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Just a quick post this week. Everything is in full swing at the reserve as always with it having been half term in Scotland, but today seemed somewhat quieter, no doubt people were put off by the wind and rain. However, we at Lochwinnoch do not allow ourselves to be dissuaded by such things - rain, pah! Gale force winds - no problem! And just to prove that weather means nothing to us here at Lochwinnoch, today Mike (our information officer) was able to find all eight of our Wildlife Challenge species for October from inside the building - that's including the autumn special of goldcrest plus blackbird, goldfinch, starling, redwing, an oak tree, mute swan and goldeneye.

We even had some weatherproof Cub Scouts going pond dipping and bug hunting and they had a brilliant time - if they can do it, you can too!

Enjoy the rest of this week and the lead up to 'Feed the Birds Day' on Sunday 26th Oct.

Paula

Well, as many of you I'm sure will have seen or experienced, it absolutely poured with rain this week, causing all sorts of floods and chaos in the local area. At one point it felt as if the Barr Loch and Aird Meadow were going to become one huge loch, as the road seemed to disappear and became replaced with water!

For me the week started on Wednesday, with a fabulous team of BTCV (British Trust for Conservation Volunteers) volunteers helping us with some of our meadow management. Removing the cut material from the SSSI (see last weeks blog for more info) and tidying up the bits the tractor couldn't reach.

I then headed down to Dumfries for a meeting and site visit to Mersehead reserve. For those of you that haven't been, I can thoroughly recommend it. What a great place. A really friendly and knowledgeable team of staff and volunteers, and a fabulous reserve. Mersehead has a great mixture of habitats, from woods to wetlands to farmland and finally beach (it falls right onto the Solway Firth). Many of the geese have started to appear there now and the sounds they made were amazing, and oddly calming. The weather held out for us while we were touring the site, but shortly after we went inside, the heavens opened.

Overnight the wind was howling and the rain seemed to be coming down in sheets - we were soaked just stepping from the B&B to the car! Whilst trying to get to Ken-Dee Marshes to help out with some of the practical work they are doing, 4 of our colleagues cars gave up (from flooded engines) and sadly we had to head back home. However, there can always be some good taken from every situation. On the way back home we followed part of the Galloway Kite Trail and saw 5 red kites soaring low over the fields at the side of the road - absolutely spectacular birds, using their tails like rudders and barely moving their wings!

So, back in Lochwinnoch and it was a similar story with the flooding, although our reserve car managed to make it through successfully. The water level on the meadow had increased dramatically and the ducks, snipe and heron were all congregating around the 'new' edges. The pond dipping area had overflowed and the trails were quite inaccessible in places. But, once again, it was not all bad news. This is a wetland after all and along with the ducks and herons making the most of the increased area of water, we were lucky enough to see an otter several times on Saturday afternoon. Fantastic! And some of our visitors at the time were lucky enough to catch a glimpse too - goes to show you never can tell!

      For those of you who are unfamiliar with the reserve, there are 4 main stages to our Aird Meadow habitat management. This may pale in comparison with other sites that spend a vast amount of time on creating and improving habitats for wildlife, but rest assured, we are not lazy, it's just that the majority of the reserve is water with which you can do very little, but which is naturally a fantastic gathering point for a wide variety of wintering wildfowl.

So, the 4 stages for Aird Meadow management are:

1. Farmer comes along to cut the drier parts of the meadow using tractor and topper, leaving the cut material behind.

2. BTCV volunteer team come and do the 'neatening', which involves moving the cut material off of the SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest, which covers much of the reserve) and using brushcutters to trim the bits the farmer couldn't reach.

3. A piece of machinery called a Softrak (which exerts lower pressure on the ground than a human foot) comes and cuts the wetter bits of the meadow (as much as the water levels will allow).

4. One or two Highland Cattle come and spend a few weeks at the reserve, keeping the meadow nicely grazed through the winter.

      This whole process is carried out so that in the springtime, there is a great place for lapwings and other waders to come and make their nests. A mixture of short and long grass, plus muddy patches that are good for finding food.

      Well, Friday saw us complete phase 1, the weather stayed dry for us and the meadow was cut! Excellent! And with it came a whole host of interesting sightings, including 2 buzzards sitting in the middle of the meadow, 2 kestrels hunting overhead, 2 ravens circling above and 2 carrion crows looking for lunch (not sure why all in twos!). Stages 2, 3 & 4 will begin to progress in the next few weeks, so i will keep you updated.

     We also had our first whooper swans of the year this week, 1 on Monday 29th and then 4 adults on Wednesday. These beautiful birds are one of my favourite winter migrants and can sometimes come in quite large groups, I have seen almost 40 on the reserve before! I will keep you updated on the progress of this years visitors and write a bit more about whooper swans next week.

      Finally, on Saturday we held our first 'Young Volunteers Day' during which 11 keen volunteers, between the ages of 12 and 18 came to the reserve to find out more about what volunteering involves. As it was the first session, we planned the activities for the day, but in the future much of the planning will be done by the group itself. The day was great, the group were great sports and went along with our plans despite the appauling weather and we look forward to working with them more in the future.

Paula