[gus guthrie]

managed to detour on my way back to work today to see the Wood Sandpiper which appeared on the bogbean, lovely bird.
I called in again after work and saw the pair of Garganey briefly before they did their disappearing act.
Later saw a Whimbrel among the Pinkfeet opposite the loch in a newly sown barley field....a great bird to get here.

[gus guthrie]

two wood sandpipers on the bogbean out in front of the gullery hide this morning, also present was a common sandpiper.
still quite a few wheatears on the ploughed field next to the loch too.

[kawwauser]

male marsh harrier/garganey(pair) and diving osprey all on show in front of the busy gullery hide today,the harrier flew over the loch and headed for the reeds beside the east hide,the garganeys were hard to see at first but eventually came out onto the open water,the osprey circled for ages before diving and catching a perch,it then flew west,there were 4 male gadwalls at the swamp end and 2 of them looked like young males,the swallows and sandmartins were buzzing about right in front of both swamp and gullery hides,there is a picture on flickr of both species perched on the reeds ,I have never seen them perched here,other birds on the water
coot/greylag/mutes/shellduck/mallard/teals/shovelar/
bh gulls and lapwings seen sitting on nests,3 redshanks and small group of oystercatchers on the bogbean,
in the trees
rooks/carrion crows/blue tit /treecreeper/chaffinch/robin/blackbirds/willow warblers there was also a small group of goldfinches on the wires beside the cottage

[kinnordyvolunteer]

It was really misty for most of the day today and didn't clear up until mid afternoon. It wasn't cold and didn't rain, so i suppose i can't complain too much.
I had hoped to get another glimpse of the garganey but that wasn't to be. Instead i had to make do with a Green Winged Teal.
In front of the gullery hide when i arrived were a pair of shelduck along with mallard, coot, moorhen, lapwing, oycs and shoveler. Over to the east end there were quite a few mute swans, a pair of tufties, pair of wigeon and more mallards. Both marsh harriers appeared and the female went down straight away and started eating whatever it was she had caught. The male flew off to do some hunting of his own. An osprey arrived, looked around for a bit before flying off else where. He came back a while later and flew to the post at the east end, where he stayed for nearly an hour before he decided it was time to take a wash before heading back to the nest.
I turned eastwards to notice that a small group of teal had arrived. I wondered what the chances were of there being a green winged amongst them, low and behold there was one!!! I went along to the end of the boardwalk to get a message to Gus and when i got back in the hide, a heron had got up and spooked the teal away. Sorry Gus!! It did come back a couple of hours later with a female teal, but again was spooked very easily by something and i didn't see it for the rest of the day.
We did get very good views of an otter around 10 o'clock, which won't go down well with the few black headed gulls that are trying to nest on the bog bean.
We also watched a crow fly past the gullery hide with an egg in its beak, closely followed by a lapwing!!
Other birds seen today were

swallows, swifts, sand martins,heron,gadwall, treecreeper, willow warbler, blackcap, reed bunting, sedge warbler, buzzard, blue tit, great tit, coal tit, blackbird, lesser black back, common gull, redshank, snipe, curlew, rook, woodpigeon, pheasant and greylags with a couple of pinkies in amongst them.

Photos are of the green winged teal with other teal and a pair of racing swans.

Darell

[gus guthrie]

persistance paid off......had the pair of garganey, green-winged teal.....and the beaver !

[Capercaillie71]

I spent half an hour on the reserve mid-day today, in between heavy and slightly wintry showers. There was an obliging male Garden Warbler singing in the shrubs next to the car park (my first of the year) and an Osprey and the male Marsh Harrier put in a good display from the Gullery Hide. There were still a couple of lingering/summering Pinkfeet in among the Greylags visible from the Swamp hide.

[kinnordyvolunteer]

Just back from a fantastic day at kinnordy. From arriving at 7.30 til leaving at 3, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Long may it continue!!!
In front of the gallery hide it was mainly black headed gulls in larger numbers, and trying to nest!! Coot, moorhen, lapwing and oycs were also on the bogbean while mallard and shoveler were trying to sleep. Lots of mute swans over towards the east end and sedge warblers calling from the reed beds. Swifts were in the sky, while the swallows continued to go in and out from under the hide all day. Wonder how many broods they will have this year.
I took a walk along to the swamp hide and first bird on the way was a treecreeper followed by blackcap, chaffinch, whitethroat, sedge warbler, willow warbler, blue tit and robin. From the hide there was a single shelduck, a few mallards and greylag geese.Outside the door of the hide were willow warblers, blackbird and a great tit.
Along at the feeding station were coal tits, chaffinches, great tits, blue tits and high up a female blackcap made her presence known. It was a lovely warm walk around to the lilly pond. On the way i had an osprey at the plug area along with sparrowhawk and sedge warbler and then around the back of the reserve i had yellowhammer, reed bunting, willow warbler, more sedge warblers, whitethroat, siskin, chaffinch, goldfinch, buzzard, jay, great spotted woodpecker, wood pigeon, crows and pheasant.
On the way back i saw a pair of gadwall at the plug area.
On returning to the gallery hide a female marsh harrier appeared briefly and then went down into the reeds. A few seconds later another female appeared to the right and put up the gulls etc and i watched as she flew above the nest site, heading westwards and as she disappeared from sight, the resident female came up from the nest site just as the male appeared. I reckon he must be two timing!!!
I then headed up to the backwater reservoir for a while and came back to see good views of the harriers again and also ospreys. At the back of two, the pair of garganey appeared from nowhere and dabbled in front of the gallery hide for a good half hour before they went back onto the bogean and sleep.

A really good day with lots to see and a whole day of sunshine for once!!

