When, during Saturday's work party, Emma said "I have a strange request" we were all intrigued. Then like all good RSPB volunteers we were more than happy to help out. Emma's cousin Clare and her partner Valerie were getting married that day and friends and family not at the ceremony were asked to have a photo taken jumping for joy. It wasn't that easy to capture the exact moment when everyone was in…

Our Tuesday volunteer team carried on where the Saturday team left off and spent a cold but thankfully sunny day continuing the clearance work in an area of remnant heath that we are sure will begin to flourish as the sunlight gets in. Here they are looking happy after a hard day's work and plenty of cake. Dave (fifth from left) recently celebrated his 70th birthday and treated us all to a delicious chocolate creation…

Five Woodlarks were seen at Broadwater Warren today by one of our bird recorders, Alan Skinner.  This is only the second time in a decade that these lovely little birds have been at Broadwater, the first being last year.  They are currently staying together, but will probably soon split up to establish their own territories and start singing to attract a mate.

Woodlarks feed and nest on the ground, so they can be very…

Our weekend volunteer conservation work party team is going from strength to strength. A year or so ago we were struggling to find volunteers but we have now grown into a formidable bunch with a wide range of experience and backgrounds. On Saturday we worked hard clearing scrub which has shaded out the heather in an area of remnant heathland. Now that the sunlight (when we get some!) is able to flood in, the heather will start…

Following the clearance of impenetrable young conifer this winter, our consultant specialists in Unexploded Ordinance found a 9-inch diameter air-dropped bomb.

The unexploded bomb was buried 2ft underground, very corroded, and with a tree growing on top (showing just how long the explosive had been there).

The police and bomb disposal team were called.  The area was closed off.  The UXO experts carefully dug around the…

Please vote for the RSPB Weald Reserves volunteers  

Our Broadwater Warren and Tudeley Woods volunteers have been short-listed for an award in the Kent and Sussex Courier and Chronicle newspapers annual Heart of the Community competition - http://cmgheart2012.nmgl.co.uk/vote.  Our 50 volunteers come from a variety of backgrounds – the youngest is 15 and the oldest approaching 70 - and contribute over 3000 hours of their…

National fungi expert, Martin Allison, led our final fungi foray into Broadwater Warren for this season.

17 people came along to see what could be found.  In 2 hours we had found an amazing, wide variety of fungi, with equally fantastic names....

• Amethyist Deceiver
• Birch Milk Cap
• False Death Cap
• Corral Spot
• Sulphur Tuft
• Brittle Gill
• Fairy Bonnet
• Candle Snuff
• Brown Roll Rim
• Birch Knight
• Turkey Tail
• Alder…

A wide variety of fungi were found on the weekend at Broadwater Warren as Martin Allison, a fungus expert and ex-RSPB Warden led a guided walk through the reserve. It was a pleasantly sunny, autumnal day as we hunted along path edges and in the woodland for mushrooms.

Our searching was quickly rewarded as we found a young specimen of an ominously named species called the False Death Cap (Amanita citrina, below).…

It was time for the five Exmoor Ponies to leave the reserve today.  They have enjoyed a long summer at Broadwater Warren, chomping their way around the reserve and helping us to keep grasses and weeds under control, long enough for the heather to return.

Rounding up the five ponies in a 150 acre area was going to be a challenge.  Luckily we had a superb bunch of RSPB volunteers to help out.

The first thing to do was to…

Work is underway on this season's work to restore the heathland, previously lost to conifer plantations since the 1950s.

We're removing planted Scots Pines to open up areas where heathland has previously been.  Over the next few years this will develop into a glorious heath, buzzing with wildlife.

The view of the High Weald is reappearing after being hidden for decades....

The logs are being taken for use in…

 There are lots of fantastic Dragonflies in the reserve at the moment, both around the Decoy Pond and patrolling up and down the rides. Here are a couple of photos that I took recently with a simple point and press camera. You just have to be patient, wait until they settle and you can then get quite close without disturbing them. The first photo is of a female Southern Hawker and the second a Golden-Ringed (male I think…

In Sepetmber 2010 we cleared a large area of dense, impenetrable young conifer on the eastern side of the reserve.  Less than 2 years later there is a thick carpet of heather shoot, all in flower.

All of this heather has come from seed which had laid dormant under the conifer for years.

And, it's already teeming with life.  These photos were taken on Tuesday 16 August.  Check out this Honeybee...

