Thursday 30 March 2017

Back on the trail

With April quickly approaching there were still several tasks that needed seeing to before the Nature Trail opened again to the public. Also the dredging work was planned to finish around this time and restart in the winter, but the decision was made to let work continue as it was having little impact on the wildlife and it would always be better to finish the work early. Travelling across the Broad it was surprising to see how little the dredgers seemed to bother the birds that lived there, as I watched swans and ducks swimming right up to the platform completely unfazed, more concerned with the possibility of food. The birds on Salhouse and Hoveton Great Broad are very bold, especially around this time; waiting to be collected by boat on the shore of Salhouse Broad my boots were investigated by a couple of very curious mallards. In the springtime the instinct to mate and breed is strong and this means, especially for the egg-laying females, they are hungrier than ever. This explains why the birds' so readily approach people; not only do they associate people with food more than danger anyway but these Broads have so little plant life due to pollution, so being feed by visitors is an important source of energy for them.
The duck couple who kept me company and tried to eat my boots at Salhouse Broad
It was on the Monday that my luck ran out and it poured with rain. We only had one simple task to do that day - simple on paper at least - but the heavy downpour made sure we were soaked by the end of it nonetheless. Living out in the wilderness for several years, even the thick, heavy sleepers used for the trail don't last forever and some had finally become rotten enough to need replacing. The main problem the wood faces is excavation by ant colonies which hollow them out and give purchase for the fungi and moss to bury their roots in where we can't remove them. When the sleepers are compromised like this they become dangerous, but replacing them isn't easy when the new wood is extremely heavy and must travel across water and through wet woodland to reach their destination. It was during this task I realised the true cost of my little experience; I had nowhere near the upper body strength needed to move the sleepers. I helped how I could, holding bags and opening the boat shed door, but for the most part felt quite useless as I watched the other two wardens. To make the task easier, and less of a health and safety risk, they used strops; loops of thick material they slipped around each end of the sleepers so they could raise them without bending over or risk trapping their fingers underneath.
A section of replaced boardwalk
The second day was brighter, though still a little chilly, and we were joined by a couple more helping hands. While they continued with the task of replacing the sleepers and removing the old ones, I swept the boardwalk. The main purpose of keeping the trail clear of debris is to reveal areas where the chicken wire which covers the sleepers needs patching up, and preparing the sites for repairs. It also removes the moss which has grown on top of the wood, preventing their roots from weakening the wood. Also, on one side of the island some old trees had been removed because their hollow branches overhanging the path were dangerous. Not only was the path covered in sawdust but it also opened up a wide area next to the gate which now needed a fence - it was becoming clear that more than a degree in science what was really useful for nature wardens was a strong back and carpentry skills. On top of these tasks there was also a new tern raft to build; a wooden platform covered in gravel where terns and other birds nested and which had been destroyed by Storm Doris.
The new tern raft, under construction
The third and final day I worked at the trail that week I was back on sweeping and chicken wire duty - which while not exciting I did find oddly therapeutic - but before that we visited the cattle. The boys; Andrew, Manny, Duffy and Bobby had now made a friendly herd with the girls, Marie and Netta. They'd grown a lot since I'd last seen them a couple of months before; all the males now had horns sprouting from their fluffy heads, and had calmed down a lot. Instead of jostling and butting heads they were quite content to sit in their field and watch us approach, quickly loosing interest when it was clear we had no food. Duffy and Mani had formed a close bond and were often seen together. Unfortunately there were problems however; Marie had gotten arthritis in her old age which caused her to limp, and Andrew's intestine was having trouble adjusting to the new pasture - he was the youngest and only just weaned before coming to the Bure Marshes so the sudden change in diet was a shock to his system. But otherwise everyone looked in good condition; thick set with glossy coats. The wardens would continue to keep an eye on them and it would be a job for a volunteer to follow the cattle around for a day, collecting their cowpats for worm testing - time would tell who picked the short straw on that one.

After the heavy rain the weather quickly picked up again and it was lovely being back out on the Broad, watching the plants come to life after winter and seeing the grebes, tuffed ducks, swans and even a heron! Office work would always be an inevitable part of any job but at least my days on the Broad were just as assured as well.

Saturday 25 March 2017

Talks

Natural England is only one of several organisations across the country working to take care of the environment. As well as the Broads Authority and the Wildlife Trust there are independent ecological consultants as well. In our local area representatives of these groups and others regularly get together to form the Broads Biodiversity Partnership, where we listen to talks given by members on the work that they've been doing. It's an important way of keeping up to date with local projects and share expertise; it was here I was told about the PlantLife publication on eutrophication, the issue affecting Hoveton Great Broad.

