It’s a busy busy Saturday here at Fairburn today – so here’s a speedy low-down on the wildlife we’ve been treated to this week! On the Riverbank Trail end of the reserve (Main Bay and beyond) we have lots of wildfowl, such as shoveller (with their ridiculous bills!) in numbers reaching 250+, shelduck, pintail (with their ridiculous tails!), goosander every day, about 10 goldeneye, and an immature male scaup which has usually been spotted fast asleep by Village Bay island.
Shoveler, Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)
Up on the Coal Tips, the starling murmerations aren’t disappointing anyone! We’re hearing reports of around 20,000 nearly every night now. I’ll be heading up tonight! A marsh harrier has been roosting by the Coal Tips too, and decided to ‘have a go’ at the straggling starlings. A bed time snack? The marsh harriers around at the moment are one male, a female and two juveniles- and are seen most days.
If you’re up on the Coal Tips but not quite at the right time for the murmerations, worry not. We’re having some lovely sightings of green woodpeckers with their easy-to-ID ‘bouncing’ flight, plus lots of stonechats and a woodcock or two!
Green woodpecker - Chris Gomersall (rspb-images.com)
Around the visitor centre and Discovery Trail we’ve been treated to some gorgeous woodland species. Goldcrests and yellowhammers are flashing about in the trees, tagging on to flocks of tits. Plus treecreepers, nuthatches and greater-spotted woodpeckers are adorning the tree trunks. At least one water rail has been showing well at Pickup Hide too – he was seen on the 15th of the month but not in the sightings book since.
Treecreeper - John Cook
As we all know, wildlife doesn't always follow human rules - we heard that on Friday, a sparrowhawk took one of our kingfishers from the screen. This must have been an amazing sight - nature is nature after all, and all species have to eat! This sparrowhawk has been seen for the last year practicing this move, so it's been a long time coming!
Sparrowhawk vs. Kingfisher - Peter Bembridge facebook.com/groups/yorkshi…