The weather may have started off dreadfully this week, but it has certainly got better over the last couple of days, and that seems to have brought out quite a lot of birds in the area too. Little over half an hour after we opened on Wednesday morning, one of our regular visitors came to say that he had spotted a little egret at Pickup Hide. And later that day, an eagle eyed visitor reported that a greenshank, a wren, a garden warbler and a kingfisher could also be seen at Pickup Hide.
Wednesday was certainly the day of the week to see the woodpeckers around Fairburn, with various people coming to us to say that they had seen a few species of them. A greater spotted woodpecker, and also a green woodpecker could be seen opposite the Visitors Centre, and on the Boardwalk respectively. On Wednesday no one had spotted the pair of spoonbills in Village Bay, but on Thursday they returned to the area and were seen on the island from the Village Bay Hide.
At around lunchtime, we were told that at Lin Dike, two greenshanks, a sparrowhawk, as well as a peregrine could be seen in and above the water. Throughout the day on the Riverbank trail, a sedge warbler, a willow warbler, a garden warbler and a chiffchaff were spotted.
On Friday the weather was more like what we want, rather than what we expect from a typical English summer, and a lot of you took advantage of that to come and visit us. Those of you that went to Pickup Hide reported two green sandpipers as well as a greenshank during the morning and a green woodpecker in the trees around the boardwalk area, for one visitor as he was heading back to the visitors centre.
Written by Andy Rhodes.