Working late and treated to an amazing view of bats feeding over the winterbourne stream just after midnight through the winterbourne stream cam. The bats fly back and forth, twisting and turning coming in and out of view. There are many night flying insects over water and the stream providing a useful flightpath and a [...]
In the autumn last year, adult common eels migrated down the river Ouse and other Sussex rivers to the sea. Their return to the sea was the first stage of a very long migration when thousands of common eels swim to the Sargasso Sea where they are believed to breed. The adult eels live in [...]
As discussed in previous posts, winter flooding is a natural part of the ecosystem on the nature reserve. But I had always thought of the reserve flooding in the winter and water levels returning to normal in spring and summer. One thing that the cameras have allowed us to observe this year is just how much the [...]
The Winterbourne stream flow through the north end of the nature reserve and is an important part of the patchwork of interconnecting habitats. In the summer the winterbourne is a slow meandering stream. In the winter months, a much larger volume of water flows along the winterbourne only flows in winter which normally flows direct [...]
The nature reserve has now settled into autumn and I took a walk around the reserve to see how some of the areas not covered by the webcams had been changing. Many of the trees have now shed their leaves and changed colour but why? Well, they do this to conserve water and energy during the winter. [...]
