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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Birding at Loch of Kinnordy (1 Viewer)

Both the juveniles are very dark coloured at the moment with a pale head. We dont know if they are males or females the males take a while to develope their own colouring. Fantastic to watch them copying their parents looking for food and then taking what ever the male brings back.

Darell
 
Do the marsh harriers migrate in winter or are they year round like their hen barrier brethren? Newbie question I know but info appreciated.
 
The Marsh Harriers do migrate, probably to the south of England. We tend to see Hen Harriers at kinnordy during the winter months when they come down from the moors where they have hopefully been breeding.

Darell
 
Hi Guys.

Posting on a forum is all new to me, but thought I would share my sightings at Kinnordy with you today.

I saw all four Marsh Harriers. The Male appeared to bring in food twice during the day. The two youngesters were playing around in the grass and fooling around in the air. Mum was never to far away either.

We had a visit from four Osprey at one time, never saw them take a fish, but there was lots of practicing going on.
 
You really had a good day didn't you Osprey. That must have been great to see 4 of them in the air like that.

We'll maybe bump into each other again sometime.
 
Hi Guys.

Posting on a forum is all new to me, but thought I would share my sightings at Kinnordy with you today.

I saw all four Marsh Harriers. The Male appeared to bring in food twice during the day. The two youngesters were playing around in the grass and fooling around in the air. Mum was never to far away either.

We had a visit from four Osprey at one time, never saw them take a fish, but there was lots of practicing going on.

Possibly a family party of Ospreys visiting the Loch.Sounds like a great day,all the same. :t:
 
Just a couple of photos from last fridays visit to kinnordy. The sedge warblers we out in force at the swamp hide which is probably the best place to watch the Harriers from. Saying that, they will now go to the east end of ther reserve!!!

Darell
 

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I saw a tweet about this from the RSPB yesterday, come along to this thread to see if there was any mention of the harriers. Good to see they've been showing so well, and yet again making me vow to visit this excellent looking reserve. Just need to hire a car first...
 
3 ospreys in the air together yesterday,these birds were not fishing but just flying together before landing in the trees at the back,another osprey appeared carrying a small fish which it ate on the post opposte the gullery hide,torrential rain kept most birds out of sight but the swallows were still flying,a small group of snipe circled and a flock of 100+ lapwings braved the elements,another watcher spotted a bird of prey drying out it,s wings in a tree on the far right of the reserve,(seen from gullery hide)it had a light colouring on the rear of its head,osprey/marsh harrier were discussed but looking through my pics /vid it looks like kinnordy has a buzzard with some confusing light colouring on the rear of its head
 
I was at kinnordy for a few hours this morning and didnt see the harriers. I think they might have departed the scene. The ospreys are busy and there is a flock of 200+ lapwing at the east side of the loch, along with 12 snipe. Both mute swan families seem to be thriving. Today was the first time ive seem them all together at the same area. Lots of mallard, 4 coot, heron, buzzards, sedge and willow warblers, coal tits, long tailed tits, chaffinch, wrens a plenty, blackcap, great spotted woodpecker and song thrush were also seen. Water rail were very vocal outside the gullery hide. Going back up tomorrow for a walk round.
 
Yesterday i said that i thought the harriers had gone, and then this morning the male harrier proved me wrong!!! Didn't see any sign of the others though. i had a really good walk round to the old barn and back again with lots to see. Bullfinches, long tailed tits, goldcrest, whitethroats x6 diff areas with juvs, yellowhammers, song thrush, blue tit, coal tit, great tits, lapwing, oycs, snipe, osprey, mute swans, reed bunting, sedge warblers, willow warblers, spotted flycatcher, great spotted woodpecker, pheasant, wigeon, coot x6, wigeon, wrens, robin, blackbird, buzzard butterflies included meadow brown, peacock, small tort, red admiral, green veined white.

Darell
 
Sorry, i forgot to post for last sundays visit which was really good, same birds as usual, a lovely day and the only new birds seen were sparrowhawk and hobby. Lots of warblers still around last week and both adult harriers were both present.

