Hello. It's been good insect-watching weather this week, inbetween the showers. The buddleia bushes at the front of the old house have been attracting plenty of bees, hoverflies and butterflies, including several magnificent painted ladies....

Throughout the summer enthusiastic RSPB staff and volunteers are taking visitors on Dusk Watches on The Lodge reserve to see what creatures are on the prowl as dusk falls. On Tuesday night, the summer solstice, we took a group of ten visitors around...

I have been puzzled by the things in the photos. I know what they are, but why have they suddenly appeared over the last week or so, when it is so cold? Let me know what you think.

Photograher Alan Reynolds has just kindly sent me this splendid picture of a nuthatch, taken at the hide.The nuthatch wa s collecting moss and mud to line the nest it is building nearby.

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...