Signs of Spring in March

Tasty Treats at our Afternoon Teas

Spring finally arrived this month, with a good few sighting of the sun throughout March!

We started the month with a delicious afternoon tea for our Mums on Mother’s Day. We were fully booked for the event, with mums being treated to some delicious cakes, scones and sandwiches! The weather was also fantastic, with the sun shining allowing visitors to wonder around and look at our lovely wild flowers starting to pop up.

Long-tailed tit gathering nesting material.
Credit: Carol Gifford

Some of the best spots this month have been focusing on our birds. With the trees only just starting to think about popping some leaves out, the birds are easy to see and are doing some fantastic courtship displays of bobbing up and down, flapping, diving and more! We had a photo submitted into our competition showing a long-tailed tit gathering some nesting material, foxes were spotted as was a weasel! (credit to Carol Gifford) At the very end of the month a very special young Muntjac was spotted in the reserve, who stayed with us for a few weeks.

A Fox spotted at the start of the month.
Credit: Carol Gifford

We also got creative and messy, with our Arts in Nature weekend! This is always a big hit with the kids and we are always amazed at how creative they are! We had some beautiful animals made of leaves and twigs, some woodland men and lots of other creations! We popped some up on our ‘wall of cool’ so make sure you check it out on your next visit!

The elusive Golden Eggs!

At the end of the Month, we had a very special visit form the Easter Bunny! He sneaked into the reserve before good Friday and hid some eggs around the trail! Loads of you turned up to find them, with some of you even managing to find the golden eggs! Well done to those of you with keen eyes as they were hard to find! In total, about 940 of you turned up throughout the weekend and ate some chocolate eggs, so the bunny was very tired afterwards!

The volunteers have been busy too, cutting pathways within the reserve to allow us to inspect the boundary easier. They’ve been working very hard, even in soggy weather, so a huge thank you to their work too!

 This month's photography competition was given the theme 'Signs of Spring' and we are pleased to announce the winner is Jon Clempners' Primrose shot! The theme for April is 'Parndon Wood Wildlife', so get out in the reserve and get photographing! Good Luck!

March's photography winner, Jon Clempner, with the theme 'Signs of Spring'