We’ve been treated to some lovely weather this bank holiday weekend, which we all know is rare! On the Sunday morning we had our Dawn Chorus walk which was definitely worth getting up at 5am for. It was a beautiful, sunny morning and visitors saw and heard a variety of birds. We had lots of warblers: chiffchaffs, willow warblers, blackcaps, whitethroats, garden warbler, reed warblers and sedge warblers! A selection of…

We’ve had a pair of garganey around the Lin Dike end of the reserve for the past few days; they’ve been seen on New Flash, Cedric’s Pool and Hickson’s. The garganey is a scarce and secretive duck so we’ve had quite a few people coming to the reserve to see them.

Also seen around Lin Dike were whitethroat and lesser whitethroat, the avocets continue to be seen on Hickson’s, and on New Flash…

It’s been a strange day here weather wise, beautiful sunshine one minute then rain and hail the next! Luckily there were blue skies this afternoon so people on the photography workshop could get some good shots.

There are lots and lots of birds about at the moment; I don’t know where to start! If you came to take a walk around the reserve, here’s some of the fantastic wildlife you could see along the way.…

Warblers have been returning to the reserve in good numbers over the last few days with chiffchaff, blackcap, whitethroat, lesser whitethroat, willow warbler, reed warbler and sedge warbler all being seen and heard at various spots around the reserve.

The better weather has also brought out butterflies such as comma, brimstone, small tortoiseshell and peacock along with a number of Queen Bees searching for new homes…

After a harsh and extremely long winter, spring has finally sprung in the wildlife garden down at RSPB Fairburn Ings!

This was confirmed by the welcome sound of the chiff chaff. Planting has been taking place with a vengeance. Including  shrubs that will not only provide shelter but also food in the form of nectar and/or berries. We’ve chosen Viburnum, Escallonia, Berberis and Hebe – all of which are widely available…

Lots of sightings to report from the last few days, thanks to all our visitors for filling up the recent sightings book! Make sure you tell us what you’ve seen on your trip to Fairburn, we love hearing about it. I hope you’ve all enjoyed the sunshine, we definitely have and so has the wildlife!

On Sunday, the warm weather spurred our toads and frogs into mating action and we had lots of them around the visitor…

It’s definitely feeling more like Spring here on the reserve; the sun is shining and the reserve team sat outside to eat their lunch today!! We’ve also had our first sightings of swallows over the last couple of days, always a great moment of spring.

We continue to welcome our new spring visitors including chiffchaffs and sand martins but we are yet to say goodbye to all our winter migrants with siskins and…

The votes have been counted and we can now reveal the winners from the Fairburn Ings photo competition!

In the under 16s cateogry, Louise Claughton won with this fantastic picture of a robin.

In the over 16s category, Jeff Fahey won with this great picture of a nuthatch.

Well done guys and thanks to everyone for taking part!

Firstly some exciting news, our assistant warden Karen was very pleased to have caught a picture of a badger on the reserve the other night! It has been a good while since a badger has been seen around Fairburn so it’s great to know.

We’ve also had quite a few sightings of hares towards Newfield Plantation and a fox was spotted down at Lin Dike.

There have been up to 9 avocets seen at Hickson’s, along…

It's not just the wildlife making a noise this spring; check out the musical instruments in our play area. They've been a big hit so far, and even the staff and volunteers can't resist having a go! Here's Bryony rocking out on the drums and me having a bash on the hanging xylophone. Great fun!

We’ve had a great Easter weekend with the sun finally shining, although it still feels pretty chilly and our visitors had to wrap up warm.

There have been further sightings of chiffchaffs and also song thrushes on the reserve, making it feel more like spring, and a sighting of a butterfly possibly a small heath on Sunday. We still have some winter visitors about though such as flocks of brambling and siskins.

It’s been a quiet few days on the reserve with this wintery weather and we’ve all got our fingers crossed for some warmer weather over Easter. We’ve seen a few signs of birds getting ready for spring, they’ve been checking out nest boxes and from our office we could a pair of tree sparrows taking nest materials into one of the boxes outside the centre.

The feeders outside the visitor centre have…

We’re delighted to be able to re-open our pond dipping pond after giving the beasties in our pond the winter off.

If you want to have a look at what is lurking in our pond then come along to Fairburn Ings from Friday 29 March onwards, pop into the visitor centre to hire your pond dipping kit.

