On Monday a bat was seen skimming the surface of the pond dipping pool for a quick drink. We have several species of bat at Fairburn Ings but the most commonly seen are the common pipstrelle, noctule and daubenton. Daubenton's will also feed close to or even straight off the surface of the water, scooping their prey up in their tail 'membrane'.
The hummingbird hawkmoth was seen again on both Monday and Tuesday, once on the fence around the play area, and next on the drystone wall by the path.
From Pickup we've had green woodpecker, 2 green sandpipers, 3 little egrets, 2 oystercatchers, a grey heron, and lapwings with their chicks.
The new path alongside the River Air is getting plenty of traffic and on most days adventurers along this rough and ready new route have been rewarded with the sight and sounds of turtle doves across the river. For anyone planning a trip the best spot to see them is just before the second bench. These highly patterned birds were once common but now scarcely seen, they used to breed at Fairburn Ings every year but the last time was around 4 or 5 years ago.
At Spoonbill flash, seen from Lin Dike Hide was a little ringed plover with her 3 chicks and also a brood of pochards. Today one of our reserve team surprised a bank vole along the path too which as with many of our secretive small mammals is a rare treat.
There are plenty of young birds all over the reserve including a juvenile great spotted woodpecker, you can tell because of the red cap on the front of its head, whereas Dad's is at the back of the head and Mum has an all black cap. Look out especially at the wildlife garden feeding station and see if you can tell which scruffy little odd coloured bird is what!
Commas are out and about, if you can manage to see one at rest notice the raggedy but beautiful wing edges that make this butterfly so distinct. Lots and lots of meadow browns, ringlets and green veined whites flitting about. Damselflies are everywhere you look, especially comon and blue tailed, also quite a few 4 spotted chasers and black tailed skimmers. In total on Monday 12 species of dragonfly and damselfly, and 10 species of butterfly were counted. Despite the on and off rain today most of these are showing through the sunny patches today too.
You might recognise this picture from the front of our trailguide - definitely one of my favourites, thanks again to Nik Goulthorp for kindly letting us use it!