Things to do

The Lodge Nature Reserve and Gardens is a very special place, offering an exceptionally rich combination of wildlife and heritage experiences.

Whether you are after a family adventure or a solitary meander, The Lodge is the perfect day out for all; exploring ancient sea-beds, walking over an iron-age fort, listening out for the drumming of woodpeckers and watching the Greylag Geese laze about in the Gardens.

The Lodge boasts woodland, heath and acid grassland that cover an area of some 220 hectares, and now form the largest stretch of heathland in Bedfordshire.

Between December and January, our farmland areas come alive with hundreds of hungry finches among the wildbird crops. Winter thrushes feed on the acid grassland from January - March, and you can see woodland snowdrops, daffodils, then bluebells.

The gardens are most colourful from May, with flowering of the rhododendrom / Azalea collection and start of the roses. Sand martins busy feeding young at Sandy Heath Quarry. Summer sees breeding and hunting hobbies over the heath, and the heather flowering in August. In a warm damp autumn you can experience some of the 600 species of fungi.

Summer has dragonflies and butterflies around the ponds and heath with hobbies hunting the dragonflies. Newly-fledged birds - blue and great tits in the woodland and green woodpeckers on the heathland. Common lizards bask with their young on dead logs. August is a great time to see the heather turn purple.

Visiting The Lodge reserve is free, except for parking (RSPB members have free parking) and any paid events.