Highlight of the week has to be the male smew that has been hanging around the reserve, he has mostly been paddling around with two red head smews on Main bay near to the Village bay viewpoint but today (Saturday) decided to relocate himself to Spoonbill flash.

Other highlights include a marsh harrier that was seen chasing a sparrowhawk in front of Pickup hide, oystercatchers near Village bay and little egrets on the…

I had two days off last week, I left the reserve on Wednesday evening under several inches of snow, and when I came back yesterday it felt completely different, the sun was shining and it even felt slightly warm, plus the birds have started to sing!  A walk round the Discovery Trail is a delight, listening to robins, blue tits and great tits all blasting out their beautiful tunes.  Having spent the last two years working…

Greetings from a bright and sunny Fairburn Ings where the sky is blue, the breeze is gentle and the air is full of bird song, buds are forming on branches, snowdrops are in full bloom around the reserve and other spring bulbs are slowly stretching their necks up out of the ground after a wintery rest.

Sightings from the last few days include siskin, coal tit, great tit, blue tit, long tailed tit, willow tit, bullfinch…

Its chilly here at Fairburn today, we had a little flurry of snow earlier, but nothing significant.  Its just a bit grey now, but a few people have been out to see the wildlife on the reserve.

We’ve had siskins on our feeders again, a few visitors have posted photos of them on our Facebook and Twitter pages. As well as the siskins we’ve had all the usual suspects of blue tits, great tits, coal tits, goldfinches, greenfinches…

A wet and grey Sunday here at Fairburn Ings but by no means dreary, the wildlife garden and feeders to the side of the Visitor centre have drawn in a host of birds these last few days including bullfinch, chaffinch, greenfinch and goldfinch, willow tit, blue tit, great tit, coal tit and long-tailed tits, great spotted woodpecker, siskin, brambling, song thrush, blackbird, reed bunting, nuthatch, treecreeper, pheasant…

There are only a few more days to get your entries in for our amateur photo competition; the closing date is midnight on Saturday 16 February. Have you been to Fairburn Ings in the last year and taken a great photo? It can be of anything at all so long as it shows the ‘nature of Fairburn Ings’ and was taken either on or of RSPB Fairburn Ings.

So have you got a picture of a beautiful sunset over the flashes…

Its a pleasant day at Fairburn Ings, I can see the sun poking through the clouds, and it feels fairly mild outside. I have been watching the treesparrows checking out a nest box in the staff car park. So whilst its still winter, the wildlife is preparing for Spring, it feels like there is light at the end of the wintery tunnel.

As usual at this time of year, the feeders are really busy, it’s almost a full time job to…

We have a fantastic promotion starting today in the shop on our 12.75kg sacks of seed (excluding Peanuts and Suffolk Black Sunflowers). If you buy two sacks of bird food you get £10 off!! This offer runs until the 26^th February, so plenty of time to stock up.

The birds in your garden need your help at the moment, with all this confused weather, they need a supply of food that they can rely on as the bugs etc that…

One of our regular visitors sat and watched our visitor centre bird feeders for one hour this morning, much like the Big Garden Birdwatch, and managed to see 23 different species! 

He saw:

blue tit
great tit
coal tit
willow tit
long tailed tit
house sparrow
tree sparrow
chaffinch
goldfinch
bullfinch
greenfinch
siskin
brambling
reed bunting
pheasant
collard dove
blackbird
song thrush
robin
dunnock
great spotted woodpecker
nuthatch
moorhen

You might see a few new faces around Fairburn Ings if you visit the reserve, we have three new people on our team and we thought we’d let them introduce themselves to you.

 Hi I'm Beki Williams, the new Aire Valley Visitor Officer; you might recognise me because I spent 6 months volunteering at Fairburn Ings from May to October 2011.  I had such a good time that I couldn’t resist the opportunity to come back…

Why we want you

St Aidan’s is a brand new site and different from any other RSPB reserve in its design for visitor experience. It will welcome a wide range of visitors including birdwatchers, runners, walkers, cyclists and equestrian enthusiasts! We need confident and enthusiastic people to engage with the public and help them get the most out of their visit. You will do this by telling people all about the fantastic…

Highlights for this week include marsh harrier over the flashes and 5 buzzards and a kestrel over Newfield plantation. Large numbers of curlew and lapwing have been spotted on the flashes with 40+ curlew and 200+ lapwing on Spoonbill flash on Thursday.

Brambling, treecreeper, nuthatch and siskin have all been regular visitors to the feeders around the visitor centre as have reed bunting, great spotted woodpecker and…