We have a magnificent array of underwater insects in the ponds at Fairburn, you might come across the gruesome dragonfly…

The first day of spring has been and gone yet we’re waking up to snow here! We still managed to have some fun outdoors though and made a snowman in our playground. We even hung a feeder off his arm in the hope of attracting some birds. Thanks to Joe, one of our volunteers for the great pic!

We’re getting an increasing number of kingfisher sightings which is great! There’s also been a report of a very loud boom…

Great news today. Following the recent sightings of two Bittern's together on Phalarope Pool last night a male was heard booming in the Village Bay area. Could we be about to witness the first breeding of this endangered and enigmatic species at Fairburn Ings?

Reserve regular Keith Bowyer took this photo of the two birds together. See if you can spot them both.

It’s been a bit grey and rainy the last couple of days at Fairburn Ings and today there’s a thin blanket of snow everywhere. Hopefully spring is just around the corner though!

We’re now getting regular sightings of kingfishers around the reserve so I’m looking forward to seeing one soon! We’ve got a kingfisher screen especially for viewing these colourful birds with branches that hang out over the river for…

Hi, I’m Lauren and I'm the new Visitor Officer intern at Fairburn Ings. I recently graduated from Sheffield University where I studied Sociology; however my real passion has always been with wildlife and conservation. I have done various bits of volunteering including practical conservation work with the Shropshire Wildlife Trust, assisting with Forest School lessons and working with orang-utans in Borneo. I think…

The weather has been quite varied over the last couple of days, with snow and mini blizzards one minute to bright sunshine the next! I had an afternoon walk around the reserve and it was very chilly but the birds don’t seem to mind and there are plenty around plus lots of beautiful birdsong in the air.

 There is lots of action at the feeders with the usual bunch of blue tits, great tits, long tailed tits, goldfinches…

The bittern continues to be seen on Phalarope pool, in fact, yesterday it was reported there were two seen at the same time!! Still no booming been heard though but keeping our fingers crossed :)

There has also been lots of interesting sightings reported from the flashes, including red headed smew, little egrets, pintail, snipe, Icelandic gull and barnacle geese.

From Pickup hide there has been treecreeper, curlew,…

We have had many sightings of a bittern on Phalarope Pool over the last few days; there has however been no booming heard so we suspect this is either a female or a juvenile male.

A male pintail has been seen from Lin Dike as has a smew, little egrets and oystercatchers have been seen on the flashes.

A water vole was reported to be seen running across the path down at the Cut and on Main bay we have had smew, teal,…

Spring is definitely in the air as can be seen from our nest box camera!

One of our many pairs of tree sparrows has begun preparing a nest in our monitored nest box. If you are visiting our reserve be sure to pop in to the visitor centre and with just a little bit of patience you are highly likely to see them, via our monitor screen, bringing material in to the nest box.

If you would like to watch and listen to the…

Nature spotting can be great fun and very exciting, but unfortunately wildlife isn’t always willing to stand in front of a hide or next to the path where we could all get a good look - this is where binoculars or telescopes come in handy. However, finding the right kit can be a real challenge, we’re offering free advice sessions to visitors wanting to know more.

Throughout March our friendly and knowledgeable…

Highlight of the week has to be the male smew that has been hanging around the reserve, he has mostly been paddling around with two red head smews on Main bay near to the Village bay viewpoint but today (Saturday) decided to relocate himself to Spoonbill flash.

Other highlights include a marsh harrier that was seen chasing a sparrowhawk in front of Pickup hide, oystercatchers near Village bay and little egrets on the…

I had two days off last week, I left the reserve on Wednesday evening under several inches of snow, and when I came back yesterday it felt completely different, the sun was shining and it even felt slightly warm, plus the birds have started to sing!  A walk round the Discovery Trail is a delight, listening to robins, blue tits and great tits all blasting out their beautiful tunes.  Having spent the last two years working…

Greetings from a bright and sunny Fairburn Ings where the sky is blue, the breeze is gentle and the air is full of bird song, buds are forming on branches, snowdrops are in full bloom around the reserve and other spring bulbs are slowly stretching their necks up out of the ground after a wintery rest.

Sightings from the last few days include siskin, coal tit, great tit, blue tit, long tailed tit, willow tit, bullfinch…