It’s been a lovely few days on the reserve – despite the chilly weather, there’s been plenty of fresh winter sunshine and lots of fantastic sightings! On Sunday I was lucky enough to be able to tag along on the Wetland Bird Survey, which is a monthly count of wetland birds including waders and waterfowl run by the British Trust for Ornithology. The survey aims to monitor population sizes of non-breeding birds to identify…

Here's a blog from our wildlife garden volunteers Teresa and Louise

Well hello,

You may have noticed we were out in force (pond force actually) re-landscaping the pond recently.... this allowed us to improve the structure and look after this valuable water source.  Introducing water to your garden is one of the most important things you can do for nature. Obviously the bigger the better in some respects but even…

There have been a fair few raptor sightings around the reserve lately, so this week’s sightings blog is a bit of a raptor feature.

Firstly have been the red kites – for several days last week and the week before, we had sightings of one or two of these large and graceful birds scouting for prey above the visitor centre and the surrounding fields. The first warning of their arrival comes when every other bird in…

We’ve had some great December sightings today, so we’ll kick off with a grey wagtail, spotted by our ranger volunteers David and Ginny near the Kingfisher screen. Despite their name, they are very colourful little birds, with a brilliantly bold yellow underside, smart slate-grey body and black wings and tail. Their tails are noticeably longer than those of pied and yellow wagtails, and you’ll most often see them by water…

Nearly every morning so far this December, I’ve been stuck whistling that familiar tune ‘Twelve days of Christmas’ – and why? Because a red-legged partridge has become a familiar sight on a morning in our wildlife garden outside the visitor centre! Red-legged partridges aren’t native to the UK, having been brought over from continental Europe as a game species. They are however quite pretty, and very distinctive, with…

We’ve had some lovely sightings treats for the start of December, so I’ll start with my personal favourite – the goldcrest. Along with the firecrest, which is similar in appearance and a little scarcer, the goldcrest is the UK’s smallest bird. It’s been spotted around the riverbank trail repeatedly over the past couple of weeks, and I was lucky enough to spot it in a tree near big hole on my way into work the other day…

For today’s sightings blog, I may as well start with what I saw on my walk into work, which was very eventful indeed! On my way along the riverbank trail, I had a great view of a jay flying through the trees. This time of year is great for watching woodland birds, as most of the leaves have fallen so you can get a better view. Speaking of leaves, the leafy carpet covering the paths at the moment makes the walk very atmospheric…

Today is a special day for RSPB Hope Farm. For the first time, reserve shops across the country are selling produce from the farm – quality extra-virgin rapeseed oil! To understand why this is such a fantastic occasion, a bit of background will come in handy...

Hope Farm farmhouse - image by Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)

The RSPB has owned Hope Farm in Cambridgeshire since 2000, and over the past 13 years,…

We’ve had great sightings every day for the past few days, so here are the latest updates...

I spotted a beautiful Jay flying along the riverbank trail near big hole on my walk into work on Saturday morning – early mornings are a great time of day to spot all kinds of wildlife, and the sunrises are lovely too! There was also a nuthatch spotted on the visitor centre feeders in the afternoon, which is always a treat…

The chilly weather is definitely bringing the birds out for all to see lately, as they’re busy fattening up for winter.

Wednesday was a good day for ducks, with both a goldeneye and a pintail seen on north flash. Sixteen goosanders were also spotted on the flashes. These handsome diving ducks are a member of the sawbill family, so-called because of their long, serrated bills which are used for catching fish.

Thanks to the lovely autumn sunshine we’ve had over the past few days, there are some great sightings to report!

There was a possible otter sighting last week in front of Bob Dickens hide – there are otters in the river Aire, and we’ve seen signs of them before, but it’s nice to know they’re still making use of the water on the reserve.

In other mammal news, a weasel was spotted down by…

It’s been a busy few days for the birds on the reserve this week. The flashes have seen plenty of action, with a sparrowhawk spotted over Cedric’s pool on Friday, and pintails, snipes and goldeneyes all seen on Spoonbill flash on Sunday. Green Woodpeckers and Marsh Harrier have also been seen from Lin Dike hide in the past few days.

