It’s been a quiet few days on the reserve with this wintery weather and we’ve all got our fingers crossed for some warmer weather over Easter. We’ve seen a few signs of birds getting ready for spring, they’ve been checking out nest boxes and from our office we could a pair of tree sparrows taking nest materials into one of the boxes outside the centre.

The feeders outside the visitor centre have…

We’re delighted to be able to re-open our pond dipping pond after giving the beasties in our pond the winter off.

If you want to have a look at what is lurking in our pond then come along to Fairburn Ings from Friday 29 March onwards, pop into the visitor centre to hire your pond dipping kit.

We have a magnificent array of underwater insects in the ponds at Fairburn, you might come across the gruesome dragonfly…

The first day of spring has been and gone yet we’re waking up to snow here! We still managed to have some fun outdoors though and made a snowman in our playground. We even hung a feeder off his arm in the hope of attracting some birds. Thanks to Joe, one of our volunteers for the great pic!

We’re getting an increasing number of kingfisher sightings which is great! There’s also been a report of a very loud boom…

Great news today. Following the recent sightings of two Bittern's together on Phalarope Pool last night a male was heard booming in the Village Bay area. Could we be about to witness the first breeding of this endangered and enigmatic species at Fairburn Ings?

Reserve regular Keith Bowyer took this photo of the two birds together. See if you can spot them both.

It’s been a bit grey and rainy the last couple of days at Fairburn Ings and today there’s a thin blanket of snow everywhere. Hopefully spring is just around the corner though!

We’re now getting regular sightings of kingfishers around the reserve so I’m looking forward to seeing one soon! We’ve got a kingfisher screen especially for viewing these colourful birds with branches that hang out over the river for…

Hi, I’m Lauren and I'm the new Visitor Officer intern at Fairburn Ings. I recently graduated from Sheffield University where I studied Sociology; however my real passion has always been with wildlife and conservation. I have done various bits of volunteering including practical conservation work with the Shropshire Wildlife Trust, assisting with Forest School lessons and working with orang-utans in Borneo. I think…

The weather has been quite varied over the last couple of days, with snow and mini blizzards one minute to bright sunshine the next! I had an afternoon walk around the reserve and it was very chilly but the birds don’t seem to mind and there are plenty around plus lots of beautiful birdsong in the air.

 There is lots of action at the feeders with the usual bunch of blue tits, great tits, long tailed tits, goldfinches…

The bittern continues to be seen on Phalarope pool, in fact, yesterday it was reported there were two seen at the same time!! Still no booming been heard though but keeping our fingers crossed :)

There has also been lots of interesting sightings reported from the flashes, including red headed smew, little egrets, pintail, snipe, Icelandic gull and barnacle geese.

From Pickup hide there has been treecreeper, curlew,…

We have had many sightings of a bittern on Phalarope Pool over the last few days; there has however been no booming heard so we suspect this is either a female or a juvenile male.

A male pintail has been seen from Lin Dike as has a smew, little egrets and oystercatchers have been seen on the flashes.

A water vole was reported to be seen running across the path down at the Cut and on Main bay we have had smew, teal,…

Spring is definitely in the air as can be seen from our nest box camera!

One of our many pairs of tree sparrows has begun preparing a nest in our monitored nest box. If you are visiting our reserve be sure to pop in to the visitor centre and with just a little bit of patience you are highly likely to see them, via our monitor screen, bringing material in to the nest box.

If you would like to watch and listen to the…

Nature spotting can be great fun and very exciting, but unfortunately wildlife isn’t always willing to stand in front of a hide or next to the path where we could all get a good look - this is where binoculars or telescopes come in handy. However, finding the right kit can be a real challenge, we’re offering free advice sessions to visitors wanting to know more.

Throughout March our friendly and knowledgeable…