This month’s sightings blog begins at RSPB Fairburn Ings. After passing the visitor centre and wildlife garden, I made my way down the discovery trail before arriving at the pickup hide. There was an abundance of finches, tits, and even a little wren which were all enjoying the feeding station; with Autumn and Winter approaching rather quickly, it’s important for them to start building their fat reserves. A juvenile Goldfinch who hadn’t yet developed all of its colourful feathers made most use of the sunflower heart feeder, sitting there for around ten minutes! Goldfinches are many people’s favourite garden bird and are therefore commonly attempted to be attracted to people’s gardens. Despite some leaving to warmer countries for the winter, most of the UK’s Goldfinch population remains in the UK year round. Because of this, it’s never too late to try to attract these attractive looking birds. Some of their favourite food includes sunflower hearts or nyger seed (requires specialist nyger seed feeder) or if you’d like a more natural alternative then planting teasel will help massively! During this time of year in Autumn and Winter, the seed heads dry out and Goldfinch’s specialist thin beaks can easily tweezer the small seeds out from between the spikes.
I then continued walking up past the kingfisher screen and up to ‘big hole’ where there were moorhens, gulls, and several corvids. Suddenly, a flash of green caught my attention as an almost exotic looking bird emerged from the grass. A Green Woodpecker! They are our largest Woodpecker species and their favourite food are Ants hence why it was initially foraging around on the ground before I had disturbed it. Determined to capture a photo of the beautiful bird, I approached the treeline where I had seen it fly towards. I could just about make out it’s silhouette in a distant tree and snapped a photo just before it flew away further. Not perfect but adequate for identification!
Finishing up with this exciting sighting, I returned to the visitor centre to add my sightings to the sightings book. On my walk back, I also managed to add a grey squirrel and cormorants to my list.
The top ten sightings over at RSPB St Aidans recently have been:
Our star species this month is the glossy ibis. These wading birds are an uncommon visitor to the UK though most that do make their way here arrive in Autumn. Our warming climate is likely contributing to the increased sightings of them.
Other sightings include:
Don't forget to tag us in your photos and videos on Twitter and Facebook, and to pop into the little owl cafe or visitor centre to tell us what you've seen!
Writing and photos: Reece Smith, Social media volunteer
Blog cover image: Ben Andrews (RSPB Images)