23 May 2010 - What a gorgeous morning. I have just been out and joined our local bird expert who was in the reed beds catching birds with his massive net. The point of the exercise is purely for monitoring purposes. First, he identified and rung the birds, then he measured their wings and weighed them before setting them free. When I arrived he had just caught two sedge warblers with their lovely little pale stripes above their eyes. (see picture gallery). Evidently when John was doing this last year, he caught a reed warbler that had first been caught (and rung) in July 2001, making it eight years old. Just imagine that means it would have flown to South West Africa and back eight times on migration - totally amazing when you see the size of these small creatures.
Whilst we know there has been a bittern down here, it hasn't been seen for a few weeks now, and I still haven't witnessed its "boom". For those new to this site, we were busy cutting up logs a couple of months ago when all of a sudden, a waterbird similar but smaller than a heron, and more brown in colour suddenly landed amidst the reeds. It was unusual enough for us to say "What on earth was that?" so we immediately identified it on the RSPB site, and it was of course a bittern. Now that two or three people have identified it, we feel pretty much more confident that we are correct.
As far as the reed bed is concerned, we are hoping to be able to feed more water into it from the nearby quarry, this should in theory slow down the willow growth and boost the growth of the reeds.
If you have any news about what you have seen, please let me know!
Debbie
Take a detour from the little trodden footpath that leads from White Mills Lock, Earls Barton to the village of Grendon and within seconds you will become completely immersed in the tranquility of one of Northamptonshire's largest reedbeds.
Quarry Walk, at Pastures Farm consists of 27 acres of stunning reeds, lake and wetland which together have fast become a haven for a wide variety of birds, from the very common through to the very unusual.
Whether its during the Spring or in the depth of Winter, Quarry Walk is an ever changing sanctuary.
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Quarry Walk was officially opened on 17th July 2009 by 99 year old George Crawfordi (above). It is a 900 metre circular walk around one of Northamptonshire's most important reedbeds.
It features a fabulous 80 metre boardwalk, that not only allows you to lose yourself amongst acres of wonderful reeds but enables you to experience, and absorb the reedbed's natural beauty in a unique environment.
