The rut has begun, our little Doe has been attracting the attention of the local amorous males:-

Well based on the evidence above I am hopeful that we will have some new youngsters next year!

It was a very good day for butterflies on the reserve today with 10 different species spotted. Also and array of other insects. Here is my little picture parade of those I spotted.

During our recent bird ringing session we captured a lovely pair of juvenile Great Spotted Woodpeckers, very likely from the same family group. They certainly made a lot of noise when caught in the same net.

The juveniles will eventually lose the red cap and the mature female will have no red on the head and the mature male will have a red patch on the back of its head.

I had a good time this morning hosting a group from mid-Northumberland U3A, the only disappointment was not a lot of wildlife was on view (drab weather didn’t help). Ironically probably less than 15 minutes after the group left this little fella made an appearance:-

A beautiful little bird.

I was out for a wander with my camera and here are a collection of pictures from my wanderings:-

We have had a busy week monitoring what is on the reserve this month.

We had the Natural history Society of Northumbria in doing a botany survey, thanks to Brenda Astley for organising this. Below is a link to the list of plants identified.

Then we had a moth survey led by Brian Harle.

Below are a few pics of some of the moths that were captured.

So we are now up to 199 species of moths identified on the reserve.

Then finally we had a bird ringing session led by David Noble-Rollin.

A very big thank you goes out to Lila, Lara and Jake for their fabulous work done on our reedbed boardwalk. The three joined me at the reserve for a weeks work experience.

The project they were given was to rejuvenate the boardwalk across the reedbed which was looking a little neglected.

So Lila, Lara and Jake gave the boardwalk a makeover. An unexpected obstacle was our swan family that interrupted work on several occasions as they passed through the work area!

But despite the interruptions the project was completed. I do have to say that Lila, Lara and Jake went above and beyond expectations. The project was not quite completed after the 5 days but they insisted on coming back to finish the project. I applaud them for that attitude, it will see them well for their futures.

My little Roe Deer mum revealed that she had actually had twins.

Just a few pictures of our new arrivals.

We have welcomed 100’s of thousands of new arrivals on site in the last 2 weeks. There are now two honey bee hives on site courtesy of Ron Smith and Tom Patterson, two local bee keepers.