And then on the reserve, ah the mud, the water, the back to wearing wellie boots that torture my arthritic feet - is it really May, is it not January? Did I really write posts in March of my laying sunbathing on the patio with glasses of chilled white wine, surely that was last year?
Walking round the reserve today one thing was obviously apparent, apart from the fact that Spring/Summer it ain't, was the fact that all the scrapes and rills that we dug last summer are now full of water, something that never happened once during the winter. Likewise, the wide fleet that we know as the "S Bend Ditch", now has water in it along it's whole length and most ditches have water levels that you would expect at this time of the year. A week or so ago I laughed as I took the photo above of the swan at nest on the reserve because of how high it had built its nest above the water level, today the water was only a foot short of the top of the nest, wildlife always knows best.
Vegetation is also growing like mad and walking through it at the moment is a very damp affair. The long grass along the seawall hangs wet and sodden for 24 hours a day and any Meadow Pipit, Reed Bunting or Skylark that has nested in it must be finding that it's nest, eggs or chicks are a wet and cold affair. Water-wise, the reserve looks just about perfect but how a few days of warming sunshine could make it even better.
In my garden this year things have prospered though, so far I have had a Great Tit and Blue Tit nest in two nest boxes, a Robin has nested in the old china tea pot I stuck in the hedge, and a Blackbird and a Dunnock have also nested in the hedge. At long last as well, a pair of House Sparrows have also begun nesting in the Sparrow terrace nest box - things are good at home.
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