Despite the wild, cold and windy weather, spring has arrived at Campfield with chiffchaffs singing, trees budding and frogs spawning all over the place.
I have been conducting scat transects, on the reserve, looking for and grid referencing fox poo, to get an idea of how many we have:
As well as noticing droppings, keeping your head down means you spot other things on route. I found this caterpillar traversing the terrain of the boardwalk:
navigating across this chasm:
A look at some ID guides online suggest that it could be a ruby tiger moth caterpillar but if anyone knows better please let me know.
Not far from here I also saw this beautiful frog:
Further along at Rogersceugh I found the first spawn I'd seen of the year:
Unfortunately it had been deposited here:
Along with what looks like the possible guts of a frog:
The water on the path will dry out before the tadpoles will emerge so I scooped the spawn up and put it in some deeper water nearby. The adult didn't make it but maybe some of the tadpoles might!
Rogersceugh is also where we have done some Cumbrian hedge laying with the volunteers. Here is the hedge before we start:
When all the brash has been stripped back to the main stem by the volunteers:
After it's laid by Stephen, the estate worker (who also kindly showed me how it was done):
And the new fence he's erected to protect it when the cows are back in the field:
If you've been to our visitor center recently you will have discovered that we have a brand new special edition pin badge. This is to celebrate the marsh fritillary butterfly colonising the reserve for the first time last year. Come along and get yours: