Sand and birds

Sun and blue sky for a visit to the headquarters of the RSPB in Sandy , Bedfordshire.

This is a fantastic place for a walk through sandy heathland. There are fantastic woodlands and outcrops of rocks and even an Iron Age hill fort.

There are lots of species to discover here, breeding hobbies, ravens, common lizards and green tiger beetles.

On this visit people were on the look out for crossbills, unfortunately we didn’t spot any.

It is also one of the best inland sites for natterjack toads.

The Iron Age Hill fort is called Galley hill and is a large flat topped hill which would have had fantastic views over the surrounding areas. The Pine trees are very tall and straight and the paths are loose sand.

Nature table explorers Tim and John scouted ahead , there are 220 hectares to explore, it is the largest area of heathland in Bedfordshire.

My favourite area is the exposure of the Greensand,these rocks outcrop on the Nuthatch trail as you walk round.

These rocks were laid down in the Lower Cretaceous . There are some good boards to explain more.

This is a great place to visit, parking is free if you are an RSPB member or £6 if not. There is a place for coffee, a shop with great books , binoculars and bird food. They have feeders set up to sit and watch and there are bird hides. A good day out .

The address is

The Lodge nature reserve

Potton Road

Sandy

SG192DL

Grid ref- TL191485

We will be going back as the trees and flowers come into leaf and flower. The seed heads were gorgeous so looking forward to this years flowers.