Wilden Marsh Nature Reserve

Wilden Marsh Nature Reserve A living diary of Wilden Marsh. Wildlife, weather and the small truths revealed, written and photographed by its long time marsh warden.

Welcome to Wilden Marsh

I’m Wildenmarshmike — nature lover, photographer, and Warden of Wilden Marsh Nature Reserve (SSSI). Most days, you’ll find me out with my camera and my black Welsh Cocker Spaniel, Spike, exploring local wildlife and capturing the beauty of each season. This blog is my visual diary: moments that catch my eye as I wander. Sometimes I’ll misidentify a species — but that’s par

t of the fun and the learning. No long journeys, no elaborate setups — just me and the marsh. I hope you enjoy the journey as much as we do.

27/08/2026

WHY DO WE NEED VOLUNTEERS? WILDEN MARSH DIARY: 825 - 27th August 2026

If you look across Wilden Marsh, it can be easy to think that nature looks after itself: It doesn't.

Looking after a wetland like Wilden Marsh involves a mixture of different approaches. Contractors carry out some of the larger and more demanding jobs. A small tracked, remote-controlled flail is already being used on parts of the marsh, while larger trees can be removed or pollarded where necessary by chainsaw.

That work is important, and there's no question that having the right machinery and expertise makes a huge difference. But machinery can't do everything. There are areas where even a small flail is too harsh an approach.

Places where vegetation needs to be tackled selectively. Areas where particular plants, wet ground or other habitat features need to be worked around rather than cut down.

That's where people can make a real difference.

Working on foot with hand tools, volunteers can handle smaller, more sensitive jobs in ways that machinery simply can't.

Volunteers can see exactly what is in front of them, and have more time to decide what needs to stay and what needs to go; they work carefully around the things that matter.

And there are other important reasons why volunteers are necessary on Wilden Marsh. Contractors can undertake the jobs that require machinery and specialist skills, but volunteers can add another level of care and, just as importantly, many pairs of hands using more appropriate tools.

So this isn't about contractors or volunteers. It's about contractors and volunteers, each doing the jobs they are best suited to do.

Over the coming weeks, I'll explain a little more about why volunteer work is important, what we actually need to do on the marsh during the winter, and how those seemingly small jobs can make a real difference to the wildlife that depends upon it.

Looking after Wilden Marsh isn't just about watching what lives here. Sometimes, it's about getting your boots muddy and helping to look after the place itself.

26/08/2026

ONE DAY. ONE NIGHT. ONE PLACE.
WILDEN MARSH DIARY: 824 - 26th August 2026

One thing I have learned from running wildlife cameras around Wilden Marsh is that you can never really assume a particular part of the marsh is quiet or unused. Move a camera to a different location, and it tells a similar story.

Foxes pass through. Badgers appear in the darkness. Deer pick their way across the vegetation. Otters follow the river and its margins. Birds come and go, sometimes stopping for only a few moments, sometimes returning again and again.

Some of these places can look almost lifeless when we walk past them, but the cameras tell us otherwise.

Paths that we might barely notice are being used regularly. Gaps in the vegetation become routes. The edges of pools, ditches and hedgerows all have their visitors. Even seemingly insignificant corners of the marsh can be important to something, and that is perhaps one of the most fascinating things about Wilden Marsh.

The animals don't see the marsh in the same way we do.

What looks to us like an empty patch of grass, a muddy margin or an overgrown corner can be part of a much larger network of routes and feeding areas.

No matter where I place the cameras, they keep revealing the same thing:

The whole marsh is alive, and every part of it is being used.

We just don't always see it.

This video is a good example of the other side of the story.

I've turned the volume up as far as it will go, so listen carefully.

It's so quiet.

THE WINTER WORK PARTIES ARE COMINGWILDEN MARSH DIARY: 823 – 24th August 2026As summer draws to a close, I’m thinking abo...
24/08/2026

THE WINTER WORK PARTIES ARE COMING
WILDEN MARSH DIARY: 823 – 24th August 2026

As summer draws to a close, I’m thinking about the winter ahead and the practical Marsh conservation work that needs to be done.

I’m hoping to start this year’s winter work parties at the end of September.

But there is one important question first: Will enough people be willing to volunteer?

Work parties are a simple way of doing something practical for Wilden Marsh.

A few hours outside, some hard work, a bit of mud and the satisfaction of knowing that you’ve helped look after somewhere that matters.

You don’t need to be an expert naturalist. You don’t need any special knowledge of the Marsh. You need to be willing to turn up and get stuck in, and I will provide the necessary tools.

If you would like to join our winter work parties, one each month, please message me.

I’ll be saying more about the work we hope to do and how the work parties will operate over the next few weeks, but for now, I’m putting out the first call: Would you be interested in joining a Wilden Marsh work party this winter?

If enough people are willing to volunteer, we’ll get started at the end of September.

23/08/2026

How Green was my Valley?
WILDEN MARSH DIARY: 822 - 23rd August 2026

Fortunately, there are still many damp green and shaded areas where Wilden Marsh animals can forage.

22/08/2026

THE EARLY BIRD CATCHES THE WORM
WILDEN MARSH DIARY: 821 – 22nd August 2026

There is a reason the old saying is the early bird catches the worm.

