On Thursday last week Chris Packham visited Fairburn as part of his UK wide Bioblitz, each place visited has done their own blitz with the results showing wildlife across the country. Fairburn recorded over 600 species on the day, which is pretty impressive. It brought out the crowds and it's certainly the busiest i've seen it! The local news and press turned out, giving it coverage on the evening news, which was good to see.
We had a little wonder and a lovely ten minutes or so watching the dragonflies by one of the ponds including a constantly on the move Southern Hawker, the noise from the wings was amazing, it was joined by a female a couple of times, that one did rest and I managed to get a photo but I didn't do so well with the male! I'm no dragonfly expert but there was attempts at mating but I don't know how successful they were.
We saw quite a few small red dragonflies, generally staying just ahead of us on the paths, I think they're Ruddy Darters.
The butterflies were out in abundance again, i'm not sure if i'm imagining it but it seems to be a bumper year so far for them, maybe due to the heat?
I saw this tiny little butterfly near the Spoonbill viewing point, at first I thought it was a Common Blue but on closer inspection realised it's a Brown Argus - a new one for me.
Meadow Brown
Brimstone
Small Copper
There were a lot of Gatekeepers around
Speckled Wood
This Barred Yellow Moth was on the visitors centre
A Ruby-tailed Wasp
We took a look at the Spoonbill nest but the Teaspoons have started to move about now and we just saw one of the adults. A couple of Sedge Warblers were in the reeds in front of the viewing point.
I managed to miss the Green Woodpecker again as it flew across the pickup hide, I was watching a couple of Greenfinch off to the side! Also seen were Tree Sparrows, Chaffinch, a lot of Jackdaws, Lapwings, Little Egret, among others. I also spotted a very yellow warbler too but it was gone before I could get a proper look at it, Willow perhaps?
Tree Sparrow
Chaffinch
Greenfinch
Young Pheasant
Blackbird
It was lunchtime by now and we went off in search of chip butties, possibly not the wisest things to sit on your lap in this heat but they were good!
A half hour stop by St Aidan's proved a very good idea as I finally saw a Bittern, in flight across the reeds along Astley Lake, very pleased i've only ever heard them before. It was mobbed by a couple of Herons as it dropped back down into the reeds. Perfect way to end the day!
Grey Heron