This pleasant warm and sunny weather we have had this last week is reminding me of the summer of 1976, 42 years ago when I spent a lot of time fighting fires on the North Yorkshire moors, where has that time gone. I sympathise with the lads doing exactly the same on and around Saddleworth moor at the moment.

It was another sunny and warm day again today so decided to spend the morning at Fairburn again with the Spoonbills. I had been out with Meg & Gracie earlier in the morning so after breakfast I headed over to the reserve for the morning.

The temperature was 21C as I popped into the visitor’s centre at 9.15am this morning with a light easterly breeze. I made my way across the fields to the Spoonbill viewing area. There were no other visitor’s there when I arrived but as the morning progressed there was a steady stream of them. 

Both the adult Spoonbills were on the nest with their baby teaspoons. As what seems to be a regular pattern by mid-morning one of the adults flew from the nest heading towards the ‘Pick up Hide’ to feed. At this point I had a clear view of the nest and managed to count four little heads with four small yellow teaspoon beaks. By 11.15am other than a lot of head bobbing and the elder of the chicks stretching its wings a little there was no more activity, so I decided to head back to the visitors centre, content with the knowledge that I had seen four chicks in the nest. Prior to leaving I headed over to the duck/swan feeding platform to see if the Avocets were close at hand. I counted three pair of adult Avocets busily feeding in the shallow water with one pair keeping a very close eye on their 3 sleeping chicks. A lovely sight, hopefully on my next visit they will be up and about.