It’s definitely feeling more like Spring here on the reserve; the sun is shining and the reserve team sat outside to eat their lunch today!! We’ve also had our first sightings of swallows over the last couple of days, always a great moment of spring.
We continue to welcome our new spring visitors including chiffchaffs and sand martins but we are yet to say goodbye to all our winter migrants with siskins and brambling still around.
On our busy feeders we have plenty of goldfinches, chaffinches, blue tits, great tits, long tailed tits, and tree sparrows, as well as a nuthatch or two and the odd mealy redpoll.
Elsewhere on the reserve there have been treecreepers, kingfishers and red kites soaring above. At Hickson’s we have had up to 18 avocets seen, two pintail and one sparrowhawk. Over at the flashes, redshanks, curlew, goldeneye, little egret and meadow pipits have all been spotted.
We managed to get four moths in our light trap on Monday and they were all different ones! A clouded drab, hebrew character, common quaker and red swordgrass. The latter took our insect expert a bit longer to identify and it hasn’t been recorded at Fairburn for six years. Its remarkable how much it looks like a stick!
Image of red sword grass moth - Ian Kimber.
We also managed to find a few creepy crawlies on our minibeast safari despite it still being a bit too chilly for them. Our explorers discovered a couple of frogs, some spiders, a few beetles and some millipedes.
We have an exciting volunteering opportunity here at Fairburn Ings on Friday this week, as part of Yorkshire Water's hands up initiative. Find out more inofrmation and get involved at http://www.yorkshirewater.com/about-us/giving-something-back/hands-up.aspx