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