This week the wardening team and its day volunteers have been making excellent progress hedge laying at Fivehead (near Swell Wood). We look forward to watching its progress and are hoping for vigorous regrowth in the spring - perhaps the Brown Hairstreaks will find it to their liking.

Annie and Dave hedge laying (Helen Williams)

Whilst dragging the brash to the fire, I came across the slimy and vividly blue Verdigris…

West Sedgemoor has been pretty busy this past week, what with the winter walks going on down at the viewing point, and the exciting welcoming of our newest residential volunteer, Helen, who has joined our wardening team for the next 6 months after previously volunteering at the Exe Estuary down on the south coast of Devon.

Management work this week continues down near Swell wood, where hedge coppicing and laying preparations…

Greylake has had a successful week as we finished with the pollarding, coppicing and burning of the willow down the main drove –  creating a more open habitat for the incoming wintering birds, which we’re all very excited for! It will also reduce the number of perches for the crows next Spring.

Photo Credit: David Miller

Mentioning birds… Greylake has had a vast number of wildlife visitors recently including…

At Greylake we’ve been busy coppicing and pollarding the willows and poplars on the main drove this week. Not too exciting but in clambering up one of the pollards I did come across this hidey hole for Garden Snails. One moment it’s a rotten stump, next…..

Photo-credits: David Miller

Things are beginning to happen on the birdwatching front. Our lapwing (see photo below) and golden plover numbers…

Another post from residential volunteers Annie and David. Find out about our Halloween Events at Swell Wood, sightings at Greylake and moth trapping at the office.

This past week has been a sad one for all of us here at West Sedgemoor as we’ve had to say farewell to one of our residential volunteers, Alex, whose outgoingness and enthusiasm we will greatly miss. We all wish him good luck in his future endeavors.…

Here is the first blog from our residential volunteer Annie. During her time here Annie will be writing a regular blog about a variety of topics so keep an eye out for her posts. 

We’re getting closer to the winter months and the preparation for the winter visitors is underway. The wardening team are hard at work topping the last few fields and coppicing the willows on the reserves so a clear open habitat is ready for…

Management work to prepare the reserve for it's winter visitors continues at Greylake with the wardening team topping the fields in front of the hides last week. This means the views have opened up and there are plenty of 'splashy' areas for the birds to move around in. You should all hopefully be able to get some great shots and views from the hides now - look forward to seeing them all on Twitter.

The Warden team are currently hard at work on Greylake getting the habitat ready for the ducks and waders that will soon be arriving to spend their winter there as well as for the nesting birds come spring

Much of this work is done by cattle in the fields but there are areas where we need areas of short grass for feeding ducks and waders and to achieve this we need to use a specially adapted tractor to cut the vegetation…

Hi Everyone, 

Just to make you aware that some of the paths at Greylake paths will be inaccessible over the next couple of weeks whilst we undertake maintenance of encroaching vegetation. The site will be open and the work should be completed by the 10th of September. I'll post another update if the work looks like it is going to take longer then planned. 

Best Wishes, 

Abbie 

A quick update on what has been happening at Greylake over the last few days.

After a really soggy weekend water levels have risen fairly high because the reserve takes and stores flood water from the King Sedgemoor Drain during periods of flooding on the Somerset Levels and Moors. It's great to see the reserve doing the job it's designed to do but as a consequence we do have some low level flooding on the paths at the…

After a couple of months of closure due to some particularly grumpy wasps we have been able to reopen path leading to to both of the main hides here at Greylake. 

It has been very frustrating but we wanted to allow the wasps to get on with being... well... Wasps!

There are still a few about so be vigilant when walking along the path towards the hides but they are becoming more and more inactive and should dissapear altogether…

We are now taking booking for Swell Wood by Night on national moth night -   12th September 

We have got lots of activities for all the family going on in Somerset through out the summer holidays.

Have a look to see which ones take your fancy!

Still a few spaces left on this Saturdays walk at West Sedgemoor.

If you've not been yet, RSPB Ham Wall has a new car park since just before Christmas.  The opening times are:

1st October- 28th/29th February – 07.00 to 18.30
1st March- 31st May -07.00 to 19.30
1st June- 30th September- 07.00 to 21.00

And even if you don't want to see the starlings, Ham Wall is great for a weekend stroll with friends and family.  Make the most of the winter sunshine and get closer to nature…

The Wetland Bird Survey carried out this morning, showed some great numbers of Pintail for the reserve, amongst other birds now flocking to the site:

Mute Swans  39, plus one Greylag Goose.

Canada Goose 52

Wigeon  1294

Gadwall  13

Teal  3631

Mallard  247

Pintail 152

Shoveler  290, most viewed from the Lookout Hide.

Little Grebe 1

Lapwing numbers were lower than last month's count at 1689, but many were flushed by…

This small tortoiseshell had just recently emerged and was resting on some clover in the picnic area during our Go Wild @ Greylake visit by families from HomeStart Bridgwater last week.

In late summer, water mint, pictured above, with its delicate light purple flower is one of the favoured plants for small tortoiseshell to nectar on at Greylake.  

The rewards of nesting spotted flycatchers have paid off at last.  Young spotted flycatchers can be seen perching up on the car park wooden markers, exploring their new world.  If you've not seen a spotted flycatcher up close, now is your chance.  Adults and young alike can be seen feeding, with the young birds learning to catch flies like mum and dad!  Send in your photos too! greylake@rspb.org.uk 

The warm weather has meant this special summer migrant butterfly has returned to Somerset.   Large numbers of Clouded Yellow butterflies have arrived at Greylake during late July. They are enjoying the nectar from our wild flower crop, particularly favouring white clover in flower at the moment. This butterfly is an annual migrant to Britain, with ‘Clouded Yellow summers’ occurring often in summers with significant heat…

If you spend a bit of time late morning around the picnic area when there aren't any other visitors passing through it, you'll hear and sometimes see a spotted flycatcher.  Being seen since last week, it regularly perches up on the pedestrian gates in the picnic area.   So any of you that like a bit of photography, do send us your photos greylake@rspb.org.uk of this rare visiting bird.  This is the second year running…

Okay, so a tenuous link to Lady Gaga, but a lady garganey and her drake, having been setting up home at Greylake.  Many visitors to the Lookout Hide have enjoyed great views of this summer visiting pair of ducks.  Ducks like wigeon and teal migrate to the Somerset Levels in late autumn from Russia and Scandinavia, ready for our milder winters, but garganey migrate here in spring for our summer weather instead.  So get over…

I’m asked many different questions when I’m out and about on the reserve. What’s that bird? Can I join the RSPB? and Where’s the nearest toilet? Most I can usually answer easily but one over the weekend from two young ladies totally flummoxed me!

They were looking into the ditch from the boardwalk, between the two hides and wanted help identifying a creature they had seen. I was unable to help…

We opened up the trails and hides yesterday, for the first time this year. There are a few places that need to be negotiated in single file but otherwise its business as usual....at long last!

The staff and volunteers have worked really hard to enable the opening of the reserve so a big thank you goes out to all of them.

With the lovely sunshine but a strong cool wind, it was lovely to sit in the comfort of the hide…