Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Smoke without fire

Today, Tuesday, the wardens and the ringers tried to light a fire. Three times there were flames, three times there were crackles, three times there was smoke. But, alas, no bonfire. Every thing was very wet - and that was before the afternoon sleet and rain began for yet another day.

The object of today's task was to reduce some more of the Hawthorn scrub in the 'Rough' to assist in catching the birds during the study period this summer. This 'constant effort' study has been going on along the same net rides for 20 years. If the vegetation is too high, the birds will not be caught, If the vegetation becomes too 'overgrown', the numbers and types of birds will alter.

The object of the whole exercise is to try and maintain 'standardisation' as near as is possible. This is achieved by 'rotational cutting'. This allows four differing heights and density of habitat to be available to the birds each year, maintaining the 'status quo' - more or less.

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