*COVID UPDATE THREAD* We know how much you are looking forward to getting back out into nature, and behind the scenes we are working hard to make our nature reserves safe and ready for our staff, visitors and wildlife.

As our teams in England have returned to work over the past week they’ve been busy re-routing paths around vulnerable nests, building passing places to aid social distancing & restarting the crucial conservation work that couldn’t take place under lockdown restrictions.

Because of their hard work, a number of nature reserves are now open. But while we initially focus on reopening, we’ve taken the difficult decision to not open any hides, toilet facilities or visitor centres for the time being.

While we know this will be disappointing & may make visiting difficult for some it’s important we focus on keeping our reserves safe for people & wildlife

A further group of reserves will reopen after the bank holiday weekend & by early June we hope most will be ready to receive visitors. But with the grass verges in our car parks potentially hiding skylark or meadow pipit chicks, please do tread carefully!

Stay safe and keep following all Government guidelines wherever you live and thank you again for your continued support & especially your patience. It means a great deal to all of us at the RSPB. The latest information will be regularly updated here: https://bit.ly/2WR7F8A