This blog is written by Jake - residential volunteer at RSPB West Sedgemoor, Swell Wood and Greylake. 

Hello everyone! I’m Jake, the new residential volunteer at West Sedgemoor, Swell Wood and Greylake reserves. I’ll be spending the next six months here and look forward to sharing some of my experiences with you.

As I approached West Sedgemoor last week, my eyes were drawn upwards to a tall, grand monument…

This blog was written by James Conder practical volunteer at RSPB West Sedgemoor, Greylake and Swell Wood

From West Sedgemoor to Saudi Arabia

Marsh harrier 

The first bird I saw at Al Asfar Lake was a Western yellow wagtail. Then it was a Western marsh harrier. And then a little egret. Then I heard piggy squeal of a water rail. I could have fooled myself I was still at RSPB Greylake were it not for the view – a vast…

This blog was written by James Conder practical volunteer at RSPB West Sedgemoor, Greylake and Swell Wood

If you’ve visited RPSB Swell Wood’s heronry recently, you may have noticed some new residents. Now the grey herons and little egrets have largely made their nests, laid their eggs, raised their chicks and moved on with life, in their wake some close relatives have moved in and started their own breeding…

This blog was written by James Conder practical volunteer at RSPB West Sedgemoor, Greylake and Swell Wood

Chough, Golden Pheasant, Collared Pratincole and other improbable sightings at RSPB West Sedgemoor

That got your attention, didn’t it? Before you grab your binoculars and dash for the door, do hold on and read further. As you will discover, we haven’t actually received a windfall of exotic and unlikely species.…

Hello everyone! I’m Nick and I just recently started working at West Sedgemoor as a reserves assistant. We all thought it’d be a good idea for me to post a brief blog post about my first month here.

A little bit about myself first though: I love the outdoors, Star Wars, exercise, video games, and my beautiful dog Logan. During the pandemic I moved back from London, where I was originally planning on studying…

No crazy morning bird surveys and a bit of rain seem to have helped quell my hay fever to more manageable levels this week, but even as I sit inside writing this blog I’m still having to blow my nose every five minutes or so!

RSPB Staff

We finished putting the roof on our makeshift weed-wiper garage yesterday; it’s surprisingly secure despite what it looks like. We’ve also been preparing a new predator gate that…

As lovely as the weather has been the past couple of weeks, it’s been difficult for me to enjoy as I’ve had to endure the most severe case of hay fever I’ve ever experienced in my life. I’ve been walking around with tissue up each nostril and a face mask to try and keep the pollen out, but I can’t say I’d recommend the technique. I guess it’s my own fault for working on a wet grassland……

A couple of heavy downpours trapped us in our cars this week while out doing curlew surveys, but aside for that the sun’s been shining.

I took a walk through Swell Wood over the weekend, enjoying the sun and brushing up on my wildflower ID skills. There was woodruff, with its small white flowers and rings of leaves, the lilac-blue wood speedwell, red clover, and the green cup-like flowers of wood spurge. And on West…

Hides are open! It’s been a long time coming but finally we’ve been allowed to open up the hides. We’ve removed alternate windows to encourage social distancing and provided hand sanitiser so it’s not quite back to business as usual, but we hope people can enjoy them, nonetheless.

 RSPB Staff

Breeding wader surveys continue, and it’s been a real struggle fitting them in around the ongoing downpours…

As I stepped into the kitchen to do my dishes earlier this week, I saw a barn owl gliding silently across the yard in front of me. I love those unexpected sightings!

We’ve been down to Greylake a fair bit the past couple of weeks strimming around the paths and picnic area. As soon as you turn your head though the grass starts growing again behind you, so we’ll be back in a couple of weeks I’m sure to repeat the process…

This blog is by James Conder - regular volunteer at Greylake, Swell Wood and West Sedgemoor. 

