If you’ve never been to Fairburn Ings nature reserve before, you really should come take a look. There’s heaps of wildlife to see and loads of fun stuff to get involved with. We’ve got pond dipping and quiz trails for kids, and you can keep up to date with all our events at our website, www.rspb.org.uk/fairburnings.I've been here for over 2 months now and absolutely love the place!
Just outside our visitor centre we’ve got a wildlife garden with a small pond, rockery, herb garden and feeders which attract lots of birds. We get plenty of tree sparrows, blue tits, great tits and greenfinch, along with nuthatches, bullfinch and there is still the odd siskin around.
Further into the reserve at our closest hide, Pick-up, we get a range of waterfowl including pochard, gadwall and shoveler. On your way round the reserve you’re very likely to see butterflies such as the lovely orange tips, brimstones, speckled woods and holly blues, as well as various bumblebees. We’re getting a couple more sightings of damselflies too as we head towards summer, such as the large red damselfly.
If you venture further out into the reserve, you could see and hear a variety of warblers such as blackcaps, whitethroats, sedge and garden warbler. At the flashes you might see garganey, teal and snipe, whilst over the opposite end of the reserve there are arctic and common terns, plus little ringed plovers and turnstones.
In the Main and Village Bay area there are a tremendous number of swifts at the moment, more than I have ever seen before. Swifts spend the majority of their lives flying, only touching ground to breed. So by the end of their life they can have flown millions of miles!
We get birds of prey over our reserve as well; you could catch a glimpse of buzzards, kestrels or even a marsh harrier. We’ve also had a few hobby sightings in the last few days which has long pointed wings and is about the same size as a kestrel.
Hobby - RSPB image
There is also a brand new RSPB site opening just up the road from Fairburn Ings called St Aidan’s, where you can explore 7.5 miles of footpaths and bridleways. This site was formerly an open cast mine but is now home to an amazing variety of wildlife. It opens to the public on Saturday 25 May so come and check it out!