Main Bay is the place to be for the ducks at the moment, with Widgeons, Gadwalls…

We’ve had some rather wet and blustery weather over the past few days, and this has brought with it some unusual visitors, such as a couple of gannets on Friday, which were seen flying north-west over the flashes! Gannets are large and beautiful white birds with black wingtips and creamy yellow heads, and they have a wingspan of up to two metres! They hunt fish by diving from a height into the sea and chasing them under…

There’s a noticeable autumn chill in the air at the moment, and for the first time since the glorious summer, we’re donning coats and gloves outside.

Despite this dip in the weather though, we’re still getting great sightings, and the reserve is looking lovelier by the day during the transition to autumn colours. On my way into work this morning I was lucky enough to see a group of long-tailed tits on their…

Well it’s been a heck of a week as far as sightings go on the reserve. On Thursday we were paid a visit by a Great White Egret, which hung around for an hour or two, even putting in an appearance over the visitor centre before moving on! This huge white heron can have a wingspan of up to 1.7 metres, and expanding populations in Europe mean that they are being seen more frequently in the UK. They can turn up in almost…

As I’ve just been on an action packed walk up to Lin Dike and back with site manager Darren, I thought I may as well start with a recount of what we spotted. Dunlin, Snipe and Little Stint had been seen when we arrived at the hide, and in the distance was the exciting spectacle of a Marsh Harrier being mobbed by crows. Our walk back along the river saw more marvellous raptors such as a Sparrowhawk, Buzzard and Red Kite…

This morning has seen a kick start to the week for our sightings book, as we saw a nuthatch, a willow tit and a wood mouse in the wildlife garden while we were opening up – talk about giving nature a home! Wood mice have been a recurring sight around the visitor centre over the past few weeks, as they’ve been picked up on our camera trap a few times too. There are loads of fascinating facts about these small nocturnal…

We had a fantastic surprise at the start of this week, as our reserve team stumbled across something very special indeed – two harvest mouse nests! Harvest mice are the smallest mammals in Britain, weighing around the same amount as a two pence piece! Although they are found across Europe, it’s fantastic to see their nests here at Fairburn because this reserve is at the northern limit of their range here in the UK – they…

Now that winter is nearly upon us, most of the greenery of spring and summer has finally died away for the year. You might think that it looks a little dull and lifeless outside, but nothing could be further from the truth!

Take the time to look a little closer and you can discover a whole new world that’s been right under your nose all along! The word bryophytes won’t mean much to most people, but it’s just a…

The leaves are starting to change colour and fall and the berries are out - it can only mean one thing - Autumn is on its way. Autumn is a busy time in the garden but try and resist the urge to be too tidy - whilst its tempting to clear everything away this often means taking food and shelter from wildlife. The birds will feast on the seed heads from the flowers and the insects will overwinter in hollow stems so make sure…

We’ve had some fantastic sightings this Halloween half term, with the kingfishers seen just about daily at the kingfisher screen and down towards Charlie’s hide. The redwing and fieldfare sightings are coming in thick and fast too, as these beautiful birds migrate over here to make to the most of our berries. We’ve also had a good week for finches, with both siskins and redpolls spotted flying over the reserve, along…

We’ve got an exciting new fungus to add to the list this week – pleated inkcap fungus, which was spotted in both village bay field and the play area outside the visitor centre. This delicate little grey fungus is widespread in the UK, and occurs on short grass. It is also sometimes known as the ‘little Japanese umbrella’!

Pleated Inkcap

You can’t go far on the reserve without seeing shiny…

Today’s blog is a little sad, as we say goodbye to Karen, Fairburn Ings’ assistant warden. Karen is taking a year off for her maternity leave, so congratulations will be in order soon! It’s been a heck of a day for her to go out on though, as no sooner than we all got into the office this morning, we got the alert for a red-necked phalarope over on new flash!

Everyone promptly rushed out of the office…

Although we’re fast approaching autumn, if you walk around the reserve you might notice that there are still quite a few wildflowers hanging about, lending us a few remaining splashes of summer colour.

White dead-nettle, for instance, can still be seen alongside a lot of the visitor paths – particularly on the path to the Kingfisher screen from the visitor centre. Keep your eyes low to the ground to see this beautiful…