What a busy week for sightings, spring is well and truly here. We have the migrants to prove it!
Sand martins are now becoming quite prolific in the sightings book, going from one or two, to twelve, to sixty, to around two hundred in the past couple of days. Keep an eye out for them over Main bay and Village bay.
Swallow, Chris Gomersall (rspb-images.com)
There was a wheatear and our first swallow spotted down at Lin Dike at the weekend, these beautiful birds are beginning to arrive from Africa ready for the breeding season.
Out on the Moat the heronry is bursting with spring life, not only do we have cormorant chicks, but some of the heron eggs have also now hatched. Standing on the Coal Tips trail looking down over trees heavy with nests, it’s almost pre-historic.
Comma butterfly, Grahame Madge (rspb-images.com)
Lots of butterflies about too, more peacocks have been spotted but there have now been comma butterflies and small tortoishell seen out on the reserve as well.
You may have seen them out on Main bay but the avocets are back! These gorgeous, delicate birds are the symbol of the RSPB as they are one of the first birds the organisation helped bring back from the brink of extinction in the UK. They have bred successfully here for the past two years, so fingers crossed for 2016.
Avocet, Chris Gomersall (rspb-images.com)
The stars of the show this weekend were undoubtedly the frogs and toads, head down to the pond dipping platform and the air is filled with the sound of mating, bellowing amphibians. Somehow toads are making it up onto the visitor centre balcony and we have to regularly remove them and put them safely back in the pond.
Balcony toad, taken by Sally Granger
A couple of sightings I don’t want to miss from the blog are the hen harrier over Hickson’s flash last weekend. What a spot! Top that off with a goshawk and two ravens over the visitor centre, and I think we can safely say it has been an excellent week for wildlife at Fairburn Ings.