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ACROSS THE RIVER earth-moving machines are busy at the top of a plateau of rubbish at the Welbeck Site. As the sun sinks we hear two detonators go off. This is the signal for the gulls to rise and to make their way to their roost site, most likely at Pugneys Country Park, which is itself a former tip and opencast site, a mile or two further up the valley.We guess that there are something like two to three thousand gulls, mainly Black-headed. Rising above them is a flock of some one hundred Jackdaws.
I hope it hasn't lamed itself. As this is a nature reserve it might be a good idea to fit the wires with markers to make them more visible to birds. They've done this with the pylon wires at the other side of the valley.
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With a wheezing of wing-beats, a pair of Mute Swans flies in low over the site, but they wheel around and head back again. On the way in they just clear a power line but on the way out the first bird collides with the wire. When I look around I see the wires still swaying. My companions tell me that the leading bird caught the wire with its legs, plunged towards the ground, but managed to regain height without crashing.