10th April

Today I was volunteering with the RSPB at Ham Wall, making a Common Tern nesting raft. During the winter, modular plastic docks are used as pontoon bridges to cross deep channels in order to carry out reed cutting and other management activities. The reedbeds are 'off-limits' during the summer so as not to disturb nesting birds, and rather than leave the pontoons lying redundant for half the year, some bright spark came up with the idea of using them to create nesting islands. We were just gathering up and piecing the modules together today, tomorrow a layer of gravel will go on top to provide a suitable nesting substrate, and the completed raft towed out onto a stretch of open water behind the first viewing platform. Hopefully some Terns will find it and make god use of it this year

The half-completed platform

It's been slightly milder the last few days and there's a lot more flying insects about, finally providing some food for arriving hirundines. Swallows are now a regular sight, and Sand Martin numbers are building, I saw around 200 over Canada Lake after the days work.

Swallow

Bitterns are getting much more active and easy to see now, while we were working at Ham Wall we saw several making short flights over the reed bed, and one even flew over me on the Shapwick road as I cycled home this evening.