Out on Wilden Marsh, getting there early can mean seeing something that most people will never see.

This heron was at Otter Holt Pond early in the morning, slowly working the margins of the water.

There is nothing hurried about a heron.

It walks slowly. Stops. Watches.

Then it becomes almost completely still.

That is when things get interesting.

A heron can stand motionless for what seems like an eternity, its long neck folded back, its eyes fixed on the water. Beneath the surface, something may be moving. A frog. A small fish. Perhaps something else.

The heron is waiting.

And waiting.

Because when the opportunity comes, there won't be much warning.

That long neck suddenly shoots forward, and the dagger-like bill becomes a spear.

It is one of the most remarkable hunting techniques on the Marsh, and one that depends on patience rather than speed.

Watching this bird reminded me that wildlife doesn't always provide instant action.

Sometimes the excitement is in knowing that something could happen at any moment.

And that is why the early bird gets the best seat in the house.

19/08/2026

A Place to Grow
WILDEN MARSH DIARY: 820 – 20th August 2026

The baked hard South Pool has become a nursery.

Not the sort you might expect to find on a marsh, but one where the children arrive already knowing how to feed themselves.

These young pheasants are growing fast.

They spend their days moving through the vegetation, scratching, pecking and investigating anything that looks remotely edible. There is very little apparent organisation to it. One wanders off, another catches up, two stop to feed while the rest carry on.

And somewhere nearby, almost certainly, their mother is keeping a watchful eye on the whole unruly brood.

Pheasant chicks are remarkably well equipped for life from the moment they hatch. They can walk, feed themselves and follow their mother almost immediately.

But being equipped for life is not the same as being experienced at it.

There is still a lot to learn. They need to know where the best food is, which places offer cover. What sounds can be ignored, and which ones mean trouble.

The South Pool is an unlikely nursery this summer. The water has disappeared and much of the ground has become dry and baked hard.

Yet the vegetation around its edges is still providing exactly what these youngsters need.

For now, the South Pool belongs to them.

A place to feed, grow and gradually become the handsome birds they will eventually be.

Watching them yesterday, it was difficult not to wonder how many of these small, scruffy youngsters will still be here when autumn arrives.

Does anyone know the owners of these legs that are passing my camera?The South Pool is not the place to be walking at th...
19/08/2026

Does anyone know the owners of these legs that are passing my camera?

The South Pool is not the place to be walking at this time of year.

I walk with a five-foot-long walking pole, and yesterday I stumbled out on that dry pond. I used my stick to recover, and it broke through the crust and disappeared below the surface. Rain softens the crust, and what lies beneath is very dangerous, especially along the central drainage ditch following the tree line. Don't walk across South Pool!

There are many other dangerous areas on Wilden Marsh where similar consequences can result.

19/08/2026

LEARNING TO SURVIVE
WILDEN MARSH DIARY: 819 - 19th August 2026

It's always interesting to watch a fox that doesn't know it's being observed, especially when it acts just like any young, inexperienced fox.

This fox wanders through the dry, baked South Pool, stopping now and then to check out something in the plants before moving on. It stops, sniffs, changes direction, and keeps going, focused only on whatever catches its interest.

At one point, it stops and opens its mouth, almost as if it's yawning.

Perhaps it was.

Or maybe it was doing something much more important, and I just didn't realise it.

After all, I'm only seeing a small part of its life.

Every day, the fox has to figure out the Marsh. It needs to learn where mice might be, where rats go, which spots offer cover, and which paths are easiest to use.

It also needs to learn what to be wary of. Knowledge doesn't arrive fully formed; a young fox has to learn it.

It was born with the instincts of a fox, but instinct is not the same as experience. Experience comes from spending night after night in the same place, learning its smells, sounds, and all its little secrets.

The South Pool is part of that education, a safe training ground.

South Pool won't always look like this. Right now it's dry, and plants have taken over most of the basin that usually holds water. In other seasons, it will look very different. Water will return, the plants will change, and the paths through it will be different, too.

The fox has to adapt to all of that.

But there's something else this young fox has to learn, even if it doesn't realise it yet.

Its time here is running out.

Soon, its parents will make it clear that it's time to leave, to move on to pastures new. This place of safety, full of food, will no longer be its home.

It will have to go.

Somewhere beyond the familiar paths of the South Pool, it will need to find its own territory. It will have to find food, stay safe, and learn a new place, all without the comfort of the home it grew up in.

Everything it is learning now will suddenly become important.

Where to look.

Where to hide.

What to avoid.

When to wait.

When to move on.

As I watch it wander through the South Pool, it has no idea what the future holds.

For now, it's just exploring, sniffing, learning, and hunting.

And that's exactly how it should be.

It doesn't know that soon it will be pushed out into the wider world.

But the Marsh is already teaching it everything it needs to learn.

It just doesn't realise it yet.

18/08/2026

Six-Pointer Roe Deer
WINDEN MARSH DIARY: 819 - 18th August 2026

An injured six-pointer on Wilden Marsh.

16/08/2026

Roe Deer on Wilden Marsh
WILDEN MARSH DIARY: 818 - 16th August 2026

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