We have been seeing some great views of waterfowl through the ditch cam and Winterbourne stream cam. There are 3 main species of water fowl that we regularly seen on the nature reserve. These are the moorhen, coot and mallard. Coots and moorhen are not ducks but belong to a group of birds known called Rails. [...]
We are seeing some great views of fish through the underwater cams. The stripy fish are 3 spine sticklebacks and they have been coming right up closed to underwater cam in the pond and also the Heart of Reeds. We have also been seeing a fish called rudd in the Heart of Reeds. These are [...]
Frogs and toads look quite similar so here are a few tips, to help you tell the differences between a common frog and a common toad. Firstly, the skin of a frog is quite smooth while toads have bumpy ‘warty’ skin. A frog’s skin also appears wet and slimy [...]
One of the big wildlife events of the year in the ponds and ditches is the arrival of common frogs, following their winter hibernation. Frogs spend most of their life on land, but when they awaken from hibernation they feed and then head off to the pond and ditches to mate. The frogs feed using [...]
Many animals awaken from hibernation in March and so as we start April many of the animals are out and about. Newts, which have hibernated away from the ponds and ditches, will now be active. They will slowly make their way back to water, but its slow progress. On land newts look like lizards, but their movements are [...]
You may have noticed through our pond cam that there are lots of tiny creatures swimming about. Most of these are tiny freshwater crustaceans called daphnia and cyclops. These tiny creatures are very important as they are food for many of the fish, newts and other animals that live in pond. As the pond water [...]
We have been seeing some exciting behaviour through ditch cam the last few days. The moorhen that live in the ditches are preparing to nest. Before this happens the males tend to squabble and chase each other around in the hope of impressing the females. You can see this in the school video library clips [...]
There has not been a lot activity on the reserve during the winter months. Why do you think this might be? Animals have different ways of coping with the severe winter weather. Some animals, especially birds, stay active during the winter and we have seen this through the bird cam. A few species of bird [...]
Even thought we have had very few days of ice and snow, many of the plants have still prepared them selves for winter. To survive the harsh conditions of winter, many of the plants on the nature reserve have died back to the ground or shed all their leaves and become dormant (resting). People are [...]
You may have noticed that we have been having a lot of activity on the bird feeder. To help you identify the birds you are seeing there is a picture below of the 4 main types of bird coming to the bird feeder, great tit, blue tit, house sparrow and great spotted woodpecker. You can [...]
