As I write this up it is on a day when we have seen everything from hail, snow and now sunshine, truly a mixed bag of weather for the end of April. It is also an interesting time for the birds, we now have all the expected summer migrants here (including pied flycatchers, redstarts, wood warblers, willow warblers, chiff-chaff, black cap, grasshopper warblers etc) apart from spotted flycatchers, which are always a little later in arriving, nothing unusual there, however as of yesterday (Tuesday 26th April) we still also had 2 Greenland white fronted geese on the reserve too! The latest ever record for these birds. The volunteers and wardens have spent a lot of time and energy this winter working on the woodland habitats to improve them for pied flycatchers, redstarts and wood warblers, clearing some of the bramble and coppicing other areas, another benefit from this work can be experienced at the moment - that is the wonderful carpets of bluebells which are forming a blue haze on any of the woodland trails.

If you can, the next few weeks would be a great time to visit.