It’s been a busy old week for birds of prey here at Fairburn.  Buzzards have been spotted nearly every day with sightings at Newfield, Pick-up and from Lin Dike hide. Two red kites were also seen over Newfield at the weekend and another two flew over the visitor centre on Thursday.

On Monday there was a peregrine over Lin Dike, and another over Cedric’s pool on Tuesday. Down at Cedric’s there was also a…

You’ll know about our charms of goldfinches and parliament of long-eared owls, but has anyone ever turned to you and said ‘oh just look at that mutation of thrushes’? – no, me neither...

What other weird and wonderful collectives can you see around the reserve?

Pheasant, Ben Hall (rspb-images.com)

Head off around the Discovery Trail where the tame robin has caused quite a stir with visitors…

Remember back in October when I suggested we could have heard the last chiffchaff song of the year? Well not quite... December 1^st a chiffchaff was heard singing at the far end of the reserve near Hickson’s pool!  If you hear any more this year, please do let us know.

Chiffchaff, John Bridges (rspb-images.com)

There have been several goldeneye spotted on the reserve this week.  They’re not a particularly uncommon…

The recent sightings book in the visitor centre is full of wonderful sightings, but alas, I have already written about many of the new and exciting arrivals! So, I thought it was probably about time we took a moment to appreciate some of the more common birds that are in the book on a regular basis.

Treecreepers are a little mouse-like in appearance and are never still, constantly moving up trees in search of food. They…

How beautiful are redwings!? It was weeks ago that I wrote about the first sightings in the book and since then there has been a huge influx. This week I got my first real opportunity to stand and stare at one up-close. They are so vibrant, though I don’t know why I was surprised; photos never really prepare you for the real thing. I saw a pair of bullfinches this morning on my way along the Riverbank Trail and I think…

Together they make up this week's recent sightings!

Snipe, Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)

After a water rail seen at Pickup Hide in last week’s blog, the showmanship was taken to the next level yesterday when a water rail was spotted behind the kingfisher screen eating a ‘massive fish’, as described in the recent sightings book. Water rails have and incredibly varied diet and will eat everything from berries and…

We’ve had a fairly mild and sunny week for half term at Fairburn with many of the usual wildlife suspects around, including juvenile willow tits and tree sparrows busy with nesting material! Apparently the tree sparrows nested well into November back in 2006; if it carries on being mild with plenty of resources around who knows how long they’ll keep it up this year.

A couple of interesting moths turned up…

Bigger than a song thrush but smaller than a mistle thrush, fieldfares are striking winter visitors. Several flocks have been spotted at Fairburn this week, distinctive for their leisurely flight and, if you’re close enough, their beautiful plumage.  Quite heavyset compared to other thrushes, hundreds of thousands arrive each winter to take advantage of our berry stocks and flocks of them travel the countryside in…

Hello.

My name is Jonny Holt and I am the new warden intern at Fairburn Ings Nature Reserve. I have previously spent six (very sunny) months at Blacktoft Sands, on the Humber Estuary. With its vast reedbeds and salt marshes Blacktotfts is a spectacularly beautiful reserve. While I was there I learnt many new skills, from reed cutting to bird surveys, my highlight though, has to be, being part of team that helped protect…

The influx of overwintering birds is picking up steam now that the weather has turned chillier, lots has been spotted this week.

If you head down the Riverbank Trail keep an eye out for whooper swans. They’re slightly smaller than the commonly spotted mute swan with a distinctive yellow and black bill. Also down there, you’re likely to come across a brambling or two, similar looking to a chaffinch but can be picked out…

Today Fairburn Ings disappeared.  I woke up, looked out of the window, and there was nothing. Ferrybridge power station was gone, and I’m sure Village Bay was there when I went to sleep.  

The culprit? A stubborn blanket of fog that lingered until lunchtime.

Why was it fog and not mist? They’re one and the same really – tiny droplets of water suspended in the air. The only difference is density.  If…

Main Bay and Village Bay are full of the usual suspects, but look amongst them and you might spot a dunlin or two. There have also been a couple of great black-backed gulls and pink-footed geese in the mix.  Pink-footed geese don’t breed in the UK but hundreds of thousands are arriving from their breeding grounds in Iceland and Greenland. From a distance they look very similar to greylag geese, but one of the easiest ways…

It might be October but don’t shout, the chiffchaffs might hear!  Although generally considered a summer migrant, there are many chiffchaffs that overwinter in the UK. I’ve seen a couple while out and about this week but one was actually heard singing just a couple of days ago. It’s been suggested that this mild weather and number of daylight hours may have confused them with springtime.  The weather has…

As my switch of reserves drew closer a few weeks ago, I have to admit that there was a little part of me that was really reluctant to leave the comforting depths of the woods and come somewhere so flat, open and...watery.

