Cress Marsh

A large digger (the type used for clearing out ditches) was noted parked on site behind the car park this evening as I drove home from work. I have passed the site every day this week and up until this evening have not seen any activities taking place. I guess the spraying and reseeding work has been delayed?

I have received a very helpful reply from Rachel and she is happy for info to be shared.
Main points:-
Electricity is being installed to pump house on lagoon, and a water meter will be fitted in next 2 weeks.
There is only permission to pump water from drain behind, which is obviously rain dependent.
Application has been made for a borehole but this involves various agencies/surveys etc and will take some time.
The ground will be sprayed in next couple of days then seeded next week.
Rachel is aware of the timing of these works in relation to migrating birds using the site.

Visited site late this afternoon on my way home from work. Work activities had finished on site for the day, but it was still very quiet!
The few bird sightings consisted of:

Woodpigeon 200
Carrion Crow
Magpie
Linnet 2
Grey Heron 2
Pheasant
Peregrine 1 - perched on blue metal structure around one of the chimneys on the power station.

Visited site this morning. There was work going on around the green substation at the back corner of the lagoon. I’m wondering if this is to provide an electricity supply to the site so that water can be pumped in. At the March meeting I remember the Ecology Officer saying it was an issue trying to get electricity on to site. I’ve emailed Rachel Graham to see if she can provide an update of progress.
The site is the driest I’ve seen it. Needless to say, there were scarcely any birds

Not much to add.
When I saw it on Aug 31st, it was on the lagoon. The right wing was displaced upwards and it still had some flying ability at that stage. It appeared to be a juvenile.

Jim Wright wrote: Any idea on what might have caused the injury to the heron?

I would imagine any number of things. I saw it a couple of weeks back stood in the field near the small pool to the right of the hide. I noticed one wing looked askew, but at the time I thought bird was probably in process of preening. Apart from wing it generally looked fine. I noticed Joy had also seen it a day or so later, still with the wing askew. It could have been injured by flying into something, attacked by another heron/raptor/fox....
Whatever the reason, if it could no longer fly it was going to find it hard to feed. The lagoon has been pretty devoid of herons for awhile now, so food may be limited here.