terry collected some for the Brighton sapling operation - some bracken peat bagged and taken off site - more log splitting of the chestnuts near the roller stand - and some of these pieces were sawn up. Mike m took some pieces for turning - more ditch work along the road, pulling up bramble mostly - looked the ponies - put a long chain on the roller stand gates, as old one becoming difficult for some strange reason - wedges to be trimmed for safety reasons by David w off site - placed the discarded dog poo bags in prominent place, to emphasise that we will not provide a service to remove them. Watch this space. Observations: - 2 kestrels at the nest site - crossbills - chiffchaff - bog beacon in swamp - Queen wasp and hornet found in separate nest boxes. Hornet was huge - dire forecast for weather, and some rain towards lunch - almost did some gorse cutting and feeding, but rain stopped play - barn owl seen during the week at the chalet Martin

Tuesday, 26th March 2019 ... weekly volunteers

Description:Present: John, John b, Mike m, Mike p, Ian, Jonathan, Paul, Pat, Stuart, Mark, Bernard, Keith, Bob, David w, and Martin Activities: - looked the ponies - cleared the bank in the car park of some brambles. No leeks or handbags found - refurnished the dog notices from cottages to quarry - inspected the new dam. Some extra work probably necessary - inspected the chalet nest box. 2 barn owls flew out. Lots of pellets in the box. Selfie stick failed - some of the reptile tins inspected - John cleared some rhododendrons on the other side of the Pippingford boundary - quarry work included felling an extra tree and processing, splitting, debarking and pointing for fence posts - checked nest boxes up to west pond. One box broken, maybe by ponies and brought back for repair by Keith. no sign yet of any activity this year. One n3 record actually had 8 odd tit eggs slightly hidden under under the surface. Some small repairs done Observations: - 5 buzzards, 2 kestrels, 2 barn owls - wood Lark - chiffchaff - weather OK, when sun out Martin

Tuesday, 19th March 2019 ... weekly volunteers

Description:Present: Terry, Mike m, Mike p, Ian, Ray, Keith, David a, Pat, Alan, Jonathan, Stuart, David w, John b, Paul and Martin Activities: - build a barrage in a channel alongside ol1, with some alder logs cut in the coppiced area beyond the paddy field. Overflow was also built to the side. This should raise the general water table in the area of bog - finished the fencing work across the centre - did some more work in the quarry, making fencing posts out of coppiced chestnut - some ditch work was done along the road to reduce the infestation of gorse and bramble - looked the ponies - brought back some tins that had been in ol2 Observations: - first chiffchaff - crossbills, redpolls - stonechat, skylarks, woodlarks - weather fine. Got slightly more windy Martin

Tuesday, 12th March 2019 ... weekly volunteers

Present: Mike p, Mike m, Ian, John, Jonathan, David a, Paul, Keith, Alan, and Martin Activities: - Paul bagged up some peat and took as perk - Ian collected two smaller chestnut logs from the roller stand and split them with wedges - John did more ground work in the car park - Mike p checked the tree tubes, and reckons just two need attention - some of the last bits of fencing work on the central fence was done, just before the weather broke - two trees that fell during recent winds were cleared up and made safe. A pine that fell from ol2 onto the boundary fence, and a smaller chestnut along beeches avenue over the track. Log and brash piles made of the chestnut - looked the ponies. They came and nibbled some of the chestnut branches - did some log cutting in the shed while it rained - Mike p did some tool sharpening Observations: - very windy from the start. Rain largely held off until noon, when we had very bad weather and were confined to the tool store - lots of crossbills, redpolls - Bullfinch - Willow now looking greenish - discussed the Heath fires two weeks ago - chestnut will need an inspection for the longer term. Wonderful root plate and probably still alive Martin

Tuesday, 5th March 2019 ... weekly volunteers

Description:Present: Alan, Ray, Mike p, Mike m, Ian, Keith, Bob, Stuart, David a, David w, Mark, Pat, Paul, John b, Bernard, and Martin Activities: - looked the ponies - two bonfires of brash from Mark m-t cutting of birch on the pillow mound near stony pond - moved and stacked most of the logs - Mike p marked possible additional drainage channels for the path down from high beeches - made some berms from old log piles to slow run off down slope from the pond near high beeches - told a Lady off for refusing to put her dog on the lead - small amount of log splitting Observations: - Crossbills, buzzards, tree creepers, 100+ redpolls - nice weather, slight sw breeze - discussed the 2 out of control fires last week on the forest. Maybe right to protect the volunteers, but rangers must have been mad - hard work today, with a lot done Martin