Given that it’s such a beautiful sunny morning here at Fairburn Ings, I thought I may as well kick off today’s sightings blog with a bird I’ve just seen in the wildlife garden – the lovely nuthatch! Nuthatches are regular visitors to our wildlife garden feeders nowadays, but this hasn’t always been the case – the first sighting of a nuthatch here on the reserve was as recent as September 2012, and we know they bred in nearby woods last year, so it’s great to see them so often now.
The nimble nuthatch gets its name from a habit of wedging large food items such as seeds and nuts into crevices before hacking at them with its strong, pointy beak. These beautiful little birds are instantly recognisable by their shape, colour and behaviour. They are quite squat and plump, but appear streamlined at both ends like a miniature woodpecker.
Nuthatch image by Ray Kennedy (rspb-images.com)
Nuthatches are active and restless little birds, and those in our wildlife garden tend to scurry shyly up and down the tree trunks before popping out into the open to collect a seed. Their neat blue-grey upper parts make a lovely contrast with peachy-brown bellies, and the dashing black eye masks they have make them look like a mini bird-version of Zorro (that’s what comes to my mind at least!).
Another fantastic sighting from the visitor centre came yesterday when I popped out onto the balcony, just in time to see a majestic sparrowhawk plough into the feeders by the play area. I’m not sure that it managed to grab anything, but just seeing these amazingly agile and powerful birds of prey is always a treat. Their slate-grey backs, intense yellow eyes and strong barring on belly and chest mean they are quite distinctive, and their agility and speed make them perfectly adapted for hunting small birds in confined spaces such as gardens.
Sparrowhawk image by Ben Hall (rspb-images.com)
If you have a resident sparrowhawk in your neighbourhood, then rejoice! Your garden birds may be a little more flighty, but the presence of this top predator means that populations of smaller birds are doing especially well.
Our resident Kingfishers are still putting in regular appearances at the Kingfisher screen – and I was thrilled to have my first sighting for a couple of weeks yesterday. No matter how many times you’ve seen these wonderful little birds, you can’t fail to get a rush of excitement when you spot the tell-tale flash of electric blue!
Lots of wonderful wildfowl are being spotted around the flashes, including goldeneyes, herons, little egrets and pochards – no sign of our smews yesterday or today as yet, but we’ll keep you up to date.