Here is this week's recent sightings blog, written by one of our fabulous volunteers Kez:

With this year being quite mild, many of the trees in Coombes are still holding onto their green leaves, but yellows, oranges and browns are starting to appear in the canopy as you look across the valley.

Coombes Valley by Rachel Coyle

There have been some wonderful wildlife encounters this week that remind you that these…

Autumn has definitely arrived! There’s a chill in the air and the nights are drawing in, but it’s still a fantastic time to get outdoors and explore nature on your doorstep. Alongside the changing season, there are changing colours, sights and sounds to immerse yourself in. The leaves at this time of year are like autumn's flowers, so many different colours. We're also welcoming back our winter migrants such…

A wet Wednesday morning this week found Becky and I (Rachel), along with Kayleigh Brookes (last year’s warden intern) taking a rather scenic route around the reserve in the search of the homes of some of Coombes Valley’s very special residents.

There are eight species of bat found at Coombes Valley including pipistrelles and long-eared, and the woodland here contains a number of old trees that provide excellent…

Hello and surprise!
I’m Becky the latest addition to the team and I'm borrowing Carl's login to do a quick introduction. I am undertaking the warden internship with the RSPB and have spent the last seven months at the Blacktoft Sands reserve in East Yorkshire.

I loved my time there but it was a very different place amongst the reed and salt marsh.

I seem to have timed my arrival just as an epidemic is breaking…

Autumn, the time of year everything starts to shut down and save energy for the long winter ahead.

You may have noticed over the past few weeks, every member of the team here has posted something about fungi.  Although not wanting to bore our readers, it's a subject difficult not to mention. Walking along the paths you can't help but notice and be amazed at the different forms, shapes, sizes and colours of this weird…

Nick is a member of the team who spends a day a week at Coombes Valley. He's the current Stepping Stones to Nature intern and he is working with ourselves and three other partner organisations to gain a diverse range of conservation related skills. Nick has plenty of creativity, so to draw on that, here's a lovely blog that he's penned for us. Over to you Nick......

Autumn really is one of the nicest times…

Well, having been here for the past four months it is probably about time I properly introduced myself. My name is Aimee and I am a part-time people engagement volunteer at Coombes. I began volunteering at Coombes Valley at the annual open day all the way back in June. Since then have been spending my time at both on and off site events, encouraging people to engage with nature and conservation as well as working with…

In her final blog as a trainee warden, Holly focuses on some of the many conservation success stories.....

As my time at Coombes Valley draws to a close, my thoughts have turned to hope for the future. So I thought I’d leave on some parting positivity!

Reading documents like the State of Nature report, it’s easy to see the world of conservation as bleak; focusing more on the declines than the successes. And it…

It’s been noticeably cool on the reserve during this month well perhaps that is to be expected now we are approaching one of the most colourful months on the reserve – autumn! But fear not, summer is still hanging in there and this week has been a glorious week for wildlife on the reserve; the birds are still tweeting; butterflies are fluttering and the bees are buzzing! Here’s a few highlights of what’s been spotted…

This is my first blog at Coombes Valley so I will just quickly introduce myself.............

Hello, I’m Rachel and I’m the new warden intern at the reserve. It’s been a busy start to my placement and I have been enjoying getting out and about assisting with the visitor trail upkeep with my newly acquired brush-cutting skills. This has given me a great opportunity to get to know the reserve, which is certainly looking…

Around the reserve, new life emerges whilst the decay associated with the change of season continues apace.

The damp and varied conditions in the woodland provide an ideal habitat for a large variety of fungi to display its fruiting body in all its glory. As I wandered the trail network earlier its noticeable just how much fungi there is around the place. Some of it is already past its best and itself in decay, whilst…

 A week or so back, I thought I would sojourn one evening after work to Coombes Valley and make the most of the remaining daylight. The forecast gave deteriorating conditions later in the week and for once the forest was remarkably still. Sensory receptors become attuned to the stillness and peace. I came armed with a macro lens but arrived a bit late for butterflies and bees so I wandered around with a standard general…

Having been here now for over four months I (Keziah) think it’s about time I introduced myself! I started as a full time volunteer for Coombes on the 2^nd June at the Open Day, making dragonflies out of pipe-cleaners. Since then I have spent my time with both the visitor engagement and warden teams, and now my focus is on landscape scale conservation. Essentially, landscape scale conservation is giving all nature…

As we leave summer behind and head into the colourful months of autumn, it’s also time for change on the Coombes Valley team! It’s time to introduce the new interns who will be getting stuck in at the reserve over the next 6 months.

