Difficult to believe after all this bad weather, but Woodlark have already started to sing and display on the restored heathland. The beautiful song of the Woodlark returned to Broadwater in 2012 as a result of the heathland restoration programme and last year visitors were treated to some wonderful views of the birds as well as enjoying the melodic song. It's normal for Woodlark to begin singing quite early, but this year…

 A lot of work has been going on over the last month at Broadwater!

The stumps have been ground out and the last of the debris from the conifer clearance has been scraped off. A wetland area has been created on the heath by damming and reshaping the watercourse. Look out for bathing larks and feeding woodcock in spring! Work around the Decoy Pond is well under way, with only a bit more coppicing left and native tree planting…

Our volunteers recently installed a new bench in the east of the reserve where there are great views across the restored heathland. After setting up the bench Sally, Leslie, John and Alan took a well-earned rest to take in the views.

This afternoon I was amazed to see a Great Grey Shrike on the reserve, the first time this species has been recorded. It was perching on lone trees left standing after this year's conifer clearance, part of the ongoing heathland restoration programme.  A scarce autumn/winter visitor to the UK, Great Grey Shrikes visit open areas, including heathland and need perches from which to hunt. Just 2 months ago the area where I…

In just a few days we've had some amazing records of wildlife at the reserve.

Earlier in the year with our neighbours from Sussex Wildlife Trust's Eridge Rocks we cut and hung up some oak branches on the reserves. That might seem a strange thing to do but we were looking for evidence of the Olive Crescent moth, one of RSPB's priority non-avian species. The larvae of this moth feed on withered oak leaves so we were…

We've completed two thirds of all the open ground creation at Broadwater Warren.  The final third of the open ground will be created over the next three years.  This ambitious project involves removing pines that were planted on this previously open ground.  As we remove the planted pines, the heather seeds germinate and the land springs back into life.  The result will be a nature reserve that is roughly 50% woodland…

Today I was at Broadwater taking some boring photos of ride edges for a contractor - the weather was dull and drizzly and I wasn't expecting to see any wildlife worth photographing. Birds were sheltering from the rain and most of the flowers have long since made their summer spectacle and gone to fruit. But despite the lack of natural light I managed to find some colour on the reserve!

Cyclamen

Fly Agaric

No! It's a Hummingbird Hawk-moth.
These superb photos were taken by Richard Dann at Broadwater Warren this week.

There is a large Budleia bush at the reserve car park which is teeming with bees, butterflies and moths at the moment.

Butterflies seen on it this week:

• Peacock
• Small Tortoiseshell
• Red Admiral
• White Admiral
• Silver-washed Fritillary
• Large Skipper
• Common Blue
• Small White
• Large White
• Brim…

The heather on the restored heathland is coming into flower. It's already looking lovely in places and is buzzing with Bumble Bees. 

Our volunteers have started to instal some new benches on the reserve. We've built 2 so far at places where there are great views across the newly-restored heathland. But we'd really like our visitors to suggest other locations, so if you have a favourite spot where you'd welcome somewhere to take in the view or just have a rest please let us know. You can call us on 01892 752430 or e-mail broadwater.warren…

 There are aliens at Broadwater! Not aliens in the Extra-terrestrial sense, but ecological aliens: species that don't naturally exist in an area. The aliens in question aren't plants or animals, but fungi. They are growing on woodchip from the trees that were removed and chipped for our heathland restoration project.

Woodchip is a great place to find interesting and non-native fungi for a number of reasons. Firstly…

The conservation work party volunteers got some strange looks from visitors on Tuesday during rather unusual habitat creation work for a rare red-listed moth called the Olive Crescent. This moth lays its eggs in July on withered oak leaves. Since this is well before autumn it needs oak branches that have broken or fallen and it has suffered from the tendency to tidy up our woodlands. So the volunteers were tasked with cutting…

The first nightjar of the season was heard at Broadwater on 23 May.

Recent work by the BTO has shown how these elusive birds undertake an epic migration through Africa and as far south as the Democratic Republic of Congo.  You can see the amazing details here

Three churring males have been heard at Broadwater and at least 2 females have been seen.

Other dusk wildlife at Broadwater includes Tawny Owls, Woodcock, Bats…

Last week we did our first check of the year of our 200 dormouse nestboxes. We found just 3 animals which is way down on previous years.  It may be that the prolonged cold weather into April has meant that dormice are emerging from hibernation later this year. Let's hope that's the case and not that last year's poor weather and the long winter have reduced the numbers of dormice making it through hibernation. Our…

Broadwater has a lot of drying out to do and this week's work party volunteers spent a lot of their time on water- and mud-related activities. Jobs done included unblocking a culvert, moving an interpretation board that was disappearing into a pool of mud, creating perching sticks for dragonflies at the Decoy Pond and also clearing a lot of litter from along a roadside. So it was a busy day with many laughs and, to the…

Exmoor Ponies have returned to the nature reserve to help us with the restoration of the heath.  They will spend the next 6 months eating heathland weeds, breaking up dense vegetation and puddling the edges of our new ponds.

Three of the ponies arriving and immediately exploring their surroundings.

The ponies spend their winter on the South Downs and sites closer to the Sussex coast.  They are owned and managed by by

Emma was a hard act to follow after her Easter cakes for the Saturday volunteer work party team, but Sally rose to the challenge and the Tuesday team enjoyed a real treat (see below). Now it' the birds turn to produce some eggs and we can only hope that this cold weather breaks soon so that the breeding season can get under way. If readers of this blog get the impression that the volunteers do little more than eat cake,…

A few years ago a visitor asked me if the rumour was true that the RSPB was running out of money for its work at Broadwater and intended to sell off parts of the reserve for house-building. I assured him it wasn't true and the amount of work done since that time in restoring the heathland habitat and managing the reserve shows that, thanks to the generosity of funders, members, supporters and volunteers, there is a…

Diesel the digger dog is helping to repair some of the nature reserve's tracks after the extremely wet winter and after all the recent work on the reserve restoring, felling, fencing and tree-planting.

Diesel sits quietly in the digger cab all day whilst his owner, Tom Newick of Pagan Plant, operates the machine (at least, I hope that's how they divide up the work!).

Clearly from the photo below, he also likes…

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…