Saltmarsh

The Ribble Estuary is one of the most important places for birds in Europe and so has been designated as a National Nature Reserve (NNR) and a Special Protection Area (SPA) offering high levels of protection. The Ribble Estuary NNR, which includes our Marshside and Hesketh Out Marsh reserves, is England’s third largest NNR and is one of the Top Ten most important wetlands in the UK for the numbers of water birds that live…

 Sefton Council are planning to resurface much of the Marine Drive coast road at Marshside, with the road set to close from Monday 24^th January for up to 3 months. The aim is to improve the surface and remove the worst of the bumps that have been increasing in recent years.  It follows similar works in the spring of 2021 when the western section of the road that passes through…

Well, it was slow start to the year with the easing of Covid restrictions.  But the wildlife was ever present, no matter who was watching, or waiting, the cycle of life continued.  These are some of the wildlife highlights from this year. 

Firstly though we must mention the re-opening of our brand new Fairhaven Lake Visitor Centre.  We are proud once again to be serving the people of the Northwest and from further afield. 

It's a real mixed bag

So after recently posting about the delay in the influx of winter thrushes, the weather really changed.  The icy snap of the last few days and the decrease in temperatures prior to that has

now sent them heading our way.  So keep your eyes out for redwing and fieldfare in the area.

We were very lucky with the weather just before storm Arwen, fabulously calm and serene high tides, with just the…

School Visits at Fairhaven Lake

Did you know that here at Fairhaven Lake we deliver hands on outdoor education on the estuary, lakes and garden to nearly 2000 children from the Northwest every year?

The £1.46 million Heritage Lottery Funded project in conjunction with Fylde Borough Council has provided a whole new suite of fantastic facilities. Where we once ran our school visits from the rather small combined retail…

We’re delighted to be partnering with Netflix and Aardman on Robin Robin, a half-hour, stop-motion, festive story for the whole family, about a young robin trying to fit in. It’s debuting on Netflix on 24 November – get the date in your diary! 

To celebrate, we’re inviting you to join exclusive Robin Robin-themed adventure trails right here at Fairhaven Lake this Christmas season. 

Over 30 RSPB nature reserves around…

Autumn days ahead

Warmer and wetter weather has been with us for some time recently, the ducks on the lake have had a whale of a time. 

Is this all part of climate change?  It's two of the key things predicted to happen as climate change advances. 

As World leaders meet at COP26 to sign up to climate change goals, we hope it's not too late.

We have already noticed one or two changes.  Autumn is a time of great migration…

Fairhaven Lake guest blog

Sue is one of our volunteers at the Fairhaven Lake Visitor Centre.  She has written us a guest blog this week about the comings and goings at Fairhaven Lake this summer: 

There are different starts of the year. For me the year turns at the start of autumn. Most of the summer migrants have left and some of the winter visitors have started to arrive. Whether you use meteorological time or astronomical…

Summer Time at the Fairhaven Lake Visitor Centre

Summer time and the living is easy....finally! After months of Covid restrictions we are finally seeing the finish line in sight.  We may still remain cautious and keep our distance, keep touch points cleaner than usual and maybe even wear face masks, but we are looking forward to our first summer at the lake under our new guise and with many of the long awaited renovations…

If there was ever a good time for all to be closed then this year was it.  We have undergone a huge regeneration, thanks to our partnership with Fylde Borough Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The £1.46 million project has provided a whole new suite of fantastic facilities.  Where we once ran our school visits from the rather small combined retail and education centre, we are now blessed with an entire space…

Marshside: an extraordinary place for an extraordinary bird

Starting with a nice shot of an ordinary looking wader. What evidence is there in this photo for what this bird is likely to become? Which of the birds shown here is it likely to be? The answer is in your own hands…

And how can Ruffs be separated from other waders, for example the Redshank or Black-tailed Godwit? Compare the back pattern on this Ruff…

The new Fairhaven Lake Visitor Centre

Wow! what a busy time it's been.  The finishing touches were added to the shop merchandising and we finally opened our doors on Thursday 29 April, after closing in March 2020 it felt like a long time coming.  It was great to welcome back all of our visitor centre volunteers, don the uniform once again and open our brand new doors to the public for the first time.  

Unfortunately the…

Introducing RSPB Fairhaven Lake Visitor Centre 

After months of moving walls, dismantling false ceilings, re-designing, painting, cleaning and sprucing, we’re super excited that the time has finally come to open the newly refurbished RSPB visitor centre here at Fairhaven Lake.

This massive project has been made possible with thanks to our strong partnership with Fylde Council and the National Heritage Lottery Fund.…

Signs of new life at RSPB Marshside 

In February, there are still many of the wintering birds (e.g. black-tailed Godwit, golden plover, lapwing, curlew and wigeon), visible in impressive numbers. However, this is the month when the first summer birds begin to appear and some residents begin to show changes to their plumage and behaviour in preparation for courtship and nesting.

Right through February, there are still many…

Iridescent 

It's the time of year when birds start to switch from wintering to breeding 'mode'. Some changes start to take effect before migration, some are obvious to us and some are not. Teal have been over wintering at Marshside for some months and completed their eclipse phase some time ago. Despite sporting summer plumage for some months, they seem to have developed a deeper iridescent quality in the recent…

Big Garden Birdwatch 2021

We'd been waiting all month and it finally arrived on 29-31 January - The Big Garden Birdwatch.

With the countries in lockdown again, the Big Garden Birdwatch provided the perfect excuse to sit down with a brew and some biscuits and stare out of the window for hour.  This wasn't just isn't wistful staring though, but really important science.  The Big Garden Birdwatch is in its 42nd…

Winter has given me a whole new set of magical Marshside moments, notably during the cold snaps which have frozen over the birds’ open water.

Ice gives us a whole new perspective on both rare and common birds, plus an extraordinary range of unusual textures and atmospheres in which to place the birds.

So what tactics do birds use to overcome the problems of their waterworld becoming frozen?

Firstly, we have a cloud…

Marshside’s coastal grazing marsh is a remaining fragment of a much wider network both locally and nationally. Ongoing habitat loss in the last century has seen the large declines in species such as lapwing and redshank. Standard semi-improved grassland has decreased by 97% since the 1960s, its coastal equivalent must have been hit even more so.  

Faced with this background, the RSPB at Marshside strives to keep…

New Year at Marshside and Hesketh Out Marsh

As the year that was 2020 drew to a close, Marshside saw a few fleeting appearances of Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds. These rare wave like formations take their name from the physicists that first described the complexities of wave formations in air and liquids (The Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability). They occur in clouds when there is a strong vertical shear between two air streams,…

RSPB Marshside Christmas Challenge 

Can you help decorate Sandgrounders' hide Christmas Tree ? And what can you see on the way? 

This is a two part Christmas challenge 

Part One - At home  

Using your Christmas crafting skills make a decoration for our Christmas tree in Sangrounders' Hide - Marshside Nature Reserve.

Wrap up warm ready to visit Marshside reserve 

Part Two - At Marshside Nature Reserve

Find Sandgrounders…