The end of the school holidays approaches!

One of the Pippistrelle Bats on show at the
bat walk!

A Dragonfly Nymph cast

We started the month with our dragonfly weekend. Loads of dragonfly and damselflies were spotted over the weekend, not just by the ponds but also hunting for insect prey over the bramble bushes around the reserve. We also had a few nymph casts we found in the ponds on display for visitors to see what the young look like, along with images showing how they ‘hatch’ into their adult form.

August also saw our final bat walk! This was a fantastic night with about 100 of you turning up! A huge thank you to the Essex Bat group for all their help, with the night raising over £100 for the Harlow Bat hospital which is based at the reserve.

A  Dragonfly emerging by the pond!

Our volunteers have been sweating it out in this hot weather creating something new for the reserve….a fantastic new trail is due to open soon! Creating a new trail is difficult at the best of times, but the volunteer team have done a fantastic job carving it through the undergrowth. Coming soon for 2016!

Something new, opening later this year!

With the temperatures continuing to rise towards the end of the month, the water levels in all of the ponds have dropped significantly. This led the Warden to decide to pause pond dipping activities until they rise again. Visitors can still walk up and look into the pond, but nets are not available to hire until we get some rainfall!

Our top wildlife spots this month include a small family herd of fallow deer. One of our visitors caught some superb footage on a Thursday evening of the group, complete with a few fawns, popping down to the main pond for a drink. Lots of grass snakes have been spotted enjoying the sun, and unusually, some fungi have also sprouted too! We've been finding lots of Tawny owl feathers around the path this month, so keep a look out for those too!

A Tawny Owl feather, one of quite a few
found this month.

We also have advertised some vacancies this month. We are looking for some enthusiastic Halloween sccarers to help us make our visitors jump at our Halloween Spooky Walk event. Our Conservation Centre Manager - Josey - is also leaving at the end of September, so the position is looking to be filled too! The position is available for either one individual on a full time basis, or 2 individuals as part of a job share, on a part time basis. Check out our website for more information on both of these positions.

Let the Summer Holidays commence! July 2016

We can’t believe it is the summer holidays already! Where has the year gone?!

One of the Bats to see at our Bat Walk

This month we had quite a few events occurring. At the very start, there was our tree weekend. Visitors were able to either download or borrow our free tree spotter sheet to use in the reserve and to also join us on a tree walk. During this walk, we looked at ways in which to identify trees in both the summer and winter months and looked at the different uses the trees within the reserve can have. The walk was so popular we were asked to run it again a few weeks later for a group who were unable to make the weekend!

We also had our first Bat walk of the year! This is always a great event and proceeds help to support the work carried out at Harlow Bat Hospital. Members of Essex Bat Group popped in to kick start the evening with a talk all about Bats and also were able to show visitors one of their own Pipistrelles! Very cute! We then grabbed out detectors and headed out into the reserve to see our own wild bats whizzing around, gobbling up insets. There were absolutely loads of Bats and some visitors caught some great footage of the evening!

Our 8th Green Flag!

It isn’t just bats we celebrated this month, but also Butterflies, without butterfly spotting weekend and, at the end of the month, our annual Bee weekend! This year as a brilliant weekend! Harlow Beekeepers Association popped down to showcase our bees with some live hive demonstrations and also offered honey tasting to visitors. Candle rolling, a bee fact trail and arts and crafts were also a go with some brilliant art being produced! We also started to sell our own Parndon Wood Honey! It’s extremely popular, getting through almost 50 jars of honey! If you want some you’ll have to be quick!

Our wonderful volunteers have been as busy as ever, clearing away some of the brambles which are trying to take over in the reserve to open up some of the vistas. It’s hard work clearing brambles but they do a wonderful job! So wonderful in fact, that their work contributed to us gaining our 8^th Green Flag Award! These awards are given to the finest parks in the country, so it’s a huge achievement to have gained out 8^th one! Well done!

One of the Live Hive Demonstrations at the Bee Weekend

Local Honey for Sale at the Bee Weekend

Star spots this month ranged from Reptiles to baby animals! We’ve had regular sightings of our grass Snakes basking in the summer sun, as well as a pair of Fallow Deer, each with a fawn at foot, spotted in the reserve. The buzzards have been active too, as have the woodpeckers. Keep your eyes peeled for this year’s fledglings as they explore the reserve, lots of young Green Woodpeckers have been spotted hopping about in the Oak trees and usually give themselves away by making a squeaky call. 

Our own Parndon Wood Honey for Sale!