Darell

[edenwatcher]

Called in a bit later on Saturday afternoon. No sign of any harriers but an osprey circled repeatedly until it eventually caught a fair sized fish. The pair of garganey gave stunning views right in front of the gullery hide, and a pair of shoveler were almost as close.

Rob

[kinnordyvolunteer]

Lovely sunny weather at kinnordy this morning with lots of the usual birds there, but on saturday, there was an appearance of a turnstone!! Guess what, it appeared again today and must have been hidden in the bogbean all this time. Ive never seen one at kinnordy before. Fiona, the new warden, mentioned it to people on saturday and they thought she had been seeing a redshank!! Well she wasn't!!!

Other birds seen while i was there were marsh harrier, buzzard, sparrowhawk, ospreys, mallard, shoveler, gadwall, tufties, coot, moorhen, heron, lapwing, oycs, curlew, reed bunting, sedge warblers, willow warblers, blackcap, blue tit, chaffinch, rook, crow, jackdaw, wood pigeon

One pair of mute swans now has 8 cygnets while another has a single cygnet. The Black headed gulls have been building nests, so fingers crossed they are successful this year, but i doubt it.

Darell

[delia todd]

Oh my... isn't that a great bird to find there Darell; lovely little waders.

Bet it's not still there tomorrow!!

[kawwauser]

I have limited internet access at the moment (cooling fan packed up on laptop)

I seen the turnstone on the island in front of the gullery hide 2.30 pm Monday,first time I have seen /heard of turnstone at kinnordy,the bird is in summer plumage and is showing a lot of white around the head,a single Canada goose was swimming with the 31 greylags at the swamp hide ,seen the 8 cygnets (first this year) sedge warblers seen at both swamp and gullery hides,the swallows are flying below the gullery hide,the osprey with the missing tail feather hunted in front of the gullery hide for ages but never dived,half an hour later when I was in the east hide I noticed it on the perch devouring a pike,it looks like a good number of black headed gulls have began nesting (you can hear them all through the rerserve)maybe the late nesting will have fooled the otters and the gulls will get a break

[delia todd]

I was there this afternoon. The Turnstone is still in exactly the same place that is shown on Kawwauser's picture! Well it eventually showed itself. Osprey sitting on the post with the remains of lunch. The female Marsh Harrier gave some nice flight views.

Newbie for me there was a pair of Great Crested Grebe first seen this morning. I don't remember seeing them before.

A rare visitor in Mike, who appears to be in good spirits!

[bongofury]

Well done, Delia. Slightly envious of the Marsh Harrier, but I got the LRPs at Loch Leven.

[delia todd]

Well done Steve. Any spotflies?

The summer warden at Kinnordy photographed one from his bedroom window would you believe!!!!

[kinnordyvolunteer]

Have never seen Great Crested Grebes on Kinnordy!! Glad you saw the turnstone and others.
Worth a trip in the evening to get the Garganey, which is usually just outside the gullery hide, if you can!!

Darell

[bongofury]

Originally Posted by delia todd

Well done Steve. Any spotflies?

The summer warden at Kinnordy photographed one from his bedroom window would you believe!!!!

No luck with SpotFlies, but I have a plan involving Ayrshire this Thursday

[kawwauser]

re great crested grebes at kinnordy I haven,t seen or heard of them for 17 years,in 1996 when the black necked grebes were breeding at kinnordy I remember seeing a great crested grebe sitting on a nest right in front of the gullery hide,the angus bird report for 1996 reports 8 pairs of great crested grebes with 4 pairs breeding fledging just 4 youngsters,the black necked grebes were also failing to raise youngsters at this time,a pair of garganey bred raising just one chick,there was a lot of predation from pike on these species but the ospreys have since thinned out the pike numbers and with some luck great crested grebes might return and they might even attract back the black necked grebes

[Capercaillie71]

Two female marsh harriers at Kinnordy this lunchtime. One was flying back and forward over the whole reserve, but each time she flew over what I presume might be the nest site in the reedbeds, a second (?incubating) female would fly up and interact with the first one, dropping back into the reeds when the first one moved away. The second female which kept flying up from the reeds looked quite distinctive as it was growing new tail feathers, which were still quite short.

[kinnordyvolunteer]

There is another nest site not too far away as a harrier flies and we are wondering if the male is serving both nests. She is obviously not incubating anything if she has time to fly to this site time and time again.

[kinnordyvolunteer]

I spent a few hours at the reserve today but also had a walk round on friday evening. On friday it was lovely and sunny where as today it was overcast and not quite as warm.
On friday evening i walked down to where the beavers had built a dam, next to the second bridge. The water in the channel had definitely risen by a few inches.
We went along to have another look today, to find someone had taken the dam away and the water was running quite freely again. The last time, about ten days ago, when someone took the dam away, the beavers had rebuilt it in a couple of days!!! When the person took the dam away last time, he got a ticking off!!!! As I've already said, the water had risen quite a lot since the rebuild, and thankfully there hasn't been any rain. The whole beaver thing seems to be really controversial, but if the water in the loch rises too much then the marsh harriers nest would be put at risk and i know which speices i would rather see.
The marsh harriers were visible for a lot of the day but the ospreys were not. I only had a fleeting glimpse of one during the 6 or so hours i was there and i kept telling visitors that they would be along SOON!!
Mallard, tufties, shoveler, coot, moorhen, redshank, curlew, lapwing,mute swans, reed bunting, sedge warbler, willow warbler, blackcap, yellowhammer, blackbird, sparrowhawk, buzzard, shelduck, heron, black headed gulls, common gull, lesser black back, dunnocks, great spotted woodpeckers, crows, jackdaw, rook, woodpigeon, pheasant, chaffinch, song thrush, swallow, swift, house martin, sand martin, robin and starling.

Darell