Hummingbird at The Lodge?

It might be autumn, but you wouldn't really know it. After cool, cloudy starts, we've had some beautiful, warm, clear afternoons this week. Lots of visitors have come to enjoy a stroll around The Lodge, and there's been lots to see...

There are three brand-new moorhen chicks on the old swimming pool. They'll have hatched out amongst the watermint and other plants on the floating rafts and have been seen creeping around on the lilypads! If you're quiet and wait patiently, you might get a glimpse.

On Wednesday there was drama on the 'old' heath, when a young sparrowhawk made a dramatic stoop at a meadow pipit that had flown up from the heather. The unfortunate pipit took refuge in a birch tree but the sparrowhawk followed it in and grabbed it, before flying away with it.

Not a good outcome for the smaller bird, but a good result for the sparrowhawk: only 34 per cent of sparrowhawks survive their first year of life. Being a predator is simply not easy, and inept hunters can pay the ultimate price - starvation! To see one of these superbly-skilled hunters, listen out for the high-pitched alarm calls of small birds like tits and finches, then look up to the sky...

A noisy family group of hobbies was seen during the week. At the moment the youngsters will be calling loudly to their parents for food, and also learning how to hunt small birds and large insects. You can expect to see hobbies here until the end of the month, after which they'll be migrating to Africa for winter.

Two ravens were seen over the Iron Age hillfort on Monday. These big crows are very impressive: the size of a buzzard, with a diamond-shaped tail and deep, honking call.

There's more than just birds to The Lodge. One of the star insects this week was a hummingbird hawkmoth that fed on Ceratostigma plumbaginoides flowers (they're low-growing and purply-blue) next to the path between the old house and the swimming pool. Unfortunately it didn't stay around for long and whizzed off somewhere else. Despite the huge numbers of painted lady butterflies we've seen this year, not many 'hummers' have made it to The Lodge.

If you see a hummingbird hawkmoth anywhere, Butterfly Conservation would like to hear about it via their online survey.

Southern hawker, brown hawker and common darter dragonflies have been joined by migrant hawkers. This middle-sized dragonfly has the distinctive behaviour of flying around above head height without returning to a perch. They can even gather in small 'flocks' where the hunting is particularly good.

Still lots of butterflies around, including small coppers, painted ladies, commas, red admirals and small tortoiseshells.