This week RSPB Aire Valley gave a bunch of us volunteers a chance to learn some bird identification tips from volunteer ranger John at Fairburn Ings. The volunteers range from gardeners to meeters & greeters, shop assistants to rangers and bloggers, so we were a mixed group and it was great to meet some of the people doing different roles to keep St Aidan's and Fairburn Ings fabulous.
I got to the reserve with – I hoped – plenty of time to spare, as I travel by bus and had to walk up through the reserve from the main road. I knew there would be plenty of distractions along the way. It was a glorious sunny day, and the path to Lin Dike was buzzing with birdsong. Blackcaps were calling, wrens and tits singing. It's a busy time to be a bird.
Male blackcap. The female wears a chestnut cap. Pic: Paul Chesterfield, rspb-images.com
The blackcap is known as the northern nightingale because of his beautiful fluting song. The birds that visit us to breed in the summer spend the winter in southern Spain or north Africa, while those that you see in your garden in the winter migrate to Germany to breed in the summer.
I rested on a bench overlooking the Coal Tips to eat my lunch, serenaded by skylarks, and was lucky enough to see this one taking a break on a budding hawthorn.
Skylark
As I stood to continue on to the Visitor Centre, I noticed a movement in the scrub behind me.
The hare necessities
Brown hares have been living in Britain since the Iron Age, when they were introduced from across the North Sea. Unlike burrow dwelling rabbits, hares make a small nest in the grass, known as a form. At breeding time, the females 'box' the males, to either tell them they aren't in the mood, or to test their determination to mate. They can raise three or four litters a year, each of two to four young, called leverets. Changes in farming methods have reduced hare numbers over the past century, but you can still see them out in the fields in winter and early spring before they disappear into the long grass.
The Coal Tips trail rewarded me with a chorus of willow warbling. Along the path overlooking the moat, it seemed that every tree had one of these tiny birds singing its heart out.
Willow warbler. Pic: John Bridges, rspb-images.com
I find the warblers very difficult to tell apart by sight, so sound is vital to make an identification. The willow warbler differs from the very similar chiffchaff by its pink legs, while chiffchaff's legs are dark brown, but it can be hard to see those little legs from a distance. The chiffchaff's song is very simple compared to the willow warbler's descending tune.
Chiffchaff. Pic: John Bridges rspb-images.com
I made it to the training session just in time, forcing myself to forego the delights of the feeders outside the Centre, at least for a couple of hours. John led our group towards the Bob Dickens hide on Main Bay, pausing to watch a newly-arrived cuckoo that was sitting on a fence post at the other side of Big Hole. Most likely it was checking out the local meadow pipits, dunnocks and reed warblers, whose nests it targets to host its own eggs. After being hatched and raised by a foster mother, the young cuckoo has to find its own way home to Africa!
Cuckoo RSPB rspb-images.com
From the Bob Dickens hide, John explained the differences between the graceful common terns and Arctic terns. Both are nicknamed 'sea swallows', although common terns are more likely to be found inland than on the coast. They have a black tip to their red beaks, while their Arctic cousins' beaks are plain red and the Arctic has longer tail streamers. The Arctic tern migrates all the way to the antarctic for the winter – that's a 44,000 mile round trip.
Common tern. Pic: Rob Hunton, Swillington Ings Bird Group
Arctic tern. Pic: Chris Gomersall, rspb-images.com
On the way back to the Visitor Centre we had a peek through the kingfisher screen. Although there were no kingfishers around at the time, this grey heron entertained me with some fish juggling, before graciously posing for a photo.
Grey heron measuring up
I finished my day out with a walk along Cut Lane, at the eastern end of the reserve. The trees there were chock full of singing chaffinches, chiffchaffs and blue tits. How such little creatures make such loud noises constantly amazes and delights me. The highlight of the walk, though, was spotting a treecreeper. These little birds dart up and around tree trunks as they search for insects and spiders. They are a resident species so can be seen all year round in our woodland.
Treecreeper
And if you want to forget about your worries and your strife, you can't go far wrong with an International Dawn Chorus Day walk on May 6th – see here for details and to book for St Aidan's, or here for Fairburn Ings.