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