Spring is just around the corner and we have some great events coming up at Blean! The Dawn Chorus and the first of the two Nightjar Walks are part of the National Nightingale Festival, which is happening across this UK this spring - https://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves-and-events/events-dates-and-inspiration/events/National-Nightingale-Festival/

Blean Woods events

Sunday 7th May: Dawn chorus and moth trapping (5am - 7am)…

Hello all,

It’s March already and 2017 seems to be flying by, made all the more apparent by the fact that our noisy habitat management finished for another season! Birds are starting to sing (blue tits, great tits, goldcrests, bullfinches, song and mistle thrush), woodpeckers are drumming and territorial disputes have begun, marking the first few moments of spring.  We have had a fantastically productive winter…

Michael Walters latest report:

Spring announces its presence in a wide variety of ways, from the ostentatious carpets of wood anemones and bluebells that we’ll be enjoying before long, and the swelling volume of bird song, through to some far more subtle indicators, several of which I’ve witnessed in recent days. We’re used to seeing mallards on rivers and lakes, but the thought of them nesting in woodland may not seem…

Michael Walters latest report:

At this time of year the wood is on a cusp, with bleak winter on one hand and portents of spring on the other: the season could go either way. On a dull, damp, cold day the mood is definitely depressing, the wood grey and soundless. Yet even then there is colour to be found: in addition to the dark greens of holly and ivy, there is the brighter green of great woodrush in patches if you…

Michael Walter's latest report:

“If winter comes, can spring be far behind?”  That was Shelley’s optimistic view of the hardships this joyless season can throw at us.  Yesterday (11^th January) I heard a great spotted woodpecker drumming for the first time this year, prompting thoughts of better times ahead.  But, as I write, we are being bombarded with dire warnings of snow about to blanket the country…

Michael Walter's latest report:

When people refer to me as a birdwatcher I am sometimes tempted to reply that I’m really a bird-listener as, particularly in a woodland setting, I am generally aware of bird calls and song rather than plumage, and walking through the wood is like following an auditory trail of birdsong. Never was this truer than two days ago when, cycling through the reserve, I heard the slightly explosive…

Michael Walter's latest report:

Last month I was writing about solitary jackdaws that fool me into thinking there is a flock in the vicinity.  This month it’s the turn of the crow.  An old saying runs along the lines of:

“A crow in a crowd is a rook

And a rook on its own is a crow.”

Reassuringly simple, but unfortunately not very accurate.  While rooks are undeniably sociable birds, nesting in…

Hi all,

It’s been 3 months since I started here as assistant warden and the time has absolutely flown by! I came to Blean and Seasalter looking for a new challenge and it has been an excellent experience so far doing a variety of jobs across 2 really interesting sites. It’s been great becoming reacquainted with some of the people I worked alongside a couple of years ago, as well as meeting a whole load of new faces.…

This is Michael Walter's latest report:

Statistics are bone-achingly dull, but the interpretation of rows of figures can lead to all manner of fascinating insights or leave us scratching our heads as to what is going on. A case in point concerns the butterfly population at Blean Woods, which is monitored in two areas of the reserve by different observers. This involves weekly walks along a set route every spring…

This is Michael Walter's report for August and September:

After two and a half months with virtually no rain, it’s hard to avoid talking about the drought. My own records show that we’ve been blessed with no more than 32mm of rain during that period, compared to an expected130mm, a problem compounded by the sometimes blistering heat – the mean maximum temperature in both July and August was a fairly heft three degrees…

This is Michael Walter's report for July and August:

Although not blessed with a keen sense of smell, even I cannot help but be knocked out by the heady, honey scent of the ling, now in full bloom. In a normal year this becomes a magnet for gatekeeper butterflies, hanging upside down to probe into the throat of each purple flower for the nectar. Unfortunately, this is not a normal year; butterfly numbers are as low…

First of all a general note from the Warden, Nick Covarr:

May and June this year brought almost constant showers but there’s been very little rain since then. Many of our summer surveys have come to an end with their usual mix of winners and losers, so thank you to everyone who took part in both those and the path clearing. That’s a tough job and one that will reduce significantly over the years as our new ride system…

Michael Walter's latest report:

