• A touch of purple...

    As I cycled to work this morning along Newton Lane, I glanced across Cedric’s Flash (the pool on the left if you’re coming from Allerton Bywater) and saw a distinctly heron-shaped bird flap down onto the water. However, it was a lot darker than herons usually are (and in my early morning haze had to double check it wasn’t a cormorant or crow!). But no, it was definitely a heron.


    I didn’t give it much…

  • A new path to navigate!

    We have a new footpath on the reserve! The warden team have just installed a kissing gate to lead onto the new footpath linking the Riverbank Trail to the Lin Dike trail. This is really exciting as now you’re able to walk to Lin Dike from the main part of the reserve without having to drive down to the Lin Dike car park.


    Some of us on the reserve team went to explore it on Wednesday, and had a great time looking…

  • Dawn chorus delights...

    A glorious morning for an early start on the reserve and the wildlife didn't let us down!! The dawn chorus walk was cancelled last week due to bad weather and was rescheduled for this morning and we're really glad!!

    Lots of warblers singing their hearts out- willow warbler, chiffchaff, garden warbler, blackcap, whitethroat, reed warbler and sedge warbler.
    Birds of prey looked fantastic against the morning blue…
  • A love story and a lesson in life...

    Our Kingfisher's delight us on a daily basis letting us get close up views of them flying, fishing and carrying nesting material but over the past couple of days visitors have been experiencing once in a lifetime encounters with these amazing birds!

    On Friday afternoon, a pair of kingfishers were sat side by side on a branch (seen from the kingfisher screen), the male hopped along to the female and they began mating…

  • The big wide world awaits them...

    The tree sparrows resident to our nest box at the visitor centre have been settling in nicely over the past few months, building their home from twigs, feathers and anything else they can lay their beaks on- and even having to fend their corner from a pair of blue tits who also took a liking to the same nest box.

    Over the past few weeks we have been watching the newly hatched baby tree sparrows being brought up by their…

  • Fairwell to the Fairburn Crane...

    We have had an exciting week at Fairburn Ings, the Crane sighted last week stayed on the reserve over the whole weekend, but was seen flying off the site on Monday morning.  (For those of you who are concerned, Bryony did get to see the Crane before it left the reserve)  The Crane created a real buzz here and aroused the interest of lots of people who drove past the hoards of birders who had set up their scopes by the road…
  • The chase continues...

    So our juvenile common crane is still around, and I still haven't seen it. This is the third time in as many days I've headed off to one side of the reserve, only to find I've just missed it and its flown to the other. The best spots to see it seem to have been conveniently from Lin Dike Hide, Pickup Hide and also from the road between the flashes. Even though I haven't seen it with own eyes, I have seen some great…