I recently offered the reserve classroom to our local Collingwood School and Media  Arts College. In these troubled times it seemed the right thing to do when schools are in need of additional classroom space.

Collingwood is designated to meet the needs of students aged 2-19 yrs. with speech, language and communication difficulties, autism and behaviour and emotional disorders.

I met with the Headteacher Gillian Linkleter, and two of her colleagues, and showed them the classroom and reserve. Gillian was very enthusiastic about the classroom and the reserve itself and thought it would be a perfect fit for the school and its pupils.

We have subsequently signed off a memorandum of understanding with the school which allows for the school to use the classroom and reserve for the next academic year (38 weeks), beginning in September. We agreed to half class sizes, which is 6-8 pupils.

I look forward to working with the school and its pupils and hopefully a mutually beneficial outcome.

There’s lots going on at the reserve, here’s a few pics taken over the last month.

Our Moorhens have been busy and they now have some extra mouths to feed. Of the original seven chicks, five have survived and are doing well. Now we have a second brood of five chicks.

The Moorhen is unusual in that the first brood of chicks help feed and raise the second brood, Here are some pictures that demonstrate this:-

First brood and second brood together.

A few deer pics from the last few days including the mother with a single fawn. The young twins are progressing well.

One of the mothers two bucks from last year turned up today to say hello.

This bold Hedgehog was strolling up the main path at 4pm in the afternoon, they must have been hungry!

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.