While sitting quietly in the woods this pair came wandering past, they came up to within 6 metres before they saw me and trotted off. I always find it an uplifting experience when you see these animals up close.

As you can see the buck has recently grown his new set of antlers (the old ones he shed in November) and they are still covered with velvet. This he will rub off over the next few weeks.

A little bit of sun and warmth and our frogs and toads have been out and about and producing spawn.

This large female toad has two males hanging on for dear life. She was sitting on the path near a pond, good job I was on foot rather than in my buggy or there would have been three flat toads!

There seems to be a fair batch of frog spawn on Woggle water pond, so I will be doing the same as last year, and putting a batch in my aquarium. We will release the froglets, when they appear, back into the same pond.

I spotted this little (or not so little, about 2cm long) chap sunning itself in the pond. It is a Greater Water Boatman.

I thought I’d share a few pictures, taken over the last few days, of our feathered visitors (and residents).

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