It's a foggy day to start November, with the sun trying hard to break through at times and it's still very mild. The fungi foray went off in the expert hands of leader Alan Outen and The Beds and Herts Fungi group, and with the variety of fungi recorded here this year, it should be a very successful foray. This glazed cup fungi was near the visitor centre this week. A few fieldfares , mistle thrushes and redwings flew…

Apologies for the delay since the last posting. I've been away in the Yorkshire Dales, adding Black Grouse for my 200th UK bird of the year, but looking in envy at all of the great birds arriving on the east coast.

The Lodge is starting to look more autumnal and gaining a lovely golden hue, but the mild weather still gives a less than wintry feel-at the moment! The first migrants are coming through, with flocks of…

It's not a secret any longer. We welcomed John Craven and the Countryfile team here recently, filming the 2016 Country File calendar shots on the old heath. Ben Andrew, who works here in Wildlife Enquiries had been selected as one of the chosen images, and we now know that his hedgehog picture is on the front cover! Really big congratulations to Ben. The episode went out on Sunday 4 October, so you can watch it here.

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Just packing up to go home and Peter Bradley, our Senior Site Manager spotted five ravens soaring directly over the Gatehouse. A great end to the working day! I haven't had any reports of the hobbies since one flew over The Lodge gardens on Sunday- so they may have started their long journey back to Africa now. We'll now enjoy the feast of fungi before the first autumn birds start to arrive.

Those of you who have visited The Lodge recently may have noticed that the construction of our medium sized wind turbine in Sandy Ridge field, just behind the Gatehouse, has picked up pace this month.

Rapid progress has been made over recent weeks, as the cabling trenches have been dug which will connect the turbine to the RSPB’s headquarters, The Lodge, and the Grid. Work on the foundations for the turbine has also…

It was such a lovely weekend on the reserve and a great variety of wildlife was enjoyed by lots of visitors out enjoying the sunshine. It's also noticeable how much fungi is out, and the fly agarics were one of the highlights of the day for many.

On the new heath yesterday, a pair of ravens perched in the pines where they originally nested, with all sorts of strange calls emanating from the depths of the tree, along…

I had a great ten minutes down on the old heath this afternoon. Hobby, buzzard, kestrel, raven, several swallows and house martins, a green woodpecker and great-spotted woodpecker and a flock of goldfinches all passed over, and a wasp-spider hid in the heather. On the way back, I saw my first group of fly- agaric under the birches past the hide, so with the squirrels bouncing over the ground and the bracken turning orange…

I had a walk around Sandy Ridge this morning and it was nice to see the hobby fly over, at the very edge of the reserve on the Potton side. How long will they stay before they migrate back to Africa? The latest date we have recorded in recent years is 7 Oct, in 2013, so they could still be here for a while yet. There was a large flock of mixed birds near the old heath, with four species of tit, goldcrest, nuthatch, chaffinch…

I've received some terrific pictures of a hummingbird hawk-moth taken at The Lodge gardens in the sunshine on Sunday. Many thanks to Richard Harvey for sending me these stunning images.

 

 

 

 

Summer is still lingering, with three hobbies and a juvenile spotted flycatcher on the reserve today. Our volunteer James took this picture of the flycatcher, and of an incredible wasp-eating spider.

The last date for hobby…

After the Bank Holiday washout, the birds were out again yesterday and the hobbies in particular were really busy, dashing around the new heath and feeding their two youngsters. The Tuesday walk group saw one mixed flock of spotted flycatcher, blackcap, chiffchaff, willow warbler, whitethroat, goldcrest, nuthatch and three tit species and the family of five spotted flycatchers were feeding in trees near the hide,  near to where…

There's no disguising that it's been a very disappointing Bank Holiday with rain falling all day. Instead of greeting the crowds, I've been sweeping the cob-webs out of the hide and catching up with those jobs that have been sitting on the side of the desk for a while!

To remind us of the nicer summer days that we've enjoyed , here's a few pictures of ( mainly!) wildlife taken here recently.