My name’s Rachel (on the left) and I’m the new warden intern at Coombes Valley reserve. It’s been a rather soggy start to my placement with the first signs of autumn beginning…

What a fantastic summer we have had here at Coombes, and I for one am excited to see just how this wonderful place turns from the vibrant greens into the kaleidoscope of colours, sights and sounds that is Autumn. 

A great year for butterflies on the reserve.  We have recorded 23 species, thats just over a quarter of the UK population with species such as purple hairstreak and Dark green fritillarys, not to mention the numerous…

Lizzie:

Well, the sun is finally setting on mine and Simon’s time at Coombes Valley, as the day is fast approaching when the RSPB’s residential interns swap reserves for our second six-month stint. So I would like to say a very warm welcome to Lauren, Rachel and Becky, who will be taking over from us at Coombes in a couple of days time.

It’s very difficult to sum up just how much I’ve learnt and experienced…

As us interns have been away on a course for a couple of days, there was no volunteer work party on Tuesday.  A couple of our regular work party volunteers didn't get that message though, so as a result, we have a lovely and unexpected blog written by Ian Tams, which describes his journey of discovery through the reserve...

Since February of this year, I have been a member of the Tuesday Volunteer Working Party…

Daddy long-legs are everywhere at the moment! Not only out on Coombes reserve in huge numbers- a swarm kicked up with every step in the long grass- but in gardens and homes too. Who hasn’t been terrorised by a swooping, flailing menace in their kitchen or living room of late?

Craneflies aren’t terribly lovable creatures, so why write about them? I’ve done some research to see if I couldn’t change my perceptions…

What a difference a week makes! The reserve has been noticeably noisy with the sound of birds chirping wherever you walk; bees are buzzing around our meadows taking advantage of the array of wildflowers still on display, not to mention the numbers of butterflies fluttering past … it almost feels like spring again on the reserve! Everywhere you look there's something to be seen. Perhaps its nature’s way of reminding us…

One of our regular visitors, Ben Inman, has kindly penned this guest blog for us, which explains just what it is that keeps him coming back to Coombes Valley....

My first visit to this oasis of natural beauty was some four years ago and I remember having a guided tour of the woodland loop being led by a particularly attentive and strikingly marked pheasant. I guess the bird associated any human as a source of food and…

A couple of nights ago I was sitting on the bench outside the visitor centre watching a brown hawker dragonfly hover over the nettles until it settled. A small white butterfly emerged from the vegetation and soared up into the air, the brown hawker burst into the sky! Zigzagging, judging the flight path of its prey! The next moment the small white was gone and the brown hawker comfortably and contently returned to its nettle…

Whilst walking through the Valley lately, I can't fail to be amazed at the wonderful diversity of life buzzing around the meadows: hoverflies and bees rummage greedily for nectar on bright purple knapweed; crane flies flutter in the long grass; beautiful butterflies and moths spring up from under your feet with every step, and grasshoppers keep up a constant chorus of chirrups from all sides.

Plume moth (Image…

We're in the last Summer month and rains have soaked the reserve but that dosen't mean theres nothing to see! Great black birds dive in the sky and poisonous plants spring from the earth. Theres been a wealth of sightings recently at Coombes but heres a pick of some of the best:

Ravens - These huge corvids have been displaying to each other with their aerial acrobatics over the top meadow. Once these intelligent…

You might have noticed that we’ve been talking about a lot of events this summer – things like the Big Wild Sleep Out (who could forget!), mothy coffee, summer fun activity afternoons and bat walks included. These are just a few of the many exciting things we do here at Coombes – our ‘on-site’ event programme, details of which can be found on our webpage.

What you might not know is that…

The long hot spell has culminated in a succession of humungous thunderstorms giving our brook and pond some much needed help. The high temperatures have meant that the moth trap has been heaving with a huge variety of species, dragonflies are whirring around the river banks and birds of prey have been taking advantage of the thermals. Here are some the most exciting recent sightings here at Coombes Valley:

Small Tort…