Carlton Marsh

5 Redpolls were amongst a bunch of Siskins, 3 Water Rails called, Kingfisher, 10 Greylags left the scrape before 142 Canada Geese came in at dusk to be joined by more as I left.

           Adult male Cetti's warbler retrapped from 17/10/23
 

                                           Male Goldcrest

Management of the reserve continued.

Eric Bennett worked tirelessly, to make the reserve a success. It was his idea to form a committee to manage it in 1977. The committee comprised of 18 members from various naturalist groups, Barnsley Councillors and members of our wildlife group. I was elected as wildlife recorder as I had already been doing that for four years. 50 local people were invited to become wardens to prevent further shooting, poaching and off-road motor cycling.

Keith became a troubleshooter for the committee attending Boulder Bridge Liaison meetings with local residents to try and stop the abominable practice of burning buses and tyres in the nearby scrapyards. Thankfully a lot of that was stopped years ago.

A management plan was put together to increase biodiversity on the site, which led to a series of scrapes being dug out to create open water.

The recording system used was largely based on visitors leaving an entry in a log book kept in the hide. From their detailed sightings of all manner of wildlife, an Annual Report has been compiled and published by BMBC every year since 1976. However, since the Covid Epidemic in 2020, and with the advent of mobile phone communication, most sightings are now relayed by that method to the recorder.

To be continued