Still wet here in Somerset

 West Sedgemoor from the railway bridge at Oath Jan 8th 2013 

It's still very wet in Somerset, with the moors that require pumping stations to remove their innundation only now finally starting to show signs of levels falling.   The crane office is in an old farmhouse adjacent to the West Sedgemoor SSSI - which is the wetest it has been in decades.

 Heading back to the office - Jan 8th 2013

The cranes meanwhile seem to have been doing very well indeed - with a glut of food made readily available. For the last month or more they have been seen probing to take worms and other soil-living creepy crawlies from water-logged pastures on Stanmoor, near the villages of Curload and Athelney. 

 Dead worms....waterlogging - pretty revolting.

On visiting the fields to collect faecal samples (the most glamorous part of my job) I could see dead worms everywhere - sadly many had not been able to crawl away from the rising flood and those that had would have been pushed into the path of a bunch of hungry cranes.  What a life!

About the author

Damon’s role is to act as the hub of the project - making sure everyone involved knows what is going on and that it is all running smoothly. He is also responsible for project community awareness work in Somerset, construction of the release enclosure, and running the post release monitoring work in Somerset.  Damon works alongside the RSPB reserve teams in Somerset.