I find it hard to believe sometimes as to where time goes, it is a month since my last visit to the reserve at Fairburn Ings so I was long overdue another visit. 

It was a cold start to the day with the temperature just reaching double figures by eight o’clock earlier today, fortunately it was dry with no rain in the forecast.

I was late getting to the reserve this morning and it was just after ten o’clock as I parked the car in the visitor’s car park. After a quick coffee in the visitors centre and a catch up with the wardens I headed off along the ‘Discovery Trail’ to the ‘Pick up hide’. Autumn has well and truly arrived with the bushes and trees bordering the footpath turning a lovely bronze and golden colour. By the time I reached the hide two other photographers were busy photographing the finches. There was a cool Westerly wind blowing through the hide window hatches and no matter where you sat there was very little protection, I was wearing my winter fleece but should have brought a hat with me. Looking over onto the lake was a lone Mute Swan and several Coots, I spent a good twenty minutes scouring the water’s edge with my bino’s hoping to see some waders but not to be today. Over on the feeders were the ‘finches’ lots of Greenfinch some still feeding their chicks although these youngsters were much bigger than their parent birds, so looking at the size of them this brood should safely get through the onset of the winter months. A Willow Tit and Coal Tit were regular visitors to the hide, though the Coal Tits more frequent that the Willow Tit. Suddenly the relative silence was broken with a lot of wing flapping and squawking in the bushes behind the hide. All three of us turned around and looked up at the Wood Pigeons nest where a Stoat had climbed up the branches and with a bit of Stealth raided the nest and took a juvenile Wood Pigeon from the nest, the parent bird being quite helpless and after the initial attack flew off to the relative safety of the Sand Martin wall, the Stoat with the young Wood Pigeon in its mouth climbed through the branches and into the denser undergrowth to feast on its prey. Phew, needless to say no pictures, my camera was securely fastened to the tripod clamp, my two friends attempted to get the shots but with all the undergrowth and their cameras being set on auto focus as well as the speed of the attack it caught us all by surprise. 

After everything settled down, a pair of Buzzards came over and circled above the hide but too high to attempt any serious photograph, shortly followed by a Sparrowhawk who promptly did a couple of lengths of the field to the right of the hide before heading off towards the visitors centre.

Back on the feeders and the pheasant family spent the morning hoovering up the spent seed from the feeders along with a pair of Robins. Several Long Tailed Tits kept flitting out to the fat ball feeder along with the occasional Dunnock. What will all the excitement of the Stoat incident, the strengthening wind and my desire for another coffee I headed back to the Visitors Centre for a rest.