With the poor weather we experienced throughout March we hope that April will give us more sunshine and less grey days! Spring migrating birds are slowly starting to fly in. We've seen swallows, sand martins and sandwich terns on the reserve, plus the occasional osprey fly over too.
Osprey over reserve - Martin Casemore
Heading the other way, we've seen lots of beautiful firecrests around the reserve too. This tiny, restless jewel of a bird vies with the goldcrest for the title of the UK's smallest bird. Compared to the goldcrest, the firecrest is brighter and 'cleaner' looking, with a green back, white belly, bronze 'collar' and a black and white eye-stripe. They have a yellow and black stripe on their heads, which has a bright orange centre in males. Like goldcrests, they move through trees and bushes in search of small insects. Firecrests are resident in parts of the UK but many of them will miragate here for the winter.
Firecrest on the reserve - Graham Parry
We've been having some fun on the reserve this week. There are Easter eggs hidden around the trail for visitors to find at any time during the day. We've also been running some of our Wild Family events too. Yesterday we had a great day discovering nature on the reserve. We pond dipped and dissected owl pellets then built some dens and went on an Easter egg hunt round our discovery area. Highlights of the day were finding newts and a medicinal leech in the pond and seeing voles nesting under the corrugated iron sheets.
Caught a leech! - Louise Kelly
What did our barn owls have for lunch? - Louise Kelly
Egg hunt - Louise Kelly
If you are interested in bringing your children to a day like this then we have one next Thursday (12th April) from 11am until 3pm. More details can be found here and please call us on 01797 320588 to book your place!