It’s a great sunny day at Fairburn Ings so prepare for another sightings blog! The reserves invertebrate collection is looking really healthy at the minute with loads of common blue and azure damselflies fluttering amongst the reeds and four spotted chasers hovering over the ponds. A gatekeeper was spotted last Wednesday afternoon along the Riverbank trail. These butterflies have a very distinguishable black spot on the tip of their wing with chestnut-brown wings going to grey on the outer edges. It is still slightly early to see these butterflies out and about as they’re usually expected mid-summer... definitely a sign of a warmer spring! Brimstone butterflies have had a very good year this year at Fairburn Ings there can be loads of them still seen fluttering busily around the discovery trail.
Gatekeeper – UKbutterflies
We’ve had three black-tailed godwits over on New Flash this week; these are large wading birds with orangey-brown chests in summer. The species can often be confused with bar-tailed godwits which don’t have the striped wings and have shorter legs than the black-tailed godwits.
I have heard a fair few skylarks over the past week around the reserve, whilst walking along Newton Lane and over towards Lyn Dyke link. Along the Link I watched as one skylark did its classic twittering higher and higher up into the air and then looked down to see another one hand landed on top of a gorse bush just in front of me. I love their little wisps on the top of the head like little backwards caps! There have been other sightings of skylarks over on Lyn Dyke link so keep your eyes up!
Skylark – Andy Hay (RSPB-images)
We’ve had lots of viewings of kingfishers at the screen this past week as well with some juveniles also being spotted. The best way to tell a juvenile apart from an adult is to look at the brightness of its feet. Adults have bright orange feet compared to the younger bird’s duller more mottled foot appearance. Another give away is to look for the paler beak of the younger bird. These younger birds can be seen keenly experimenting with fishing this time of year. One visitor saw a juvenile catch a water beetle which she got some amusing photos of and showed us at the visitor centre!
Kingfisher – Mike Richards (RSPB-images)
The Slavonian grebe is still about at Fairburn this week and can be seen from Bob Dickens hide. Reed, sedge and grasshopper warblers are still plentiful at New Flash and Phalarope pool with some reed warblers also being heard in the reeds at Village Bay field. Another plentiful hopping little bird is the reed bunting. When out helping with a bird survey on the east flashes the other day we saw loads of these little birds bobbing up and down it was impossible to know if we’d already counted them or not! There were ample juvenile reed buntings over the flashes as well which were great to spot. Whilst walking amongst the reeds over on the flashes we came across lots of water forget-me-nots, these are very similar from the wood forget-me-nots which can be seen around the visitor centre and along Riverbank trail. Apart from the differences in habitats, there are a few differences between the two forget-me-not species. Wood forget-me-nots have more azure-blue petals with white-yellow centres whereas the water wood forget-me-nots have more clustered sky-blue petals with bright yellow centres. So you’ll have to have a very close up look!
Reed bunting – Mike Richards (RSPB-images)