Spring has arrived on the League Against Cruel Sports’ wildlife reserve and with it comes new hope for the future
Posted 21st April 2026
The vibrant green hues that dominate my view across the League Against Cruel Sport’s Baronsdown wildlife reserve bring new hope for the year to come.
The colour green is known for its calming, healing and restorative effects, and despite everything that is going on in the world, it is difficult not to be optimistic that good things are on the horizon.
The green is broken up by patches of pale-yellow primroses that proliferate on the woodland edges, while deeper in the woods the first bluebells nod knowingly in the breeze as if in general agreement.
Pied Flycatchers have returned to the temperate oak rainforests on the wildlife reserves after spending the winter in West Africa. Some of the returning birds will have made the remarkable journey multiple times and they will soon be making good use of the nest boxes we have supplied for them. Willow warblers have also returned from Sub-Saharan Africa, and we can expect to hear the doleful sound of cuckoos any day now.
Badger cubs and fox cubs are making their first tentative forays outside their underground homes to explore their new surroundings. While they remain on the wildlife reserves they are safe, but, unlike their urban cousins, they need to be wary and secretive if they are going to survive past their first year. We have also welcomed a second pine marten onto land protected by the League, one of the nine released onto Exmoor last year.
The League’s wildlife reserves provide safe havens for wildlife in an increasingly hostile world, and it isn’t just hunted and persecuted animals that benefit. All our work is only made possible thanks to generous donations from our supporters.
