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Our first Falling Leaves Festival was a great success; lots of happy children and families walking around with painted faces, brilliant nature art pictures and freshly designed badges and everyone enjoyed the bird ringing demonstrations of course. I'm sure we'll be running this event again next...

Our first Falling Leaves Festival was a great success; lots of happy children and families walking around with painted faces, brilliant nature art pictures and freshly designed badges and everyone enjoyed the bird ringing demonstrations of course. I'm sure we'll be running this event again next...

The woodlark was sighted on the old heath this morning, so it's still on the reserve, which is great news. I heard a tawny owl hooting almost spot on mid-day, between the HQ car park and the Quarry Trail and there's good numbers of siskins flying overhead. A grey heron was disturbed by a jogger...

One of the heathland birds that we feel should be a regular at The Lodge turned up today, for a rare visit! The bird was seen on the old heath this morning, and for a lot of the RSPB staff here, was the first time they have been able to add this species to their Lodge reserve lists. Our Tuesday volunteer...

There's still a few places left on this Sunday's Lodge Open Day.If you've ever wondered what it's like inside the old house, book your place ( 01767 680541) and have a tour around with our very own expert, Derek Niemann.The two seperate tours start at 11am and then 1:30pm, and last for...

They've been our friends and close neighbours for the last six years, but it's the end of an era today as we say a sad farewell to our 52 Manx loghtan sheep! They came here to get our new heath and grassland into shape, but with the heather doing so well now we feel the time is right for them...

Although there is a touch of autumn in the air now,our family of hobbies are still around and visitors this week have had brilliant sightings of the two juveniles being fed by their parents.Photographer Keith Clarke Lambourne captured this superb shot of one of the juveniles -thanks Keith!

Some great activities to do in the woods this autumn thanks to our friends at the Woodland Trust. If you have any nice images of woodland at The Lodge, you can enter them on our page on this web site, or tell other visitors to the site all about your favourite Lodge walks and wildlife experiences...

Our Tuesday morning walkers group came back excited today as they had spotted a wheatear on Sandy Ridge. I popped over with one of our volunteers, James Clark and we managed to see this smart migrant. James even managed to get this excellent shot on his camera. Wheatears are now returning to their wintering...

We have a group from the Beds,Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust on a visit to The Lodge today. I took them for a wander over the new heath to show off our heather, which is looking amazing this year. After leaving them to complete the trail, they came back happy after seeing hobbies, ravens and buzzards...

It seemed over the last few days that we only had one adult feeding the young flycatchers in the nest box! A single bird had been very busy, taking in insects to three young, feeding itself,and fending off an aggressive local robin.The other parent had disapeared completely.....what had happened to it...

Visitors come from many parts of the UK to see The Lodge, but not normally for a day visit from Scotland! Yesterday, RSPB members Violet and Nicky caught the plane from Edingburgh to Luton, hired a car to drive to Sandy and spent the day enjoying the reserve- and the lovely sunshine- for Violet's...

The weather is set fair for our 'All Nature Bio Blitz Day' tomorrow, it sounds like it will be sunny, warm and dry...a rare thing this summer! We've got experts from various fields coming along to show us what's around on the reserve, last year The Lodge was the third highest species...

We are all looking forward to this weekend; not to watch the Euro finals and Wimbledon, but because we'll be staying out late in the dark while our Moth Night is held on Saturday evening! The county moth recorders, Andy and Melissa Banthorpe, will be coming along to set up traps and we'll discover...

The ever popular, quirky and fun touring theatre group, The Pantaloons, return to The Lodge for the 4th successive year in August. This year they will perform two seperate plays, both the Brothers Grimm and The Importance of Being Ernest! As we know from previous years,The Pantaloon's shows are great...

We've had a great day today; the rain held off until late aftenoon and lots of families turned up to help us build the bug-hotel for the Jubilee- which we christened Bug-ingham Palace in celebration! Here's a few pics to show you what we were up to! Peter Maxwell,our volunteer's painting...

We've had a great day today; the rain held off until late aftenoon and lots of families turned up to help us build the bug-hotel for the Jubilee- which we christened Bug-ingham Palace in celebration! Here's a few pics to show you what we were up to! Peter Maxwell,our volunteer's painting...

After the depressing wash-out yesterday, the reserve is looking a lot brighter today and the car -park is full again with visitors getting out and about. Spotted flycatcher's, young ravens, cuckoo and treecreeper have all been sighted today, but most people just seem pleased to be walking around...

The Lodge Spring Fair is being held this weekend and we will be making changes to the car parking arrangements.The stalls will be laid out on the gatehouse lawn and in the car park and we are expecting a very busy weekend.The Gatehouse (reserve entrance) car park will have limited spaces for visitors...

It's a big week here at The Lodge; our Spring fair is on this weekend and we'll be getting ready for over 30 stallholders to arrive, our biggest fair yet! The Lodge Spring Fair is on this Saturday and Sunday and starts at 10am until 5pm. You can enjoy a bite to eat and a coffee from the local...

It was certainly a day to stay indoors in the dry yesterday wasn't it? Although it was understandably very quiet at The Lodge, one brave birder did report seeing seven wheatears on Sandy Ridge. It's a world away from the wet and windy conditions today and the birds have been notching up. We started...

I've been away for a few days on some unplanned time off, so it's great to be back to see the reserve looking fresh, vibrant and green, with the first bluebells now appearing as well. The birds are slowly arriving as well, blackcaps, willow warblers, wheatears, swallows, sand martins and house...

This week has seen the temperature change from -14 degrees on Saturday 11 to + 13 yesterday, quite a big change in just a few days. it seems to have had little effect on the birds however, with no new arrivals reported over the week. On Sandy Ridge, the flock of fieldfares, redwings and starlings moved...

Did you take part in the RSPB's BIg Garden Birdwatch ove the weekend? Did you record the numbers of birds you would normally expect to see? This is a section of the press release that the RSPB issued,in response to the many people asking us where the garden birds have gone this year; Big Garden...