Another beautiful warm sunny early spring day, so we set out to do the entire circuit starting with walking the length of the Commons stream looking for any signs of otter activity. After overcoming the disappointment by the amount of rubbish in the water so soon after our recent litter pick, we quickly cheered up by discovering lots of recent evidence of the otter(s?) using the waterway after finding a variety of spraints under every footbridge. We were assisted by two young boys, George and Tom who showed great interest in what we were doing and proved to have just the right amount of agility to be able to clamber under the bridges to bring out handfuls of otter spraints! They promised to meet us again next week to help with the survey. They were also interested in helping with the next litter pick!!At Holyland Wood, we were immediately struck by the new signs that have been put in place recently - they look great. However, the first people we met along the boardwalk was a very polite family with a dog off the lead and two young children on bicycles! What do you do? Maybe exceptions can be made?
We also noted the variety of new bird boxes that had been attached to a number of trees. Let's hope they are soon attracting the birds and not the vandals.
Yellow flowers predominate at present with carpets of lesser celandines and marsh marigolds appearing in the standing water.
There are signs of housekeeping taking place at the badger sett with old bedding being dragged out and left on top of the spoil heap outside one of the entrances to the sett.
The birds were mostly conspicuous by their absence although there was lots of birdsong in the air.
At the main millpond, a coot was bravely sitting on its nest very close to the bank. I hope it's not disturbed by people passing by. We also saw otter spraints on the steps nearest Barnards Tower and those near MorgansWay.
Added by JARC
No comments:
Post a Comment