Charles and Camilla are very happy to announce the arrival of the latest bevy of youngsters.

They have produced the largest number of cygnets so far with a grand total of eight.

A very big thank you to all the people who turned out, in variable weather conditions to support our open day, We had over a hundred visitors and raised £575, exceeding all expectations.

It wouldn’t have been possible without the support and efforts of my dedicated volunteers who did a stirling job, so very big thanks in no particular order to Lynda(Sales and marketing), Augustine(Traffic control), Jill(Catering), Bryan(Traffic control), Alison(Multi tasking), Phil(Multi tasking), Brian(Moth man), Jacqui(Catering), Ron (Beekeeper), Tom(Beekeeper), David(Bird ringer), Caroline(Bird ringer), Jane(Bird ringer), and Jenny(Bird ringer). Last but not least thank you to ‘the boss’ Libby, my long suffering better half.

I hope all those that visited had an enjoyable time.

I checked up on one of our nesting pheasants and she, very obligingly had left the nest momentarily.

I checked back about 10 minutes later and she was back on the nest. The eggs look a little dirty and that’s because her chosen nest location is right in the middle of a very boggy bit of the reserve. Hopefully that makes them a little safer.

It’s a busy time for our blue tits, if you remember my bird box post, this was what was in box 64.

Well those eggs have hatched and the parents are in and out non stop:-

The warm afternoon yesterday prompted one of our hives to swarm, it’s quite an impressive sight but even more impressive sound. Here’s a small clip but do put the sound up.

The swarm collected on a nearby tree.

The swarm was collected and is now housed in its own hive.

Not far away on Dunces corner pond there was a different kind of swarm.

I’m guessing these are toad poles as I did not see any sign of frog spawn!

Looks a good crop😀

Our Moorhen chicks are now nearly 3 weeks old and growing rapidly.

It looks like we still have 4 of the original 5 chicks surviving, so fingers crossed the rest make it to adulthood.

The youngsters are now becoming independent and spending more time without the parents.

There are still four of the original five chicks surviving, so fingers crossed.

Our male pheasants are still fighting over territory and females, here is another little sequence.

We did our spring review of bird boxes and first indications are that it’s a better year for our smaller birds.

We looked in 128 boxes and of those we found:-

16 Occupied Blue tit nests

6 Occupied Great tit nests

2 Tree sparrow nests

12 unoccupied nests/starter nests

2 woodmice nests

All are welcome, if you know anyone that may be interested please lt them know.

I decided the Dunces Corner hide needed a bit of love and attention so we gave it a new lick of paint. Thanks to Rob and Phil for helping me with this.