Firstly sorry for the delay since our last sightings blog! Although on a plus it’s great to come back to Fairburn Ings and notice all the new things about. Everything’s just looking greener and greener here on the reserve, with lush green hedgerows still teaming with new wildflowers and the trees swiftly filling up with leaves even if they are all sadly covered in rain droplets! The silver birch trees are drooping with their small triangular shaped leaves lightly dancing in the wind, with new bright green female catkins dangling like lambs-tails. The hawthorn blossoms have now mostly fallen creating a lovely white carpet along the paths. One flowering tree I have noticed a lot of around the discovery trail and up past Village Bay hide is Elder, with their heads full of small white flowers all beautifully scented. Oxeye daisies have started to come out in our wildflower patch by the centre, and lovely dog rose is flowering along the discovery trail. Its great watching the steady change of vegetation here at Fairburn, especially just coming back from a woodland plants course it’s amazing what you notice!
Elder
The reserve is teaming with young at the minute and if you can’t see them yet you can definitely see parents busying back and forward from nest sites with caterpillars and other tasty morsels for their young to feed on! I was lucky the other day to walk past a group of 4-5 young great tits which had just fledged and were busy chirping round a willow tree down cut lane. I have heard loads of stories of young fledging from nest boxes or other random sites from visitors over the past few days which are so great to hear. One of my favourites came from a neighbour telling me about blue tits nesting inside the green traffic light before Allerton Bywater, and now every time I drive past and see the half green light and I’m reminded of the blue tits inside! The three juvenile great crested grebes are still at Charlie’s hide and a few more have been spotted over at Big Hole. I was completely surprised by their amazing colour; they have the typical downy feathers along their hind, but their head and necks are white and black striped! Amazing little things! Black-headed gulls are getting extremely territorial when looking out from Bob Dickens hide its quite clear they don’t want carrion crows or other birds interfering with their nests (if you’ve been watching Springwatch I’m sure many of you wont blame them!)
Black-headed gull (Andy Hay – RSPB images)
Our Slavonian grebe is still about over Main Bay, you will need a good pair of binoculars/ scope to see it as it is proving a bit elusive, but definitely worth a spot. We’ve also had a few water rails in our sightings book this past week mainly over Cedric’s Pool and Phalarope Pool. These waders can sometimes be compared to moorhens in character, but with a large grey-front and black and white feathers on the underside of their brown wings. Apparently they have a pig-like squealing call so should be quite easy to identify overtop other birds on the reserve! We were lucky to see two little grebes with chicks on North Flashes yesterday morning alongside hearing many sedge warblers, reed warblers and even the odd grasshopper warbler. I love the sound of the grasshopper warbler ‘reeling’; their high-pitched insect-like reel definitely defines well how they got their name!
Grasshopper warbler – Mike Richards (RSPB images)
We’ve had a FIRST for Fairburn Ings this week! Our first ever dingy skipper butterfly was spotted on the riverbank trail on Tuesday! This declining butterfly can be easily confused with a moth particularly the day-flying mother shipton moth because of its similar wing shape and brown wing pattern. They are quite recognisable for their whitish frills along the hind and fore wings, and also for their long antennae with a distinct curved black tip. The species is quite localised and has suffered habitat declines over recent years, so we are thrilled to have at least the one here at Fairburn! Keep a look out for your butterflies here at Fairburn you never know when you might see a rare one!
Dingy skipper – (www.ukbutterflies.co.uk)