St Aidan's in the spotlight

It’s always great when something in Nature’s Home magazine prompts a flurry of emails, letters and comments. The current, Summer issue, seems to have struck a chord and none more so than our “Behind the scenes” article on the fantastic St Aidan’s reserve not far from Leeds city centre.

Black-necked grebes are absolute stunners in breeding plumage (Dave Ward rspb-images.com)

I’ve only visited the reserve once, but what a great visit it was! It was springtime and despite only having a fairly brief look at the site, I was delighted to come away with point-blank views of several fiery-eyed black-necked grebes and, having heard some “booming” from the reserve’s star reedbed specialist, the bittern, was treated to a superb flypast. Of course, there is much to the reserve than these birds, including grasslands alive with bees and butterflies, wonderful walks and a fascinating history - see your Nature's Home magazine for the timeline showing how the land use has changed since the 17th century and the reserve has developed. 

It's a good time of year for catching a glimpse of bitterns making flights over reedbeds John Bridges (rspb-images.com)

As our feature states, St Aidan’s has gone from an open-cast mine to a reserve full of rarities. It’s a story shared across other RSPB reserves where working with industry has delivered amazing results for nature – definitely a model for modern-day conservation and one that I’m proud to see in action! I hope you get the chance to visit this summer and some of the many other RSPB reserves that have come from industry. Let us know how you get on. It's been great to receive several photos of the two star birds already so glad they have been performing this spring!