Summer success

Fearful of sounding like a broken record, I have to start with the Avocets. The first ever recorded attempt for this species in Devon, and not only did they attempt to nest, they defended the nest, hatched three chicks and raised them all the way through to fledging! With avocets it's the adults which fly off first and indicate that the chicks are independent and its was the male (I think) which decided this time had come first. A 100% success rate is quite exceptional for these elegant waders, with usual reproductive success falling around the 40% mark. Its dearly hoped that adults and chicks will return to us next May and attempt another breeding year, and this winter sees us undertaking a lot of preparation work for this end.

Over the summer our Assistant Ranger, Ben, was out with a static bat detector, recording calls of these key indicator species across all our sites. Using software with a 95% accuracy Ben managed to identify all 16 of the species present in East Devon using one or more of our sites. Dormice remained illusive at our survey site at Holyford Woods, but a new licenced site at Knapp Copse proved more fruitful and young dormice were found and data taken on three of the monthly checks. Water voles were surveyed by volunteer and Open university student, Lesley Clarke and found to be distributed throughout the lower Axe Estuary wetlands, but proving a little hard to see on the Nature Reserve itself. Last week an adult was seen swimming across the pond outside the Discovery Hut so hopefully winter work to increase the surface area of water on this pond will allow them to increase in visibility next year.

Finally, this year was an auspicious milestone for our sand martin cliff with birds nesting and raising chicks for the first time since it was constructed in 2012. Many autumnal conversations were had with visitors asking if the cliff had attracted birds and I dare say there were a number who assumed it was never going to happen. However, patience was all that was required and the resulting impact of scores of sand martins swarming around the nesting cliff entrances was certainly worth waiting for!