It’s been a little while since our last sightings report so we plenty to tell you about. A pair of Egyptian geese paid us a brief visit on the 18th but haven’t been seen since. A pair of smew have been seen most days but can give observers the run around as they flit from one end of the reserve to the other.

A pair of tawny owls have been roosting along the Riverbank Trail and have been providing great views. They can be tricky to spot if you don’t know where they are hiding so if you want to see them the best bet is to join in one of our daily Ranger Walks which are free and depart from the Visitor Centre.

We have been blessed with an abundance of raptors in the past week with red kites, peregrines, marsh harriers and up to 10 buzzards seen almost daily. In addition to the tawnies we have also had sightings of barn, little and short-eared varieties of owl too.

The Cedric’s Pool area has been productive in the last few days with sightings of a pair of bearded tits, up to 4 stonechats and a singing Cetti’s warbler. Wintering wildfowl numbers out on the lakes are steadily building up with plenty of goldeneye, goosanders, shoveler, pochard and a few pintail.  Thanks to Andy Hay (rspb-images) for this super photo of a male bearded tit.

A little closer to the Visitor Centre the usual tree sparrows, willow tits and bullfinches continue to delight visitors as well as the occasional reed bunting, jay, goldcrest, redpoll and great-spotted woodpecker.

Finally sad, but interesting, news that a female blackbird that was ringed here at Fairburn in March 2013 was found in Sweden in the August. The sad part of the tale is that unfortunately the poor bird was found dead in the front grille of a car by a lady near Lidkoping. The arrival of redwings and fieldfares from the low countries and Scandinavia in autumn is a well known feature of the annual cycle of migration but, as this ringing recovery demonstrates, our winter bird population are joined by millions of other more familiar species such as; robins, starlings and blackbirds, that visit our temperate shores to escape the harsh winters of mainland Europe.