Is it winter or is it spring? With the temperatures dropping again it feels like winter again with winds whipping across the wetlands. However, you look in the woodlands and realise that spring is here: the colour over the woodland floor looks amazing with the blue of the bluebells, the yellow of the lesser celandine and the ramsons are just bursting out.
Wherever you go round the reserve you can hear the calls of the different warblers, whether it’s the Cetis shouting at you, the Grasshopper reeling in his fishing line or one of the many others singing their hearts out. Over the wetlands and the play meadow swallows, house martins and sand martins can be seen and the elusive cuckoo has now been heard on several occasions. So spring is definitely here.
No exciting news on the camera front. The squirrels are making their usual appearances, though the one below did amuse me.
I did come across this amazing bracket fungus which, I believe, is a Dryad’s Saddle (I’m sure someone will let me know if I’ve got this wrong, I’m certainly no fungus expert). The largest specimen was over 30 cm across and, with a group of them, they looked amazing.
The butterflies are still making appearances when the sun comes out. A few Holly Blues have been seen down the bridle path, particularly round the ivy. They have emerged after overwintering as a chrysalis. They’ve been too elusive for me to capture on camera yet.
We have now started surveying bumblebees for the first time. This is done just once a month and, at the moment, we are just doing one transect. We recorded 4 different species in April, all queens, which we expected: Common Carder, Buff-tailed, White-tailed and Garden bumblebee. They were nearly all seen on the flowers of the white dead nettle.
I will keep you informed if I find anything exciting on camera.