A walk in Roudsea Woods

I had an interesting day out on Friday; I went to Roudsea Wood and Mosses, a National Nature Reserve.  I saw a few birds I hadn’t seen this year, in particular Spotted Flycatchers and Marsh Tits.  I was please as numbers of both these species are declining. I also saw a very busy shrew, some juvenile lizards, a juvenile slow worm and a female raft spider. The shrew was under a piece of tin doubtless put down for the purpose of attracting reptiles, it was sharing this shelter with the juvenile slow worm (juveniles are a lovely bronze colour).  The female raft spider was sunning itself on a boardwalk leading out on to the Mosses or raised bogs.  She was not a particularly big specimen (raft spiders are the biggest UK spider) but she was hugely pregnant.  No doubt she would shortly be finding a suitable grassy nest to hatch the young which she will protect for the first few days of their lives.  The young lizards were also sunning themselves on the boardwalk, a dangerous pastime given the proximity of the raft spider, she or her cousins would be capable of taking the still small lizards as prey.