It was a superb morning when I arrived at Stover at 08.15. The sky was a sheer blue sheet and there was a slight frost and a few remnants of ice melting round the edges of the lake. A Mistle Thrush sang from the top of a conifer right in the centre of the car park. I had 45mins to kill before the centre was opened up so decided to take a walk around the lake. The dog-walkers and photographers were out in force, taking advantage of the warm sunshine.
The Buzzard had taken up his position in a tree top over-looking the marsh - lately he has been taking the Snipe from their roost out in the marsh, I'm sure this was his ideal vantage point. The weekend's new frogspawn was frozen over and not a frog was in sight. I noticed the Great Crested Grebes had come back to the lake, only three at the moment but hopefully more will arrive for them to pair up.
I stopped on the bridge over the outlet channel to look for Otter spraints. After our meeting on Sunday to conclude the Exeter Otter Survey, Anne and I have offered our services to the Devon Biodiversity Records Centre and have managed to get the park set up as an official "Operation Otter" survey site, with the two of us as its designated "Otter Spotters"! We will be undertaking surveys four times a year with the hope of getting a more detailed overview of Otter activity in the park. Sadly this morning there were no spraints to be found on the bridge, but as I was leaning over the rail a movement caught my eye - I looked up to find that a Nuthatch had landed inches from my left hand, seemingly unafraid of the passers-by. Unfortunately it was a little more alarmed by my revealing a camera from my pocket and promptly flew off. But nice to get such a close view.
I walked round to the aerial walkway and pointed out another perched Buzzard to a nearby photographer.
I continued round the lake and arrived back at the centre in time for Alex to open up the office. This morning was my first visit to Forest School, run weekly for pre-school children aged 2-4. We loaded up the trolleys and hauled them down to the school site. We spent the morning mixing mud and painting totem poles, hand- and foot-printing sheets to turn into a teepee, playing crocodiles, drinking hot chocolate and eating fire-toasted hot-cross buns, marshmallows and popcorn. Sound like fun? It was!
The mud-printed sheets drying in the sun
Alex setting up the first stakes for the teepee
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We tidied up and headed back to the centre for some lunch. Jon decided he had had enough of his computer screen for the day, and the weather was far too nice to be indoors. We decided to go out and check the park's owl boxes, ready for them to begin their egg-laying this month. We needed to get up the ladder and turf out any squirrels and there dreys to make space. A quick bang on the side of the box would reveal if anybody was home, but mostly it was just removing the old leaves from the box.
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Down by the old bird hide, one box emitted a slight scuffling as Jon climbed the ladder...a bang on the side revealed the occupant to be a Tawny Owl rather than the expected squirrel. I don't think I've ever heard Jon swear so loud as when it burst out the end and flapped away! The nest did not contain any eggs yet but she can't be far off laying, as the eggs will want to hatch in April. It will be great to come back and see the chicks getting ringed in a couple of months!
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We had a look at Sue's pond for some frogspawn - there was plenty. It then became apparent what this mornings Buzzard had been up to, perched by the aerial walkway. We found the remains of some frogs, and blobs of what looked like the unfertilized spawn that they had been carrying. Barely a few inches away was a rather large pellet containing what I assume were hundreds of frog bones. He had been busy.
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Back at the centre we had one final cup of tea and a chat before I headed home to play with Maddy, getting some very wet baby kisses and having a good old splish-splash in the bath with Macka Packa! A good end to a good day.
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