Today was my last opportunity I had to visit the reserve at Fairburn Ings before Jen and I head off to Sorrento at the weekend.

I had been up bright and early with Meg & Gracie and although it was a bit of a dull morning, a little breezy it was dry and really quite pleasant, I was feeling quite pleased with myself as I spotted my first Marsh Orchid of the year on the Barff this morning. 

After breakfast I packed the camera gear and headed off to the reserve arriving for 9.00am. The temperature had risen to 11C but it was still a bit dull and overcast as I headed off to the visitors centre for a coffee. 

By the time I had got settled in at the ‘Pick up hide’ the sun was trying to break through the low cloud. As I was setting up the camera gear I could hear a Cuckoo calling over to my left from round the back of the ‘Coal tips trail’. I had seen one or two pictures of them from Fairburn recently so I knew they were about but this is the first one I have heard this year.

The feeders to the right of the hide were empty so consequently there was very little bird life close at hand. Over on the lake in front of the hide was a pair of Mute Swans busily preening, several Tufted ducks and a Coot with her chicks. A Little Egret flew in and promptly started feeding in the shallows of the water’s edge. Over to the left of the hide amongst the reeds was a family of Widgen and at least ten tiny chicks no more than a couple of days old. It was nice to see several Sand martins nesting in the specially made wall to the right of the hide. 

After an hour or so I headed back towards the visitors centre and followed the new trail to the new Spoonbill viewing area. It is a steady ten minute rough walk over uneven ground across the fields, the reserve staff have done a good job in cutting a clear well defined path to the view point. This is the second year the Spoonbills have settled here at the Fairburn reserve so it is quite encouraging that this pair has decided to settle and hopefully start a family. There is only about 12 pair of Spoonbills nesting in the UK at the moment so they are extremely rare and we are quite fortunate that they have decided to nest here on the reserve.

The Viewpoint is a good 500 metres, probably more away from the nest site which looks quite distant to the naked eye, you certainly need a good pair of binoculars and long lens to get a reasonable idea of what is happening in the nest and surrounding area. There are at least three to four good vantage points to get a clear view. The actual view point is the hawthorn hedge which acts as a field boundary and it serves its purpose well, as well as providing some shade from the morning sun for the unassuming visitor. I couldn’t tell if the parent birds were incubating any eggs, though from watching their behaviour I seem to think they probably where.

The female usually lays a clutch of three – four white oval shaped eggs and both parents will take it in turns to incubate them. The nest, although some way away from the view point, is predominantly made up of sticks and twigs and the proud parent spend many hours positioning and weaving the sticks into place to form a suitable nest, very similar to that of an Ospreys nest.  It looks to be positioned about twenty foot up in the canopy of trees situated on the edge of the lake, which also houses Heron & Little Egret nests so it is quite a busy and noisy spot, with lots of comings and goings,  although it looks well protected from the prevailing westerly winds. 

From laying the eggs the youngsters will hopefully stay in the nest for about a month before fledging so I must make a note to return again after our holiday.

After a very pleasant couple of hours at the viewpoint I headed back to the visitors centre for coffee before the journey home. I had had a great morning on the reserve and was getting quite excited about what will happen at the nest site whilst I am away.