In terms of wildlife, the reserve is an exciting place to be at the moment. Bumblebees and butterflies are on the wing (I saw brimstone, comma and tortoiseshell yesterday) and lots of the birds that migrate back to the UK in the spring time are being seen on and over the moor. These birds include yellow wagtails, willow warblers, whitethroats, grasshopper warblers, sedge warblers, swallows and house martins. The hares are bounding around the fields and the ditches are alive with croaking and mating toads. You may well catch a glimpse of the large females toads carrying the smaller males around on their backs, a more enjoyable if not slightly slower way of travelling around the moor compared to using my quad bike. (Photo below taken by Lyn Ebbs).
The lapwings are now in full swing with their egg laying and a number of extra nests have been located, hopefully the cold weather during March will have delayed rather than reduced the breeding success this year. Lapwings normally lay four eggs, one a day until the full clutch is present and will then incubate them for about four weeks. Hopefully this means by the time the chicks hatch it will be nice and warm with plenty of tasty insects around.
The photo below shows how well camouflaged a lapwing nest can be, particularly when it only has one egg in it and the bottom photo comes from one of out nest cameras showing a bird incubating it's eggs.