Well, Julian’s letter to winter last week seemed to do the trick. The next day (12 March) we saw our first sand martin, then the following day a wheatear on the Estuary Track, and the first chiffchaff of the year was singing its little heart out on 15 March. It seems like we’ve suddenly burst into spring – the blackthorn is out in flower, hawthorn leaves are unfurling from their buds, bees are buzzing away and it’s actually warm! The ponds are full of frogs and toads – the more you look, the more you see little pairs of eyes poking up above the surface of the water, like mini crocodiles. No doubt winter will put up a fight before it finally retreats, but things definitely feel like they’re on the turn.
This morning I was treated to a fantastic display from our pair of great crested grebes as I unlocked the hides. They were head bobbing, feeding each other with fish, and then I was lucky enough to see them doing the full “weed dance”, diving to pick up beakfuls of weed and then rising vertically right out of the water as they displayed to each other with it. Wonderful.
Other highlights this week have been a pair of goosander on 12 and 13 March on the Shallow Lagoon, a pair of stonechat on the Estuary Track, also on 12 and 13 March, and a grey wagtail on the Afon Ganol on 17 March. Winter visitors are very much with us still, with siskins seen daily on the feeders, and a pair of goldeneye on the lagoons.
This week will see contractors with us to landscape our old pond dipping pond area, creating a new trail and boardwalk which will link up with the new pond dipping pond. In the long term we are hoping to plant this area up to create a mini nature reserve, which will be a great area for our younger visitors to learn about wildlife. We’re hoping the work won’t cause too much disruption. Once they’ve finished this area, the contractors will then move on to upgrade more of our trail network, and during this time, we may well have to close small sections of the trail and one of our hides at any one time. If you planning to visit in the week beginning 28 March and are concerned about which areas may be closed, please phone the reserve before you visit on 01492 584091. However, we should be able to keep alternative routes around the reserve open for the majority of the time, so don’t let this put you off visiting!
Oh, and you may have noticed that one of our ponies has become quite adventurous and is quite happy wading out to one of the islands, but as long as he doesn’t make it across onto the Shallow Lagoon , we don’t mind!