One of my abiding memories, growing up in the suburbs of London, is the regular “crack crack” sound of a song thrush smashing snail shells on a favoured anvil in our back garden. This behaviour has becomeincreasingly unfamiliar to succeeding generations as the bird grew scarcer, and it is nearly 18 months since I last saw one in my present garden. The finger of blame has been pointed…

Here is Michael Walter's latest report:

As is so often the case, initial high hopes for a good breeding season fizzledout as winter’s icy grip returned and birds struggled to find enough food for themselves, let alone for their chicks. Migrants, freshly returned from Africa must have been totally bemused, wondering why they made that long, arduous and risky journey when they could have stayed in the tropics. But…

First, a note from the Warden, Nick Covarr:

 With woodland work, everything moves very slowly and the results can take a little time to filter through. This was recently brought home to me when I visited a ride that our team cut back in September 2014. At the time it was my first week working at Blean Woods and, in between learning everyone’s names, I was working with the team to cut and clear a section of ride near the…

Here is Michael Walter's latest report:

Last year I reported on the volunteers’ surprise capture of a dormouse while they were coppicing. The animal, which should have been hibernating, was taken to Wildwood, where it could be cared for. Wondering what had become of it, Michael Thomas, the animal’s rescuer, recentlycontacted Wildwoodand received this heartening report: “We named the dormouse Amy…

Blean Reserve:

 Breeding bird surveys are underway with the continuing help from the volunteers. Results so far are encouraging, with a number of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, and our next survey should include the arrival of the nightingale, Willow Warbler and Blackcap. A new addition to our survey are the appearance of Ravens, which have been seen in Kent quite regularly recently.

 The March point survey found blackbird…

This is Michael Walter's latest report, plus a stunning photo of a mandarin duck by Dave Smith.

Spring must have arrived, as I heard my first nightingale on 12^th April, a fairly average date. It is probably too soon to make dogmatic statements about the course of the breeding season, but early impressions are that woodpeckers, nuthatch, tree creeper and several others are rather scarce, while most alarming of all…

Below is Michael Walter's latest report:

Blean Woods has a new tourist attraction – a waterfall! But before you pack your camera and book a river trip to see this wonder, I should warn you that the waterfall is about four feet high, on a “river” of similar width. The stream that runs through the wood rises just south of Dunkirk in a network of farm ditches, eventually being honoured with the name of Sarre Penn as…

A collaboration between the Kentish Stour Countryside Project, Canterbury City Council and the RSPB has resulted in an attractive new addition to the Reserve. There is a new picnic table on the ride which runs south to north at the junction with the Radfall. Eventually it is hoped to agree access for cyclists on this ride and to raise funds for surfacing. The table was made by Steve Portchmouth and has a beautifully-carved…

Work by volunteers and staff in the Blean continued throughout January and February on rotational coppicing work and clearing rides, with extra chain sawing help provided by teams from the Northward Hill and Dungeness RSPB Reserves. Between them they have completed 2,300 metres of ride work this season and 1.5 hectares of coppicing, plus some glade cutting. All the work done helps maximise habitat diversity in the woodland…

This is Michael Walter's latest report on the Reserve:

As I write this, the temperature outside is hovering around zero, and near-freezing drizzle is dampening a grey, depressing landscape; all a far cry from the double-figure temperatures we enjoyed sporadically earlier in the month and in late January. Indeed, in mild weather on 24^th January I was pleasantly surprised to hear a tree creeper uttering its quick-silver…

This is Michael Walter's latest report on the Reserve:

Amid the carnage in Paris and the excesses of Christmas, the publication of Birds of Conservation Concern 4 last month may well have passed you by. This survey, produced at roughly six-yearly intervals by a group of seven conservation organisations that includes the RSPB and National Trust, uses the traffic light system to highlight the status of many UK species…

Work Parties

Throughout December we continued our rotational coppicing and ride clearances. Doing it on a rotational basis ensures a range of plant growth within the woodland, maximising habitat diversity. With over 500 hectares of land to manage, this leaves us with a lot of work to do! Clearing mature forest via both coppicing and expanding woodland rides ensures sunlight reaches the ground, encouraging the growth…

Rob Dixon, one of the interns who works in the Blean Woods Nature Reserve, has made an excellent short film showing the woods in winter and featuring Nick Covarr explaining the work that is done there. So, if you ever came across a working party and wondered why they were doing what they were doing but were too afraid to ask, this short film explains why!

https://vimeo.com/143318889