The weather of 2023 has so far proven to be quite a challenge in the garden. A cold, wet Spring left the ground muddy and difficult to manage; with delicate seedlings requiring a little extra blanket. This was then replaced by hot days, with a month of hardly any rain. Never a dull moment !

At present, the sun is at its highest in the sky, the trees are full of leaves and the garden is blooming with life.

Our newly re…

Arriving at RSPB St Aidan’s as the sun began to set was not the usual time I get there. However, I was excited to be coming on a nocturnal guided walk! We were met by a mixture of staff and volunteers and started off by watching the barn owls silently hunting along the hillside while we waited for everyone to gather.

The walk leader started off explaining a little bit about the history of the site and how it has…

We know that trying to create a fun filled summer for your little ones can be exhausting. Taking hours of research and perfect planning... who has the time for it? But we also know how important spending quality time with your little ones whilst they're off is important to families, so we've taken the strain away with our Community Family Nature Events at RSPB St Aidan’s this summer!

It's well known that…

Another month has already come to an end and Summer is well and truly here. Find out what’s been out and about this June in today’s sightings blog.

The top ten sightings at RSPB St Aidan's recently have been:

• Hobby
• Spoonbill
• Spotted flycatcher
• Ringed plover
• Dunlin
• Black tern
• Cuckoo
• Yellow wagtail
• Little owl
• Grasshopper warbler

Our star species this month is the cuckoo. These summer visitors are usually…

I get asked all the time if birds should be fed all year round, and the simple answer to this is yes, if you can, they will really appreciate and benefit from it. Spring feeding allows birds to raise their young with a decent food source to keep them going. Adults won’t feed seeds to their chicks in the nest, but they will find it invaluable in terms of getting enough calories for themselves to keep up to high demands…

On Sunday 10 June we met up in the morning and set out to find out how RSPB St Aidan’s use farmland techniques, and how that affects the landscape and wildlife. While RSPB St Aidan’s has no pure agriculture, there are areas which are planted with crop species, meadow area, wet grassland and grazing animals which are all based on current and historic farmland techniques. The land is managed specifically for…

At RSPB St Aidan’s and RSPB Fairburn Ings we enjoy welcoming a wide range of different users to our wonderful sites. A busy weekend will see them being used by walkers, bird watchers, photographers, cyclists, horse riders, families enjoying a picnic and many others.

To ensure that everyone stays safe we would ask visitors to treat each other, our volunteers, staff, and the sites with respect and follow a few simple…

Who else has been enjoying the beautiful weather these past few weeks? It now certainly feels like spring is here and Summer is also right around the corner! However, this glorious sunshine isn’t the only good thing that May has to offer. A wonderful array of wildlife has been sighted around the Aire Valley. As well as our year-round species, plenty of summer visitors have now returned to the UK to enjoy our less intense…

This week is all about Visitor Experience! Behind the scenes in the Aire Valley, the visitor experience team are working hard to ensure that both RSPB Fairburn Ings and RSPB St Aidan’s look as beautiful as possible and that visitors all have the best experience when they visit. We organise loads of exciting events across both reserves, which some of you might have been to before.  The team has been super busy over…

Getting to RSPB St Aidan's early in the morning was a new experience for me. The birds were already singing loudly, and I was excited to find out which sound was which bird!  

Our guide met us outside and pointed out a couple of the birds that we could hear around the carpark and Little Owl Café. There were birds I already recognised like blackbirds and robins, but also the distinctive chiffchaff who’s two toned song…

 The Nature Park is served by a regular bus service. The 168 runs between Leeds and Castleford. It leaves from Leeds City Centre Corn Exchange and Castleford Bus Station, running twice an hour Monday to Saturday and hourly on a Sunday. To enter the Nature Park, leave the bus at the Bowers Row stop which is beside the main entrance to the Park.

 If you enjoy cycling two national cycle routes pass by and through the park…

Spring has sprung in the Aire Valley, with wildflowers blooming, butterflies emerging and summer visitors, such as wheatear and swallows being spotted.

The top ten sightings recently at RSPB Fairburn Ings have been:

1. Spoonbill
2. Sedge warbler
3. Sand martin
4. Green sandpiper
5. Arctic tern
6. Willow tit
7. Bar-tailed godwit
8. Yellow wagtail
9. Bearded tit
10. Raven

Our star species at RSPB Fairburn Ings this week is the raven, which is the biggest…

It’s been a little while since you last heard from our Aire Valley Wildlife Gardening Team. But don’t be fooled into thinking that we’ve been sat on our laurels, excuse the pun. We’ve been working hard behind the scenes preparing for the busy and productive gardening year ahead.

