March 2026

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The Common Buzzard. At over 0.5m in height and with their bright yellow feet they are a glorious sight. They live off small mammals, birds and carrion. This one is perched outside the Owl Box which currently hosts a family of Wood Pigeons.

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This Buzzard can clearly hear or smell (or both) something of interest inside the box but is unable to get itself into a suitable position to access the nest. You might think that this meant that nest of Woodpigeons are safe. They are not…

The Nature Camera positioned outside the Owl Box has recorded 100+ videos every day of the Wood Pigeons coming and going since February, when they moved in (ousting the Grey Squirrels and Tawny Owls who had been battling for ownership during the winter, see blogs for December 25 and January 26).

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Whilst not the most interesting of creatures I had grown fond of watching the Wood Pigeons go about their daily business.

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Imagine my surprise then when two Mandarin Ducks suddenly appeared. The male is the more vividly coloured one. Mandarins have 84 chromosomes, compared to 80 for most other ducks. This means they can’t inter-breed. Ducks usually nest in holes in trees and I assumed – wrongly as it turned out - that these two were scouting for a potential new home.

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Late one night, the female Mandarin suddenly appeared at the entrance to the box.

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Precisely 1 minute later the Wood Pigeon appeared at the entrance. Staking its ownership claim.  

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4 minutes later there is clearly some sort of tussle going on inside the box. It’ hard to determine who is the victor.

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A few minutes later the Mandarin duck appears, this time with an egg in its mouth, stolen from the defeated Wood Pigeon.

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And if that wasn’t enough, the following day a Jackdaw senses prey in the box. All kudos to the pigeon for standing his ground

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However life is never trouble free. A few days later the Grey Squirrels, who had been absent for months, suddenly return.

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As a final affront, these two Great Tits appeared. I think we need more Owl Boxes (these were made by the local scouts. I have a new task for them!)

We have two badger setts on site and I have cameras positioned around both of them. However this month I thought I would share just two badger videos:

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  Here are two young badgers being boisterous.

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Here is a badger gathering up the bedding it had ejected from its burrow the previous night. I have nights like that too where my duvet is just too hot I have to throw it off only to regret it shortly after.

Here are the new scrapes we have installed in Mans Brook.  ‘Scrapes’ are basically seasonal ponds, they will fill in spring and autumn but run dry in the summer. They provide the perfect habitat for amphibians.

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Lots of amphibian activity has been occurring.

Toad spawn is very different from frog spawn. It comes in strings rather than clumps.

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An indication of just how much frog-mating has been occurring is shown by this absolute mountain of frog spawn.

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Unfortunately, crayfish like to eat frog and toad spawn. However, we now have EA licenses for baited traps. This means we can capture and cull the invasive Louisianna White River Crayfish. Over a 14-day period in March, I dispatched 104 specimens (May seem like a lot, but I suspect there are 10,000+ present!)

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After deathly silence from the hives over the winter, I feared my two colonies had died. But the moment the temperature rose above 10 deg C (March 2^nd), the hives burst into life.

The wild garlic is in full bloom (and in 2 weeks we will be at ‘peak’ bluebell – if you are local please feel free to wander through Mount Wood, it will be spectacular). Following advice from an enthusiastic friend (one of the teachers at The Gatwick School, TGS), I harvested a big bag and spent a fun afternoon testing my culinary skills…

My Garlic Butter. May have got the ratios slightly wrong, as it tasted a little like Compost Butter. Looked good, though.

Wild Garlic and Walnut Pesto: Very tasty and easy to make. However, I had a large portion with some pasta one evening before I went to bed, and I swear it was mildly hallucinogenic (Google says no).

LACTO-FERMENTED WILD GARLIC: This was an experiment, recommended by my new TGS teacher friend (who I think might be trying to kill me). He swore this was the best way to eat wild garlic. You basically massage the garlic in a brine solution, then leave it to ferment until it tastes ‘slightly fizzy yet still retains a good amount of crunch’. After a week my effort was luminously green, growing hairs and smelt like the bowels of hell. I threw it away.

The wild garlic is in full bloom.

In 2 weeks, we will be at peak bluebell. Feel free to wander through Mount Wood if you are local.

And a few last items for anyone who has made it to the end of this slightly longer than usual blog:

Corporate days: If you are part of a corporate/business and fancy holding a team build event at Aspect please let me know. We have plenty of excellent tasks. For example building brash fences around the quicksand-like bogs in Prestwood Copse (to make them child friendly). This is a great task for a motivated, high performing team (with the added benefit that the office pariah could easily get ‘lost’ in the bog…)

Beaver release: My friends at the EA have suggested we apply for a Beaver release license. Will need to mobilise support from neighbouring landowners but watch this space.

See you next month!

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