If I could write a fanfare I would be doing it now, after another excellent spring for our rarer breeding birds. To add to the breeding success of the spoonbills, black-necked grebes and bearded tits we had our first sighting of a pair of juvenile bitterns on the 19^th July. What a day to choose to make an appearance, the very day Chris Packham was on site as part of his bioblitz tour, talk about timing!

Juvenile…

This week Fairburn Ings was delighted to take part in Chris Packham's UK Bioblitz 2018. We were one of 50 wildlife sites chosen to undertake a wildlife audit, the results of which will be used to create a benchmark to measure the rise and fall of many different species in future years. Visitors to the reserve joined RSPB staff and volunteers to identify and count bugs, birds, plants and pondlife.

I spotted a P…

It may only be July but autumn migration is underway, waders are starting to move and the timing couldn’t be better with water levels dropping around the reserve. The top visitor would have to be the scarce wood sandpiper which has been present since the 10^th July on spoonbill flash. The wood sandpiper is an elegant small wader with spangled upperparts, white supercilium (stripe above the eye) and either greenish…

That fiendish bird sneaks an egg into a much smaller bird’s nest and what hatches is a blind, naked murderer who immediately pushes overboard any “siblings”. A chick that runs its “parents” ragged and grows rapidly to monstrous proportions that could swallow a “parent” whole. It has such a mesmerising gape that even passing birds can’t help giving it food destined for their own. The long held belief that most birds are…

A much overlooked bird around the reserve is the tree sparrow, there is a very healthy population concentrated around the visitor centre. There are screens in the visitor centre from which you can watch the comings and goings of the breeding tree sparrows in the nest boxes around the centre, a nice way to have a breather out of the sun with an ice cream.

Tree sparrows suffered a severe decline since the 1970’s, the UK…

And now, MOTHS.

Everyone loves moths, and if they don't, they should.

I've been regularly moth trapping at Fairburn Ings since the end of March. It got off to a fairly slow start, the temperature throughout April not seeming to get much above freezing the entire month, but with the recent warmer weather things are REALLY starting to kick off.

After meeting the intern & residential volunteer from RSPB Saltholme…

My name is Emma and I am the current warden intern at St Aidans & Fairburn Ings. I will be here until September after which I will move on to RSPB Saltholme for another six months. I started back in March and I have loved my time here so far. I've been very lucky to have arrived at a great time of year. I've witnessed the arrival of many spring migrants, the trees bursting into blossom and the emergence of wildflowers…

The path to the new spoonbill viewing area is well trodden and with good reason, a maximum of six spoonbills have been reported over the past two weeks. The big news is that the breeding pair, who can be seen clearly from the viewing area, are now the proud parents of three chicks. If you are lucky enough to be able to watch the nest using a scope then on occasions you can just see the heads of the chicks or a flexing…

It's been quite a week at St Aidan's, what with Springwatch coming to visit, the sun coming out for a bit, kestrel chicks hatching.... I could go on. Well, I will, because this is a sightings blog.

June has brought a real taste of summer. The site is a mass of flowers now, hosting red-tailed bumblebees, common blue and blue-tailed damselflies, common blue butterflies, painted ladies, and dingy skippers.

A…

Well the news is out now, the exciting press release stating that we have a breeding pair of spoonbills for the second year running. The new viewing area will provide excellent views of these extraordinary looking birds, and don’t forget the coal tips which is the best place to see these majestic birds in flight. It’s quite something to witness the spoonbills graceful flight coming from such an ungamely looking bird,…

Today we are focusing on our Thursday Volunteer Reserve Assistants.

This group of volunteers work across the reserve to support the wardens in maintaining the reserve for wildlife and visitors.

Sam, who is one of our Thursday volunteers, says “In my working life I realised I wasn't spending any time outside and certainly wasn't getting enough exercise, which was soon to change. I joined RSPB St Aidan’s in October…

Lesley is one of our Wednesday Reserve Assistants at Fairburn Ings and is very enthusiast about the team “We are a friendly group of usually 6 who work well together. We even have a WhatsApp group chat called ‘Wot’s ‘Appning Wednesday’ where we keep in touch with each other with photos of the work we are doing on the reserve. I didn’t know what I would be doing when I started volunteering but I knew I wanted to work mostly…

Today’s volunteer is one of our youngest Volunteer Rangers a St Aidan’s, Georgia.

