It got pretty hot at Fairburn Ings over the weekend, and it seems to have brought out quite a bit of birdlife.  The spoonbills have been seen on the reserve every day since Friday, they obligingly moved from Pickup to Main Bay on Sunday and Monday, and could even be seen from the feeding platform.  A little egret could also be seen from the feeding platform on Monday.  This fantastic photo of the spoonbills in flight over…

Some of my favourite memories are of my brother, various friends, and me making dens and playing hide and seek behind the trees in the woods near our house, splashing in mud and looking for bugs.

If you think back to one of your most vivid early childhood memories, one where your sense of wonder has perhaps been unmatched since, where were you? What were you doing? Who were you with?

Research shows that for many…

Blacktoft Sands has been getting all the Spoonbill action over the last week or so, but happily this morning a visitor returned to the centre to tell us a pair of the stunning birds had dropped in to see us at Fairburn too. They were last seen about 40 minutes ago at midday feeding on the opposite corner of Pickup Pool. For anyone who hasn't been to Pickup Hide its the first hide only a couple of hundred metres from the…

Despite the fairly miserable weather at Fairburn today, the wildlife was not perturbed and visitors were treated to the sight of a roe deer family outing to Lin Dike. Also in the area were 3 cuckoos, sightings of which seem to be picking up again, one was also spotted flying past the visitor centre, possibly the same one that's been calling to us all day!

Joining the serenade around the visitor centre have been blackcaps…

A few of our regular birders have spotted a great white egret on the moat just beyond Newton Farm on Newton Lane (if you’re heading towards the reserve from Allerton Bywater). UPDATE: *It’s now on Spoonbill Flash*
They’re beautiful birds with snowy white plumage and yellow bills. Related to herons but slightly smaller than a grey heron, they’re a common species but uncommon to actually spot so get down there…

We've had some beautful weather here at Fairburn over the last few days, making us think that maybe summer has arrived at the reserve.  But that British sceptisicm means that we still have our jumpers and waterproofs to hand just in case the weather turns.

We have been watching what seems like hundreds of fledglings on and around our feeders near the visitor centre, we've got lots of tree sparrows, blue tits, great…