Our RSPB community pages are having an upgrade, so we'll be a bit quiet for a while as the upgrade work takes place!
The best birds this week have come from across the road on Sandy Heath and the quarry, with stonechat, meadow pipits and little owl all seen yesterday. The flock of winter finches is building up on the seed crop here, with reed bunting numbers increasing.
We've had no further reports of waxwings or crossbills since the weekend, but siskins, redwings, fieldfares and mistle thrushes are often seen feeding around the Gatehouse and the new heath.
To leave you with a taste of late autumn at The Lodge before signing off for a few days, Rob Gilmore has sent me these great shots of the fly agaric fungi outside the Gatehouse shop.