I came across a family of Stoat resident in one of our wood storage piles, unfortunately I only managed to catch a couple of swift pictures/video and only an adult, I didn’t catch a picture of the youngsters but I could here them.

24 hours on from taking these picture it looks like the family have moved on, I will keep my eyes open to see if I can find where there new home is.

Our Roe Deer doe has fooled me again, just like last year, we thought she only had one fawn when it turns out she has two. Ten days after seeing the first fawn she turns up with two.

It is part of their survival strategy to hide their fawns in different places, she does it well!

The warm weather has seen the arrival of our first Dragonflies and Damsels. A welcome splash of colour around the ponds.

As usual the Broad Bodied Chaser dragonfly is first to arrive:-

Also there was an appearance by our Blue and Red Damsels adding a welcome splash of colour to the rapidly growing green vegetation:-

Nature can be cruel, I was sitting watching the bird life when a loud squeak made me look down, just in time to see the last moments of one of our field mice at the hands (or should I say teeth) of our weasel:-

Here are some of the youngsters from our bigger feathered guests on the reserve. A crow, magpie, Tree Sparrows and an update on our Moorhen chicks:-

It looks like the crow and Magpie chicks may have been blown out of their nest during the recent high winds, they were too young to fly properly. Unfortunately I found the Magpie chick dead on the ground the day after I took this photo.

The wait is over, our Roe doe has produced a fawn, born on the 23rd May:-

Mother and babe seem to be doing well.

Not the cutest bird chicks around but 7 new Moorhen chicks arrived over the last 2 days. I have not managed to get all seven together in one shot yet but Moorhen parents split the feeding duties, so they are seldom all together. I will watch their progress with interest haveing had a successful year last year with 9 chicks (in two broods) all fledging successfully.

March to May is the time for romance on the reserve, here are a few of the courting couples seen this year.

I thought I would try a bit of macro photography today and see some our smaller visitors.

The swallows arrived and dived straight into the pond, I guess they were hungry and thirsty after a very long trip to the UK.

They were back again today and brought a couple of Sand Martins to play with:-