It has been a bitterly cold week so far and today was no different, with early morning temperatures varying between –6C and -1C every day. That said the weather has been fine, dry, and bright and the overnight frosts have made the ground really firm and solid.

I have been wanting to visit the RSPB reserve at Fairburn for some time now, looking back through my diary I noted that my last visit was January 2022. So, after breakfast I got changed into a warmer winter jacket and trousers and headed over to Fairburn. It is just a twenty-minute drive from home, road works permitting that is. I decided to leave my big camera and lens at home, from what I remember after my visit twelve months ago, the reserve was looking a little untidy and overgrown.  I had a pair of bino’s around my neck in case I saw something interesting. The Visitors centre shop doesn’t open now till 10 o’clock, but as it happens, I was quite late, not arriving till 10.30am.  After spending five minutes trying to work out how the car parking ticket machine worked (RSPB members are free) I gave up in the end and made my way to the visitor’s centre for a coffee. I have always liked this little shop which is full of all things nature, quite often I come away with a notepad or set of pencils! After I’d finished browsing and chatting to the staff, I headed outside into the cold fresh morning air, I had forgotten how cold that westerly wind can be at Fairburn, I was pleased I was well wrapped up against the cold blast. I made my way along the ‘Discovery trail’ to the ‘Pickup Hide’. The ground was deeply frozen, and the shallow pools and ponds frozen solid, in places the water level had dropped and large slabs of ice about thirty millimetres thick were left in pieces. I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived at the hide, on looking through the hide windows considerable work had been carried out since my last visit, removing flood debris, cutting back the reed beds and clearing out the pond. The pond had been redefined too, giving a far greater surface area for the wading birds and the like. Looking through the side window towards the bird feeding station, that area had also been ‘tidied up’ in that much of the bramble bushes and runners had been carefully cut back and nettles removed too. The fence also looked to have been repaired. 

After spending thirty minutes watching a pair of Bullfinches, Reed Buntings and Robins, I continued my short walk around the reserve. Following the ‘Streamside walk’ I arrived at the ‘Kingfisher Screen’, nothing much happening here this morning though I noticed a lot of the debris and brambles have been cut back nicely, there was plenty of water flowing along the stream.  After a quiet five minutes I headed up the slope along ‘the Riverside Trail’ to the top, stopping to look over to the ‘big hole crater’ on the right. The views from here are quite breath-taking, especially on a bright, sunny morning, after a few minutes admiring the view, I headed back to the visitors centre and the journey home. I was pleasantly pleased on what I had seen today and hope I can make a return journey sooner than later, and this time with the camera.