This is my final sightings blog here at Fairburn Ings so I will try and make it a good one, packed full of exciting wildlife! My 6 months here has flown past and it’s time for me to move on to pastures new, I’ll be sad to say goodbye to such as great place, people and of course the wildlife.
Down on Main Bay this week we’ve had pochards, great crested grebes, a black tern and plenty of swans. There have also been large groups of Canada geese and greylag geese flying over the bays or in the fields over the road. When a group of geese is in flight they are called a skein, whereas on the ground they are called a gaggle! Black-tailed godwits and even a kingfisher were spotted from the duck feeding platform looking out over Main Bay on Tuesday.
There’s so much to see up at Lin Dike at the moment, the garganeys are on the Flashes along with ruffs, little egrets, dunlins, greenshanks and a whimbrel. There have also been sightings of marsh harriers, a peregrine and a bittern flying over this area. Whinchats have been spotted a couple of times recently around Cedric’s pool, plus a wheatear. We've had a few mammal sightings as well including a weasel and a fox on the Lin Dike link trail.
There are lots of lapwings about on the reserve, particularly at Charlie’s hide and on the Flashes. The sparrowhawk has been seen at Pick-up a few times this week, one volunteer saw it try and make off with a juvenile little ringed plover! Also at Pick-up there have been green sandpipers, grey herons and a jay.
We’ve had a couple of new butterfly sightings in the last few days with a clouded yellow on Newton Lane and a brown argus on the reserve. There are still a high number of green-veined whites about and a fair few small tortoiseshells, common blues and speckled woods. Quite a few common darters and migrant hawkers are about this week with smaller numbers of damselflies.
On the feeders outside the visitor centre this morning there’s been a nuthatch, willow tit and a pair of bullfinches visiting. There’s also the usual suspects of finches, tits, tree sparrows and the odd robin.