a busy week here again at Fairburn Ings! With the start of the summer holidays the reserve is looking on top form as ever with beautiful purple loosestrife growing around the discovery trail next to lots of rosebay willowherb and hedge woundwort. It amazes me how far reaching rosebay willowherb always seem to spread. Apparently ground clearing as a result of the world wars provided perfect conditions for this plant to…

Well the sun has stopped shining but that doesn’t mean the wildlife here at Fairburn Ings has! We’ve had a spectacular morning for moths again this morning after last nights warm evening, perfect for our ‘meet the moths’ session. We could barely catch them there were so many! One of our favourite moths we caught today was a swallowtail moth which has such an awesome shape, amazingly very similar to a swallow with its…

The glossy ibis stuck around at Fairburn until mid-week, the last sighting on Wednesday afternoon. It was great that it stayed for a few days, plenty of visitors got some great views of the bird feeding very close to the path at Lin Dike. Alongside the glossy ibis, there were plenty of other birds keeping it company, including a number of little egrets.  During the week there were ringed plovers plus little ringed plovers…

The past few weeks have been great for splashes of wildflower colour all over the reserve. Switch off for a few days and everything changes so quickly! We’ve got plenty of common ragwort sprouting along Redshale road with its yellow clump of daisy-like flowerheads. There are loads of clusters of ribbed melilot, a tall yellow vetch-like plant and self-heal, a small purple circular plant, both further along Redshale road…

We’ve had a lovely warm week here at Fairburn Ings. I’ve got to start this sightings blog with the wonderful flying spectacle we had this morning as me and my fellow volunteers walked along the road path into the reserve. The insects were out in force this morning which originally wasn’t great, but looking up and seeing the sheer amount of swifts above our heads made it all the more bearable! There have been loads swooping…