I take it back.

It’s been a week since my arrival and the chilly misty mornings and balmy autumn afternoons have helped me settle in here.  Staring out across main bay with the sun on the water…

Hi

I’m Sally, the new visitor intern.  What a whirlwind – two days ago I was lurking beneath the trees of a woodland reserve in the depths of the midlands. Now, here I am back in Yorkshire at last. Phew.

Fairburn Ings - David Wootton

I’ll be here for the next six months and suffice to say, I’m pretty excited. This is one of my favourite times of year and I’m ready to absorb as much as I can. I’ll admit…

Well 6 months have been and gone and now I am here on my final day here as visitor officer Intern at Fairburn Ings! Its been a whirlwind of an adventure but just to give you a sum up of my best bits...

Firstly the amazing wildlife, having no real experience of identifying birds or wildlife before the Internship I was really excited to be able to say ‘I know what that is!’ I remember one of my first weeks here and spotting…

Autumn is definitely in the air at Fairburn Ings! Just a quick walk around the reserve and you can already see leaves starting to look tired and droopy compared the fresh, bright reds of the newly emerged berries. I love watching the gradual change in the leaves as they turn steadily more and more reddish as the season changes. Rose-hips, blackberries and hawthorn berries are great for so many of our small rodents on…

It’s been a weekend of two halves with grey wet weather on Saturday and glorious sunshine on Sunday. The sightings book reflects this with very few sightings recorded on Saturday, let’s face it who wants to be out and about when the weather is grim! Whether that’s people out looking; or creatures not out and about to be seen!

Sunday however saw good numbers of Lapwing at Big Hole; 230 were counted,…

There is a growing autumnal feel to the sightings at Fairburn Ings recently, the fungi are popping up everywhere, including fly agaric along the Riverbank Trail. Increasing numbers of birds like wigeon and teal, which will spend the winter here after breeding further east in countries like Russia, have been seen on the Flashes and Main Lake.  These birds create the soundscape of the reserve throughout winter with their…

There has been an interesting recent sighting of a juvenile marsh harrier with green wing tags at Fairburn Ings. It is a juvenile male from Cantley in Norfolk. The British Trust of Ornithology (BTO) tagged him on the 1^st July this year; he was one in a brood of three (two males and one female). To date the BTO have tagged 165 marsh harriers with sightings coming in from all over Britain as well as main land Europe and…

Its a funny time of year right now, we’ve still got some of our classic summer wildlife about including plenty of dragonflies and damselflies, I spotted these darters on the fence near the pond dipping platform, always a good spot to look for these insects as they bask in the sun to warm up.

We’re also getting some more autumnal wildlife, with migrating birds like redstarts (seen in the hedges near Pickup hide…

Over the last few days we've had a few different birds listed in our recent sightings book including redstarts, spotted flycatchers, whinchats and wheatears.  These birds are all likely to be passing through Fairburn as they start to head south for the winter.  Yep, its that time already. They are all at the beginning of a long perilous journey, whinchats, wheatears and redstarts will spend the winter in the southern…

It’s nearly the weekend which means time to have a look at what’s been spotted around the reserve this week. Walking around the discovery trail it was obvious the sun had bought all the insects out! There were loads of common darter dragonflies about yesterday which are the larger red dragonflies and quite easy to notice zooming quickly about the paths. Ruddy darter damselflies have also been quite commonly seen about…

So after all the rain of yesterday it is quite a nice surprise to see the sun shining once more! One thing I would like to mention first off, and I have heard many mention this as they wonder round the reserve, is how early the blackberries are this year! Walking up Cut lane there are loads of blackberries already ripening lovely and black perfect for feeding up all of them young fledglings. We have had so many juvenile…

Its been a busy week at Fairburn Ings, its the school holidays so we've had plenty of visitors and a wide variety of wildlife too.  This time of year is great for watching dragonflies and damselflies, they tend to hang around the Discovery trail, the smaller pond dipping pond is a good spot for dragonflies like the southern and brown hawker, the wooden fencing is a popular with damselflies, which seem to like sitting…