We’ve had a brilliant start to the New Year sightings-wise, with plenty of visitors in over the holidays to keep us up to date with the wildlife around the reserve.
On Saturday an enormous skein of around 350 pink-footed geese passed over the reserve. These geese don’t breed in the UK, but spend their winters here in large numbers, mainly in coastal areas in England and Scotland. Their breeding grounds for the rest of the year lie in Spitsbergen, Iceland and Greenland, so they come over here to escape the extreme cold. So-called ‘Pinkfoots’ are medium-sized geese, smaller than mute swans, with smoky brown and grey plumage. They look similar to greylag geese, which also have pinkish legs and feet, but have dark brown heads and pink bills, whereas greylags have noticeable orange bills.
Pink-footed geese image by Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)
A woodcock was spotted flying over the flashes last week. These unusual looking and bulky wading birds are largely nocturnal, and spend most of their days under dense cover in wooded areas. Their beautifully mottled chestnut brown, grey and black feathers help them to blend in perfectly, so often the only thing you’ll see of a woodcock is its rear end flying away as it bursts out from beneath your feet! Most of the birds we have here are breeding residents, although birds from Russia and Finland are known to over winter here too, so this one could have been a foreign visitor.
Woodcock image by Stanley Porter (rspb-images.com)
At the end of last week a little grebe was spotted on the reserve – although they were all over the place in the autumn, I haven’t seen many at all this winter, possibly due to the fact that they move about and form large winter groups. These dumpy little birds are very distinctive because of their minute size, and rather fluffy plumage, which makes them look at first glance like some sort of chick – this could be the origin of their other name ‘dabchick’. Although they’re a rather indistinct brown and grey in the winter months, their summer colouring is much more eye-catching, with a bright chestnut throat and a white patch at the base of the bill.
Little grebe image by Kaleel Zibe (rspb-images.com)
Why not kick off the new year with a visit to the reserve? Come in and tell us about the wonderful wildlife you've spotted around Fairburn Ings.