Update from Lederman Trainee Rosie Hutchings

It has been so lovely here at Leysdown over winter, December and January have flown by and we’re almost in February already. I’ve seen some amazing frosts recently and more than a dusting of snow a few weeks back. With the lovely crisp winter days, also come the dark mornings and evenings, meaning you really have to make the most of the light when carrying out practical work. Although as the evenings are staying that little bit lighter each week, it reminds us that spring is just around the corner and I think I can safely say we’re all looking forward to it!

In December I spent a couple of days with Steve Webster, Reserves Manager Iping and Stedham and Rye Harbour trainee Shannon Rae, working on one of the ponds here at Leysdown. We worked together to start constructing a dead hedge around the pond, using willow and hazel materials we cut. We made stakes from hazel that had previously been coppiced, using these to form the rigid spine of the hedge and then wove brash through the stakes. It looks great and I have already seen birds perching on it and eyeing up nesting spots, so it has clearly been welcomed by the wildlife here. Dead hedges are great habitat for nesting birds and small mammals and as they naturally breakdown you can simply add more material to maintain them or let them slowly disappear back into the undergrowth eventually leaving little trace.

I’ve spent some lovely days over at West Dean woods again in January. I’ve been working on opening up some rides, coppicing hazel and felling some birch trees to increase light access. It’s such a beautiful and peaceful reserve, and offers so much scope for increasing my understanding of good practice in woodland management.

I’ve been continuing with my ringing training over winter, monitoring the bird species here at Leysdown and refining my ringing skills. I really love learning the various ways to age birds and it’s satisfying as I’m starting to understand the process more and am getting to grips with moult codes and other methods used to record the data on each bird we ring. There is just so much to take in and I still have a lot to learn but I’m getting more confident with each session. I look forward to visiting new ringing sites and ringing species that I have yet to ring. Pictured here I am holding a Long-tailed Tit in the ‘ringer’s grip’ one of the safest and most common ways to hold a bird. The bird can sit in your hand comfortably and without restriction to its breathing whilst at the same time you have enough of a firm grip that you know it won’t fly off before you’ve securely got the ring on!

As we go into February we can look forward to longer days of light and more practical work. It is often a rush as we go into the last weeks of winter to get jobs done before the bird nesting season kicks off. 

Until spring, Rosie