Very sad news today with the loss of Charles the second. He only arrived on site with Camilla about 10 days ago. We are now back down to one swan, hopefully she can find another partner before the breeding season.

I woke up this morning and found the farm had a power cut, a neighbor then rang to say they had seen a bright flash on the reserve. I went to investigate and sure enough I found Charles II below the power lines and unfortunately he was dead.

I have been in touch with Northern Powergrid to see if we can get bird scarers fitted to the lines. This is my second attempt to get them fitted , so hopefully, I am more successful this time.

Such a shame he was a beautiful bird.

I have found an interesting spot on the reserve or it seems to be interesting for quite a range of our wildlife. This was filmed over a day and night during the last week.

The interesting thing about this 24 hour period is that the Badgers and Rabbit family seem to be using the same hole in the ground, i didn’t know this was possible!

This is also the first time I’ve found evidence of a badger set on the reserve, so hopefully it will become an established set.

Britains smallest bird, weighing about the same as a 20p coin, and a real pain to try and photograph as it never stays still for more than a second!

But one was a little more obliging on the reserve this week and I managed to get a couple of snaps.

As you can see from its shiny little leg ring it is one we have caught recently during our bird ringing sessions. We seem to have a decent population of the little charmers.

The sad death of Charlie (our male swan) left Camilla on her lonesome, and she was leaving the reserve in the mornings and coming back later in the day. It transpires that there was method in her madness as she has brought back a new male.

They have been spending the last four days together on Dunces Corner Pond, including feeding together.

He appears to be a relatively small male which makes me think he may be a fairly young one. This may mean they will not breed this coming spring, but you never know we may here the pitter patter of tiny webbed feet in June!!

Just a quick roundup of the comings and goings on the reserve in 2025

We had 145 volunteer visits

We had 305 visitors

We had 17 school visits (approximately 275 students)

We had 100 beavers/ cubs/ scouts/ rainbows visit

We had 35 bird ringer visits

We had 33 Bee keeper visits

We had 35 Moth group visits

We had 4 mental health trust visits

We had 7 Duke of Edinburgh participant visits

We had 3 KEVI experience students over 4 days

We had 15 mental health visits

We had 6 visits from Skill Mill ( organisation that rehabilitates young offenders)

I did 4 external talks to local wildlife groups

We also had a very successful inaugural open day.

So another fun filled year that kept me out of mischief (mostly!)

The reserve always looks good with a coating of snow (in my opinion).

All at Clarks Bog wish a happy and healthy 2026 to all past and future support.

I thought I’d share a few pictures/video of recent (December 2025) visitors to the bog as a welcome to 2026

We wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year.

Many thanks to everyone that has helped and supported Clark’s Bog Nature Reserve over 2025, your support is very much appreciated.

We have several victims of storm Arwen still prominent in the woods. We have trees almost horizontal yet still living so I thought I would try to see if I could do something about it.

So using some old vehicle straps, a reel of seatbelt material and my 4×4 buggy I had a go.

So using other trees as a pivot we set things up as below:-

Then I gave it a tug with the buggy:-

I was pleasantly surprised how well it worked and I now have an upright oak, hopefully, it will re root properly over time. I was pretty impressed how strong the seatbelt material was.

I arrived on the reserve this morning to see the very sad sight of a dead swan on the large pond. Charlie past away overnight, so now we have a queen without a king. Camilla is a lonely sight circling the pond.

It’s a bit of a mystery what took Charlie as there are no external signs of a problem. I am hoping it is not avian flu. I have informed DEFRA and they may or may not come to collect Charlie to check (I suspect they will not if its just a single death).

So having bred so successfully this year with 8 cygnets we may have none this coming spring. Hopefully Camilla can find a new King quickly.