• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Upton Warren (13 Viewers)

understandable with such narrow profit margins

I don't know anything about their profit margins Mark but, regardless of that, it wasn't theirs to take and we had already earmarked it for other uses. John tells me he had already talked this through and agreed it with Andy at the Trust. Like he said, it's a bit late now but a bit cheeky of the builders to assume it was up for grabs if you ask me.
 
Dave, there was a large splinter of irony intended in my comment..

I thought as much, Mark - I didn't think you were defending them. I'm just a bit frustrated and disappointed by the way the Trust (AH in particular) consistently fail to communicate and respond to our requests.
 
I thought as much, Mark - I didn't think you were defending them. I'm just a bit frustrated and disappointed by the way the Trust (AH in particular) consistently fail to communicate and respond to our requests.


Purely out of interest how involved does the Trust get involved with running the moors and flashes ? I assumed most of the work and decision making is made by the volunteers who do a brilliant job :))
 
Purely out of interest how involved does the Trust get involved with running the moors and flashes ? I assumed most of the work and decision making is made by the volunteers who do a brilliant job :))

Hi Nick,

It's true that the volunteers do much of the work on both the moors and the flashes but we are constrained by certain factors. Some of the really heavy tree work needs specialist input, for instance. The Trust have contractors for this - who also do a very good job BTW. The Trust also engage local farmers for grass-cutting and cattle grazing where necessary. Also, as a SSSI, we need guidance from the WWT wrt legalities. There are certain do's and don't that we need to adhere to - otherwise we could fall foul of legislation. This seems to be a bit of a nightmare IMO and sometimes we get apparently conflicting information from the Trust.

We do have fairly regular meetings with the Trust (often on-site), whereby we discuss the up-coming work schedule and it's a chance for us to outline to them how we think we could improve the habitat.

Lastly, we sometimes get help from various roving workparties that visit on occasion.:t:
 
Tuesday work party at North Moors

Probably the most rewarding and productive work party this season at the Moors. Unfortunately the 'before and after' pics taken with new camera are proving a problem to post. They are too large (megabites) ..out of interest is there anything I can do to put them on here.

Anyway today the 13 'warriors' pulled out all the stops
Paul M, Dave H, Ray C, John C, Paul H (beyonder),Bob W, Terry H, Terry N, Janet, Sukie, Matt, Charles.
Firstly we removed all the willows around the top part of the north moors reed bed. This has now opened up this very deep 'moat' around the island there.
The brash was used to create a dead hedge along the trail, starting from the seasonal pool up to where the trail enters the plantation.
The large willows within the seasonal pool, were pollarded, again cutting were either piled within one of the bramble patches to encourage more vigorous growth.
At the north east corner of the trail, there is a large blackthorn thicket. This south facing area has never been managed and is quite 'leggy'. We have decided to start a 4 year rotational coppicing program, whereby we will cut and correctly manage a different section every year. Within 4 years it would have come full circle and the process will start again, during the 4 years a structural diversity will increase the biodiversity. We plan to have short bushy areas at the front, gradually rising to a 'high hedge ' at the rear. This will enable the whole section to be 'sun blessed' and will encourage a vigorous scrub for nesting birds and hopefully Brown Hairstreak butterflies to lay their eggs.
The blackthorn cuttings were interwoven into the bramble and willow cuttings. After Dave H ( our hedge laying expert:t:) trimmed the resultant 'dead hedge, you would be hard pressed to know that it wasn't a living hedge.
Hopefully will get the pics to show today's work later.
If not have a walk around the area next time you are there.
We haven't finished the work yet and anybody wanting to give us a hand completing it, we will be back next Tuesday, as usual.
B :)John
 
Last edited:
New Hide

The update:
The foundations have been put in and work is under way, didn't go myself.
I have been told that when they were dismantling the old hide the majority of vertical supports had rotted and the hide easily 'toppled'.
I have passed on the 'spec' for the interior and by the end of next week it should be sorted:t:
 
Birding at the Moors today

Immediately obvious today were the number of ducks on site.
After the work party, I spent the whole afternoon until 5pm in the East hide.
A fresh easterly breeze has probably contributed to influx.
Today's totals
GCG 4, Little Grebe 3,
Shoveler 32, Teal 45, Pochard 32, Tufted 47,
greylags 18, Mute swan 14 ( now 2 juvs) at one point the resident male chased off a flock of 11 birds:eek!:
Coot 220 min, water rail 5, Grey Heron 3, cormorant 21,
DUNLIN winter plumaged ( found by Paul H 'Beyonder'), lapwing 500 +. Curlew 16, Snipe 4 seen , but as I was leaving small groups left the marsh calling and flying SE at least 12 birds.
Also kingfisher 2, peregrine, redwing 20, stock dove and 200 starling tried to roost.
There was very little overhead movement today with just a redpoll heard.
AFJ had a Chiffchaff.
B :)John
 
Probably the most rewarding and productive work party this season at the Moors. Unfortunately the 'before and after' pics taken with new camera are proving a problem to post. They are too large (megabites) ..out of interest is there anything I can do to put them on here.

