May - when the pond dipping opens!

Bugles,some of the many wild flowers growing in the reserve

May saw the re-opening of our pond dipping area after a period of closure over spring and winter. This coincided nicely with our free Pond life and Amphibian weekends, at the start and the end of the month, which allowed visitors to get up close to the life in the ponds and learn about them. Pond dipping is now available until the end of September/October, with nets being £1 to hire.

With the longer daylight hours, mixing with some showers and warmer weather, our brambles are shooting up, growing over a foot in a single week! This is giving the volunteers lots of work to keep them down and to also clear patches and open up the vistas. By clearing the brambles away in patches, we can create habitat piles with the plant matter and also open up the forest floor to encourage wild flowers to grow!

Something slithering in the undergrowth...

The habitat piles are already a hit with our wildlife, with a huge grass snake being spotted basking by one in the middle of the month. Keep your eyes out on a sunny day, and if you’re quiet enough, you too may spot our serpents.

A few of the signposts within the reserve were given a quick spruce up this month too as we had out green flag inspection. The Green Flag Award is the benchmark national standard for publicly accessible parks and green spaces in the UK. We have won it for the past several years, and hope to win it again for 2016/2017. Fingers crossed!

With the weather being very warm and sunny, the leaves in the trees have really opened up and become very lush, which makes wildlife spotting a bit trickier. However, the interesting spots this month include:

·         Grass snake

·         Greater spotted woodpecker near the trail with nest

·         Moorhen chicks

·         First dragonfly of the year!

The Blue Tit Family just after hatching. They fledged at the end of May. 

Our nest box camera has seen some action, with a family of Blue Tits hatching at the start of the moth. Mum and Dad worked exceptionally hard to bring up 8 chicks, all of who fledged on Wednesday 25^th May. Will there be a second brood this summer though? Keep your eyes peeled on the screen in the classroom!

April with all of the weather!

Male Blackcap caught on the bird walk.

April really was the month we saw all the weather from all the seasons arrive! We kicked off the month with our bird weekend, which we hosted with the RSPB. This involved a free trail hunt, learning about our wonderful birds, binocular hire and a guided walk in the afternoon each day. On the walks we saw a huge range of birds, including a Sparrowhawk hunting a wood pigeon (amazing site to see!), tree-creepers, green woodpeckers and nuthatches and even a vole joined us for a short time!

We also had our last Afternoon Tea until Father’s Weekend. Lots of delicious cakes, scones and sandwiches consumed once more! If you missed our last few months of Afternoon Tea, fear not! We have one more on June 18th and shall restart them once more on a regular basis later on in the year.

This month also saw the Warden, Josey, head to Sherrads Hatch Nursery to help them build a bug hotel. A Fantastic bug hotel was built with help from the students, who loved filling it with woodland materials! Can’t wait to see what moves in!

Green Woodpecker spotted on the Bird Walk

April marks the start of the busy period for schools visiting the reserve. Towards the end of the month we welcomed 145 students through the gates, all eager to learn about the woodland and wildlife in Harlow. Most of the time they were lucky with the weather, however there was one group who were fortunate to experience brilliant sunshine, hail, snow and rain, all within a few hours!

Our volunteers have been working hard to open up some of the vistas within the reserve by clearing away some of the huge numbers of brambles. By piling up the left over waste, we create habitats for reptiles to bask on, birds to nest in and rodents to live in too. What will you see in the new views?

Other interesting wildlife spots this month include a family of Blue tits setting up home in our bird box with a camera. Unfortunately, it looks like the camera has got some moisture in it, so the picture being transmitted isn’t always the clearest. We have a camera to replace, but shall wait until the family and their chicks fledge. In the closing days of the month our resident moorhens showcased 3 fluffy chicks on the main pond, so keep an eye out for those!

And a nosey Nuthatch also spotted on the guided bird walk!