Always enthusiastic Georgia told us: “I started volunteering at the RSPB because I wanted to inspire people to love St Aiden’s as much as I do. The birds I’ve learnt and people I’ve met while I’ve been here have shown me how noticeable a small change can be and how, when working together, we’re all able to help give nature…

Introducing Keith and Val, who describe themselves as ‘the Sunday morning novices’, having joined 6 months ago. 

Val says “Keith is a Ranger and is trying hard to sound like a walking encyclopaedia on all things bird-like.  He is getting there with the help of our other wonderful and knowledgeable experienced Rangers.  I am an assistant in the visitor centre and now, at last, becoming familiar with the…

Introducing Janine and Chris, our new Volunteer Coordinators at St Aidan’s and Fairburn Ings. They recruit and support our wonderful team of over a 100 volunteers.

Chris says “I’m a relative newbie, having joined the team in January. So pleased I decided to volunteer with RSPB (and that they were prepared to take me on!). I’ve missed being part of a team since I retired and have been made to feel so welcome at…

The four birds that epitomise summer, namely screaming swifts, jabbering sand martins, prattling house martins and trilling swallows are now all here. Sand martins arrive first (usually late March/early April), followed by swallows, house martins and finally the swifts (usually late April/early May) and depart the earliest, during August. By now they are all extremely active hawking for aerial insects as their time is…

Coal Tips

The reed warbler’s rhythmic, repetitive song currently fills the air around the coal tips; these secretive little birds deliver their songs from the cover of the reed beds. You can often see their shadow moving amidst the reeds and on occasion shuffling up into view still delivering their song, a wonderful treat and so worth waiting for.

Reed warbler - Pete Maugham

Sightings of the black-necked…

This week we welcome our new sightings blogger, Pete. He's a regular at Fairburn, knows his wildlife & pretty handy with a camera too. If you see him around, give him a wave (he'll have a badge, whether he'll be incognito is another thing!)

Lin Dike

A potential rarity was found near Warbler Corner last week (between Lin Dike hide and iron bridge) I say potential because the sighting has yet to be…

For your delight and delectation, I spent a couple of hours crawling around on my allotment this week, hobnobbing with the insects. There's nothing like getting down and dirty on a sunny spring day to press your 'wow' buttons. Here's who I met:

Female Tawny mining bee (Andrena fulva) out shopping

This lady may well live in your lawn, leaving little volcanoes of earth at her doorway. She's harmless…

This is the distance, as a crow flies, between Leeds and Cape Town, South Africa and represents the UK’s importance for birds that winter in Africa and breed here. All wheatear spend their winters in central Africa and come spring, the various races travel to north Africa, northern Asia, Greenland, north-west Canada and Europe. The Greenland race is a passage migrant to the UK on its way to its Arctic breeding grounds…

RSPB St Aidan's is home to hundreds of species, many of which are rare, but one in particular which is very special indeed.

Certain species of bird are so sensitive and rare that their location isn't disclosed in order to protect them (Schedule 1). However, if you've been interested in birdwatching in Yorkshire for over a fortnight, you've probably heard about our black necked grebes. They are all over social media…

This week RSPB Aire Valley gave a bunch of us volunteers a chance to learn some bird identification tips from volunteer ranger John at Fairburn Ings. The volunteers range from gardeners to meeters & greeters, shop assistants to rangers and bloggers, so we were a mixed group and it was great to meet some of the people doing different roles to keep St Aidan's and Fairburn Ings fabulous.

I got to the reserve…

Fairburn Ings is springing into life. The leaves are beginning to appear, there are new songs to hear around the trails & we've seen quite a lot of frisky activity from the office window!


Lin Dike

On the way top the hide, listen out for the newcomers - we've had the arrival of whitethroats, chiff chaffs and blackcaps.

Chiff chaff - Mick Noble (SIBG1@wordpress.com)

A very diverse mix of species this week…

One of my guilty pleasures is the Yorkshire Birds and Birders group on Facebook. This week it has been teasing me with photos of some of the 18 black-necked grebes that are currently at St Aidan's. They must have been feeling camera shy on my visit because I didn't see one. But you might! The word in the Visitor Centre was that the best place to see one is on the corner of Lemonroyd by the Causeway.

Black-necked…

Guest blog from John Ingham, RSPB St Aidan's Warden:

April marks a year since RSPB St. Aidan’s opened its doors, and what a year it’s been! As this winter’s work programme draws to a close, and we start our breeding bird monitoring, it’s a perfect time to reflect on what we’ve achieved in our first twelve months.

Our Caspian visitor

There have been all sorts of wildlife highlights…