Blogs

The last few weeks on the reserve have been great for anyone who has never managed to see a treecreeper, because they have been coming to the feeding station! These beautiful birds, closely related to the tit family, are mostly seen clinging to trees, working their way from one trunk to the next, starting at the bottom and working their way up looking for insects.

The feeding station at the reserve has two stumps that we have positioned to look as natural as possible, mainly for the users of our photographic hide, who are hoping to catch a quick glance of a woodpecker feeding, but we never really thought about the possibility that the treecreepers would start using it as well - but they have!

We have attributed this to the fact that we have been using peanut cake with insects in and the woodpeckers enjoy the cake itself, whilst the treecreepers enjoy the tiny pieces of insect contained within - especially on the very cold, crisp days when they are unlikely to find many elsewhere.

Also, the lack of leaves on the trees makes the treecreepers much easier to see in the woodland, and they have also been hanging around the picnic area and the wildlife garden. For those who are still able to hear them, their high pitched calls ring out amongst the other chirps and chirrups in the woodland.

And finally...I won't be writing the blog for the next month or so as I am off on my holidays! But i'll leave you in the capable hands of Mike Andrews.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight.

Paula

What a beautiful, crisp winter we are having so far! I know that photographers have been coming in droves to the reserve to photograph ice-covered teasels and birds sitting on frosty branches, and I can't really blame them - I need to get out there more myself, and our photographic hide provides at least some protection from the cold, even if many of us are left with chilly toes!

The icy weather has also been affecting wildlife - the Aird Meadow Loch has been pretty much completely frozen for the past week, leaving little space for wildfowl, except for a few small areas where a number of birds can be seen congregating. The Barr Loch looks as if it has a coastline, you can see the waves lapping at the edge of the ice as if it is a beach!

The cold snap has also been encouraging quite a few of the local winter thrushes to visit our feeding station. One very striking fieldfare in particular has become very territorial of the apples we have put out, chasing off any bird that comes near them! That includes the five 1st winter blackbirds that have been hanging around, 2 robins, 1 mistle thrush (who was bigger than the fieldfare!) and a large group of house sparrows and chaffinches. However, seeing this unusual visitor so close to the building has been fabulous for our visitors, most of whom have never really seen a fieldfare before.

We have also continued to be visited regularly by at least two different male hen harriers - one with light plumage and one much darker. They never fail to entertain us as they swoop along the reedbeds, flushing snipe and wildfowl as they go and i'm finding myself running out of the office quite often to the cries of 'hen harrier!'