My Birdwatcher's Guide: A Morning Walk around the Lodge at Sandy

The Lodge, Sandy is the Headquarters of the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds), which is on the road between Potton and Sandy and is well worth a visit. They have plenty of parking facilities and a lovely little garden where you can sit and have a coffee and a cake with after you have been around the reserve. If your not a member you may have to pay for parking.

I organise a Bird Watching/Wildlife Walk and there was a good turn out this weekend, 9 of us set off on a walk around the perimeter of the reserve starting just to the right of the main entrance. It was quite a nice day, sunny but a bit windy. We saw numerous birds mainly Blue Tits and Great Tits

initially but we did get followed by a Robin for a little while, they seem to like people and you often find them helping you in the garden when your digging, hoping that you might find a worm so that when you move along they can dive in and pick it up and eat it. They also have very red breasts at the moment because they are looking for a mate to produce young with.

Some birds build only one nest but the poor Male Wren has to build three different ones and hope that one of them impresses a female enough to mate with him. It is the time of year when you will start seeing baby birds in your gardens and another sign that Spring is here.

As we walked around the reserve we heard calling from above us, we looked up and we could see three Buzzards circling around above us calling out to each other, one was slightly smaller than the other two, so it was probably two adults teaching a juvenile how to fly and what to look out for. They did get attacked by a couple of Crows but they saw them off. The fact that Buzzards circle is how you can tell the difference between them and Red Kites as a Kite tends to just fly in straight lines and occasionally floats on the thermals and they also have a forked tail where a Buzzard has a fan tail.

You do come to a viewpoint called Hilltop where you have a view over a valley which leads onto the Quarry area of the reserve. It is a really nice place to sit down and relax. You can often hear all sorts of birds calling in that area, we heard a Raven and a Jay.

We then walked through the Quarry footpath which is very up and down and not good if you have a bad back or cannot walk very well. It has all sorts of habitat and you can also see the Sandstone cliff face and see the rock strata, so if your into your geology go and have a look for yourself.

As we went into the wooded area past the Quarry we heard a lot of Chiff Chaffs calling out and also a lot of small birds such as Blue Tits looking for somewhere to build their nests. One Blue Tit in particular found an old Woodpecker hole and was checking it out for a possible nest site.

Some parts of the area in front had all sorts of grass and different types of Daffodils which was really pretty. We then walked up the Main Hide, sat down and watched for anything unusual. A Rock Dove soon appeared and then a Jay landed on a branch in the distance, they are a beautiful bird and have a lovely blue on their wings and look very much like a Woodpecker.

We then returned to the Gatehouse and sat and had a cup of coffee and chatted about the reserve and what we had seen.

Photographs and; Editorial written by Mark Hogan