Over the last week we have been doing a little project to determine what happens with our tree sparrow population throughout the year.

To this end we have been ringing the young Tree Sparrows in the nest box.

This may look a bit disruptive to the new chicks but they are only out the nest for a couple of minutes and the parents are straight back looking after them once returned to the nest.

The pictures below show a newly fledged youngster showing their sparkly new ring.

We will now monitor over time and see if they remain at Clarks bog or spread out into the local area.

They produced 3 signets last year and this year they have gone 2 better and have 5 healthy looking youngsters.

The youngsters were hatching last week, Camilla was sitting on seven eggs of which 5 hatched.

Proud looking parents.

Bottoms up!

Feeding the youngsters with some tasty pondweed.

My first dragonfly of the season arrived today. A very fresh looking Broad Bodied Chaser (female) was sunning herself in the reed bed.

No males spotted yet but they shouldn’t be too long in appearing I hope.

Our royal couple have finally unveiled the youngsters.

Yes Charles and Camilla have shown what they have been working on for weeks.

It looks like there are at least a couple of unhatched eggs so maybe there will be new additions tomorrow!

Hopefully I will catch there maiden swim over the next few days.

Here are a few pictures of what has arrived/appeared on the reserve over the last couple of weeks:-

So plenty happening at the moment!

Our mummy deer is almost ready to produce, not being a deer maternity specialist, I’m guessing in the next couple of weeks. She looks quite large so I’m putting my money on twins!

Watch this space!!

A bit of a distressing watch this bit of video. It is a mature Roe buck caught on camera last week with what appears to be a serious leg issue, maybe broken or dislocated. Apart from this problem it appears to be in good condition and still able to move around.

I have not seen or heard of a dead buck been found in the vicinity so I’m hoping it managed to survive. The video was taken 10 days ago at the entrance to the reserve.

I have not seen a Hedgehog on site for about 2 years but thankfully we had this little visitor caught on camera:-

While watching our resident Doe and current youngster this morning our triplets from two years ago turned up. So I had the mother and her four young bucks with her, such a nice sight to see. Glad to see they are all looking so fit and healthy.

Thanks to Johns drone we were able to peak into Charles and Camilla’s nest (our Mute swan pair). She has delivered 4 eggs (so far).

The way the nest is located you cannot see into the nest normally. We chose a time where they were both off the nest so there was no disturbance to them.