Welcome to this weeks Ribble Roundup 13/01/20

Please like and follow our new Facebook page @RSPBRibbleEstuary.  We are really looking forward to increasing our followers and providing lots of information about our work across the estuary.  We are also looking forward to welcoming many visitor contributions, there are so many talented photographers out there, you can truly showcase our sites.

Recent sightings around Fairhaven…

Keen eyed visitors will have spotted the 'One Wing Amongst Many' sculpture that has appeared on the cross bank between Hesketh Out Marsh West and East. 

The skyline breaking wing stands to thank FCC Communities Foundation for supporting our work on the realignment of the East wing of Hesketrh Out Marsh. If the sculpture seems familiar, you may have seen the rest of the set one the Fairhaven Discovery Trail, near…

Ribble Reserves Roundup w/c 06/01/20

The Ribble reserves blog combines new from all our Ribble Estuary sites: Marshide, Hesketh out Marsh and the Ribble Discovery Centre at Fairhaven Lake.  Providing the latest news on sightings, events, shop offers and educational visits.

Fistly, welcome to 2020, we are aiming for this year to be even better than ever.  

Fresh for 2020, we will now have a specific Ribble Estuary Facebook…

Happy New Year

As we step into a new year, we reflect on what 2019 brought us, and think about what 2020 has in store.

Last years theme was a Bigger Better and more Connected Ribble, and we took some giant steps in that direction. Bringing the estuary, its remaining and new saltmarshes/coastal grassland into conservation management, maximising its potential to support wintering and breeding wildlife is at the heart of…

Ribble Reserves Round-up w/c 16/12/19

The Ribble Reserves blog combines news from all our Ribble reserve sites; Marshide, Hesketh out Marsh and the Ribble Discovery Centre. Providing the latest information on sightings, events, shop offers and educational visits.

Marshside - Christmas do 

As if by pre-arrangement, our volunteers meeting for the Christmas get together were greeted by a purple heron. The bird - discovered…

Ribble Reserves Blog w/c 09/12/19

The Ribble reserves blog combines news from all of our Ribble sites:  Marshside, Hesketh Out Marsh and the Ribble Discovery Centre.  Providing the latest information on sightings, shop offers and educational visits.

Ribble Discovery Centre

It's been a wild and windy couple of daydown here on Fairhaven Lake.  Good weather for ducks you might say!  Which is lucky as there are loads of them…

Ribble Reserves Blog w/c 02.12.19

The Ribble Reserves blog combines news from all our Ribble reserve sites; Marshide, Hesketh out Marsh and the Ribble Discovery Centre. Providing the latest information on sightings, events, shop offers and educational visits

Black Redstart - Banks Marsh 

This bonnie start has been bobbing around Banks Marsh (Ribble NNR) cattle pen over the frosty days. This is quite a scarce visitor locally…

Ribble Reserves Blog w/c 25.11.19

The Ribble Reserves blog combines news from all our Ribble reserve sites; Marshide, Hesketh out Marsh and the Ribble Discovery Centre. Providing the latest information on sightings, events, shop offers and educational visits.

Ribble Discovery Centre

With thanks to our friends at the Fylde Bird Club we note that 4 ring necked parakeets have been observed in Stanley Park in Blackpool again…

Ribble Reserves Blog w/c 18.11.19

The Ribble Reserves blog combines news from all our Ribble reserve sites; Marshide, Hesketh out Marsh and the Ribble Discovery Centre. Providing the latest information on sightings, events, shop offers and educational visits.

Ribble Wide WeBS Count

Wetland Birds Surveys (WeBS) counts are conducted nationally, once a month throughout the UK. Over 3,000 volunteers contribute to the survey…

Ribble Reserves Blog w/c 11.11.19

Our new Ribble Reserves blog combines news from all our Ribble reserve sites; Marshide, Hesketh out Marsh and the Ribble Discovery Centre, providing you with all the latest up to date information about sightings, events, shop offers and educational visits.

Ribble Discovery Centre

Success! The Fairhaven Lake kingfisher no longer eludes himself from the us at the RSPB Ribble Discovery Centre…

Ribble Reserves blog w/c 04.11.19

Our new Ribble Reserves blog combines news from all of our RSPB Ribble estuary sites; Marshside, Hesketh Out Marsh and the Ribble Discovery Centre providing you with all the latest up to date information about sightings, events, shop offers and educational visits!

Ribble Discovery Centre

The kingfisher continues to be spotted flitting over the lake, it continues to evade us in the centre…

Ribble Reserves Roundup w/c 28.10.19

Our new Ribble Reserves blog combines news from all of our RSPB Ribble estuary sites; Marshside, Hesketh Out Marsh and the Ribble Discovery Centre providing you with all the latest up to date information about sightings, events, shop offers and educational visits!

