We’ve been hard at work on the Summer issue of Nature’s Home for a few months now, but the end is in sight and it’s time to send it to the printers – an exciting moment!
First, however, we needed a get-together to go through final proofs of the magazine and make sure everyone was happy with it. So we all convened at RSPB HQ – at The Lodge in Sandy – for the occasion.
It’s always a pleasure for my Bristol-based team to visit Sandy, and on this occasion was rather apposite, because RSPB The Lodge also happens to be our featured reserve in the magazine’s new-look reserves section, which debuts in the forthcoming issue.
We've aimed to improve on the previous format by delving further behind the scenes; talking to people who work on the reserve or visit it regularly, and sifting through each reserve’s history. We hope the magazine will showcase the hard work and innovative science that goes into maintaining the RSPB’s diverse habitat sites - thus giving all sorts of nature a home.
Every visit to Sandy holds a new experience for me. With part one of the meeting out of the way, we headed out onto the reserve to enjoy spring in full flow.
We wandered amid endless crowds of nodding daffodils, spotted numerous newts that have returned to the garden ponds around the HQ building, spotted a nuthatch running up and down a leafless tree near the Memorial Garden, a dunnock flitting into the depths of a large bush, and tried to glimpse a noisily drumming woodpecker just ahead of us (sadly, an experience akin to chasing rainbows).
Among the cacophony of birdsong, Mark also picked out the distant, thin-sounding call of a skylark high above. He showed us how to listen for it. This is what you do…
Editors listening for skylarks - there’s never a dull moment in this job!
There was plenty more in store, though. Mark spotted two long-tailed tits building a nest in the undergrowth: an incredible creation knitted from spiders’ webs and moss into the shape of a hanging orb that stretches as its occupants grow. The two tits were quite close to us and we could see the structure wobbling as they both fussed and fretted over the interior decor, taking turns to inspect it.
Can you spot the nest in this photo? It was hard enough to see even when standing 15 feet away!
The moss-clad orb was tricky enough to spot amid bare boughs. When leaves grow around it, it’ll be perfectly hidden.
But it’s the reserve’s colourful insect life that takes centre stage in the coming issue of the magazine.
The Lodge sits on sandy ground, and its acres of carefully managed lowland heath, woodland and gardens are alive with interesting minibeasts. Despite it being March, our visit on Tuesday was warm and sunny, and we were lucky to see early spring bees browsing the blooming heather: including a fat, buff-tailed bumblebee queen, gorging herself in preparation for motherhood... and this busy tree bumblebee with his friends.
We watched this tree bumblebee browsing on heather blossom - of which The Lodge has plenty.
Along one of the sandy paths, we spotted the telltale burrows of a mining bee, and looking down I realised I’d almost stepped on several - a busy colony of Clarke’s mining bees was hard at work around my feet, excavating tunnels from the dry ground and moving little piles of sand around as they, too, prepare for the arrival of the next generation.
This week, the sandy ground was alive with busy little Clarke’s mining bees, Andrena clarkella
Everywhere we looked, preparations were underway to welcome imminent offspring. Nature’s nurseries come in many shapes and sizes, and some outstanding design ideas - and this is a great time of year to get out and look closely for signs that nature is in full swing, right now, right under our noses.
I hope you enjoy reading more about RSPB The Lodge when your magazine arrives next month. It’s well worth a visit if you can get to Bedfordshire.
Do login to share your experiences of the reserve in the comments section below - and if you do spot that elusive woodpecker, send us a photo!
Once I wanted to completely change the interior, but I could not fully understand how it would look for a long time. But I found a website with wooden signs for bedroom and realized that here I can place an order and they will do everything as I want.