Thanks to the lovely autumn sunshine we’ve had over the past few days, there are some great sightings to report!

There was a possible otter sighting last week in front of Bob Dickens hide – there are otters in the river Aire, and we’ve seen signs of them before, but it’s nice to know they’re still making use of the water on the reserve.

In other mammal news, a weasel was spotted down by Charlie’s hide! Weasels can be distinguished from stoats by their smaller size. Stoats also have longer tails with black tips. 

It’s been a good week for bird sightings too, as we’ve had a couple of male pintails seen over at Lin Dike. A small number of pintails breed here in the UK, but most of the birds we get come over in the winter. These ducks are slightly bigger than mallards, and they have relatively small heads and long necks. They fly with a curved back, pointed wings and a tapering tail, making them easy to distinguish from other ducks in the UK. 

We’ve also had four shelduck over the flashes in the past few days, and a female goldeneye on main bay. Two kestrels were spotted together over the visitor centre yesterday. The feeders have seen some action these past few days too, with two willow tits seen over at Pickup hide and a goldcrest at the feeder screen! The goldcrest, along with the firecrest, is the UK’s smallest bird. They like areas with pine trees as their thin beaks are perfect for picking insects out from between the pine needles. There’s also a male bullfinch taking advantage of the abundance of berries behind the kingfisher screen today.

 The sunny weather yesterday brought out a load of migrant hawker dragonflies – although it’s late in the year, these large insects are among the last we would normally see anyway, as large numbers fly over from Europe in the Autumn.

Why not come along to the reserve and tell us what you've seen lately?