If you go up to North Marsh you may be in for a surprise...
If you popped through to the last reserve meeting you'll have heard the plans for a new otter holt on the Western shore. We've built a few holts over the years including the recycled plastic types:
And home brewed out of old pet carriers (and home to the female and two cubs this year):
Unfortunately the oldest holt on the site built by Peter Izzard 15 years ago from logs has finally rotted and subsided. We've had a good inspection of the structure with a remote camera and there are only rabbits to be found so we were happy we could work around it safe in the knowledge there were no breeding otters.
The plan is to construct a new permanent pipe and chamber holt here from recycled building materials. We have a number of concrete blocks and a large metal cover which we plan to use as a chamber, along with these large gauge plastic pipes left over from the recent river Hull tunnelling project:
As these off cuts are open to vermin and the like they can no longer be used as water mains - therefore their future was chipping and recycling until we scavenged them. There are even plans for insulation as seeing as we have some of that left too! All the work is being carried out by the Tophill volunteers who have already been doing sterling work.
The principle of the structure is to provide a natal (breeding) holt that is reliably above winter floodwaters. The displaced mother and cub seen in the floodwaters a year ago demonstrated that many waterside holts were lost to them - this one should always be a reliable refuge and one that needs no maintenance from us in future. The position is adjacent to the 90's holt on the Western side of the North Marsh - and the plan is to provide excellent views from the hide of 'dressed entrances' under photogenic tree stumps from which the otter will (hopefully!) emerge (photo Chris Bell).
Clearly this is going to create some disturbance for which we apologise - we've timed the works to wait until after kingfisher season. Another unseen threat has been the creep of willows into the marsh; we've lost around 30feet of marsh all along this edge to largely sterile 'mangroving' where branches hit the water and start growing again leaving a dead understory. We've already done a lot of work cutting willows from the marsh in the last two winters further up and it is adjacent to one of these spots where the second pair of harriers bred this year - so we know the work delivers results - in this case a much wider marsh with more reedbed and more opportunity for bittern and rails and putting some distance between the kingfishers and the sparrowhawks watching from the woods:
So expect a change of scene on North Marsh - it may look brutal this winter - but trust us we've done this before!:
From Sgt Major wood...
To Hempholme Meadow...
South Marsh East excavations...
To avocets (Alan Walkington) and little ringed plovers
D woodlands...
To the new pond to name but a few...
So bear with us and embrace the change!
