Since Wednesday we've had yellow, grey, pied and even a possible sighting of a white wagtail - all from lin dike with the exception of the pied wagtails which seem to be cropping up all over the place, including our picnic area. Lin dike has boasted a nice selection of waders over the last couple of days, including ruff, ringed plover, dunlin, greenshank, green sandpiper, lapwing and common sandpiper. Also down that end visitors have seen a spotted flycatcher (also seen from the discovery trail) a lesser whitethroat family with 5 young, water rail, little egret, linnets, and the lovely little grebe - also to be found fairly reliably on 'big hole' - the lake just up from the kingfisher screen.
Walking back from lin dike along the River Aire the redstart is still around, seen yesterday, along with willow warbler, wren, common tern and 2 green woodpeckers.
Technically, its not part of Fairburn Ings, but we love our local little owl and any glimpses we get, this time over the road at Newton Farm - so keep your eyes peeled while you drive safely between the visitor centre and lin dike!
Back at base we've had several buzzard sightings, a marsh harrier and sparrowhalk flying over the visitor centre, whinchat, whitethroat and lesser whitethroat, bullfinch, coal tit, lots of long tailed tits, grey heron and last but not least, 2 kingfisher sightings around the discovery trail.
For those of you who prefer your winged creatures a little daintier and less the feathers, meadow browns and gatekeepers are topping the butterfly charts, followed by speckled wood, common blue, and my favourites the peacock - 9 species to found all in all on Wednesdays survey. 7 species of dragonfly, by far the most abundant the common darter, a restless little orange dragonfly which can often be seen flitting to and from its various bankside perches.