Anyway today the 13 'warriors' pulled out all the stops
Paul M, Dave H, Ray C, John C, Paul H (beyonder),Bob W, Terry H, Terry N, Janet, Sukie, Matt, Charles.
Firstly we removed all the willows around the top part of the north moors reed bed. This has now opened up this very deep 'moat' around the island there.
The brash was used to create a dead hedge along the trail, starting from the seasonal pool up to where the trail enters the plantation.
The large willows within the seasonal pool, were pollarded, again cutting were either piled within one of the bramble patches to encourage more vigorous growth.
At the north east corner of the trail, there is a large blackthorn thicket. This south facing area has never been managed and is quite 'leggy'. We have decided to start a 4 year rotational coppicing program, whereby we will cut and correctly manage a different section every year. Within 4 years it would have come full circle and the process will start again, during the 4 years a structural diversity will increase the biodiversity. We plan to have short bushy areas at the front, gradually rising to a 'high hedge ' at the rear. This will enable the whole section to be 'sun blessed' and will encourage a vigorous scrub for nesting birds and hopefully Brown Hairstreak butterflies to lay their eggs.
The blackthorn cuttings were interwoven into the bramble and willow cuttings. After Dave H ( our hedge laying expert:t:) trimmed the resultant 'dead hedge, you would be hard pressed to know that it wasn't a living hedge.
Hopefully will get the pics to show today's work later.
If not have a walk around the area next time you are there.
We haven't finished the work yet and anybody wanting to give us a hand completing it, we will be back next Tuesday, as usual.
B :)John

That sounds great John. The coppicing especially - that will pay dividends for wildlife in the future:t:
Re pics - you need to 're size' them. You can probably do it using the photo software supplied with the camera
 
Immediately obvious today were the number of ducks on site.
After the work party, I spent the whole afternoon until 5pm in the East hide.
A fresh easterly breeze has probably contributed to influx.
Today's totals
GCG 4, Little Grebe 3,
Shoveler 32, Teal 45, Pochard 32, Tufted 47,
greylags 18, Mute swan 14 ( now 2 juvs) at one point the resident male chased off a flock of 11 birds:eek!:
Coot 220 min, water rail 5, Grey Heron 3, cormorant 21,
DUNLIN winter plumaged ( found by Paul H 'Beyonder'), lapwing 500 +. Curlew 16, Snipe 4 seen , but as I was leaving small groups left the marsh calling and flying SE at least 12 birds.
Also kingfisher 2, peregrine, redwing 20, stock dove and 200 starling tried to roost.
There was very little overhead movement today with just a redpoll heard.
AFJ had a Chiffchaff.
B :)John

Not sure how many resident/over-wintering pairs the reserve gets but in case its of interest I had a pair of blackcap today, feeding with a flock of tits in the trees around the secret garden.
 
Not sure how many resident/over-wintering pairs the reserve gets but in case its of interest I had a pair of blackcap today, feeding with a flock of tits in the trees around the secret garden.

Occasional Blackcaps are seen throughout the winter period in a number of usual locations (Moors feeding station, Education Reserve, the chestnut tree / spindle clump on the causeway etc). However two together on such a date is noteworthy.

Phil
 
John

FYI my pictures when first saved as .jpegs are about 5500 pixels long side. I find that reducing them to 1000 pixels long side brings them down to around the forum limit of 300-odd KB. As Gert says, the camera should have some form of software for you to resize the pictures, mate.
 
John

FYI my pictures when first saved as .jpegs are about 5500 pixels long side. I find that reducing them to 1000 pixels long side brings them down to around the forum limit of 300-odd KB. As Gert says, the camera should have some form of software for you to resize the pictures, mate.

Cheers Sy
When I downloaded onto my desktop, it wouldn't let me expand up from the thumbnail, 'file size too large 3.5M bytes'. does that sound too big.
:t:John
 
Yes, about 10 times too big mate (which is perfectly normal). Install the accompanying software and have a look to see how to resize the images - this is a process that you'll have to do now you've got a better camera that generates higher quality images. As I say, try to reduce their size to around the 1000 pixel (long-side) mark and the file size (M/KB) should reduce accordingly, to allow them to be uploaded.
Another thing, get out of the habit of placing large files (like photos) on your desktop mate. They slow the PC down enormously.
For the time being, while you experiment, send (to my sky e-mail address) me a couple of pictures from yesterday and I'll reduce them and post them if you wish...
 
Last edited:
Somewhere on your software their will be a resize option which will give you a default dimension or you can select - in this case 800x800 px max it should do it by copying and the original will remain intact. Some websites resize your uploaded attachments automatically, BF does'nt seem to have this process. If you still can't figure it you could just simply change the settings on your camera for the pictures that you are going to post.......

Laurie:t:
 
Somewhere on your software their will be a resize option which will give you a default dimension or you can select - in this case 800x800 px max it should do it by copying and the original will remain intact. Some websites resize your uploaded attachments automatically, BF does'nt seem to have this process. If you still can't figure it you could just simply change the settings on your camera for the pictures that you are going to post.......

Laurie:t:

Cheers Laurie and Sy for that, will sit down and have a read for a bit.B :)John
 
Here are a few more shots taken during my time at the Flashes on Monday.
First off, I wanted to try to emulate the view from the lower tier of the (WIP) hide.
This is a panorama of the hide channel. Yes, there's a lot of dead ground, but think how good any close up birds walking or stood on the grass in front of the hide will look in pictures once the grass is cut and the light improves.
I managed (inadvertantly) to spook the Lapwing flock when going out to the hide channel for a precautionary bucket of water, to stop fire spread.
A very grim, distant and grainy shot of the pair of Little Egret that over flew the reserve. They initially looked quite large and I was hoping for a larger Egret cousin but the yellowy feet were apparent especially on the back bird.
This lichen adorned Sloe bush was very striking on the footpath on the reserve's souther-most boundary.
 

Attachments

  • Panorama_downstairs.jpg
    Panorama_downstairs.jpg
    73.2 KB · Views: 72
  • Lapwings.jpg
    Lapwings.jpg
    264.6 KB · Views: 74
  • Little egret.jpg
    Little egret.jpg
    187.5 KB · Views: 84
  • Lichen and sloe.jpg
    Lichen and sloe.jpg
    340.3 KB · Views: 78

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top