The meeting started with a talk by a ecological consultant about fen monitoring, research and management - why it's important and how it can be done. He described surveillance monitoring as continuous work to identify long-term changes and requires permanent plots - somewhere you can return to exactly to reduce variation - with stratified coverage of the variation of vegetation and microhabitats in the area - this often requires collaboration between groups so that all bases are covered. Some variables can change very quickly, even weekly, which means monitoring like this should be done on a fortnightly basis; which requires a lot of work and, on top of all their other work, wouldn't be feasible without volunteers and collaboration.

Fens are a key habitat we're trying to recreate on our broad - if you compare Hoveton Great Broad with other water bodies in the area you can clearly see the difference in the amount of reed bed - but they haven't been well studied, simply because the spotlight has been on other habitats and few have considered researching it. Not to mention being a wetland habitat they can be a little more challenging to work in. But with conservation work going on in and around them, and the increasing affects of climate change we need to understand what a fen is besides a marshy, lowland area, how species depend on them and what impacts our work could have on them. Nothing lives in isolation and this is true of biomes more than anything else. Conservation can't be narrow minded, only focusing on the plot of land in front of them, because work in one area will inevitably impact adjacent and downstream habitats. Identifying the need for more understanding is a first step, hopefully next will be the research.

The day after, the Bat Conservation Trust held an update talk on their Bats in Churches Project. For daytime roosting bats rely on old church buildings because there are few natural habitats in the form of ancient woodland left due to logging and the felling of dangerous, hollow trees. Bats are driven out of other potentially suitable habitats due to nearby developments producing too much light and conversions of buildings such as barns into modern housing. Churches are ideal as they remain unchanged for many years so can be used by several generations of bats and the beams, timbers, nooks and crannies provide good perches.

But bat colonies, especially large maternity roosts, can make problems for the people who use the church. The main issue comes from their droppings which are not only unhygienic but also quite acidic so damage the brass and polished wood found in the church. This damage done to the building and artefacts needs to be repaired but often churches have to rely on money they raise themselves from donations - bids for grants are often unsuccessful because the chance of the repairs simply being damaged again is too high. Some congregations try to employ methods of getting rid of the bats such as floodlighting or acoustic deterrents but these are very dangerous to the bats as the light can confuse them so they don't leave the roosts at night and starve, and the noises emitted are usually very loud and painful. In other instances people try blocking the entrances that bats use in the hope that they'll move elsewhere, these are either ineffective since the bats push the blockades aside to return home or trap bats inside the building until they die.

All species of bat are protected in the UK, so it is a criminal offence to disturb or obstruct bat roosts. and we have to remember that it's us encroaching on the lives of wildlife not the other way around. As much as bat roosts do cause problems for the churches they inhabit it is their home and there are ways people can coexist. The Bats in Churches project is working to not only help churches achieve this but also to engage the congregation and change attitudes towards these mammals; they are incredible, fascinating creatures and nothing can compare to the experience of watching them fly around you. Bats are one of my favourite animals and I am very excited about this project, what it's already achieved and what it can still do for many other churches.

Friday 17 March 2017

A Walk by the Coast

In an office like Dragonfly House where several people need access to the same file for work, files are kept on shared drives. Inevitably, as electronics advance, these shared drives systems need updating and all the files have to be moved onto something new before the old one is shut down and everything on it is lost forever. For us this 'something new' was TRIMM, a file system that prioritised security over usability. As comforting as the extra security is, the need for a full day of training on how to use the system was a strain on everyone so our team leader organised a day out on the seafront.

St Andrew Church, Church Lane, Eccles-On-Sea
The coastal path from Eccles-On-Sea, through Happisburg to Walcott and ending at Bacton was chosen because work had recently been done to make it a part of the England Coastal Path by colleagues at Natural England, specifically in terms of signage. So we set off from our starting point at St Andrew Church for a very windy but sunny walk to unwind and critique the signage that outlined the walk.

The beach was a lovely sandy one, lined with stone sea walls and was surprisingly quiet considering the sunshine. Before we reached the beach we had to make our way through a small residential settlement whose roads had seen better days, not helped by the recent weather which had turned the pot holes into what felt like small ponds. After that though, the first leg was straight forward; simply head along the shoreline to the lighthouse at the end of the beach and you'd reach a grassy area with seating for a rest and a picnic before the second leg, which was less simple.

