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.

Thanks to our drone enthusiast, John, we have some new views of the reserve.

Gives a real ‘Birds Eye’ view of the reserve

I sat down for lunch today and was pleasantly surprised to see this impressive character below sitting outside the hide:-

It hopped down into the reeds and sat there for about 15 minutes before being tempted by a Reed Bunting that came too close when he gave chase (ultimately unsuccessful).

Many thanks to Northumberland Scouts who helped plant 120 trees, this weekend, supplied by the Woodland Trust. They were so efficient at planting we also had time left for them to do some path maintenance as well.

The scouts are off, later this year, to a camp in Iceland. Due to the travel involved the scouts wanted to off set their carbon footprint by planting some trees.

Some of the crew below relaxing after their shift.

I had not seen a Tree Sparrow fight before and I was surprised how intense they were. These two sparrows were going ‘hammer and tongs’ for over 15 minutes!

I wasn’t aware that these birds were that aggressive to each other or maybe I just captured an unusual disagreement between rivals!

You’ll be glad to know that both birds seemed to survive intact at the end of the contest.

I got a nice surprise when I arrived at the reserve yesterday, Porters Pond was teeming with Toads.

Its that time of the year when they have come back to their pond of choice to breed.

So following all this activity I am hopeful to have a good crop of toadlets in a few weeks time!