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I did some bird surveying in the good weather last week. It involved me standing at certain points, and noting what birds and how many I could hear. All to assess our woodland for birds. It's one of the nicest things I get to do, though it's not easy! At last, there are some migrants! I heard...

Just had a call to say three ring ouzels were around the Yew tree and the area around the Gatehouse entrance. We dashed out from the office and saw large numbers of birds moving through, fieldfares, redwings,blackbirds, mistle thrushes and flocks of mixed finches, ( including redpoll and siskin), everywhere...

Our warden Andy has been out and about on the reserve today and he says there are birds everywhere! A woodlark has been spotted on the new heath yesterday and today, which is one of the key species we are hoping to attract with the heathland restoration. Fingers crossed they decide to stay and breed...

The Lodge spotted flycatchers have already raised a family of four young in recent weeks and have just hatched another brood! The parents are busy catching insects and feeding the youngsters in the nest box, which is on the side of the outbuildings near the shop. Come along and see them soon, they'll...

Spring migrant birds arriving The Lodge. The birds seem to be arriving here quickly after the slow migration over the last few weeks.The cuckoo's have been calling all day on the new heath and I heard my first garden warbler today. A few whitethroats have turned up on the reserve and a couple of...

I took a walk around the reserve yesterday and it was hard to think we are still in January. Great tits, robins, goldcrests and even a mistle thrush were singing, the snowdrops are coming up and it felt just too mild for a winters day. I noticed that the temperature at 8pm last night was around 10 degrees...

The reserve was exceptionally busy yesterday; bright blue skies and sunshine all the way, although it was blustery and colder than of late. Our bird sightings have been fairly consistent over the Christmas and New Year period. The large flock of around 500 Fieldfares are still feeding on the meadow on...

We had some good birds over the weekend; at The Lodge Open Day we stood watching three hobbies diving over the house and the front garden and around twenty siskins around the bushes. The first fieldfares were spotted on the new heath on Saturday, where around a dozen sat in the dead larch tree. They...

Our warden, Andy Schofield, heard a woodlark on Sandy Ridge this morning. We had another report of one on land opposite the reserve entrance yesterday. A small flock of crossbills have been heard flying around, but they are rarely seen.Let's hope they stay and start to use the ponds near the hide...

After a quiet couple of weeks,more birds have been in evidence over the last couple of days. A massive flock of over 90 mistle thrushes has been flying into trees around the Gatehouse from nearby Sandy Ridge.This is a record count of these large thrushes at The Lodge-and quite possibly a Bedfordshire...

The first winter thrushes arrived back on the reserve at the weekend. Around a dozen redwings joined up with the mistle thrushes that were already on the new heath and could be seen from the path along the drive . Redwings leave their breeding grounds in Scandinavia and Russia to spend the winter here...

I took a walk along the path leading towards the hillfort at lunch time and watched three spotted flycatchers together on a fence wire, a lovely sighting as they could leave here to start their migration journey any time now. Also in the area, 30+ mistle thrushes called as they flew over, and a jay,...

Well, what with the weather, The Lodge is starting to take on something of an autumnal feel. The breeding season is over for nearly all birds, and robins are starting to sing again - reminiscent of damp autumn mornings for me... On Tuesday, a grand total of 37 mistle thrushes was counted in a field...