This morning i arrived a bit before 8 anthere wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was reall warm. Summer!!! at last.
I spent the first while in the gullery hide with one of our regulars. Along at the east end, greylag geese could be seen and heard, 104 to be exact. The mute swans were all out in the open along with mallard, wigeon and coot. Lapwings rose from the area next to the ospreys post but we couldn't see what had put them up, but they were joined in the sky by a group of 22 snipe. The greylags eventually moved to the back of the reserve near where the lapwing were. Other birds seen were osprey, sparrowhawk, water rail and curlew.I went off for a walk in the sunshine, round to the lilly pond at the back of the reserve. Yellowhammers, long tailed tits, blue tits, coal tits, great tits, willow warblers, reed bunting, buzzard, chaffinch, goldcrest, great spotted woodpecker were all at the plug area at the end of the loch. Robin, wren, song thrush, blackbird, dunnock and lots more tits and yellowhammers were seen on my way across the two bridges. The first bridge has now been widenned so that easier access can be had to work between the bridges.
At the back of the reserve there are still alot of warblers around, especially whitethroats and willow warblers. I tried for a while to get some photos of the whitethroat but they just wouldn't sit still for me. I wont be able to get to kinnordy for the next couple of weeks, and am sure when i return, all these warblers will be away to climates warmer. Mind you, after this morning, they might have thought different, but looking out of the window just now, they would be much better off where they are going!!!
I headed back to the gullery hide where i stayed until about 1pm. The present residential volunteers, Ruth and David are doing a fantastic job on the reserve and along with the warden Kim, are putting on a "mini bugs and beasts" event next saturday afternoon from 1 til 3pm. See the reserves page on the RSPB website for details.
Also coming up soon, are the two saturday mornings when the local laird and friends get to take pot shots at the ducks. I will post the dates as soon as i find out which ones they are. hopefully there wont be many ducks around at that time, but mallard numbers are nearly 200 at the moment and maybe more. Lets hope the guns don't work!!

Darell
 

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I did mean to mention that the female marsh harrier also appeared for a few moments before disapperaing behind some willow scrub, not to be seen again while i was there.
 
Had a good day at kinnordy today. Arrived at 7.30 and a small flock of siskins around the car park. Blue tits, coal tits, wren and robin were also present as i made my way to the gullery hide. It wasn't long before the female Marsh Harrier made an appearance and she stayed around all day before i departed about 3.30. Backwards and forwards across the reed beds the whole time. Wonder if she will still be there next week when i go up. A flock of Canada geese were next to arrive and they settled along at the swamp end for a while before heading off westwards.
With the harrier going across the reed beds alot, she was sending up the lapwing and snipe that were over near the osprey post. There were 22 snipe at one stage before they split into two groups. Gadwall, shoveler, mallard, coot, heron, cormorant, wigeon, mute swans and greylags were also present on the loch.

I went for a walk round to the lilly pond where there were goldfinches, meadow pipits, greenfinches, willow warblers, reed bunting, great spotted woodpecker and chaffinch. Song Thrush, blackbird, pheasant, buzzard were seen on the way back. Going along to the swamp hide, i added bullfinch to my list.

Swallows continued to fly underneath the gullery hide and out again. There were 3 to begin with and then periodically many more arrived and departed soon afterwards along with House Martins. We counted 7 snipe across from the hide, on mud at the edge of an island. Lapwing were also present at different locations during my visit.
Other birds seen were Goldcrest, long tailed tits, treecreeper, wood pigeon, crows and common gulls.

The weather held out to make it a really good day with lots to see.

Darell
 

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I will be up at Kinnordy again this weekend but not sure which day yet.

The reserve will be closed during the Saturday mornings of 22nd September and 6th October for the Laird and his friends to do a spot of shooting. They usually finnish around 12 noon and the reserve will be open again. Best give the birds and wildlife some time to recover if you are thinking of visiting at all during those afternoons. Best not go up before then, because i did one year, and it wasn't a pretty sight watching the birds diving for cover. I returned about 12.15 that day when the shooting had stopped, and as i drove past the west end, 5 pheasants flew across the road from a field where they had felt quite safe!!!

Darell
 
I will be up at Kinnordy again this weekend but not sure which day yet.

The reserve will be closed during the Saturday mornings of 22nd September and 6th October for the Laird and his friends to do a spot of shooting. They usually finnish around 12 noon and the reserve will be open again. Best give the birds and wildlife some time to recover if you are thinking of visiting at all during those afternoons. Best not go up before then, because i did one year, and it wasn't a pretty sight watching the birds diving for cover. I returned about 12.15 that day when the shooting had stopped, and as i drove past the west end, 5 pheasants flew across the road from a field where they had felt quite safe!!!

Darell
Excuse my ignorance but do they shoot on the reserve or just the surrounding land?

Hate to think of a bunch of dim witted toffs let loose on a nature reserve. God knows what they would shoot!
 

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