Wednesday 10^th May 2017.

RSPB Fairburn Ings Nature Reserve.

I was up bright and early this morning just after 5.00am with Meg and Gracie for our morning walk around the Barff, a misty sun breaking out behind the power station casting some long low shadows across the farmland to the woodland of the Barff.

The dawn chorus at this time of year is quite amasing and I have probably said this before, ‘if you could bottle it up and put it on a prescription it would give people a real boost to the day’. I love listening to the sound of the Tree Warblers, they have such a creamy tuneful song. We had a very pleasant walk, the Bluebells on the North East side of the Barff are still looking good but in places the ferns are taking over, another couple of weeks and the ferns and nettles will have suffocated them for another year.  After an hour or so we headed for home and breakfast.

It is some time since I last visited the reserve at Fairburn and as I was on top of the jobs at home, for the time being anyway, I decided to visit again. I packed the camera gear into the back of the car and headed off to Fairburn. I arrived and parked up at about 9.15am, there were several cars already parked, their owners like me taking advantage of the nice weather. I took a walk along the wooden broadwalk to the Swan feeding platform, there were lots of Mute swans milling about but I was surprised at the low number of Mallards down there, normally there are quite a few, they could have been on their nest in the reed beds I suppose. It was nice to see a lone Avocet on the mudflats to the left of the lake, just paddling around in the mud its long bill penetrating the surface in a sweeping movement searching for food.

I retraced my steps to the visitors centre for a coffee and a catch up with the wardens before heading over to the ‘Pick up hide’. By now the sun was shining and there was a very light breeze blowing across the water, the air temperature was 14C which was quite pleasant for that time of day. I only had a winter fleece with me this morning, I had left my heavy winter jacket at home. Looking through the hide window it was nice to see the mallards hard fast asleep on the water’s edge, several Moorhen and Coots were swimming close to the reedbeds. A lone Grey Heron was over on the far side of the lake and a Little Egret was stationary in the reeds on the right hand side of the lake. It was good to see the Common Terns resting on the fence posts and logs on the water’s edge, a small flock of about a dozen Terns were on the water, suddenly they would take it in turns to fly up out of the water, hover at about two meters above the surface then dive head first back into the water, this ritual repeated itself for about thirty minutes till they all flew off over towards the ‘coal pit trail’.

A lone Cormorant flew over, circled above the hide before landing on the water, this is the first time I have actually seen them in this lake, usually they stay in the trees over the fields to the right of the hide. Shortly after the Cormorant landed I could hear the honking of a pair of Canada Geese flying behind me, over the hide and they to landed on the water, what a noisy pair, continually calling to each other and making as much noise as they possibly could, fortunately after a few minutes they took to the air and flew off in the direction of the ‘Lin Dyke Hide’. A wood pigeon came in and landed in front of the hide on the water and had a good preening session in the water, it stayed for about ten minutes having a good clean.

Behind the hide and to the left in the Silver Birch Trees a Green Woodpecker was being very vocal, alas no sign of it when I went to investigate.

Over on the feeders it was relatively quiet, several Tree Sparrows kept popping in for a quick snack, along with the Blue Tits which preferred the fat ball feeders. The Dunnocks were plentiful this morning singing their heads off before dropping to the floor for some food then returning to the tree branches for a rest and more singing. A pair of Robins flew in, one landing on a fence post the other on the floor, they had a quick feed before flying deeper into the bushes, appearing every now and then for a quick snack before returning into the undergrowth. A Jackdaw flew into one of the branches for a few minutes to scavenge some of the dropped seed from the feeders.

At about 11.00am everything went quiet, all the birds disappeared from the feeders, something must have spooked them, then over on the right, behind the Sand martin wall, sitting on a fence post was a lone Buzzard, a huge bird with quite distinctive brown and white markings, sadly although I managed to get some pictures it was too far away to get a decent one without a very heavy crop.  A Crow came and landed on the fence post next to the Buzzard then a Magpie on the post at the other side. The Buzzard could have taken either bird out had it wanted so I presume it had just fed and had landed on the fence post for a rest. It stayed there for a good thirty minutes before flying off towards the Visitors Centre.

I had a lovely morning down at the hide today, I met some of the usual photographers I see on my visit so it was nice to have a good catch up too, but lunch time was calling so I headed back to the centre for another coffee before setting off for home.