Fenced off areas are there for a reason!

It's been another good weekend with good numbers of Hirundines moving through the park and my first Swifts of the year although not the first for the park. Saturday morning a Hobby passed through, following the hirundines and we also had 3 Buzzards through and another over Kingsmead. Garden Warblers were also more evident this week with several singing around Fingers. After last years lack of Lesser Whitethroats we seem to have up to 3 around the park this year, with one around the car park, one by the children's play area and one over on Kingsmead. We also had good views of the Fenlake Grasshopper Warbler which sat up on the "Stonechat" fence while singing. This is often a tricky bird to see, keeping tucked away out of sight, so this was a welcome view.

Sunday morning was a similar story with a good Hirundine passage and a Hobby following them through. No Buzzards today but 2 Cuckoos showed up with one heard calling distantly at first, then one turned up around Fingers and the distant one came over to see what was going on and got seen off by the other one. The Lesser Whitethroat was singing in the car park first thing and the one by the play area was singing with a Common Whitethroat the other side of the play area.

And now the reason for that title!

There are several areas, around the park, that are fenced off. There is a good reason for this, some of the wildlife needs a bit of peace and quiet, especially at this time of year when most animals and birds are trying to breed. Why do I mention this, well I had a chat with a guy who was standing the other side of one of the fences this morning, picking mushrooms. I wasn't too bothered by this but his dog was also the other side of the fence, running up and down in front of Kramer hide barking it's head off. When I asked the guy if he might get his dog out of the this area as it was fenced off for the wildlife my request was met with total in action and a statement that his dog was under control and was having fun. I do not doubt the point about the dog having fun but "under control", I think not. There are places in the park for dogs to run and play and there are places where they should not be. Please take heed of signs and fences around the park, there are plenty of areas where dogs can run around, off lead, please stick to those and leave the wildlife in peace.

The volunteer group were out in the park today, removing an old fence along the new path at the entrance to the park. This fence ran along one side of the plantation, not actually fencing it off as access could be gained around either end. This has now been removed and the posts will be reused for other projects around the park. Thanks to everyone who turned out to today, another job well done.