It really looks like a proper autumn day today, with sunlight dappling through the golden yellow trees. It's remarkably mild as well, but that looks set to change in coming days.
The Tuesday walkers were lucky to see a roosting tawny owl along the path from the garden down the slope to the old heath yesterday. Ray Piercy even managed to get this photo of the owl looking sleepily down on the group.
A few redpolls and bramblings have been around this week, we had a report of a single crossbill at HQ ( a very poor year for this species ), the ravens have been active around the reserve and our warden Lizzie was lucky enough to see two waxwings flying over the new heath, although sadly they kept going! With some large numbers of waxwings in the North East and West, we should start to see flocks of them in the south before too long. I was lucky to see over 50 outside the Northumbria Police offices in Ashington last week!
An unusual sighting for The Lodge were two Bewick's swans, again flying over and calling, but more regular were the jay's keeping busy foraging for acorns and other nuts.
Image credit; Ray Piercy