Hi all, some glorious sunshine this week, where did that come from?
We’ve had a few sightings around the reserves this week that suggest Spring is on its way. Curlew have been spotted at Greylake, coming inland to prepare for the breeding season, and a chiffchaff was heard from the office garden. But it’s not just birds, we’ve had sightings of both brimstone (spotted by Ashley) and peacock (spotted by Paul) butterflies too!
Not long ago we set up a bird box and camera trap at the office farm and recently caught a glimpse of this little one (below). Looking forward to seeing if we get a successful pair using the box this season, fingers crossed.
RSPB Staff
I’m sure you’re tired of hearing about it but the hedge work continues, as does the fencing of the coppice plots. James, one of our volunteers, has an app that plays bird calls, and we’ve been trying to learn them over our lunch breaks. It can be a little daunting to start but a few stand out and are easy enough to recognise.
We’ve heard the laugh or ‘yaffle’ of the green woodpecker rolling out from the woods, and I was very pleased to ID a greenfinch by sound alone last week – it has an interesting call with lots of short trills and an unmistakeable ‘wheeze’! It’s been a great way to ‘spot’ birds without having to actually see them. If you’re interested, you can listen to audio recordings of your local species on the RSPB website.
That’s about all for this week. See you next time.
Luke
West Sedgemoor Residential Volunteering team