2020

An essential job and views of Cabin Wood.  These images were taken late November early December.

 

 

 

Clearing debris out of Seldom Pond, such as leaf litter and weeds, is an essential, if cold, job.  Waders are definitely required!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Build up of debris reduces the oxygen levels in the water which is essential for our pond creatures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The debris is piled onto the boardwalk to allow any pond creatures that have been scooped up with the leaves and weeds to escape safely back into the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are some views of Cabin Wood:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(15.12.20)

 

A very wet Apple Day! Normally our apple harvest celebrations are a weekend event with a cafe, orchard walks, apple tasting and displays.  Unfortunately Covid 19 restrictions meant that we had to severely curtail our activities to merely apple and apple juice sales and just open for one day.  Our priority was to keep our volunteers and visitors safe.

 

 

What a day we picked! We had torrential rain all day.  Fortunately a marquee had been very kindly donated to us so we could at least keep ourselves and any visitors undercover and set out our sales tables.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had hand sanitisers and face coverings and organised a one way system through the marquee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite the awful weather we had a steady stream of visitors throughout the day.  Cabin Wood was also open and many took advantage of walking round the woodland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We would like to thank all our helpers and our visitors for turning such a wet day into such a success.

 

 

 

 

(12.10.20)

 

Sunny Days in July and Woodpigeons.

The July sunshine showed off Cabin Wood, 5 Acre wildflower meadow and our insects at their best:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have also been sent some lovely images of Woodpigeon at the nest, you can see an adult and chick.  Nests are sometimes just a few twigs, some so thin you can see the eggs through the bottom of the nest!  Young can fledge as late as October.  Young Woodpigeon lack the white neck patches, these develop later.

 

 

(11.8.20)

 

Our new look Cabin

 

(11.7.20)

 

Just a peep into our nest boxes

Tawny owls breed on the Reserve and just look at this adorable chick

also these Great Tit chicks nearly ready to fledge

(27.6.20)

 

Nobody told Mother Nature about the ‘Lockdown’. 

Due to Covid-19 we remain closed to visitors and volunteers, however there are essential maintenance jobs that still need doing so some very limited key personnel have been occasionally on site and have been able to record these images.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lesser Celandine is one of Britain’s earliest wildflowers to appear.  William Wordsworth even wrote a poem about it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cowslips carpet our Heritage Orchard as well as some of our woodland rides and low-lying meadows

 

 

 

 

 

Some English Bluebells are starting to make an appearance

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our recent sunshine and clear blue skies certainly show off our emerging apple blossom

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other news that you have probably already seen on our social media is that we were nominated by Arran and Will, 2 of our volunteers from Edge Hill University, for the University’s Careers Voluntary Organisation of the Year Award.  We are thrilled to say that we won!  Special mention was deservedly given to Jonathan Atkins our Reserve Manager.  Unfortunately the award ceremony had to be postponed due to Covid-19.

(18.4.20)

 

Snowdrop Sunday 16th February.  Storm Dennis was the second major storm in a week to hit our area.  We hoped the weather would change and be kind to us for our Snowdrop Sunday.  Sunshine was forecast for the afternoon but, at first, the skies showed no sign of clearing.  Then came the hailstones!  Then came the sunshine!

 

 

The water level had risen in Seldom Pond, the oak tree island was underwater

 

 

 

 

 

 

The boardwalk had submerged and had to be cordoned off to visitors

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some water had spread into the woodland

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The snowdrops were out giving a good display

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had snowdrop plants for sale as well as our delicious apple juice

 

 

 

 

 

Our visitors came prepared for changeable weather

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we did get some spells of sunshine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

which our visitors enjoyed

 

 

 

 

The cafe was really busy during the afternoon with two volunteers serving and one in the kitchen washing up!  Another manned the sales trolley and braved the hailstones – well done Arron.

Thank you to all our visitors for making the day such a success.

(17.2.20)

 

Camera trap delights.  We have been putting out some camera traps in various woodland locations to see if we can capture some of the wildlife on the Reserve.  We have not been disappointed.  Here is a small selection of some of the clips:

Redwing

A curious pheasant

Our Roe deer

Just having a yawn!

(1.2.20)