The Happisburgh Lighthouse
After the lighthouse we walked through Manor Caravan Site and, though we did get back down onto the beach eventually, we were filed along a narrow patch of grass squeezed between a ploughed field and the cliff edge. Though any fences or railings put along this section would have ruined the view the drop, while not life threatening, would still have done some damage to anyone who fell off it. On top of this the view was already marred by the old, eroded groynes which stuck out of the sand like gnarled fingers. But this was only one section of what was a lovely day by the coast; it was a really enjoyable walk and I saw much more of Norfolk's coast than I had done in my previous two years of being at university. Not to mention the pubs, cafés and fish and chip shops we could stop at along the way.

The beach from Eccles-On-Sea to Happisburgh
However, unfortunately, not all the aims of the walk had positive outcomes. The signage, such that is was, had room for improvement. Some signs were done well; noticeable without affecting the landscape and proving useful information about how far you were from settlements in each direction but overall the signs lacked consistency. Other signs were less detailed and a few were easy-to-miss posts in the ground offering even less information. And none of them paid tribute to the organisation who'd put them there.

Testing and collaboration are key parts of any project and even bad news, as unpleasant as it is to give it, can be helpful news. Be it in a team like the Hoveton Restoration Project or an organisation like Natural England, nobody works in isolation. I'd already learnt this in getting contacts for working with bats and it was a good opportunity to test my new way of looking at things and to help out how I could.

Monday 6 March 2017

Opportunities

After visiting the fish survey team I was back in the office; unfortunately work was more than a lovely boat ride on a sunny day. Though as much as I loved being on the Broad, I was just as thankful for my time in the office. Having the opportunity to sit down with my supervisor and talk about what I wanted to get out of my placement was really helpful, not only in putting it into context of my future, but also in forcing me to plan out my weeks in a more productive way.


Suddenly I had a lot of mini projects of my own to work on and I had more balls to keep in the air than I'd ever done before. But I had a very supportive team around me and the work was something I could get excited about. If science writing was where I saw my future heading then I had many chances to build up my experience. Alongside the project updates on the website and a piece in the Broads Biodiversity Newsletter there were the educational resources I had to work on.


This involved researching a long list of species found on the Nature Trail, starting with moths and spiders - beetles proved a little more difficult to find species-specific information on as most books covered beetles in general, and there are a lot of beetles! This was something I'd always pictured myself doing; reading up on species so I could write something informative for the public about the fascinating lives of the creatures outside their front door. And the long list of invertebrate species promised to keep me busy for several weeks.


However behind this I had a few more opportunities ticking over in the background. While all species interest me, bats are a particular favourite and as part of Natural England I had access to several contacts who could help get me more involved with them. Winter couldn't offer me much but I was promised that the rapidly approaching Spring would provide me more close up experience. On top of that there was more excitement in the form of a potential visit to another LIFE project, much like Severn Rivers Trust had done. Searching the database on the LIFE website, there were so many great conservation projects going on across Europe - it was hard to narrow down the list. But there would be a lot of work to do before this possibility became a reality.


Finally, to help spread the word about our beautiful Broad I was given a small peer group to engage with on my own. Our Access and Engagement Officer - who'd recently organised a very successful press day, despite Storm Doris - would always have my back but inviting student societies at the University of East Anglia to our Broad, was my responsibility. I knew who to contact, I'd been a part of some of them during my first two years, and I had a few ideas of my own for the actual visit. Though as luck would have it our HLF monitor was visiting that week so I saw one of the ideas my supervisor had for what a visit like that could look like.


Before a meeting with our Heritage Lottery Fund monitor on how the project was progressing, we had a little walk around the Nature Trail. The task we were given was a simple one; take the selection of colour cards you've been given and search the Nature Trail for them. It was very effective. For one it slowed us down a lot; you could easily walk round the trail in only a few minutes if you wanted to, and made us really pay attention to the habitat around us. At first glance the winter scene might look drab but it's actually made up of a huge variety of colour; a tree trunk isn't simply 'brown'. Furthermore our preconceptions of what colours we would find were challenged; for a wetland habitat surrounded by water, we found very little 'blue'.


My life wasn't accustomed to being busy but I surprised myself with how much I looked forward to tackling each task and the structured days working in an office like an adult were starting to feel less alien, and more comfortable.