We’ve had a blast of summer this week (looking out the window today it’s hard to believe), with plenty of sunshine and balmy temperatures! The British weather may be unpredictable, but that doesn’t stop some of us from getting out there to see what’s about no matter what’s thrown at us. So with that, here are the latest sightings from Fairburn Ings.
The regulars are still down at Lin Dike; bittern are still being spotted almost every day, but they have also been seen flying over the flashes. Grasshopper warblers and Cetti’s warblers can both be heard around the Lin Dike hide. Garganey are still seen pretty frequently, and we’ve also had sightings of wigeon from the hide as well as on Spoonbill flash.
Plenty of warblers are singing away along the Lin Dike trail as well – listen out for willow warblers, sedge warblers and reed warblers (a good tip for telling them apart is that sedge warblers sing from the top of reeds while reed warblers sing from within the reed bed – so if you can it, it’s probably a sedge warbler!).
I walked the Lin Dike trail with two of our ranger volunteers for the first time this week (shocking given how long I’ve been here now!), and we heard and eventually saw a green woodpecker. I’d never seen a green woodpecker before (apart from THAT photo - you know the one) and I was really surprised by just how green they are in real life. I think they’re quite comical, with their bright colours, loud ‘yaffling’ call and the undulating way they fly.
Green woodpecker - John Bridges (rspb-images.com)
There are plenty of cute chicks around at the minute, have a look for oystercatcher and avocet chicks. You might have seen that our blue tit chicks fledged a couple of weeks ago, but some of our tree sparrows have stepped up to the plate and are now delighting people in the visitor centre.
We’re running another Minibeast Safari tomorrow (14 June), and there are loads of bugs out there to find right now. This morning in our moth trap we had an unexpected huge burying beetle! As their name suggests, these beetles work in pairs to bury dead animals to feed their larvae on – it all sounds a bit grim but beetles and other bugs like these play a really important role in nature!
On the lighter side, there are all sorts of different butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies to have a look at. On my walk the other day I saw lots of common blue and holly blue butterflies, and one of our rangers Ginny took this great photo of a four-spotted chaser.
Four-spotted chaser - Ginny Sibley
-Tallulah