The 2^nd of May was Dawn Chorus Day, but (as I’m sure you’ve noticed) it’s been a week of cold, cold mornings and biting winds rather than the warm Spring mornings we might expect of this time of year. Not very conducive to birds singing their hearts out. But Thursday wasn’t quite as brutal as earlier in the week, so I got up early…

Hi all, after lots of (horrendously) early starts our first round of breeding wader surveys is over. Although soon we’ll be back at it so I’m going to enjoy the lie-ins while I can. Speaking of birds, you may have seen swallows in the skies the past few weeks. Our farm residents returned a couple of weeks ago, displaying over the yard and building a new nest next to the five or so others from previous years…

This blog was written by James Conder practical volunteer at RSPB West Sedgemoor, Greylake and Swell Wood

I was blundering through the wires of the Internet the other day when I stumbled across a fascinating document – A Glossary of Provincial Words & Phrases In Use In Somersetshire collected in 1873 by Wadham Pigott Williams (then the Vicar of Bishop’s Hull) and William Arthur Jones. This account is freely…

A pheasant tapped on the dining room window and stared in at me yesterday after work. I’m still not sure what he wanted…

It’s been a busy week, with Monday and Tuesday spent finishing off the deer fence at Swell Wood. We had slight trouble fitting the door (for which I take zero responsibility), but all is working as it should now!

On Wednesday we were back at the hedges putting in some three-strand…

You never can tell what the weather is going to be like when you step out the door, I’m forever taking off and putting on layers!

You may remember that earlier in the year we did some coppicing and tree thinning around Swell Wood. Well now we’re back and installing some deer fencing around the plot to stop the new shoots being grazed. We’ve been digging in the posts, adding struts, and tensioning the wire. It’s almost…

It is just over a year ago now that I was supposed to begin my new job in Bwabwata National Park in Namibia. For many of us, March 2020 wasn’t a good month to see things going as planned, and I was no exception. What was supposed to have been a quick trip back to Somerset to visit my parents proved a much longer stay. In March 2021, I am still very much not on the African savannah.

The pandemic has forced us all…

Incredibly, it’s been so sunny this week that at various times I’ve actually been too hot!

Spring seems to be revving up. I spotted my first brimstone of the year this week fluttering along the hedgerows, and the odd bumblebee bouncing from flower to flower. There seems to be more birdsong too floating down from the trees, and our volunteer James spotted a sand martin flying overhead, returning from its wintering…

Hi all, this past week we rented out a woodchipper and have mostly been clearing up lots of pollarded willow. It’s pretty tiring work, with lots of walking and dragging heavy branches, and we have to get through a lot of it quickly since we only have access to the chipper for a limited time. It’s been fun to use, but the novelty does wear off after a while! The chipper we rented has tracks on it that you can use to manoeuvre…

This week has been productive, despite the sudden gale force storms that seem to materialise out of thin air and then disappear before I’ve had time to put my waterproofs on.

On Monday, Ashley and I did a full perimeter sweep of the electric fence at Greylake, replacing insulators and patching up holes in the wire mesh. It looks as though badgers and potentially foxes are getting on to the reserve, which we really…

Bitterns boomed, cetti's chirped, and a marsh harrier swooped low over the reeds not long after Warden Steve and I arrived at Greylake on Monday morning. We were out there to cut back a little willow scrub that was encroaching onto the predator fence and open up some views of the reserve at the same time.

RSPB Staff

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were all spent at our favourite hedge, and shockingly we’re actually…

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…

Hi all, the cold has subsided, and I can feel my toes again, but this week the weather has had an uncanny ability to turn just as we’ve been settling down for lunch. It was rain on Wednesday, and ten minutes into our break on Thursday we were set upon by a sudden hailstorm which promptly finished as soon as it was time for work again. Never mind, all part of the fun!

On Monday we carried out the monthly Wetland…

So… this week’s been a bit chilly! The Beast from East has made its way Southwest and I’m very upset about it, but work continues.

On Monday morning Estate Worker Ashley and I were out doing checks and repairs on the cattle handling facilities around Greylake, as well as re-fixing a sign and picking some litter. I don’t think my wellies are as waterproof as I’d like them to be because not long into the…

Hi all, hope you’ve had a lovely week, ours has been quite productive.

We finished up the coppicing in Swell Wood on Monday - all that’s left now is to put up the deer fencing to protect any new shoots from being nibbled back. We’ve also spent a lot of time battling bramble as our hedge-laying prep continues. It feels like we’ve done a lot, but the hedge is so thick with bramble that progress is a little slow..…

Hi all, another busy week, but far less rain than I was expecting so pretty pleased about that!

Work continues at Swell Wood, but it looks like we’re on track to finish the thinning in time before the herons return to their nesting area. It’s amazing how much difference a little light makes!

As promised, midweek we got stuck into some hedge-laying - minus the laying. The hedge in question was overrun with…