Walking in a winter wetland..

It’s cold, and I had to scrape the ice from the car this morning, but at least the snow has stayed away!  Joy and me (Steve) are off to a new site today, right on the Somerset/Dorset border.

Not a classic view of a Nature Reserve!

Some quarry workings are ready to be handed back to wildlife, and we were on site to help advise the local community and the quarry owners.  Read on to see what we thought of it….

A quick meeting with representatives from the quarry and the local community enabled us to put a plan together, and then it was off out onto the site for a walk around.

Part of the site is still being worked and as such we had to abide by all the health and safety rules – such as wearing luminous orange and yellow jackets, plus hard hats, and being ushered around by the site foreman complete with radio link to some massive machines!  The hard hat was actually very welcome as the wind blowing across the site was particularly icy, and any cover was welcome, even if it was made of plastic.

Joy has plans for a trail around the upper parts of the site, with views over the wetland area from a couple of hides.

Joy discusses the finer points of Hide location

Whilst we were stood on the top of the bank, looking out over the wetland, the potential for the site was obvious – and made evn more so by the numbers of snipe that would break cover and fly off across the open water to land in amongst the rush and reedmace on the far side.

A view of the wetland area

A short walk around the site revealed plenty of work to be done – boardwalks, path creation and steps plus of course putting up the hides.  2 Roe deer were rather surprised to see us as well -and it’s amazing how close you can get considering we were all shining like beacons thanks to our yellow and orange jackets!

See if you can spot us!

Another view over the open water

All in all, this site has great potential and I’m looking forward to working there with a merry band of volunteers in the New Year.  Oddly enough, I used to live no more than 2 miles from the site and often wondered what it looked like on the other side of the bank that shields it from the road.  Well, now I know – and it’s going to be great!