We watched while the willow wranglers worked

The Safari had a late start this morning - well we didn't get in until the wee small hours last night - but by mid-morning we were out on site with the Rangers and volunteers who were wading in to the ponds at the little wetland to remove as much of the invading Willow as possible.
A large piece of Bog Oak was half buried in the long grass, we put a fork under it and prised it up to see who if anyone was underneath...just one rather large Frog.

Several Snipe flew round as the ponds were relieved of their young Willows. It looked hard wet work getting the drag rakes and spades under or through the roots.

This pond had been worked in for most of the morning when a Jack Snipe (W 275, BI 189, MM LNR 96) came up from almost under a foot, we missed another at lunchtime. Also at lunchtime a Reed Bunting dripped in to investigate the freshly turned mud and  Mistle Thrush flew over.

Only one 'sitting down on the job casualty' - can you guess which volunteer just had to sit down on  in the job?

A Kestrel hovered over the drier parts of the field for much of the time we were there and dived into the long grass once but we didn't see what, if anything, it caught. Very annoyingly our camera batteries died while trying to get some pics of it hovering...no problem spares were in the pocket - but they'd been in the pocket so long they were dud too...doooohhhhhhh.

Frank was acting as foreman making sure that everyone was doing what they should have been and enjoyed a right royal slosh around in the water, something he's no been able to do for months, not that dogs should be in these ponds at all!

Before too long he got tired and had to be taken back to Base Camp and dried off...he's on the mend so will be enjoying more watery mayhem in the not too distant future.

Where to next? Back to that well known Bottle Nosed Dolphin hotspot; Patch 2.

In the meantime let us know who's up to their necks in it in your outback.