We've had some beautful weather here at Fairburn over the last few days, making us think that maybe summer has arrived at the reserve. But that British sceptisicm means that we still have our jumpers and waterproofs to hand just in case the weather turns.
We have been watching what seems like hundreds of fledglings on and around our feeders near the visitor centre, we've got lots of tree sparrows, blue tits, great tits, goldfinches and chaffinches. We've also had lovely sightings of adults feeding their young, including a robin, blackbird, bullfinch. I saw a red legged partridge trying to coax it's 11 tiny little chicks across the road into the reserve, I think it made it with all 11.
Elsewhere on the reserve we've had several sightings of kingfishers, at the Kingfisher screen, Pickup hide and on the river. There have been sightings of redshank and marsh harrier at Pickup Hide. We've also had a peregrine over the centre, a kestrel near the centre, a sparrowhawk at the flashes and a hobby at Lin Dike.
We hosted a Hawkmoth night on Saturday and we were lucky enough to see a wide range of hawkmoths including elephant hawkmoth, poplar hawkmoth and eyed hawkmoth, they are amazing creatures and can all be found on the reserve at this time of year. But we have had some problems with their habitat being trampled, if you do visit the reserve please try and keep to the footpaths to avoid damaging the habitat of these beautiful creatures, or infact tampling the moth caterpillars themselves.
Until next time, enjoy the nice weather whilst it lasts, and if you're a 'twitterer' you can now follow us we are @fairburnings