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!