I took a new volunteer around the reserve today and although it was cold, many birds were in song and lots of plants are flowering, including a rhodedendron and red-hot poker in the gardens, and in the sunshine it felt almost like late March, not mid January.!
The entrance banners are now completed; thanks to Barrie Hicks and Ben from Countryside Contracts for all of the hard work in getting them installed, often in bad weather.
Back to the birds and wildlife- up to 20 bramblings have been in the seed crop on Sandy Heath (on the land we manage just opposite the entrance) and at least one male was under the feeders at the main entrance today,along with a constant procession of blue, great and coal tits, dunnocks, robins, blackbirds and a regular lonesome red-legged partridge. With the colder weather approaching, we may see more redpolls and siskins- and bramblings on the move!