ON COCKLE SHELL ISLAND

Tuesday 06/04/2010. Well here we are with Easter not only upon us but over now. We had planned to go to Keswick for the holiday but the weather forecast for Cumbria for the holiday weekend was dire, so we decided to stay at home. In the event the weather turned out slightly less awful than forecast for The Lakes but there was still an awfull lot of rain so I think we made the right decision. A pleasing consequence was that I was able to attend the RSPB Saltholme work-party scheduled for today and tomorrow. The main objective is to shore up the shuttering that surrounds the island in Back Saltholme Pool, this is a much used nesting site for Canada Geese, Common Terns and Roseate Terns. The effect of the constant wind driven wave power is to undermine the shuttering - itself necesary to keep the island from being washed level - this causes erosion of the land and the essential cockle-shell surface so suited to our birds. Our tasks involved the transportation of rubble to the spit of land closest to the island from where it was manually loaded into tote boxes which in turn were loaded onto the reserve boat and then the payload was taken across to the island where repairs were carried out. This was all good work there is no doubt that you are engaged in something valuable for the birdlife, we set up some experimental nesting boxes especially for the Roseate Terns . By the side of the shuttering we had a Canada Goose nest with seven white eggs. We covered that up with a woolen jacket while working there, the parents kept close by but despite their natural concern no harm done. I stayed from 9.30am till 3.15pm and returned home by bus. On Wednesday I returned to continue working on the island, but for the morning only. Another Canada Goose has set up home and had a single egg by the shuttering exactly where we land and offload the materials for the repairs. But you gotta love 'em don't you? On Wednesday we finished the job on this island but we still have similar work to do on the others.