Well the sun has stopped shining but that doesn’t mean the wildlife here at Fairburn Ings has! We’ve had a spectacular morning for moths again this morning after last nights warm evening, perfect for our ‘meet the moths’ session. We could barely catch them there were so many! One of our favourite moths we caught today was a swallowtail moth which has such an awesome shape, amazingly very similar to a swallow with its pointed bottom wings. In total we had 142 moths and that is just a typical day of moth trapping here at Fairburn Ings at the minute with the warm weather. We’ve still have loads of gatekeeper butterflies on the reserve this week, with lots of green veined whites arriving too, especially around the visitor centre. The sound of grasshoppers will be keeping you company now in July. Did you know that the ‘stridulation’ (posh word for the noise they make when they rub two body parts together to make a noise!) is mainly made by the males to attract a female? One other very common insect which has been about this last week is the red soldier beetle. These are red-brown and can often be seen mating on hogweed and other open flowers like cow parsley.
Red soldier beetle – English Country Garden
This morning we’ve had lots of green sandpipers with 12 counted at Pickup hide and some over on Main bay alongside common sandpipers. We’ve had a great white egret spotted once again here on the reserve, seen from Lin Dike hide alongside all the many little egrets which are still about and in quite clear view. Some of you might have seen the great video of the two spoonbills which came to visit us on Wednesday afternoon! They were still flying between the Moat and Pickup hide, presuming that they were the same two which came to visit us a few weeks ago!
Two spoonbills – John Ingham (assistant warden)
There are a number of warblers making a noise this week including grasshopper warblers over by Pickup on Wednesday and a garden warbler was also heard at Lin Dike on Wednesday. I still love the sound of the grasshopper warbler’s insect-like call! There are still plenty of reed warblers singing over on Lin Dike and around the reserve up from the kingfisher screen. A fox was spotted by Big Hole on Wednesday. Now is the time when foxes will most likely have young so they will be busy looking for food for their young cubs.
Fox – Grahame Madge (RSPB images)
Our wardens are on a never-ending task at the moment in trying to manage all the vegetation on the reserve! The warm weather, sunshine and rain have meant that everything on the reserve is growing wildly and looking extremely healthy! Our beautiful rosebay willowherb is still growing alongside hedge roundwort along the discovery trail path. We also have loads of honeysuckle growing around Redshale road leaving a lovely scent as you walk through the reserve. One very understated ‘weed’ which is seen as a nuisance to most but is extremely useful for our wildlife is our lovely nettle! Yes I’m not going to pretend I have been stung on numerous occasions and hated the plant but after seeing how useful it is I think my appreciation for nettles has greatly increased! The stinging defence of the nettle provides such a good defence for the plants and also for insects. Firstly they encourage over 40 species of butterflies including peacock and tortoiseshell larvae. Nettle patches swarm with aphids which provide such a valuable food source for newly-emerged ladybirds, blue tits and other woodland birds. Nettles do tend to take-over your garden and sting you but before you start hating them too much just take into account how many insects they provide a home for and how useful that food source is for all of our birds!
Nettle – Andy Hay (RSPB images)