Lodge Hill
and
Chattenden Woods SSSI

This country’s only SSSI specifically designated for Nightingales.

Will another important ecological site be destroyed or will sanity prevail?

__________

__________

________

A Guardian article from 2014 explains some pf the history to this site.

Nightingales v 5000 new homes: the battle over the woods of Lodge Hill

The RSPB have a campaign

Help us keep nightingales singing at stunning Lodge Hill

I wish someone would buy it and create a reserve.
At present it is almost impossible to appreciate as it is fenced off
and subject to security patrols.

Lodge Hill
Bricked and Mortared?

Two house bricks provide the pressure either side.
Inadvertently maintained by the MOD
To become an SSSI
With a huge variety of wildlife.
Some of which can be seen when you open the gates.
Tawny Owl, Bullfinch, Nightingales, Dog's Mercury, Wood Anemone.
Someone suggested that the nightingales could be moved.
Hence the little box cage with the nightingales inside
ready for biodiversity offsetting
Wilfully forgetting that they come back to the same tree.
Hans Christian Andersen's tale
The Nightingale
came to mind.
The emperor came to prefer the mechanical bird
to the real nightingale.
Until it was almost too late.
Will death be so kind to us.

Anderson's tale invoked the real life story of
Jenny Lind
the
Swedish Nightingale
who sang
for Chopin when he was ill.