The League’s wildlife reserves in August

The warm and dry weather on the League Against Cruel Sports wildlife reserves continues, but there is the feeling that summer is coming to a close and autumn is beginning to take hold.

The days are getting shorter and leaves on trees that have become stressed during the dry summer months have started turning various shades of gold and red, and even prematurely falling. Blackthorn bushes are laden with sloes, hawthorns are heavy with haws, and brambles are burdened with blackberries, giving birds an early feeding bonanza. Foxes are adept at delicately picking low-hanging blackberries and red deer are also known to wade into the brambles to gorge on the succulent fruit.

It is the time of year when red deer stags start returning to the Baronsdown and Cove Down wildlife reserves to check out the female deer. The stags have spent the summer living in male-only groups, growing their new antlers and piling on the pounds. Now they are returning and doing some final toning before the forthcoming breeding season.

It is also the time of year when summer migrant birds start to leave and head off to warmer climes. Flocks of small warblers, such as chiffchaff and willow warblers, search diligently through the trees and shrubs on the wildlife reserves looking for insects, while overhead swallows and house martin hoover up flying prey to fuel their flight south. It is incredible to think that these tiny creatures will soon be flying thousands of miles, across seas and deserts, before returning next year.

The first group of white storks released from the rewilding project at Cove Down, that incorporates one of the League’s wildlife reserves, have been touring the Westcountry checking out their surroundings, and individuals have been seen as far apart as the Exe estuary and the Somerset Levels. Hopefully, they will soon join other groups of storks heading south and they will come back to the project in a few years’ time to breed.