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.

Just locking up tonight and was very surprised by a new arrival on the large pond.

Very excited to see an adult Otter cruising around the pond, not that Charles and Camilla were too impressed, lots of hissing going on.

It was getting dark so the pictures are not the best, but here are a few more:-

I’m not sure if it is still around the pond, I have put a camera out with night vision so we will see in the morning if it is hanging around or if it was just here on a day trip!

A record today, for our bird ringing crew, with 97 birds ringed.

The day started with a glorious sunrise.

We also had a really nice mix of species with 18 different ones.

The breakdown was as follows:-

Blue Tit. 20

Coal Tit 3

Great Tit 2

Marsh Tit 2

Blackbird 4

Redwing 1

Song thrush 1

Wood Pigeon 1

Robin 3

Goldcrest 1

Bullfinch 1

Goldfinch 8

Chaffinch. 1

Wren. 2

Tree Sparrow 2

Dunnock 6

Reed Bunting 16

Siskin. 23

Worth getting up early for.

This week Northumbria Waters contractors were back on site to start work on resolving our leaky pipe problem. A large diameter pipe, carrying rainwater run off from the local industrial estate, passes under the reserve. This pipe is over 70 years old and is leaking at various joints. Our problem is it runs under our large pond at Dunces Corner. This means that the leaky joints are leaking water out but leaky water in from my pond! This was noticed last year and a repair was done, however, further leaks were found so they are back to finish the job (hopefully).

Now we await for the next set of contractors who will begin to patch the leaky joints.

Despite the digger and jackhammer noise Charles and Camilla don’t seem too bothered.