Print pageSeasonal highlights
Each season brings a different experience at our nature reserves. In spring, the air is filled with birdsong as they compete to establish territories and attract a mate. In summer, look out for young birds making their first venture into the outside world. Autumn brings large movements of migrating birds - some heading south to a warmer climate, others seeking refuge in the UK from the cold Arctic winter. In winter, look out for large flocks of birds gathering to feed, or flying at dusk to form large roosts to keep warm.
Spring
Golden plovers and native greylag geese arrive on roadside fields from March to July, being joined by dunlins in May and June. From April/May greenshanks, common sandpipers, dippers and teals can be seen along the river with wheatears, stonechats, cuckoos and, if you are lucky, short-eared owls, merlins or hen harriers hunting along the roadsides.
The weekly guided walks in May offer the opportunity to see or hear greenshanks, dunlins, golden plovers and curlews amongst the pools on the bogs. The Dubh Lochan Trail also offers the opportunity to see carnivorous plants such as sundew and butterwort and bogbean flowers in late May/early June, where cotton grass and bog asphodel also grow.
Summer
Golden plovers and dunlins fly in off the bogs to feed on the farm fields with greenshanks and common sandpipers, dippers and teals along the river banks. Wheatears, stonechats and, for the keen-eyed, hen harriers, merlins and short-eared owls hunt along the river corridor.
Sundews will be in flower, as will the magnificent bog-bean at the start of June with bog asphodel, cotton grass and heather flowering into July and August. Great diving beetles share the pools and lochans with palmate newts, damselflies and dragonflies such as black darters and northern hawkers, which emerge from June to September. Weekly bog walks may come across golden plovers, dunlins and greenshanks with broods in June/July.
Autumn
Red deer roar across the dramatic chestnut-coloured deer grass-covered bogs in September/October and on clear days, the blue skies reflected in the bog pools on the trail complement the golden bogs. Sphagnum mosses which have created this landscape are at their most colourful at this time of year with rich clarets, apple greens, browns and yellows studded with lichens and sundews.
Most waders have left the bogs by this time but young harriers and merlins may linger until the meadow pipits gather and leave. As geese can be seen heading north on migration, strange sights such as flocks of blackbirds crossing the bogs in the other direction alongside fieldfares and redwings, can be seen.
Winter
This is a good time of year to get close to wild red deer herds or have a chance to see the blue/mountain hare in its white winter coat, and in the snow you can brush up on identification of animal and bird tracks like red deer, hares and otters. In winter, only the buzzards, red grouse, ravens and hardy wardens stick out the cold and golden eagles venture closer to the road occasionally.