This coming Saturday is the RSPB’s annual Feed the Birds Day, where we ask everyone to put out food and clean water for the birds to help them survive the cold winter months.

 When the clocks go back this weekend and the temperatures start to fall, many garden birds will face starvation as there’s less natural food around for them to eat so they desperately need your help.

 Fairburn Ings has a fantastic range…

If you pay any attention to facebook or twitter you'll already know we've had several sightings of a great grey shrike down at Lin Dike hide today - SUCH a beautiful bird if you manage to catch a glimpse of it and well worth a look!

There have been a pleasing number of things seen over the last few days at the reserve and definitely a sign that summer is out and winter is fast approaching with birds on the move…

We've had more than our fair share of rain in the last week. I can't believe that the last time I was writing this we had scorching temperatures, I had to get my shorts back out! Now I am sat trying to keep warm in our office with my fleece on, admittedly it isn't freezing, but there is a much more autumnal feel to the place this week.

So, what impact has the change in weather had on the wildlife at Fairburn…

If you've been to Fairburn Ings recently you may have noticed how low the water levels are here.  Whilst we have really enjoyed the unseasonably hot weather for the last few days, what we really, desparately need is some rain, actually, make that lots of rain!! 

In spite of the dry conditions, we have still had plenty of sightings in the past few days.  Wetland birds are obvioulsy not here in great numbers but we have…

You can really feel the changes of the seasons on the reserve, and the change into Autumn is one of the most obvious and beautiful. It's also the time when we'll get interesting sightings of birds on their migration down to warmer climes...and me wishing I could go with them! Keep an eye out and let us know what you see, we'll add it to the recent sightings board in the visitor centre and on here.

The last few…

We’ve had a fantastic week for raptors, with a Top Ten different species seen in the space of a few days!! Here's the count down of birds of prey at Fairburn Ings 

10. Kestrals have been seen over the visitor centre during the week

9. Peregrines were seen over Newfield plantation, and the Flashes

8. Hobby seen near the visitor centre several times, plus sightings at Cut Lane and Newfield plantation

7. Red…

Well... what can I say... Friday was my last day working at the reserve as some of you may already know, I’m going to work for Welcome to Yorkshire in a new role (in which I will be working with and promoting the RSPB in Yorkshire, of course!)

I wanted to say my goodbyes in a blog so that I can share some of my highlights and experiences of working here with you all and hopefully inspire you to either visit the…

Once again the reserve is a hot spot for waders at the moment.  We’ve had little stint, ringed plover, greenshank, curlew, green sandpiper, dunlin, snipe, black tailed godwit and lapwing all seen regularly down at Lin Dike.  Lapwings are now being seen in particularly big numbers, with over 100 seen from Bob Dickens hide on Monday.  We’ve also had plenty of other water birds including little egret , garganey, gadwall…

Our sightings book has been filled up almost every day for the last week, there have been some great wildlife sightings on the reserve.  In particular the waders, which can been seen most often down at the Lin Dike hide.

There have been a number of sightings of curlew sandpipers, from Lin Dike and at the Moat, with 5 seen at Lin Dike this morning.  Ruff have also been seen in good numbers from Lin Dike, New Flash, Spoonbill…

If you've visited Fairburn Ings recently you'll have seen the dry stone wall that Nick and Tanya have been building along the path to the visitor centre. The wall should provide some great habitat for insects, reptiles and mammals too as our volunteer Joe saw today when a bank vole popped out onto the path near the visitor centre before scampering round and straight back in!

Also seen from the balcony was a kestrel…

Since Wednesday we've had yellow, grey, pied and even a possible sighting of a white wagtail - all from lin dike with the exception of the pied wagtails which seem to be cropping up all over the place, including our picnic area.  Lin dike has boasted a nice selection of waders over the last couple of days, including ruff, ringed plover, dunlin, greenshank, green sandpiper, lapwing and common sandpiper. Also down that…

We had a super weekend, with some lovely weather, and it really brought out the birds and insects on the reserve.  There seem to have been lots of birds of prey, with several sightings of buzzards over the visitor centre and Newfield plantation, plus marsh harrier, sparrow hawk and hobby from Pickup hide, and a kestrel at Lin Dike.  The kingfisher has been seen several times at Pickup hide and the Kingfisher screen throughout…

For those brave enough to get out and about today the weather doesn't seem to have put off the birds and there's been a nice selection across the reserve.

