There was a noticeable change in the amount of 'new' birds around The Lodge today and during the week. Around the feeders at The Gatehouse, greenfinch numbers have built up, a female brambling has shown at times, and a few reed buntings and yellowhammers were in a mixed flock along the low birches on the edge of the car park, near the Sandy Ridge field today. On Thursday a red kite appeared on Sandy heath and a raven swooped low over the new natterjack ponds at the bottom of Galley Hill.
Lizzie our warden did her monthly survey on Sandy Heath today. This is the land we manage opposite the reserve where we have planted seed crops, and after a quiet period, flocks are slowly starting to arrive here now as well. Several brambling, linnet, reed bunting and c15 redpolls were amongst the more common finches, and seven grey partridge were seen here as well
Many people were entertained by a stoat running around outside the hide on Tuesday, it's been a good year for sightings of these creatures around the visitor areas.
Earlier in the year they're were several reports of a golden oriole in the Potton area, and we then heard of an unusually bright coloured green woodpecker, which may have explained these reports. After a lot of hard effort, Ray Piercy has managed to get a couple of pictures of the bird, and another of a 'standard' green woodpecker for comparison.