Apologies that it's been a while since my last post; I've been away enjoying myself on the lovely Greek island of Leros and searching hard for the limited range of bird species that live there at this time of year!
On arriving back, its great to see the new warden Alan Kett has started, and we warmly welcome Alan to our small team here at The Lodge. We wish him every success in his career here. Alan has worked at RSPB Lakenheath and Dungeness in recent years, so has experience on varied habitats and wildlife.
On to the wildlife; In these hot, dry conditions, birdlife is generally pretty quiet at the moment. The hobbies are still hunting over the new heath, but we have not seen any evidence of fledging young as yet. They have moved away from the tree where we could observe them so well last year, but we hope we can still run the popular hobby watches again over July and into August.
The first spotted flycatcher nest was predated, probably by corvids, although at least one bird was foraging around the Gatehouse gardens today, so there's every chance they have, or will attempt a second brood.There are plenty of young tits around, as photographed nicely by Robin Gilmore.
A juvenile cuckoo was seen on the new heath- which is always good news, as we know they have been successful for another year.
Butterflies are doing well in the dry heat and volunteer Terry Murfitt has reported marbled whites in good numbers, Purple hairstreaks in the top of oaks in visitor car park with others on site - small heath, meadow brown, red admiral, large skipper, ringlet, specked wood, green-veined white, large white and small tortoiseshell's.
A large adult grass snake has been seen regularly along the paths, and both natterjack and common toads are doing well, with several common toads seen yesterday. Beth was in her office yesterday and heard some scuffling around outside, and was amazed to see a badger disapearing into the undergrowth- this was in the afternoon!
I'll finish for now with a couple more pictures from Rob.