Firstly, thanks to everyone who supported and visited our Winter Fair on Sunday. We had an amazing day with almost 200 visitors come through our doors. The raffle was a huge success and we raised £262 for the nature reserve. The cake table gave us an additional £60 too! Thank you to all who donated prizes and cakes and for those who bought a ticket. Also thanks to those who volunteered on the day, I couldn't have ran it without your help!
Annoyingly, I was so busy on the day that I didn't remember to take a single photograph! If you have any to share please do, if not, come and see what it is like again next year!
With a few crisp mornings on the reserve and serving mulled wine at our fair, I'm feeling in the Christmas spirit (it actually doesn't take much for me, I love Christmas). Another experience was in the garden when I was clearing out a storage bin a little robin came within a meter of where I was and watched me curiously. Fed him an unlucky spider from the box and he started singing happily. It's hard not to love these creatures, see their personalities and feel like they know you care.
Frosty shingle - Louise Kelly
Robin - Graham Parry
Moving on...birds on the reserve this week have been a bit different. We've had whooper swans for the last week, mostly seen at Denge Marsh and ARC. White-fronted geese have been present occasionally too. The highlight of this week was the glossy ibis, seen on Sunday and Monday. We had a jack snipe earlier in the month, bearded tits have been really showy this morning with around 20 seen from Hanson hide at ARC. The lovely goldcrests and firecrests have been about too. If you're interested in the different gulls, we have seen yellow-legged and caspian gulls on Burrowes Pit over the last few days.
Glossy ibis (taken on the reserve on Sunday) - Graham Parry