If you've visited Fairburn Ings recently you'll have seen the dry stone wall that Nick and Tanya have been building along the path to the visitor centre. The wall should provide some great habitat for insects, reptiles and mammals too as our volunteer Joe saw today when a bank vole popped out onto the path near the visitor centre before scampering round and straight back in!

Also seen from the balcony was a kestrel…

Since Wednesday we've had yellow, grey, pied and even a possible sighting of a white wagtail - all from lin dike with the exception of the pied wagtails which seem to be cropping up all over the place, including our picnic area.  Lin dike has boasted a nice selection of waders over the last couple of days, including ruff, ringed plover, dunlin, greenshank, green sandpiper, lapwing and common sandpiper. Also down that…

We had a super weekend, with some lovely weather, and it really brought out the birds and insects on the reserve.  There seem to have been lots of birds of prey, with several sightings of buzzards over the visitor centre and Newfield plantation, plus marsh harrier, sparrow hawk and hobby from Pickup hide, and a kestrel at Lin Dike.  The kingfisher has been seen several times at Pickup hide and the Kingfisher screen throughout…

For those brave enough to get out and about today the weather doesn't seem to have put off the birds and there's been a nice selection across the reserve.

Our volunteer Andy started off today's list with a ruff opposite new flash, unfortunately no longer sporting the incredible breeding plumage but beautiful nevertheless. Further down at Lin Dike was a buzzard and great spotted woodpecker and 2 little grebes…

If you've been to the reserve recently, you may have seen a black sign next to the wildlife garden (at the start of the Discovery Trail) that says "ask me how eggs help tomatoes grow". Hopefully you asked Richard (if he was standing in the shelter) what on earth it meant and how do eggs help tomatoes grow? If not, be sure to ask him next time you visit.

I promised I wouldn't give away the answer here but…

We've had a really busy week here at Fairburn Ings, both in terms of human and wildlife visitors.  The sightings book is overflowing with a wide variety of birds.  At Pickup we’ve had lots of sightings of green sandpiper, greenshank, common sandpiper, oyster catcher and curlew.  Plus a few sightings of yellow wagtail, heron, little ringed plover, kingfisher, great spotted woodpecker, and marsh harrier.  There’s…

Officially Yorkshire Day is held on 1st August, but here at Fairburn we like to do things a little differently and held the Yorkshire Day celebration on Sunday 31 July. There was so much going on it was hectic and loads of people, young and old alike, came to celebrate our fine county with us on the reserve.

The Discovery Trail became the Yorkshire trail for the day, and people were to find photos of famous Yorkshire…