A former Spring visit to the RSPB Lodge in March 2009

Anonymous
Anonymous

We had a great yesterday afternoon out at Sandy RSPB. We wanted to investigate some recent bird sightings. Crossbills had been seen locally so we wanted to have a look for ourselves.

The weather was a bit on the dull side (the weather said it was going to be sunny) but hey ho that is the way it is. At least it was dry.
We arrived at the car park, and we where met by a host of bird song. One call stood out, and it was a call from a Nuthatch. We could hear it, but could not see the Nuthatch. It remained ‘calling’ in the car park, and then we moved on for our walk.

We headed towards the Meadow bird hide. We had a look to see what was on the feeders. It was quiet other than a Blue Tit, here and there, a few Male Chaffinches under the feeders and two Grey Squirrels taking advantage of the Nutfeeder. So cheeky as they always are.
I was really surprised to see that the Ponds around the feeders have dried up. The water was very sparse. So it must have been the dry spell we had that caused the water to evaporate as it has done. Hope that some more water is replenished soon as all creatures need a drink. The pond dwelling creatures need to live too, and need their water supply.

So we moved on, and past a Robin sitting on a branch of a tree sitting his heart out. What a super little songster. We continued towards the RSPB Head Quarters, past all the lovely old buildings and Trees. Then we headed off in to the woodlands. The area was quite and a bit devoid of bird activity. It felt quiet for a spring day, and I was hoping that there would be something of interest to us.

Then we started to notice little twittering, and calls appearing here and there. A lone Wren in the nearby bush, and then he decides to hide once more in the undergrowth. Another Robin starts to sing. Some more shuffling of the undergrowth, the bracken moves, and we could see the movement but not the animal involved. I was sure it was another Wren. There were lots of alarms calls from Wrens everywhere we went, and a Robin joined in here and there too.

A Muntjac Deer appears from the undergrowth, stands for a minute, and then looks at us only to disappear. We stand still, and he looks at us, our eyes lock, then he moves on once more. He seems not to be worried about our presence at all.

Then a drumming noise echoed from a Great spotted Woodpecker, and an additional ‘ Yaffle’ sound from a Green Woodpecker. More drumming occurred. Then all of sudden the local woodland was ablaze with lots of drumming noises from end to end of the wood. A muffled call from a Great Spotted Woodpecker. A bird flies although very fast, fleeing for its life. It had a high pitch alarm call of GSW. More Drumming and it felt although the birds where moving around the wooded area around us as we stood there. It was fabulous to listen to all the bird communication going on from bird to bird. The drumming noises where here there and everywhere. The woodland was ablaze with drumming noises.
We moved on and the vocal call of a lone Nuthatch was very apparent. We could hear his calls but found it hard to see him. I knew in my own mind it would take patience to see him. The bird in question would be moving up, or down some trunk of a tree somewhere. He/she was hard to see. We drew closer, the calls became louder. We moved on further down the path. Now we stood rooted on the spot looking up in the trees and my OH could see him there he is moving up the trunk of his tree. I could see him through my binoculars, and he was moving in the top most branches of the tree. Great spot for us, and it made my day. Another bird to add to my list.

We moved on and by-passed all the drumming in the trees. Some twittering occurred and I knew the call was a Goldcrest but I could not see him, a lot of Blue Tits, and Great Tit activity was taking place so that was a give away that the Goldcrest was closeby in the tree canopy somewhere.

We walked towards the Lodge one more. We bypassed the Headquarters, Meadow Hide, and we could hear some crunching noises from the pine Trees above. I looked up in the tree canopy and could see bits of something falling down to the ground.
We looked through our binoculars, and could see a pair of Crossbills, flitting about, while eating and dropping lots of pieces of pine cones onto the ground underneath. They sounded like they where eating a bag of crisps. Lots of crunching of pine cones going on, bits dropping to the floor. It was something else to see. Pine cones are their favourite food source, and that is what they where doing eating their favourite food source. Fabulous to see anyday. All action shots as the events unfolded for us to see.

We continued back to the Lodge in awe what we had seen. The last time we saw Crossbills was in Calendar, Scotland – a few years ago so this sighting made up for all the times we have missed seeing them once more.

After looking at the sightings board (there where Crossbills noted already) we could see that a Budgie had been listed (no doubt someone’s pet). Also Black vulture which I understood escaped from captivity, (was seen flying outside the Headquarters windows) and I was told caught once more. The things that you see on bird sightings board eeek!!!

We enjoyed our amble around Sandy reserve, and we will do it once again in the future as it is so local to where we stay. We bought more bird seed, and fat balls as planned so we have now replenished our stock of birdfood so we are happy in the birdfeeders department.