RSPB St Aidan's is home to hundreds of species, many of which are rare, but one in particular which is very special indeed.

Certain species of bird are so sensitive and rare that their location isn't disclosed in order to protect them (Schedule 1). However, if you've been interested in birdwatching in Yorkshire for over a fortnight, you've probably heard about our black necked grebes. They are all over social media…

This week RSPB Aire Valley gave a bunch of us volunteers a chance to learn some bird identification tips from volunteer ranger John at Fairburn Ings. The volunteers range from gardeners to meeters & greeters, shop assistants to rangers and bloggers, so we were a mixed group and it was great to meet some of the people doing different roles to keep St Aidan's and Fairburn Ings fabulous.

I got to the reserve…

Fairburn Ings is springing into life. The leaves are beginning to appear, there are new songs to hear around the trails & we've seen quite a lot of frisky activity from the office window!


Lin Dike

On the way top the hide, listen out for the newcomers - we've had the arrival of whitethroats, chiff chaffs and blackcaps.

Chiff chaff - Mick Noble (SIBG1@wordpress.com)

A very diverse mix of species this week…

One of my guilty pleasures is the Yorkshire Birds and Birders group on Facebook. This week it has been teasing me with photos of some of the 18 black-necked grebes that are currently at St Aidan's. They must have been feeling camera shy on my visit because I didn't see one. But you might! The word in the Visitor Centre was that the best place to see one is on the corner of Lemonroyd by the Causeway.

Black-necked…