Well, we may as well begin with the big sighting of the week; the osprey! Our Assistant Warden, John, claims that he has spent the past two years giving every gull over Fairburn a shrewd assessment during the spring and summer. His diligence paid off on Wednesday when he spotted an osprey flying West over the visitor centre up towards the flashes.
Osprey, Chris Gomersall (rspb-images.com)
Ospreys are beautiful, fish-eating birds of prey which migrate from West Africa for the summer every year. They were extinct in the UK for a good chunk of the early 20th century but returned to nest in Scotland at Loch Garten in the 1950’s. Since then their numbers have steadily increased and in the late 90’s they began slowly spreading into England and Wales. There are now roughly 250 pairs in the UK, and each year we get a few sightings as they pass over the reserve on their migration, its always lovely to see them.
Grey heron, John Bridges (rspb-images.com)
Another bird of prey spotted on the reserve this week was a Marsh Harrier. Many of the sightings reported so far this year have been of an immature male, but this week he seems to have departed and this bird was actually an immature female.
The avocets are visible most days on Main Bay and up at Hickson’s pool, there are roughly 20 birds out on the reserve in total. Fingers crossed for a successful nesting season for them this year.
Little ringed plover, Ben Hall (rspb-images.com)
The heronry is looking fantastic, this year we have a record number of nests, nearly double our previous highest number. Most of them now have young on them too, you can see the heronry from the Coal Tips trail out on the Moat.
A couple of other notable sightings include the first house martin on Tuesday, and a couple of little ringed plover on Monday and Thursday.