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
Listen for great spotted woodpeckers drumming on trees and the strange squealing call of the water rail. Bluebells, red campion, bugle and enchanter's nightshade can be found. The first orange tip butterflies can be seen along the woodland paths from early May.
Summer
Pied flycatchers and redstarts collect food for their young in the oak woodland. Waders - oystercatchers, lapwings and curlews - will be nesting in fields. Long-tailed tits and blackcaps search for insects in the lichens. Ringlet and purple hairstreak butterflies can be seen from June and plenty of dragonflies and damselflies hunt along the paths and marsh tracks. Pipistrelle bats roost in the hides!
Autumn
Aerobatic red kites soar in the skies above the reserve. Fieldfares will be feeding on berries and red squirrels feed on hazels by the woodland tracks. Snipe can be seen feeding on the wet meadows and the first geese will be returning from the north.
Winter
Acrobatic red kites soar in the skies above the reserve. The rare Greenland white-fronted geese can be seen from the farmland near the car park. Greenland white-fronted and greylag geese can also be viewed from the nature trail. Grey herons fish on the edge of the marsh and ducks such as teal feed on the open water. Elusive willow tits are a Ken-Dee speciality and perhaps best seen during winter.