It’s January! Start of a New Year at the reserve so, Happy
New Year to all! It's also a year sine we started blogging!
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| One of the noisy foxes! |
As with the norm this time of year, we’ve been busy with our
woodland work as always! With the warmer weather and mild winter, we’ve had,
the trees are starting to bud and the sap inside is threatening to rise early,
so our conservation volunteers are rushing to get the coppicing work finished
around Harlow! The work within the reserve finished last month, however we now
are needing to protect the coppice stools with fencing from the Fallow and
Muntjac deer.
(The problem with the Deer is that their grazing of the
stools whilst they’re trying to re-grow could kill the trees!)
Luckily though, most of the coppice is now fenced with a
dead hedge and a larger, deer fence, so hopefully the trees are safe now! Our
volunteers have also been processing the wood into logs and stacking them up
Nordic-style! Have you seen the log stacks in the coppice area?
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| Nuthatch on the move |
January was almost the only time Winter has really made an
appearance with Snow! On our Hibernation themed weekend, the snow had fallen
and visitors were greeted with a beautiful snowy wood. The Reserve is beautiful
at the best of times, so looked simply gorgeous in the snow! I love the snow,
not only because I’m a big kid, but also because it’s fantastic to show up
footprints and tracks in! Whilst opening up in the morning I spotted Fox,
Fallow ad Muntjac Deer, Pheasant, Squirrel and rabbit to name but a few!
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| Our feeders are certainly popular! |
January is a great time to spot wildlife as the trees are
skeletal and there isn’t much undergrowth to hide in. This month’s top spots
were: Tree creeper, Nuthatch, Buzzard and the Foxes, who this time of year are
busy claiming their territories. We’ve had local school groups enjoying the
reserve during the winter months too, who were lucky enough to spot the foxes and
several different bird species.
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| A Tree-creeper spotted by the conservation cnetre |
The Bird were out in full force towards the end of the
month, just in time for our Big Bird Watch, to coincide the RSPB’s Big Garden
Bird Watch. We had our very own Parndon Wood Bird Spotter Sheet available to
download for free from our facebook and website, which lists the most commonly
spotted species. Over the weekend, birds who were spotted were: Heron, Wood
Pigeon Collard dove, Black Bird, Jay, Crow, Jackdaw, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Long-tailed
Tit, Pheasant, Robin, Dunnocks, Green Woodpecker, Greater Spotted Woodpecker,
Coal Tit, Nuthatch and Tree Creeper, most of which were spotted outside the
centre on our bird feeders!
We also had some building work done on the centre, with bran
new, shiny, double grazed windows put into the classroom! They look SO much
better than the last lot, and keep the wind and weather out, unlike their
predecessors! The clear glass also lets in a lot more light and you can now see
the trees around the centre too! Lovely!
Our monthly photography competition crowned a new winner
too. With the theme set to ‘Winter Wonderland’, Dan Purdy was this months’
winner with a shot of a Robin in the Snow. February’s theme is simply ‘silhouettes’…good
luck!
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| January's winning entry for the photo competition! |