 

Image …

Our busy programme of August events reached a peak with a fantastic weekend of outdoor theatre with the Pantaloons. We did get very wet for a while yesterday afternoon during Treasure Island, but the cast carried on despite the weather and all of the audience stayed to watch  -  but with their umbrellas and hoods up! On Saturday for Much Ado about Nothing, it was around 30 degrees in very hot sunshine, so really hard work for the…

As summer slowly draws to a close ( it certainly feels less than summer like today!) the breeding season at The Lodge ends on a high, as our three spotted flycatcher chicks fledged on Saturday. It's hard to believe that they will soon be flying 1000's of miles to winter in Africa! The parents will be busy teaching them to feed and fly over the next two or three week's, so we should see them around the reserve, although…

Helping protect rare natterjack toads       

Senior site manager Peter Bradley gives a shout-out to the fantastic team of colleagues who volunteered to help monitor natterjacks at The Lodge this year.

With some key volunteers moving on, and the new warden Lizzie Bruce unable to start until mid-July, I was concerned about covering this year's natterjack breeding season. I sent an email to colleagues at headquarters, and was…

Well ...another Big Wild Sleepout comes to an end and we had a wonderful time here at The Lodge. 65 people came to camp out and joined in with bat and twilight walks, making the camp fire and the Sandy Astronomical Society showed us some amazing night skies, the International Space Station right overhead and lots of shooting stars. Next morning, over bacon rolls, we checked the moths and had a great catch with around…

It's been a very busy fortnight at The Lodge. Last weekend we enjoyed the Pantaloons performing Pride and Prejudice in the sunshine on the lawns of RSPB HQ. They return on 22 August with Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing and finish with Treasure Island on Sunday 23. Prices, info and tickets  are available from The Lodge shop; 01767 680541 or The Pantaloons own website; the pantaloons.co.uk. Come along- they're…

Coming up the path from the hide on Thursday, I had a cursory glance at last year's spotted flycatcher nest hole in an old birch and was pleasantly surprised to see a spotted flycatcher tucked up and sitting inside. After the torrential rain on Friday and constant rain again today, I popped down this morning to check if they were still around. At first there was no sign of the bird and I feared the worst, but just as I moved…

I have been working over the weekend and the main highlight has been the butterfly bonanza! Visitors have been giving me lists of the butterfly's around at the moment, with perhaps the highlights being marbled whites, brown argus, holly blue and an Essex skipper.

A stoat was seen to catch a rabbit right outside the hide, a grass snake (a large one!)  basked in the Lodge gardens and several common lizards were taking…

Hello all and apologies, as it's been a while since the last blog while I've been away on hols.

Good news on my return however, this week the spotted flycatchers have been seen with two young in the area of birch towards the hide. They haven't been as easy to see this year and we haven't actually located their nest, although they have occasionally been seen around the same nest hole as last year. Also, the…

A lot has happened in June- and I'm just off to Crete for my hols- so I thought a round- up of the best of the month might be in order. Enjoy your summer walks around The Lodge!

Ray PiercyLinnet Ray Piercy

Great-spotted woodpecker leaving; nest Ray Piercy

Nuthatch in nest Jan Murphy

Minotaur beetle; Betty Cooke

Wild History Day; Graham Taplin

Birch weaving at Wild History Day. Graham Taplin

Me introducing Stornoway…

If you've been to The Lodge gardens recently you can't have failed to see the family of greylag geese that have been raised here are now happily wandering around like lords of the manor!. They are becoming quite an attraction, so I thought I'd put a couple of Ray Piercy pictures on the page to show you.

 

 

 

Come along to grab a bargain in The Lodge shop- the summer sale has just started!

The spotted flycatchers have been quite difficult to pin down and see this year, but Ernest, our volunteer who fills the bird feeders, had a quick glimpse of one this morning, on his walk to the hide. This is the most regular location for them, but they aren't guaranteed to be around - as I know! A family of linnets are feeding around the back of the car park overflow and another family of mistle thrush are in this area…