There is a growing autumnal feel to the sightings at Fairburn Ings recently, the fungi are popping up everywhere, including fly agaric along the Riverbank Trail. Increasing numbers of birds like wigeon and teal, which will spend the winter here after breeding further east in countries like Russia, have been seen on the Flashes and Main Lake. These birds create the soundscape of the reserve throughout winter with their distinctive whistling calls. As well as early arrivals for winter, we have some birds which are passing through on their migration south for the winter, including green sandpipers, which have been seen at Pickup Hide throughout the week. These birds breed in Europe from the arctic circle down to Denmark, and also across Russia to Siberia and China. These birds are calling in at Fairburn en route to Central Africa. Fairburn Ings has long been a popular place for migrating birds to stop of at, it has always been marshy land, ideal for wading birds, and its location, right next to the River Aire means it is almost like the Services on the M1, birds following the river can just pull off and grab some food and a bit of rest. Much like some of our human visitors who stop off at Fairburn on their own journeys up, down and across the country. This time of year is great for catching a glimpse of some of these passing visitors. Keep an eye on the blog, our twitter account @fairburnings and our Facebook page www.facebook.com/RSPBWestYorks for the latest sightings info.
I got this photo of a fly agaric on the Riverbank Trail last autumn.
On a more summery note, there are still plenty of insects about, lots of speckled wood butterflies, and dragonflies including common darters, ruddy darters and migrant hawkers. It is likely some of these will be about for a few more weeks, maybe longer if the weather stays mild.
We’ve had a number of sightings of marsh harriers this week, we blogged earlier in the week about the wing tagged marsh harriers, the bird seen at Fairburn was tagged in Norfolk on 1 July 2014, and was born on 11 June 2014. Marsh harriers are often seen flying over the Flashes and Pickup pool, they have a lovely lazy flight, with a shallow v-shape to their wings, as they quarter over the grassland and reedbeds looking for food.
Other sightings of interest include a great white egret seen on the Flashes on Thursday and Friday. A spotted redshank at New Flash on Wednesday. A tree pipit seen flying south over the tips on Thursday, several little owl sightings on Wednesday around the Flashes and Newton Farm, plus blackcaps and a grey wagtail at Lin Dike. The kingfishers have made a couple of appearances at the Kingfisher Screen this week, they are often spotted on Cut Lane too.
Please let us know if you see anything interesting during your visit to Fairburn Ings, the sightings book is always in the visitor centre, and we love hearing about the cool stuff you see on the reserve.