What a difference a month makes, it made me smile when I looked back to read last month’s report, especially the sentence ‘the water starts to recede in front of our eyes’, particularly as I had to pass through several sections of floodwater to get into work today. Exminster and Powderham reserves look more like they do in a typical winter, but more extreme and since I have worked on the reserve I have never seen such floodwater. April is not a typical time for the reserves to flood and as a result the effects are a little more significant for our wildlife, particularly breeding waders and wildfowl. Despite the unusual conditions the flooded areas have drawn in the swallows and martins that eagerly feed on any displaced insects and the sight of swifts for the first time last week was rather special. Many other spring migrants have arrived and the thin bands of reed along some of our ditch edges are full of their song.
The rain has encouraged the fresh green growth and the willows in particular look rather splendid. In between the showers bright sunny periods have brought activity from butterflies including several sightings of orange tips, but they too will be struggling with the long spells of wet weather. However it is hopefully only merely a set back as much of our wildlife is resilient and being so early on into the spring there is still time to recover and start again.