There was plenty about to see this weekend, despite the slightly wetter weather which brought in quite a few damp visitors on Sunday! The wet weather was great for frogs and toads though, bringing lots of baby ones out.
The kingfisher was on good form; two were seen perched at the Screen and one at Pick-up on Saturday, and two were seen down at Lin Dike on Sunday. There were loads of sightings of little egrets at various spots on the reserve, with 10 recorded at the Flashes.
Three green sandpipers were spotted from Pick-up hide, along with a few snipe, a common sandpiper and some little grebes. The great-spotted woodpecker was a regular visitor to the feeders by Pick-up as well. Our ranger volunteers Gary, Elliot and Alan were really pleased to spot a bittern on Sunday flying over the Lin Dike area as well as redshank, greenshank and little ringed plover.
Elsewhere on the reserve there were three yellow wagtails, two dunlins and an Arctic tern. At Big Hole on Saturday, there were two yellow-legged gulls and a possible Caspian gull sighting. A raven was also reported flying over Fairburn village on Friday afternoon by our warden Steve.
The reserve is alive with insects, there is something buzzing, fluttering or hovering everywhere you look! Heaps of white butterflies are about which can be tricky to identify, we get small whites, large whites and green veined whites on the reserve. The wild flowers are full of a variety of bees such as red-tailed and buff-tailed. We found an Old Lady moth in our visitor centre this morning and one young visitor discovered a water scorpion in their pond dipping bucket!