Trail cams are a brilliant way of unobtrusively monitoring wildlife on our reserves. It’s a great chance to see the activities of animals after dark, too. Our trail cam at Foxburrow nature reserve has been spotting deer, hare, badgers, foxes and even a shy woodcock. 

A surprising amount of time and effort from our amazing volunteers and staff each year goes into maintaining fences and gates on our nature reserves. This week, Ella Broom and Rachel Norman have captured our team at Snape Marshes grappling with fence posts, gates and an enormous mallet. They seem to be having fun though, which is very important! Well done team! 

Assistant Warden, Rachel, spotted an amazing 30 curlew on the scape at Snape. She also recorded six snipe, lots of redshank, two singing skylarks, two Egyptian geese, two swans and lots of meadow pipits. It’s heartening to see a diverse range of wildlife finding good food resources here. 

At this time of year, when the trees are still dormant, it’s time to coppice our ancient woodlands. Alex, Cormac, Anneke and our volunteers have been busy cutting small parcels (or coupes) of woodland. The cycle of coppicing (about every 20-30 years here at Bradfield Woods) rejuvenates the woodland flora by allowing light and warmth to reach the woodland floor in spring, enabling woodland plants to flower. This is extremely important for both the woodland flora as well as the associated insects – such as butterflies and moths - that feed from them. 

We use some of the coppiced wood for traditional woodland products such as stakes, hazel poles, bean poles, straight hazel rods and ash poles. 

Also in the woods, we’ve been busy clearing out an ancient pond and clearing the sides to let much-needed light in. It looks rather drastic now, but in a few months' time, it will be teaming with wildlife. 

The sight of spring flowers always gladdens the heart, and snowdrops have been popping up across many of our reserves this week. Early spring flowers are vital food sources for insects at a time when pollen and nectar sources are scarce. 

The first photo show the snowdrops in one of the orchards at Martins’ Meadows reserve. Snowdrops are not native to Suffolk but are widely naturalised, especially in traditional orchards. 

Jessica Ratcliff, Carl Ansell, AONB staff and volunteers have been clearing invasive rhododendrons from Captain’s Wood. This non-native species can proliferate in our woodlands, crowding out ground flora and choking growth. The cleared trees and brash were removed with a winch and small tractor and the stumps treated to limit / prevent regrowth. The brash is then stacked in piles to be chipped.  

Warden Gavin Durrant says, “It’s great when tagged marsh harriers are recorded again after a period of absence. This male (orange tag AX) was tagged at Somerleyton in 2018, and this is only the second time that it has been seen since. It came into roost at Whitecast marsh.” Let’s hope that it stays and that we see it again. 

This week’s reserve news ends with a lovely shot of Carlton Marshes at sunset by Matt Gooch. He says, “There’s nothing better than seeing the light out in the middle of Carlton Marshes nature reserve.”