Hello and welcome to an Easter Sunday edition of my blog from Greylake, West Sedgemoor and Swell Wood. I’ve got my Easter egg tucked in the cupboard, ready for the weekend. I hope you’ve got some lockdown fun planned. You might not be able to do some of the usual things, but I’ve always found an Easter egg hunt in the garden, or even round the house, is lots of fun.

I have another lovely picture of West Sedgemoor, and this week one of Greylake, when we were out making essential repairs to a couple of the cattle structures.

  

The farm is now a hive of activity. Not with people, of course, they’re still all at home. It’s the wildlife that’s taken over. When I opened my curtains on Monday morning, I immediately saw a swallow fly past. It’s my first one of the year, although I’m sure other people have seen them earlier. We’ve now got a pair swooping in under the eaves outside the office where they have their nests. I’ll bring you more updates on them as time goes on.

  The swallows sitting underneath their nest (apologies for the picture quality, it's a bit dark under there)

  You can clearly see the fresh mud they've been adding to the nest

On Tuesday morning, I noticed a pair of jackdaws on the roof, one holding a twig. The bird with the twig disappeared down the chimney pot, where I surmise they are building a nest. I haven’t seen them go in there again though, so I think they've selected a different nest site..

Also on Tuesday morning, I walked into the workshop and startled a pair of wrens. The corrugated roof means they can fly in and out easily and they seem to be nest building too. I’ve watched them a few times bringing moss and stuffing it into the rafters. Hopefully they will be successful but I’ll keep you informed on that too.

Our usual pair of pied wagtails have been bringing in nesting material too. I can’t see where the nest is but it’s somewhere on top of our biomass boiler. Maybe it’s nice and cosy up there.

  Sitting on the roof opposite the nest site

  They seem to be looking in the gutters for nest material

As well as birds, I’ve also been seeing bats. If I stand at my bedroom window a little after sunset, I can see them swooping in and out of the roof where they roost. I’m not certain what species they are though.

Out at the barn, the kestrels are still hanging around. I saw them twice last weekend while on my daily exercise. However, they now seem to have some competition. There is an owl box in the barn and both days last weekend, a barn owl flew out of it as I approached, and again on Wednesday as we were making essential repairs to the cattle pen. It will be interesting to see how that situation progresses as the breeding season really kicks in.

Last night I was woken at four am by a strange noise. It took me a few minutes to realise it was the sound of a booming bittern. It just shows you how sound carries on a quiet night as it was quite loud even through my closed window and from some distance away. I heard it again on my morning walk so we can hope a pair will breed on the reserve this year, although we may never know for sure, especially as we aren't able to do any surveying.

The butterflies have also been much in evidence this week. The warm, sunny weather has been perfect for them. I’ve seen peacock, brimstone, orange-tip, small tortoiseshell, holly blue, and some other type of white. I’m not able to distinguish between white butterflies in flight not matter how hard I try. Most of them are moving far too quickly to get a picture, but this brimstone did sit nicely for me.

Spring has well and truly sprung in the last couple of weeks. The West Sedgemoor garden is full of flowers, like these gorgeous tulips, and the lawn is a carpet of daisies, dandelions and cowslips.

   

Our garden is not high maintenance in general and with our volunteer gardener Andy unable to come in, it will be even less maintained than usual, except for anything I manage to get out there and do. Hopefully those of you with gardens are enjoying them. I know some of our staff members are getting some work done outside, with one building a pond and another sowing lots of seeds. The RSPB has lots of tips available for wildlife friendly gardening, and Steve Couch’s blog from Ham Wall also has some handy hints from his own garden.

Happy Easter everyone and I’ll be back next week.

Kathryn