Our largest project at RSPB Fairburn Ings has been the re-modelling of the pond in the Wildlife Garden. A lot of thought…

Someone has finally let the sun know that Spring is here! The wet and cold days from the last few weeks have been replaced with some glorious warm weather just in time for Easter! From blooming daffodils, to migrating sand martins beginning to arrive from Africa, it won’t be long until Spring is in full swing!

The top ten sightings recently at RSPB Fairburn Ings have been:                                                                               

As we move into our busy summer season here in the Aire Valley we're currently developing RSPB St Aidan's Community Engagement Volunteer Team. As a Community Engagement Volunteer, you will assist and support the work of Jo our Community Engagement Officer both onsite at RSPB St Aidan’s and out and about in the ‘local community’.

If you enjoy meeting people of all ages and helping at a range of…

This week’s episode of Wild Isle showcased some of our amazing woodlands and the species that call them home. From ancient woodlands to lush forests, the UK’s trees are brilliant for biodiversity, but it’s a real balancing act to plant the right tree in the right place. Trees are just one of the ways we can capture carbon to help combat the Nature and Climate Emergency. At RSPB Fairburn Ings, we carefully manage our woodlands…

Signs of spring are really starting to show themselves at RSPB Fairburn Ings and RSPB St Aidan's. Sand martins have been spotted at St Aidan's, as as well as a wheatear and avocets. Lots of the birds are also getting into their best plumage ready for breeding season, and early spring flowers are popping up everywhere.

The top ten sightings recently at Fairburn Ings have been:

1. Great spotted woodpecker
2. Goldene…

Despite the recent snowy weather Spring is officially here and the birds at both RSPB St Aidan’s and RSPB Fairburn Ings are thinking about nesting. Our great crested grebes are busy displaying, and the skylarks are already singing overhead.

You may have noticed the appearance of signs around our sites asking you to ‘please keep your dogs on leads’. We put these up at this time of year to remind those walking dogs…

The days are getting longer and the weather is, slowly but surely, warming up! That can only mean one thing…. SPRING is right around the corner! Many of our Winter visitors, such as Fieldfares and Redwings, will now be preparing to soon head home. Take a walk around the Aire Valley to see some of the signs of spring for yourself!

The top ten sightings at RSPB Fairburn Ings recently have been:

1. Red kite
2. Goldene…

There have been signs of spring popping up all over at RSPB Fairburn Ings and RSPB St Aidan’s, with greenfinches calling, snowdrops and crocuses popping up and busy feeders where the birds are feeding up ready for nesting season. However, there’s still some of our winter species about, like pink-footed geese and whooper swans, that will be gearing up to head home soon. Read on to find out all about what has been seen…

Would you like to get involved with community volunteering?

Jo, our Community Engagement Officer at St Aidan’s runs Community Volunteering events on the first Sunday morning of each month between 10am and 12pm.

We alternate between Litter Pick and Muck-In Events, meeting outside the Little Owl Café just before 10am. All equipment is provided (including gloves) but we do suggest that you wear suitable clothing and…

It’s been another great week for wildlife sightings within the Aire valley! A tree sparrow has been making the occasional appearance around RSPB St Aidan’s. They’re smaller than a house sparrow and have unfortunately suffered a devastating decline making them a red list species. Visitors over at RSPB Fairburn Ings are still enjoying the winter birds such as Goldeneye, Fieldfare, and Redwing. Most birds which spend their…

Winter is a perfect time for bird photography with crisp mornings and golden light from the low sun. The garden birds you may be familiar with seeing at home or at one of our Aire Valley sites are perfect examples to try and capture. With them being more reliable to the feeding stations for the extra food source coupled with the bareness of trees and bushes, smaller birds seem to be everywhere! As the days are growing…

It’s been a chilly couple of weeks at Fairburn Ings and St Aidan’s this past couple of weeks, but this hasn’t stopped wildlife making an appearance. The roe deer and green woodpeckers have been posing beautifully for visitors and photographers at Fairburn Ings, and a water pipit has been hanging around at St Aidan’s. Read on to find out all about what has been seen recently at the reserves.

The…

As January is National Walk Your Dog Month we’d like to share some information about how you can responsibly and respectfully walk your dogs on our sites.

We welcome dogs on both our Aire Valley sites and we know that lots of you enjoy walking your dogs here, but we ask that you are sensitive to our wildlife, staff, volunteers and other visitors by following our simple dog code:

· keep your dog on a short lead…