Summer may not be quite in full flow yet, but that has put off neither the visitors, nor the wildlife around Fairburn recently, and those that came on Tuesday were treated to seeing great numbers of birds, especially on the New Path. A couple of visitors came to tell us yesterday morning that a female, as well as a juvenile redstart were spotted on the New Path, much to their admiration. And only an hour after they were seen, another visitor came to say that he had spotted a male redstart with a juvenile.
Other sightings on the New Path included a skylark and a pair of whitethroats which were seen close to the river bank before they took to the air.
Over the last couple of days, a few of you have been treated to the sight of yet more spoonbills, after two of them were spotted early last week. Their latest appearance was from Cut Lane on Tuesday afternoon when they were resting in Village Bay.
If you pass Phalarope Pool on the western side of Fairburn, the chances are you’ll spot a range of different birds, just as some of our visitors did earlier today. A greenshank was seen feeding at around lunchtime, while a green sandpiper and a pair of garganeys were spotted later on in the afternoon.
Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)
On Wednesday morning our ranger Alan spotted a variety of birds at Pickup Hide, which is our closest hide and is only 200m from the Visitors Centre. Here, he saw a common tern, an oystercatcher, a sedge warbler, and also a willow tit, all within the space of half an hour.