I’ve just got back from finishing my first Breeding Bird Survey for Cheshire Wildlife Trust – a really nice way to spend an early Saturday morning, although the weather could have been a bit warmer!

I think it was the first survey of breeding birds to be done at the Trust’s Bagmere reserve.  This is the site of a formerly larger mere that is now filled with peat and while it has a small remaining area of open water, the reserve also has fen, marshy grassland and carr woodland.  Bagmere is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Click on the link below for more information on the reserve:

http://www.cheshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/reserves/bagmere

I had to get up early to travel to the site and finish the survey before 10 o’clock and while it was a bit breezy this morning it didn’t really hamper the task. It total, I recorded 28 species during hour-long survey, and that’s quite a few more than I recorded for the winter bird surveys I did at the site in January and February.

While not all of those species will be breeding there, some were flying over rather than recorded within the site itself, I did identify some notable species for the site.  Of particular interest to the Trust will be the presence of willow tits (pictured below), which are a local rarity and have declined nationally by 79% between 1995 and 2010.   It’s very difficult to differentiate these birds from marsh tits, as they look identical to most people, including me.  However, the call of the willow tit is very distinctive and is a sound that evokes images of northern forested wilderness.  I recorded two of these birds, so hopefully they will be breeding. They were recorded in an area away from where I’ve seen them at the site before, so hopefully there will be more.

The other notable species I recorded was water rail.  This is a water bird (obviously, I suppose), related to the coot and moorhen, and generally very difficult to see as it tends to hide itself away and skulk in the undergrowth around freshwater. Like the willow tits, rails have very distinctive calls, sounding like squealing pigs. This is a locally declining species but has had varying levels of increase and decrease across the rest of the country.  There were at least three rails squealing for a very short time and they stopped as abruptly as they started before I could see them or tell if there were more.

This was the first of four monthly surveys I’ll do at the reserve and the later surveys will hopefully enable a significant number of these species to be confirmed as at least probable breeders on the site.

Yesterday I went along to the first osprey protection training day for the new Bywyd Gwyllt Glaslyn Wildlife Community Interest Company.  This team of volunteers took over the running of the Glaslyn Osprey Project protection and viewing sites from the RSPB in September last year.  Over the past couple of years I have done quite a few night and day shifts for the RSPB at the project, based near Porthmadog in north Wales.  After some thought, I decided to continue supporting the Glaslyn ospreys with my time and this Spring I’ll be putting in more hours.  This means I’ll be helping to ensure that no selfish egg-collector  successfully adds to his (or her!) collection with a very rare clutch of Welsh osprey eggs.

After my afternoon with the team, being shown around the protection site and new camera systems, I am truly impressed by what a small group of passionate people can achieve in such a short period of time. They have got a long way in a matter of months, and while they have a lot more hard work ahead, they are already delivering on their hopes and aspirations for the project.

What makes me want to volunteer here even more is the fact that one mindless (egg-collecting) idiot can ruin the hard work of many and can set back a project that has been in development for so many years.  I’m very concerned about the future of nature under the harsh reality of the man-dominated world, but occasionally there are bright lights that shine and we must work hard to ensure that they are not extinguished by a few selfish interests.

I hate the media-dominated empire of politics and David Cameron has used this term for his own ends, but ‘Big Society’ is a brilliant phrase that could positively influence our communities.  Everyone can spare an hour, and many can put in a day; if we all contribute, even in a tiny way, a world of difference can be made.

Here’s hoping that the ospreys return later this month!