Ribble Discovery Centre

It's been a cold crisp week here at Fairhaven Lake.  Many of our regular residents and visitors…

(Wader flocks over Marshside by David Morris)

The Ribble Estuary is vast, stretching from Lytham St Annes on the north side, down to Southport on the south side. Between the two, the great expanse of marvellous mudflats and saltmarsh are a vital home for nature. 

Mud might not sound particularly appetising to us, but it's crucial for quarter of a million birds that are drawn in by it every year. Ribble mud is a canteen …

The marsh, which is already home to over-wintering birds such as wigeons, pink-footed geese, black-tailed godwits and golden plovers, covers an area about the size of 38 football pitches.

Over £464,000 funding from Biffa Award…

Whilst Rimmer's marsh is completely dry we have closed Nel's hide. We are taking this opportunity to make some repairs in the hide and give it a repaint.

We will be re-opening the hide within the next couple of weeks at the end of the school holidays. Hopefully this will coincide with some water and returning wintering bird species like wigeons, teal, pink feet and godwits!

Sandgrounder's hide is still open, as…

This is a blog about the happenings and sightings at RSPB Marshside, a nature reserve on the Ribble estuary near Southport. 

It’s been a busy spring and summer season so far – with lots of work being done by our warden team and volunteers to maintain the anti-predator fence around Sutton’s marsh.  The fence works by excluding foxes and badgers from the reserve, in order to protect ground nesting birds…

It’s been a couple of weeks since my last blog and there has been all kinds going on.......the breeding season is now in full swing. Lapwing have been nesting around the reserve, they have been quite early this year so keep your eyes peeled for their downy chicks wandering around the marshes pecking at everything they come across. Avocet have also taken up residence outside of Sandgrounder’s hide, giving possibly…

Our summer visitors are continuing to return in large numbers to Marshside - the last week has seen wheatear, sand martin, house martin and swallow making a comeback along with a few of our favorite warblers......chiffchaff, blackcap and willow warbler have all been seen (or heard) around the reserve.

It was a slightly overcast day when I found the time to see what's been about, once again there were plenty of pink…

I'm going to start this weeks blog by giving a mention to our early emerging butterflies, I spotted two species while I was out on the marsh this afternoon - Glorious sunshine possibly bringing them out of hibernation.

The first was a peacock butterfly, unmistakable with it's menacing eyes shining brightly in the sun....

Peacock butterfly by Barry Smith

And the second was a number of small tortoiseshell feeding…

The most exciting time of the year is upon us and the movement is on.........the departure of our winter visitors is underway and the summer migrants are beginning to appear - along with numerous early flying bees and butterflies. 

Colt's foot is starting to push it's way through bringing a splash of yellow around the reserve and avocet numbers are continuing to increase, with around 50 currently dividing their t…

First things first, our avocets have well and truly returned!!

On 2^nd March there were six reported at Hesketh out marsh and another six were reported from Nel’s hide. Hot off the press today is a revised total of twelve avocets at Marshside, all of which were identified at Nel’s pool.

Avocets at Nel's by Barry Smith

There have been numerous sightings of water pipit this week, including two seen together…

I'm slightly late with my sightings blog this week as we've been busy over at Hesketh out marsh carrying out some essential habitat management work, if you haven't had a chance to get over there it's definitely worth a visit - expect to see large flocks of redshank, lapwing and oystercatcher - also short eared owl, barn owl and marsh harrier have all been spotted recently - check out our winter overview on…

Back to the usual sightings blog this week, with lots of interesting things to report. There have been a couple of lovely clear days giving great views out across the marshes to Blackpool, thought I'd share a picture taken during my lunch earlier today......

View of Blackpool by Barry Smith

It's not just the view that's appealing, the outer marshes are the places to see some spectacular stuff - hen harri…

You may remember that we set you a challenge last month to beat 46 sightings from around the reserve in a two hour window.......well it's come around already so I've been out around the marshes to see what I could find.

I set out around 10 O'clock this morning with the sun shining brightly over the reserve, albeit with a little bit of cloud involved.

Sunshine on the marsh by Barry Smith

I started out at…

As the big garden bird watch is nearly upon us I thought I'd get out on the reserve and see how many garden birds I could spot in half an hour - it should have been an hour but it was so cold out there I couldn't wait to get back to the truck!

The first to show it's face was a cheeky robin sitting boldly on a fence post, not at all bothered as I pulled up by the cattle pen on Marshside Road......

Robin by…