Visitors Galore!

Wednesday, May 10th 2017

Today was a very busy day. It dawned bright and sunny; perfect for lots of visitors to enjoy Foxglove at its best. First to arrive were the usual Wednesday morning moth group who came to identify the moths we had caught in the trap overnight. A particularly nice specimen this week was this Streamer, with its pinkish tinged wings.

Next to arrive were a small group from Richmond Day Service. They enjoyed some pond dipping with Stacey and caught a variety of minibeasts. Particular favourites were the Caddis fly larvae who cleverly camouflage themselves by building a home of sticks and leaves around them. Then came North Cowton Women’s Institute, who were taken on a guided walk around the reserve with Roger.

After lunch, yet another group arrived. This time, the Yoredale Natural History Society who came to see what plants and wildlife could be found around the reserve with Jennifer.

There were also lots of self-guided visitors!

We are pleased to find that a Moorhen has started building a nest on the new floating log island that was installed in the lake last summer when television celebrity Tony Robinson visited the reserve - one of our volunteers, Glennis, caught her sitting!

Nest box checks also continued around the reserve. At this time of year every nest box is checked to see what is using it and any chicks of the right age are ringed by our licensed bird ringers. Many of the chicks are still very small. These great tit chicks will need to wait a couple more days for their rings as they are still too small and the ring would fall off.

It is possible to see the yellow and grey feathers just starting to develop on these birds. Suprisingly, there are actually seven chicks squashed into this nest. At present they do not look particularly attractive, but they will soon become much fluffier and start to look much better!

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