From the visitors centre you have a great view of all the wader birds on the main lake as well as the garden birds that you can see from the existing feeding station, it has been in place for a couple of years and anyone can get great views of birds up close. The centre allows people to use the glass window as a screen to prevent the birds from flying away – like when you have a garden feeder close to your window. The existing feeding station has given the foxes a place to pass and feed from and everyone can get close up views of the foxes. A few weeks ago an up dated design was created to give people the best views possible of the wildlife that visits.

The position gives you a good view and picture opportunities even closer, the woodpecker has been on the feeding station. The goldfinches, green finches, reed bunting and tree sparrows are all using the feeders. At the back of the picture the old framework is still visible because too much change can suddenly disturb and scare off the birds from coming to the feeders.

At the wet grassland the estate team have been removing the old fencing that has been in place for decades before the reserve opened to the public. The fence posts that are not used are being taken out from the wet grassland area because the posts give the corvids (especially the carrion crows) a vantage point to search around the grassland for food. They will take advantage of the extra posts and search for ground nesting bird eggs in the spring.

An update on the recent sightings can be seen on the previous blog by Peter, I saw a weasel running across the path today and recently there has been other sightings too.

-          Josh McGowan