Hawks Nest Pond

Last week was a week of many visitors. Richard and Marc arrived on the ferry to travel the West hunting for more thistles and other nasties. Then the FC Chief Exec, James Fenton, out for a meet and greet. He didn't get to meet everyone, but I think he'll be back soon.
On Thursday we all stopped off a Hawks Nest Pond between Fox Bay and Little Chartres. The pond has been gifted to  Falklands Conservation and will be a nature reserve in memory of Lyn Blake, who many of us knew and loved. It's a lovely spot, a quite large body of water with two stands of Californian Club- rush. This is another priority habitat and is home to lots of birds.
There will be a fence and some signs and boards, perhaps even a hide eventually. Until then, do visit, but it might be best to park away from the pond and walk the last bit to avoid disturbing the birds too much. The smaller pond is on private land- phone Gavin and Deirdre Marsh at Fox Bay if you want to visit that too.

There will be more to say about Hawks Nest as the Protected Area Strategy progresses. Will it be a National Nature Reserve? Hard to say just now. Perhaps a more suitable designation will emerge from the consultation. Watch this space and have your say when the time comes.

Grass wren singing its heart out in the club- rush



Richard and Marc dug up some of the rush to plant at Port North; hope it thrives in its new home.



Definitely not a jolly: Part 1

It was represented to me by a dear friend yesterday that I have been spending an amount of time doing some things not directly connected with my project. Although it's only just over a week in total, it does feel like longer that that, probably because of the amount I learnt by being out and about and seeing things at first hand. Anyway.......

Thistle Bashing on Saunders Island

How did they get there? Nobody knows, but they are there, although not in as great numbers as before Richard Lewis, Brian Summers and their dedicated band of thistle tamers got to work with chisel hoes and herbicide. This trip was mainly about finding and mapping the thistles  more effectively to target future bashing efforts. We did, however, kill as many as we could along the way. I also got to practice using my new GPS, a Christmas present to self after my time at Kew (I'm quite hoping Santa has forgotten I already had a present!).

Selecting thistles for death. Chisel hoe also doubles as handy walking pole, as long as you don't smack yourself in the ankle with it.

Goat impression

Beautiful Saunders Island

Things I learnt? Well Saunders is bigger than it looks, and we spent as long walking as we did working! I also saw why Saunders qualifies as an Important Plant Area and and Important Bird Area. I was last there in 2000, and I'm sure there is more of everything there now (and I'm not talking about thistles), so all the efforts of David and Suzan and family to look after their island are so worthwhile. I found out a bit about what it takes to keep places like this special. I've done a lot of reading recently about Environmental Stewardship Schemes, and the contribution they can make to protected areas planning, but there isn't any substitute for getting out and finding out at first hand what sort of support landowners might want in the Falkland Islands.

Thanks Richard for inviting us on the trip, and thanks to David and Suzan for their warm welcome.

Meeting the Plane

.....or 'biological diversity in the most unpromising places'.

I had to go to put parcels on the plane today and it occurred to me that Fox Bay airstrip might be worth a look for some unusual or just lovely things in the plant world. The airstrip has had a (mostly!) stockproof fence around it for the last 20 years or so and is reverting to whitegrass- fachine acid grassland, one of the priority habitats for the Falkland Islands. It's a priority habitat because it's a home for birds, invertebrates and special plants, so I was quite hopeful........

As well as these lovely examples of common plants flowering now, I also found some plants that might be quite special. I've sent the pictures to Richard Lewis, one of our plant experts, as I'm not sure what they are, but I have high hopes for them...

Fox Bay Airstrip is half way between Fox Bay East and West and can be visited without permission as it's part of Fox Bay Common and is FIG land. Be careful to avoid the fence as the top wire is hot (I didn't!).

I can email GPS data for plants on request.

Welcome

Welcome to the Balsam Blog, home in the internet world of the Falkland Islands Protected Areas Project.

I'll be using this blog to let people know what I've been up to and to share bits of useful information I pick up along the way. My project is subtitled 'Co-operative management of biological diversity', so that means you. The project will need your knowledge, concerns and hopes for the future to drive it along, so do contribute. I'll be moderating comments to weed out spam, but apart from that, any suggestions or comments will be most welcome.