RSPB. The Lodge, Sandy.

Last Friday, in the company of Keith (caldecottelake.blogspot.com and holdingmoments.blogspot.com) I paid a visit to the RSPB Headquarters reserve at The Lodge, Sandy. Bedfordshire. We arrived just as the sun was rising through the early fog and mist.

 Our main objective was to find the 100 strong flock of Redpoll reported from earlier in the week. Our first stop was the Meadow Hide which supplied nothing more than a lone Pheasant some Chaffinch and Blue Tits. Next it was a short stroll to the Formal Gardens which are located behind the main RSPB office buildings, we noted a few Jackdaw on the roof of the main house, keeping up a constant chatter of "jack" "jack"! We also saw Blackbirds, Redwing,Blue Tits (lots) and fleeting glimpses of Goldcrest as they flitted amongst the branches.
We then moved onto the "old" Heath where the bird life was noticable by it`s absence. There were however lots of dew laden spiders webs strung between the dying bracken shining in the sunlight.

  We then moved across to the "new" Heath, encountering a small flock of Long-Tailed Tits as they busily flitted from branch to branch, the new heath again showed a remarkable shortage of bird life, our only sighting being a couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers, and a Sparrowhawk flying over. We then moved back to the main office car park area where we found Blackbird and Redwing feeding on the berries from the Yew trees.

 Again there were lots of Blue Tits in evidence, (they must have had a good year). Also showing briefly was a Goldcrest (but still all to briefly for this photographer !),
We never did find the flock of Redpoll (I later found out that they were in the one area that we didn`t visit ! sods law I guess). Still I had a very enjoyable time on what turned out to be a fine and sunny blue sky day, despite the forecast being for a day of mist and fog.

Sightings List

Chaffinch
Pheasant
Goldfinch
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Long-Tailed Tit
Dunnock
Wren
Blackbird
Redwing
Rook
Carrion Crow
Jackdaw 
Jay
Nuthatch 
Treecreeper
Mistle Thrush
Green Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Goldcrest
Sparrowhawk
Buzzard (on way home)
        (Total 22)