This week Fairburn Ings was delighted to take part in Chris Packham's UK Bioblitz 2018. We were one of 50 wildlife sites chosen to undertake a wildlife audit, the results of which will be used to create a benchmark to measure the rise and fall of many different species in future years. Visitors to the reserve joined RSPB staff and volunteers to identify and count bugs, birds, plants and pondlife.

I spotted a P…

It may only be July but autumn migration is underway, waders are starting to move and the timing couldn’t be better with water levels dropping around the reserve. The top visitor would have to be the scarce wood sandpiper which has been present since the 10^th July on spoonbill flash. The wood sandpiper is an elegant small wader with spangled upperparts, white supercilium (stripe above the eye) and either greenish…

That fiendish bird sneaks an egg into a much smaller bird’s nest and what hatches is a blind, naked murderer who immediately pushes overboard any “siblings”. A chick that runs its “parents” ragged and grows rapidly to monstrous proportions that could swallow a “parent” whole. It has such a mesmerising gape that even passing birds can’t help giving it food destined for their own. The long held belief that most birds are…

A much overlooked bird around the reserve is the tree sparrow, there is a very healthy population concentrated around the visitor centre. There are screens in the visitor centre from which you can watch the comings and goings of the breeding tree sparrows in the nest boxes around the centre, a nice way to have a breather out of the sun with an ice cream.

Tree sparrows suffered a severe decline since the 1970’s, the UK…