The Hide , Friday 25th September 2025

Hello and at last welcome back to the Hide . As September comes to an end , i can definitely tell the seasons are changing. Gone are the warm tee shirt wearing days of summer and once again it’s back to jumpers and woolly hats. Despite the rather lovely blue sky today the temperature only managed to register 8 c today here at the hide.

In the news , conservationists have reintroduced water voles into a river for the first time in more than 20 years.  Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust said they had returned 100 water voles to a stretch of the Upper River Lea, on the Ayot Estate, near Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire.  The project, also supported by volunteers, the estate, and Verulam Angling Club, aims to reverse a dramatic decline in the mammal.  Josh Kalms, water vole conservation officer at the trust, said: “These animals are vital to healthy wetlands – their burrowing and grazing helps maintain riverbanks and improve biodiversity.” Read more by clicking here ( from the BBC )

Also finding a new home , a pair of beavers who were introduced to a nature reserve in February are said to be settling in well and starting to make an impact. The Eurasian beavers were released into an enclosure at the Old River Bed in Shrewsbury as an experiment, partly to help naturally manage an area of wetland. Tom Freeland, from the Shropshire Wildlife Trust, said there was evidence of them felling and stripping trees and digging new channels. In the coming months he said he expected to see more evidence of them changing the landscape.

The Old River Bed is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and Shropshire Council had been keen to see if the beavers could control the growth of willow scrub which had been drying out the area. Mr Freeland it had been hard to watch the beavers during the spring and summer because the amount of foliage in the area, but he expected that to become easier in the autumn and winter. He also said that because food had been easy to come by in the summer, they had not needed to start strip bark off trees much. Read more by clicking here ( from the BBC )

Anyway time for today’s feathered and furry visitors and to keep the theme running , we have a new regular visitor to the hide , a rather splendid male Sparrowhawk. He has been hanging out around the ponds , today spending almost half an hour chilling out , much to the annoyance of all the other birds and small mammals.

Which leads me on to the furry visitors rather nicely , a couple of Rabbits , a small herd of female Roe deer , the Rat pack and just a fleeting visit from a solo Grey Squirrel. Then flipping back to the feathers we have all the usual suspects including European Robins , Blue tits , Great tits , Dunnocks , Chaffinch and the Blackbird family. Completing the list we have the Greater Spotted Woodpecker , a couple of Wood Pigeon’s , the Goldfinch , a pair of Blackcaps and a Song Thrush.

Until next time keep safe and keep it wild !

There’s lots more information about my local patch wildlife , click here for more details.