The Lodge is looking at it's blooming best at the moment (in my opinion!)- with all of the trees in lush full leaf, stunning azaleas in a variety of colourful blooms in the gardens, and sheep sorrel spreading like red ink across Sandy Ridge.
In the warm May sunshine, the first cinnabar moths have been seen this weekend, there are good numbers of small copper butterflies on the wing, while common lizards are basking on the logs along the trails. A cuckoo has been seen across the new heath and heard calling from the Gatehouse today, plenty off garden warblers, willow warblers, chiffchaffs, blackcaps and whitethroats are on territory and in song, and the hobbies are often showing well at the back of the new heath, on the path to Galley Hill.
Sadly, there has been no sightings of spotted flycatchers on the reserve, they normally arrive around the 7th May, but we still hope they may still arrive, if much later than usual.
One of The Lodge hobbies, by Ray Piercy