Our volunteer Andy started off today's list with a ruff opposite new flash, unfortunately no longer sporting the incredible breeding plumage but beautiful nevertheless. Further down at Lin Dike was a buzzard and great spotted woodpecker and 2 little grebes…

If you've been to the reserve recently, you may have seen a black sign next to the wildlife garden (at the start of the Discovery Trail) that says "ask me how eggs help tomatoes grow". Hopefully you asked Richard (if he was standing in the shelter) what on earth it meant and how do eggs help tomatoes grow? If not, be sure to ask him next time you visit.

I promised I wouldn't give away the answer here but…

We've had a really busy week here at Fairburn Ings, both in terms of human and wildlife visitors.  The sightings book is overflowing with a wide variety of birds.  At Pickup we’ve had lots of sightings of green sandpiper, greenshank, common sandpiper, oyster catcher and curlew.  Plus a few sightings of yellow wagtail, heron, little ringed plover, kingfisher, great spotted woodpecker, and marsh harrier.  There’s…

Officially Yorkshire Day is held on 1st August, but here at Fairburn we like to do things a little differently and held the Yorkshire Day celebration on Sunday 31 July. There was so much going on it was hectic and loads of people, young and old alike, came to celebrate our fine county with us on the reserve.

The Discovery Trail became the Yorkshire trail for the day, and people were to find photos of famous Yorkshire…

The weather may have started off dreadfully this week, but it has certainly got better over the last couple of days, and that seems to have brought out quite a lot of birds in the area too. Little over half an hour after we opened on Wednesday morning, one of our regular visitors came to say that he had spotted a little egret at Pickup Hide. And later that day, an eagle eyed visitor reported that a greenshank, a wren…

Well, it’s my last day of work experience here at Fairburn Ings, and I’ve had a fantastic time over the last two weeks. During my time here, I got valuable experience in just about all aspects of work around the reserve, from working with the reserve team maintaining the site, to being in the office writing things for the Fairburn Ings blog, just like the one you’re reading now!

I wasn’t really expecting…

It’s my first week here on work experience at Fairburn Ings and this morning I had chance to get involved in identifying and catching the moths that are present on the reserve so thought I’d share with you what we found...

The weather at the moment seems to be remaining quite nice around Fairburn, and that has brought with it another huge variety of moths to our moth trap which we put outside every Thursday…

Summer may not be quite in full flow yet, but that has put off neither the visitors, nor the wildlife around Fairburn recently, and those that came on Tuesday were treated to seeing great numbers of birds, especially on the New Path. A couple of visitors came to tell us yesterday morning that a female, as well as a juvenile redstart were spotted on the New Path, much to their admiration. And only an hour after they were…

The new path (yet to be named - suggestions welcome!) is turning up some treats today with a family of redstarts (male, female and juvenile) flitting in and out of a hawthorn bush just past the first bench. A little further along the turtle doves are still showing from the wires on the other side of the river. Also by the river were a family of willow tits and a yellowhammer.

A jay seen at the feeder screen and on the…

On Monday a bat was seen skimming the surface of the pond dipping pool for a quick drink. We have several species of bat at Fairburn Ings but the most commonly seen are the common pipstrelle, noctule and daubenton. Daubenton's will also feed close to or even straight off the surface of the water, scooping their prey up in their tail 'membrane'.

The hummingbird hawkmoth was seen again on both Monday and Tuesday…

The weather yesterday was beautiful - sunny enough that the dragonflies and butterflies were out in abundance but not so hot that everything else was just hiding in the shade. This meant we had an amazing day of sightings, so many in fact that we had to start another sheet to stick in the sightings book!

If you haven't already been along the new Riverside Walk, then it's a must because there's been so much seen and heard…

It got pretty hot at Fairburn Ings over the weekend, and it seems to have brought out quite a bit of birdlife.  The spoonbills have been seen on the reserve every day since Friday, they obligingly moved from Pickup to Main Bay on Sunday and Monday, and could even be seen from the feeding platform.  A little egret could also be seen from the feeding platform on Monday.  This fantastic photo of the spoonbills in flight over…

Some of my favourite memories are of my brother, various friends, and me making dens and playing hide and seek behind the trees in the woods near our house, splashing in mud and looking for bugs.

If you think back to one of your most vivid early childhood memories, one where your sense of wonder has perhaps been unmatched since, where were you? What were you doing? Who were you with?

Research shows that for many…