Back to School September

September has finally come. With the kids back to school this month, we are entering a quieter time at the nature reserve. Quieter for visitor footfall, but still busy as ever for wildlife sightings!

A Green Woodpecker sighted

Towards the end of this month, the deer have been more visible as the rut season approaches. We’ve also had lots of sightings of groups (or a ‘wake’) of buzzards (Buteo buteo) flying above the reserve, with 4 spotted catching thermals together. These are one of the largest birds regularly spotted in the reserve, so keep an eye on the skies if it’s a sunny day and you may just seem them!

We’ve also had a few good sightings of our largest woodpecker species, the Green woodpecker (Picus viridis). These bright green birds can be quite tricky to see and are easier to find by following their loud, laughing calls.

September has also brought with it a new member of staff! Introducing Kathy, our new café assistant. Make sure you say hello to her when you’re next in. She’s a great addition to the team and we’re looking forward to working together to be able to plan lots more events, stay tuned!

A Female fallow deer spotted in the reserve.

During this month we ran a few family days focusing on art, with our Arts in Nature event as well as seasonal changes towards the end of the month, with our It’s Autumn event. Some absolutely brilliant pieces of art work were made at both events to celebrate this time of year. Our favourite was ‘camp acorn’. We’ve put some of the pieces up on display on our wall of cool in the classroom so have a look at these when you next visit the reserve!

Our conservation workers have been busy as always this month and you may have spotted them in the local paper as we celebrated the official raising of the green flag. Once again, fantastic work by our volunteers over the last year and they’re already busy with projects for the next year

A Selection of some of our fantastic volunteers with their hard earned green flag