This is a male…

We've just finished the July check of our Dormouse nestboxes and were delighted to find 21 animals all seeming to be in good health. The highlight was discovering 2 males and a female in the same box. Not necessarily a happy home because the males seemed to have been scrapping to win the favours of the attractive young lady. Last July we had exactly the same total number of Dormice but that included 9 adults and 12 youngsters…

Big thank you to everyone from Responsible Travel and the AONB Unit who came to Broadwater today to help us remove old rabbit fencing in order to clear the way for this autumn's heathland restoration work. Much laughter and lots of fun along with a great deal of hard work. I reckon about 400 metres of fencing was removed which is an amazing result. I really enjoyed hosting the day and hope that all those mozzie bites…

Some beautiful orchids in the reserve at the moment, but their colours are beginning to fade so don't leave it too long if you want to see them for yourselves.

There are Heath Spotted Orchids in the Sphagum Paddock visible through the fence:

and Common Spotted Orchids along the edges of the tracks leading into the reserve from Gate 3 (see reserve trailguide):

Our superb and dedicated volunteers contrinue their great work through the summer.  On Tuesday they cleared vegetation at the visitor car park, pulled up bracken, cleared out debris from one of our ponds, continued progress our reptile monitoring programme and removed old rabbit fencing left behind by the forestry company that previously owned the site.

200 metres of old rabbit fencing was removed on Tuesday, making the…

74 people attended our Nightjar evenings (Wednesday to Saturday) at Broadwater.

Unfortunately it has been a very difficult year for Nightjars, not just at Broadwater Warren, but across the South East.  The weather extremes seem to have affected their migration from Sub-Saharan Africa, and those birds that did arrive seem to be finding it difficult to find food and a mate.  There's a general feeling that Nightjars have…

Our popular nature trail has been extended to include the wet woodland, tussock sedges and iron-rich pools.  You can follow the boardwalk and get really close to these fascinating pools.  They are asome of the rarest and most fragile areas on the nature reserve.

This part of the reserve is quite unique, and we hope it will be a fascinating part of your walk around Broadwater Warren.

In preparation, our work party volunteers…

The first Nightjar of 2012 has returned to the reserve. A single bird was churring and seen in flight this evening. Last year our first bird was heard 10 days earlier so I guess the bad weather in the first half of the month delayed the Nightjars on their return from wintering in Africa.

We had the pleasure of checking our dormouse nestboxes today. Nine dormice in eight boxes was a good result and we were able to get another cute photo of a curled-up dormouse fast asleep. Other tenants of the boxes were Blue Tits (in 44 of the boxes!) and Wood Mice. But the great surprise was to find a box occupied by a healthy brood of Marsh Tits that appeared to be ready to fledge. As we checked the box mum or dad returned…

On Tuesday 24 April a Raven was recorded in the reserve for the first time since it opened in 2007. Although Raven have flown over in recent months, this was first time one had actually been seen in Broadwater. It was being harassed by a Carrion Crow in the top of a tall pine tree west of the Decoy Pond. It eventually flew off pursued by the Crow.

Other bird news - Woodlark are still being seen and heard on the recently…

A large lorry arrived at the reserve today.  The tail-gate was opened and the ramp lowered. Five lovely Exmoor Ponies alighted - arriving at Broadwater Warren for their summer holidays, away from the South Downs.  The ponies will spend the next six months chomping through grasses, nibbling at birch and trampling the ground - recreating many of the natural processes that wildlife responds to.

They quickly slowed to a walk…

The big Decoy Pond is now alive with frog spawn and the sound of frogs.

We'll be putting a lot of effort into improving the wildlife value of the Decoy Pond over the next few years.  It's great to know the frogs are already doing well and we'll be able to make conditions even better for them.

Is Spring really here?!?

The wood ants have been really active during the last couple of weeks.  As soon as the sun comes out, their nests are swarming with activity.

Bright yellow Brimstone butterflies have been a regular feature at the reserve over the last week.  Comma butteflies, with their distinctive wavy wing edge, have also been seen.  Other butterflies to look out for in March are Peacock and early Small Whites…

Three new ponds have been created at the reserve and registered them with Pond Conservation's Million Ponds Project.  Ponds provide valuable resources for all kinds of wildlife and might also provide some useful watering spots for our visiting Exmoor ponies.  These three ponds may prove to be the first of many.  It is known that invertebrates can colonise ponds very rapidly, and ponds can quickly develop great conservation…