Mealy Redpoll footage

A Mealy Redpoll and a Lesser Redpoll on a feeder at The Lodge. Video taken by Grahame Madge from the hide. Still plenty of these chaps around the reserve, with many of them now singing.

New additions

Various word of mouth reports from Lodge staff has given us the following new additions:

07 Mar: Curlew and Sand Martin
08 Mar: Reed Bunting
10 Mar: Grey Wagtail

So as we move into the period of frantic and frenetic ticking, the scores are finely poised. The Lodge total moves to 92. 

Raptor rapture

Earlier today I received an email from Darren drawing my attention to the recent gap-narrowing achieved by The Lodgers, who (thought they had) closed the gap to 93 - 91.

Not so fast Darren! Dorian Moss and Neil Calbrade scored a double whammy today; Dorian saw a Peregrine over the Nunnery at lunchtime, with Neil adding a Red Kite a bit later on. Nice to see that days that look like they ought to be good for raptors can actually deliver the goods!

The kite was spotted over the Nunnery Lakes but Neil's quick call back to base had several of us rushing out into the Nunnery car park, from where we were able to 'scope the bird as it drifted high to the west (back to the Lodge?!).

Mossing

A friend of mine who happens to be a bryologist visited last weekend and was more than willing to be dragged out "mossing" on the Nunnery Lakes reserve.

Lucy Wright, Rob Robinson and Ian Yates were the BTO moss-finding team, with identification assistance from our friends Amy Eycott and Jo Inchbald. We spent most of our time in the brecky bit of the reserve on our hands and knees with bums in the air and noses on the ground; this resulted in a few interesting comments from passers-by, one of whom asked if we had found gold... which indeed we had, in the form of 17 moss species in a 2-hour visit! A great start but I'm sure there are many more to come.

Sunshine....

....but no butterflies during 10 mins lunchbreak in the Nunnery grounds. However, five inverts to get me going: Seven-spot Ladybird, Honey Bee, Drone-fly (Eristalis tenax, check those legs!), Great Pond Snail and Great Ramshorn Snail.

As if by magic...

An enthusiastic Andy Schofield (the new Warden for the Lodge) just called to report a Merlin zipping through the sheep field on Sandy Ridge. No 87.

Ringo

Two Ringed Plovers on Derek Whites Eggs pit this lunchtime. Number 86.